Tascam to release new type ii cassettes next month

[jimilee]

I'm going to buck the trend and be the only one that doesn't understand the current nostalgia towards cassette tapes, which I consider an extremely flawed format.

I'm all for good analog.  Vinyl, tubes, reel-to-reel, all can sound great.  But cassette tapes?  No thank you.

I logged endless hours on my Tascam 424 and it was loads of fun in high school, but there are so many better options out there now.

Wasn't Grohl's analog switch to reel-to-reel?  That's an entirely different animal.  30IPS R2R is AMAZING.  Impractical for most, but wonderful.

Well, I mean yeah, I'm pretty sure The Foo Fighters didn't bust out a sweet 4 track recorder, but it's the same principle. The digital was cold and sterile and the analog was a warmer sound. It's definitely antiquated and flawed, but, I guess nostalgic. My band I'm high school recorded in a an 8 track recorder. Drummers parents had money, the rat of us else could only afford a 4 track.


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[pickdropper]

I'm going to buck the trend and be the only one that doesn't understand the current nostalgia towards cassette tapes, which I consider an extremely flawed format.

I'm all for good analog.  Vinyl, tubes, reel-to-reel, all can sound great.  But cassette tapes?  No thank you.

I logged endless hours on my Tascam 424 and it was loads of fun in high school, but there are so many better options out there now.

Wasn't Grohl's analog switch to reel-to-reel?  That's an entirely different animal.  30IPS R2R is AMAZING.  Impractical for most, but wonderful. 

I'm going to buck the trend and be the only one that doesn't understand the current nostalgia towards cassette tapes, which I consider an extremely flawed format.

I'm all for good analog.  Vinyl, tubes, reel-to-reel, all can sound great.  But cassette tapes?  No thank you.

I logged endless hours on my Tascam 424 and it was loads of fun in high school, but there are so many better options out there now.

Wasn't Grohl's analog switch to reel-to-reel?  That's an entirely different animal.  30IPS R2R is AMAZING.  Impractical for most, but wonderful. 

Yeah, I get what you're saying. I think it's somewhat a nostalgia thing. Cassette, IMO, can sound pretty good. I had a million at one point just cause I'd get them at yard sales and thrift shops as a way to get cheap music in the pre-internet streaming days. To me it's the perfect medium for a car, or it was at the time. Didn't skip, wouldn't melt (often).

As far as multitracking, I think 4 tracks could sound pretty decent but eight was really pushing it.

To a certain extent, I do get the nostalgia thing.  I have fond memories of listening to cassettes as a kid.  Even, to some extent, exploring cassette as a format when I had access to better decks (Nakamichi's, etc).  As I've found throughout my career "sounds good" is a very relative term.  If you enjoy it, that's good enough.  For me, the cassette nostalgia doesn't work.  It's the worst of analog, rather than the best (and analog is great!).

[pickdropper]

I'm going to buck the trend and be the only one that doesn't understand the current nostalgia towards cassette tapes, which I consider an extremely flawed format.

I'm all for good analog.  Vinyl, tubes, reel-to-reel, all can sound great.  But cassette tapes?  No thank you.

I logged endless hours on my Tascam 424 and it was loads of fun in high school, but there are so many better options out there now.

Wasn't Grohl's analog switch to reel-to-reel?  That's an entirely different animal.  30IPS R2R is AMAZING.  Impractical for most, but wonderful.

Well, I mean yeah, I'm pretty sure The Foo Fighters didn't bust out a sweet 4 track recorder, but it's the same principle. The digital was cold and sterile and the analog was a warmer sound. It's definitely antiquated and flawed, but, I guess nostalgic. My band I'm high school recorded in a an 8 track recorder. Drummers parents had money, the rat of us else could only afford a 4 track.


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Yeah, I had a four-track, too.  At one point, Brian, Forrest and built a few pedals under 424 Studios because all of us owned Tascam Porta Studio 424 recorders at one point.  Man, I had so much fun with that thing in high school.  Crimes against audio were committed.  ;-)

Apart from that, I think that there are many ways to get "analog warmth" without having to resort to cassette tapes.  I think there's sometimes a false equivalency between warmth and low-fidelity.  I don't really find much similarity in a Studer running reels at 30IPS and a cassette tape.  For studio work, digital won because it's far more cost effective and convenient than reel-to-reel.  For portable use, digital won because it's more cost effective, convenient, reliable and technically better than cassettes. 

But I expect that's not what folks are getting back into cassettes for.  It probably speaks to the halcyon days of youth and the fun of cassettes, and that's cool.  I may not get it, but that's OK.

[midwayfair]

I recorded this on my 424 last year as a goof for my friend's birthday.


I couldn't make the embed work for some reason. Not real familiar with SoundCloud yet

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/raDLn

Ha, that's great! It's like the Talking Heads covering Bruce Sprinteen!

This is legit.

[alanp]

You should only get into cassette tapes if you like the idea of extracting the remains of a tape from a hungry tape-deck, and trying to resurrect it by winding the tape back into the cassette with a pencil.

Or the old standard, writing down the number for the counter on the panel where songs start (this number, AFAIK, has no relation to time that I can tell.) Hand in hand with this is rewinding and fastforwarding to try and find the START of a song... not the middle... no, not the previous song...

"Can someone go and flip the tape for me, please?" (Admittedly, this is more a problem with non "new" decks.)

[danfrank]

Yeah, obviously cassettes don't hold a candle to R2R but I'd rather listen to a well recorded cassette than a CD.

[culturejam]

Interesting. I bought some Maxell Type II cassettes a couple years ago. I knew that my daughter would never experience the smell of opening a new pack of tapes, so I bought a couple so that she can do it one of these days. Maybe in a few more years.

But yeah, 1/8" tape kinda sucks for almost everything. What would be dope is a big-ass 1/4" cassette tape system. 

[skyled]

The analog vs digital, especially for playback is completely overblown and irrational. The playback format should just accurately reproduce the sound of the recording, regardless of the format. Neil Young took forever to release his back catalog for digital release because he wanted to accurately capture the original sound, warts and all.

LAMF by the Heartbreakers sounds better on CD than on the original vinyl because the vinyl pressing was defective. Stadium Arcadium by the Red Hot Chili Peppers sounds better on vinyl than on CD because the original CD was mixed and mastered so loud, as part of the loudness war, that it was clipping. The vinyl release had a different mix and master to eliminate this. It had nothing to do with the original recording format or the release format, only the mix and master made the difference.

[jimilee]

I really like my vinyl.


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[pickdropper]

I really like my vinyl.


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Vinyl can sound wonderful.

[madbean]

I have almost 100 4-track tapes still waiting to be dumped to a hard drive. The 90's were a prolific period even if a lot of it was crap, haha. Everything from demos to band rehearsals to I don't know what. I should really get on that before I die.