Do you reckon tapes will ever have resurgence or are they totally dead?

  On 10/20/2010 at 3:44 PM, Berk said:

  On 10/20/2010 at 2:00 PM, modey said:

  On 10/20/2010 at 12:15 PM, chunky said:

hurry - study engineering at university level

then we can design our own analogue formats that surpass all else :D

i say we get onto wire recording before anyone else does:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_recording

very interesting, thanks!

there's a place online that sells wire recorders, can't remember where though, i might look into one, would be great for live performance!

as for tapes, i would like to start doing cassette releases. only because i'm very interested in how they sound once they start to decay. i'm getting into trying to make highly organic sounds with entirely electronic equipment and using tape degradation can help a lot in that process. also one of these days i want to build my own super-makeshift tape delay.

I had a thought of playing live with tapes. Like using tape plays connected to a mixer and having tapes for beats, pads, lead etc. You'd have to know your tapes well though

i like the 3" cdr format.

  On 10/21/2010 at 1:11 AM, sirch said:

i heart ______. but i'm not a hipster.

this is a summary of watmm

  On 10/21/2010 at 3:33 AM, Hanratty said:

i like the 3" cdr format.

yeah, my laptop is now unable to burn standard size cdrs for some reason, so i'm limited to burning mini cds, which is a good gimmick though none of my releases can exceed 21mins. i might start releasing EPs on heart shaped cdrs.

  On 10/20/2010 at 4:18 AM, Promo said:

I still got about 150 tapes in a few boxes. Some are original but most are just you know copies of stuff. I think maybe the rarer the music the more value it may say have.

I wonder that sometimes. I have some pretty cool shit on tape.

All of my old rave mistakes will no doubt be collectable one day.

I also just have some rare/cool-ass shit on tape.

For example:

Pigface - Fook & Truth Will Out

Coil - Loves Secret Domain & The Snow ep

Godflesh - Streetcleaner & some others

Devo - Hardcore Vol 1 (rare as fuck. Try even finding that shit on cd)

David Bowie - almost all of his albums released by Rykodisc (with rare extra tracks)

When I first got my analords, I dubbed them all to tape.

They sound better on tape. Seriously.

Maybe I feel that way because of years of listening to old rave mix tapes.

There is just something about bass on tape.

I have a love for tape for many reasons, mostly due to the experience of recording my own music onto tape, since I was a little kid.

I will still buy a tape of a good album if I come across one.

A couple months ago, I got "Listen Like Thieves" by INXS for something like 25¢. Totally worth it.

"Let me put my tape up in this bitch."

- Homes

  On 10/21/2010 at 3:06 PM, jefferoo said:

I have a love for tape for many reasons, mostly due to the experience of recording my own music onto tape, since I was a little kid.

  On 10/21/2010 at 8:13 AM, modey said:

i might start releasing EPs on heart shaped cdrs.

now don't you steal my ideas, buddy!

  On 10/21/2010 at 4:06 AM, Backson said:

  On 10/21/2010 at 1:11 AM, sirch said:

i heart ______. but i'm not a hipster.

this is a summary of watmm

as you've been here much longer than me.. i will have to shrug and agree with you. :)

to answer the original question, i don't think tapes will ever have any sort of big resurgence now. they're completely dead to the mainstream.

CD's will be next. in 5-10 years people will be scoffing at CD's in the same way they do tapes. everything will be DVD/Blueray, til they come up with the next slightly better technology and make you buy everything again on that.

8 tracks didn't make it, whatever those things are.. so, nope

  On 10/21/2010 at 6:47 PM, Phrank said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=088AWsTtTFU

Fuck!

i like tapes

  On 10/21/2010 at 9:03 PM, sneaksta303 said:

i like tapes

nice post!

3:03pm (e.s.t.)

mayhap i should press up some sneakstep tapes but i dont want the box to collect dust and my wallet be empty

now it's 3:03 here

Holy shit, i mean like FUCK CASSETTE LABELS. Sorry to whoever likes them, but fuck that shit. Fuck runs of under 100 of anything. Just throw your music away. Burn it. This is fashion bullshit. backward thinking retro cahcah. The reason we used them back in the day is because we didn't have CD burners or files online. I bought a couple Ceephax tapes, but that doesn't mean i agree w/ it. In that case it was also that he was putting out demo quality stuff for people to buy, cause that shit is for demos. Cassette labels, just stop it...put on your ugly 80's sunglasses, get on your bike, take a ride and just stop it.

lol why u mad

I love the warm sound of tapes. I've thought about getting them done, but merely because the music would fit that packaging option. I think physical releases are dead unless they come with extra, rare tracks or something else to tempt the buyer. Like a figurine of the artist carved from soap or something.

I think physical releases are superior to downloads, but they should offer something more than just the music and a cover.

  On 10/20/2010 at 2:22 PM, yikes said:

oh and by the way

cds degrade over time and loose data

tape is a sturdy format

CD's last far longer than tapes just based on the fact that they're not analogue.

Technically yeah tapes degrade over time, but I can think of two situations where tapes always lasted longer for me; in my school bag and in the car. On top of that you could actually get in there and interact with them, fix the tape when it ripped, clean the wheels if they jammed up etc. You can jam a tape in the player while you’re driving and then throw it on the seat and it would be fine, you can step on them in the foot well etc. CDs in the car always get fucked up

Have some awesome tape recordings, Prodigy live @ Phoenix festival '96 being one of my favourites.

Also got a load of old John Peel shows and sessions I used to record when I was like 15.

Might have a nostalgia session with them one day (and record to mp3!), still have a working dual cassette deck hi-fi unit thingy.

I used to hate tape back in the day, but like most people have a proper soft spot for it nowadays what with nostalgia and everything. In the days before CDs cost less than your house I'd always stick my vinyl records straight onto tape to save them. It was worth it though, as my old records are still in pretty fucking good condition.

Incidentally, last time I looked you could still buy blank tapes in Maplin.

  On 7/4/2011 at 10:01 AM, kokoon said:

lol why u mad

Because man, I don't want to get into an artist only to find out that I'll never be able to get all of their stuff because their first 12 releases were bunch of crappy fucking tapes that there were only 25 of ever made. Rather I'll just move onto an artist that puts out real releases or provides d/ls.

...and I'm a cranky angry old man.

i started writing a response in this thread, but whatever, it didn't feel right. cassettes are good in that they represent the sharing of music long before mp3s, as well as portability. they never really won out, fidelity-wise. these days, however, they have much of the same nostalgic popularity that vinyl's received over the past ten or so years. and similarly to vinyl, cassette tapes being an analog medium, they add a layer of wear and tear, degradation—whatever you want to call it—to the music, making it a more unique listening experience.

yeah this post felt way more right

  On 7/4/2011 at 3:42 PM, KY said:

cassettes are good in that they represent the sharing of music long before mp3s

This, exactly. I can remember when I used to visit the gold-paved streets of Manchester I'd always be straight into this bootleg tape stall in Affleck's. To this day I still have an awesome double-tape jobby of Prince touring Sign O The Times, and a shit-hot recording of The Smiths live in Barcelona. The Fall at Leake University is sadly less memorable, but there you go. Getting hold of a cassette copy of Prince's Black Album in 1987 or '88 was perhaps the most exciting musical experience of my life.

cassettes represent the underground