Can you play cassettes?

I cant see the skip function on it...

I actually threw out tapes someone gave me when I moved. I don't have a vinyl collection either, but I see the appeal.

Technically yes but in practice no because I never bothered to patch the output on either of my decks to anything, I just use the single well one to record to (for DIY releases) and the other, dual well one for dubbing and as a safety net in case the main one fails (neighbor was throwing it out in basically new condition a few years ago so I grabbed it as a backup even though I didn't really need it, since the days of high end, well maintained cassette decks being easy to find for free are mostly over and I don't think I'd ever bother to pay for one).

I have two walkmans and a crappy little ghettoblaster.  So I have the means, but all of them sound rather shit.

  On 5/2/2017 at 10:40 PM, oscillik said:

 

  On 5/2/2017 at 10:37 PM, Herr Jan said:

Yes. Voted.

 

Good second question would be wether people actually use them though.

 

damn, yeah that is a good second question. But the current one is still useful in trying to see if I'm full of shit for thinking that most people can't play them

 

I think most do but the means varies a lot. Go to reddit/r/cassetteculture and it's interesting how many only use walkman, some really have no idea that dual decks and stereo systems sound better or vice-versa with some only swearing by nakamichis, etc. 

  On 5/2/2017 at 11:03 PM, oscillik said:

 

  On 5/2/2017 at 10:56 PM, mokz said:

In the audiophile and music enthusiast scene they are more a kind of curiosity and hipster thing, I guess?

 

see, this is what I've assumed for a while too. It's always seemed like a niche thing within this kind of community.

 

until the recent resurgence i'd say there were two camps still using and/or releasing cassette tapes: underground musicians and scenes (noise, lo-fi rock, experimental especially) and then there were the audiophiles or enthusiasts (tapeheads.net is a great example of this crowd) who like to either record vinyl rips or cd rips on hi quality blank tape to play in their hi-fi decks and systems.

then there the rest: folks who were collecting tapes for fun and or because they had a car deck or cheap boombox, one off releases on tape for fun, etc. 

NOW there's this third camp of hipsters/scenesters/rich geeks/etc. who are arguably the same people who are flooding the vinyl market who are needlessly buying redundant reissues or new albums on tape, talking out of their asses about why tape is "cool" or, perhaps most cringeworthy, only into for the pure irony or novelty aspect. This seem to start after 2010 or so, really getting noticed around 2012 or 2013 with stuff like cassette store day. many seem to mark that as the day it jumped the shark but personally I think it got worse post Guadians of the Galaxy. An example of that ridiculousness was seeing Sony Walkmans go for $800+ because rich geeks were buying them as conversation pieces.

This is all very arguable and debate but that's kind of the general cause of backlash from the more sincere and/or older cassette community. Likewise it's why the format is derided as bullshit nostalgia or a fad.

Just here to say I've never played a cassette in my life and never will. It's 2017 you fucking hipsters, update your life.

angry response there from kidrodi

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:18 PM, BCM said:

angry response there from kidrodi

It's a bold strategy, BCM. Lets see if it pays off.

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:04 PM, Kidrodi said:

update your life.

read this to the tune of "Spice Up Your Life"

Hi-ci-ya! Hold tight!

*starts doing all my music listening from my smartphone's speaker in the back of a bus*

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:29 PM, Gocab said:

*starts doing all my music listening from my smartphone's speaker in the back of a bus*

Yesterday, some chump on my way to work was blasting shit EDM in the train. I really wanted to push him out of the car right before the doors closed 

10 days ago i bought THIS on a cassette :) ...around 17 yrs old and mint, unpacked. beautiful! 

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:32 PM, Braintree said:

 

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:29 PM, Gocab said:

*starts doing all my music listening from my smartphone's speaker in the back of a bus*

 

 

Yesterday, some chump on my way to work was blasting shit EDM in the train. I really wanted to push him out of the car right before the doors closed 

 

Should've stood in front of him, dancing, and never breaking eye contact.

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:46 PM, xox said:

10 days ago i bought THIS on a cassette :) ...around 17 yrs old and mint, unpacked. beautiful! 

 

kinda reminds me of this 

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:04 PM, Kidrodi said:

Just here to say I've never played a cassette in my life and never will. It's 2017 you fucking hipsters, update your life.

Message received loud and clear Kidrodi....

Do you have the coordinates to bomb these hipster scum into oblivion?

The planes are purring and primed, the engines are buzzing and the propellers are whirring. Just give us the map references so we can vaporise these fucking hipsters into eternity!!!!!!!

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:46 PM, oscillik said:

 

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:32 PM, Braintree said:

 

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:29 PM, Gocab said:

*starts doing all my music listening from my smartphone's speaker in the back of a bus*

 

 

Yesterday, some chump on my way to work was blasting shit EDM in the train. I really wanted to push him out of the car right before the doors closed 

 

Should've stood in front of him, dancing, and never breaking eye contact.

 

When I lived in Boston, there was a guy named DJ Night Train. He would wear UFO pants and lots of raver candy and play really bad techno. He would dance the entire time on the train and kept it up for years. As far as I know, he's still doing it.

That guy gets a pass for being so entertaining.

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:50 PM, Braintree said:

 

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:46 PM, oscillik said:

 

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:32 PM, Braintree said:

 

  On 5/4/2017 at 8:29 PM, Gocab said:

*starts doing all my music listening from my smartphone's speaker in the back of a bus*

 

 

Yesterday, some chump on my way to work was blasting shit EDM in the train. I really wanted to push him out of the car right before the doors closed 

 

Should've stood in front of him, dancing, and never breaking eye contact.

 

 

 

When I lived in Boston, there was a guy named DJ Night Train. He would wear UFO pants and lots of raver candy and play really bad techno. He would dance the entire time on the train and kept it up for years. As far as I know, he's still doing it.

 

That guy gets a pass for being so entertaining.

 

A real life Tyres, fucking amazing

  On 5/4/2017 at 10:28 AM, Haste said:

http://www.factmag.com/2017/05/03/elbow-cassette-player/

 

i bet it sounds like shit

also lol 

  Quote

 

 

“By exposing the cassette to the elements, Elbow offers a fresh user experience, allowing the listener to directly appreciate the mechanical motion,” say the designers. “The music player becomes more like an additional element – in a way, the cassette plays itself.”

playing music is about the user experience of appreciating mechanical motion

baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarf

  On 5/5/2017 at 1:35 AM, dr lopez said:

 

  On 5/4/2017 at 10:28 AM, Haste said:

http://www.factmag.com/2017/05/03/elbow-cassette-player/

 

 

i bet it sounds like shit

 

also lol 

 

  Quote

 

 

“By exposing the cassette to the elements, Elbow offers a fresh user experience, allowing the listener to directly appreciate the mechanical motion,” say the designers. “The music player becomes more like an additional element – in a way, the cassette plays itself.”

 

 

playing music is about the user experience of appreciating mechanical motion

 

baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarf

 

There have been a load of flashy design mockups showing up on Kickstarter and Indiegogo lately, mostly for bullshit turntables. I lump this in the same category.

You cassette deez nuts in your mouth

are you 8-trackted to deez nuts?

That Elbow thing is fucking terrible. Without tension on both spools it'll be very easy to fuck up your tapes, and impossible to fast-forward/rewind. Plus the actual magnetic tape will be exposed, so it'll get fucked in no time.

I have a mid-range Sony deck, and playing a well recorded tape on it sounds fucking great. There's pretty much no noise, on ferric or chrome. People who say "tapes sound like shit" are people who've only heard them on shit players.

I also regularly see two complaints about the sound of tapes: they sound muddy, and they sound tinny. Is it possible for things to sound both muddy and tinny?

Also this:

Got three ways of playing cassettes - 

Sony Top Loader

Yamaha KX-493 found at a car boot (cleaned it up, sounds great)

Sony Walkman

Playing cassettes you sorta realise how shite the sound is/was but for wobble and distortion of the intended playback nothing else comes close. Got a load of Guided By Voices and some Mark Lanegan solo albums on tape recently, takes me back. Those Nmesh tape releases are just so good to listen to on tape as well. 

Still hands-down my favorite audio delivery/storage mechanism:

1. Charmingly cheesy & plasticky, without being fatally delicate (viz. vinyl)
2. Portable, but not too portable (pro tip: cassette Walkman is for rollerskating, CD Walkman is for rollerblading)
3. Easily manipulated & recycled
4. Cheap as hell
5. Ideal fidelity for 80s thrash metal, shoegaze, & pop (incidentally also the most abundant genres to be found in discount cassette bins)
6. I generally record all my own stuff onto cassette & only later record to digital (initially because of limitations of my shitty setup; later out of habit & simple fondness)
7. Only working part of my first car’s stereo system anyway
8. When they inevitably go bad, the results are awesome or hilarious instead of frustrating (again, viz. vinyl/CD/corrupt digitals)

I actually just scored a Technics RS-B18—along with an SA-200 & an SLD-5—for free last week!

I have a Walkman with casette tape & radio, but I have no tape recorder.

I wonder what it'd be like listening to artists  who deliberately produce their tracks to sound as though they're being played on a cassette anyway, on cassette? R Stevie Moore, Ariel Pink etc. A bit shit I'm guessing.

  On 5/8/2017 at 3:29 PM, westhead said:

I wonder what it'd be like listening to artists  who deliberately produce their tracks to sound as though they're being played on a cassette anyway, on cassette? R Stevie Moore, Ariel Pink etc. A bit shit I'm guessing.

I guess it depends on at which point the "cassette-ness" has been applied

1991 seems to do it right, as the digital downloads seem to be cassette rips - the actual cassette versions sound great.

I do have a cassette release that sounds terrible, though.