This was my peak cassette design:
I guess because I had an actual Teac reel to reel unit and used that to record off the air. Lemme see if I can find a picture of it... <off to teh googles>
This is either it, or super similar:
Mind you, I was recording FM rock stations at around 10 years old. When I heard a song I liked, punched Rec; when it was done, push Stop. Made some crude mix-tapes that way...
Bleep I'm old...
ThurdFerguson said:Uggghh, memories of the dreaded unspooling of the tape:
Moar talk of being old:
In college we worked with reel-to-reel in a broadcast editing class. For one assignment, we were given a tape containing an interview. I don't remember the length--say it was 10 or 15 minutes. Our assignment: edit it down to a 5-minute interview, and the intro and outro had to be exactly so many seconds long. And for every second we went over, we lost like a full letter grade.
Tools at our disposal: razor blade, an editing suite and that red tape. Yeah, it was brutal, but it made you work. (And while cleaning up, I recently came across my tape.)
And as a kid I had a small reel-to-reel player. I remember it having a joystick control. If it wasn't this one, it was similar.
My sister gave me one of these when I was eight or nine.
Man, did I annoy the crap out of my friends and family with that thing!
JG Pasterjak said:Still recall the final casesste I ever bought (Ministry: Land of Rape and Honey) and the first CD I ever bought (Front Line Assembly: Tactical Neural Implant).
Also, today i learned that Radio Shack still exists, but they do not sell cassettes, at least not according to their website.
Highway 50 in Clermont, across the street from luckys.
On top of this one is another, and another on the floor behind it. Because I listen to tapes when I'm working.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I was chief engineer at the radio station back in college in the mid 90's. We still used reel-to-reel, and I learned to splice. I could make a seamless splice with a razor blade and a roll of scotch tape. The trick was to always cut the tape at a diagonal.
Shadeux said:In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I always felt an outlier, but I hated Dolby. Always muffled things, at least on my equipment. <shrugs>
I'd record in Dolby C, and play back on the car with Dolby turned off. It really brightened up the highs.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
I too use Reel to reel ( still) but prefer the 15 minute cassette to the 3 hour reel.
Probably one of the best gifts I ever got as a kid around fifth grade or so was a portable cassette recorder. All the cool kids had one. I think it was a SounDesign brand. I could record stuff with the mic. I could record stuff with the aux. input straight from radio for the ultimate in hi fidelity! I could play pre-recorded tapes. It was awesome. I think it might still exist in my parents house somewhere.
It looks an awful lot like this one (exactly?):
In reply to Shadeux :
My Dad was stationed in Germany in the early 80's. Our first Christmas there my parents bought a Sony home stereo and I would listen to the BBC, I remember them playing a lot of 50's American music. I would sit in front of the stereo and record the songs I liked, I was like 12. I think I still have the tapes at home.
Ah, nostalgia.
I should fire up the turntable and play some early 80's vinyl....
1988RedT2 said:Ah, nostalgia.
I should fire up the turntable and play some early 80's vinyl....
Lol, other than vhs tapes, we can't- nothing to play vinyl, casssetes, or 8track to play on. And I can't imagine my tapes being happy being stored for ~30 years wo use.
Next time you see my 911 at Radwood, check the center console. :)
Zombie Canoe Bump?
But yeah, cassettes. I've been listening to a lot of them lately after refurbishing a free deck I got recently from my favorite record store. Dragged all my old tapes out of storage and added some more classics to the collection.
Also snagged this sweet Alpine for the Trans Am a while back for period correct tunes:
volvoclearinghouse said:In reply to David S. Wallens :
I was chief engineer at the radio station back in college in the mid 90's. We still used reel-to-reel, and I learned to splice. I could make a seamless splice with a razor blade and a roll of scotch tape. The trick was to always cut the tape at a diagonal.
Yeah, gotta make that cut at a 45.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Don’t judge me, but currently listening to iTunes (Unknown Pleasures and, yes, I buy the entire album, even if digital).
Shadeux said:In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I always felt an outlier, but I hated Dolby. Always muffled things, at least on my equipment. <shrugs>
"You can't do heavy metal in Dobly!"
alfadriver said:1988RedT2 said:Ah, nostalgia.
I should fire up the turntable and play some early 80's vinyl....
Lol, other than vhs tapes, we can't- nothing to play vinyl, casssetes, or 8track to play on. And I can't imagine my tapes being happy being stored for ~30 years wo use.
Interesting choices you've made there, fella. 
I can't play VHS tapes. Although if I dug around, I might find an old VCR to hook up somewhere. Never owned any 8-tracks--they were just slightly ahead of my time. But I've never been without a working turntable hooked up to a decent system or a cassette deck for that matter, although the cassettes are very rarely heard from. And as far as I know, any DVD-ROM drive or DVD player will play CD-ROMs if you happen to lack a dedicated CD-ROM player.
That reminds me, I need to check the local Goodwill store for that Nakamichi Dragon I've had my eye on since 1985. LOL.
Funny so many people had issues with Dolby. I'm guessing these were the same people that didn't keep their decks clean and their heads de-Gaussed. Shame on all of you. 
https://www.audiomasterclass.com/blog/did-that-dolby-b-noise-reduction-thing-ever-really-work
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I threw away boxes of them when I cleaned my attic 2 years ago.
1988RedT2 said:Ah, nostalgia.
I should fire up the turntable and play some early 80's vinyl....
I do t have anything that new. 50,60, 70's plus a modest collection of 78's.
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
Plenty of CD players. Even a DVD player. Which replaced a previous one that seized up from non use.... hmnmmm..
Somewhere around here I've got some TDK SA-90 cassettes with Sinclair ZX80 source code on them.
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