my mother had an 8-track player and got tapes from Columbia House....I have that Eagles' Greatest Hits album on cassette got it from my uncle after he died...interesting piece
Loose tape and head azimuth weren't the only issues with 8 tracks. The built-in pinch rollers were often poor quality, the pads needed replacing frequently (especially the foam ones...the springy pads are better), the metal splices are susceptible to separating from the tape, and there is much more wow and flutter vs just about every other audio medium that has been released in the last 60 years. Having said that, I do like the humble 8 track. It's one of those inventions that shouldn't work yet somehow does. And 8 tracks CAN sound really good on decent equipment. I have some that sound terrible but I just got The Beatles 1967-70 and decided to try it out yesterday. I put on A Day in the Life by the Beatles and was blown away by the audio quality. Really good channel separation, no drop outs, wow and flutter was acceptable, no detectable cross talk, and I was really pleasantly surprised.
I remember my uncle had an 8-track player in his Ford Bronco. And machines destroying the tape was also a huge problem for cassettes too. The tape player in one of my old vehicles destroyed this really awesome Van Halen mixtape I made. Once CD's came out, the days of analog and all the headaches that went with it were numbered!
I bought a Sears Solid State stereo in 1979 that had a turntable, AM/FM radio, tape player/recorder, and 8 track tape player. I had a total of three 8 track tapes: "Double Vision" by Foreigner, "Discovery" by ELO, and a blank cassette that I recorded songs from the radio to. The 8 track tape player had limited appeal because you couldn't rewind it, and the player played tapes in four sections and there would be a loud click right in the middle of songs when it moved from one section to the other.
I remember the first 8-track tape I saw when I was about 4 years old was KISS Destroyer; it was my mom's tape. That was back in '78...how I remember this? No damn clue LOL! This was so much fun to watch, thanks a million for the humor at the end, hehe ;)
8-track wasn't that bad if you maintained your player. Virtually all the problems could be traced back to lack of maintenance. Okay, yeah, the 8-track required more attention than cassette did, that's very true. But a good quality, well-maintained Stereo-8 machine was largely trouble free. I never had any serious problems with mine other than the occasional failed tape splice.
I don't think I'll ever forget that episode of THE 70s SHOW. On Eric's birthday, he asked for JUST ONE THING. That was of course an audio cassette player for his car. NOT AN 8 TRACK! And of course Red gets him an 8 TRACK! Poor Eric. Oh, I could picture my father saying: "Well, 8 TRACK is what you're getting." But he would have gotten me a CD player or at least an audio cassette player.
Like the little trick to snap the tape back into the cartridge. As a radio personality, surely you remember the four track Fidelipac carts used for radio broadcast jingles and commercials? Those soldered onthroughout the 80's and into the 90's, but they were based on similar endless loop tape technology.
There were actually some pretty good 8-track players/recorders. But you didn't mention what was possibly the biggest flaw that doomed any 8-track cartridge as it was played over and over again: the wind out from the reel of tape was from the center, while the take up was at the outer edge of the wound up tape. Hence, on each revolution of the tape, it was taking up more tape than it was letting out. Over time, with enough playings of the cartridge, the tape either had to stretch (ruining the sound, timing, etc.) or break. (By the way, the fact the spool of tape took up more tape on each revolution than it let out is why that trick of simply pulling on the tape would result in it "magically" all going back into the cartidge.) I suspect the record companies tried to minimize or delay the inevitable by winding the tape relatively loosely when manufactured. I had an 8-track player / recorder - a Soundesign (remember them?) stereo - and got pretty good at repairing (splicing back together) tapes that had broken and getting more plays out of them (with the inevitable glitch in the sound where I spliced it), but eventually I realized 8-tracks were a losing proposition and moved on and bought a better stereo setup with a cassette deck.
i noticed a few occurrences in movies where someone played some music, asked "y'like it?", and the response was:"meh... i miss 8-track tape" me bein a european spec-nerd at the time (mid-80ies) , am like "wut ? wut ? wuttufu is 8-track tape ?" izzit like 4x stereo ? garage bands can use this for multi-track ? what's the awesome about this ? -i'd like to hear more of that, in stead of the downsides. Seems like an era as loved as vinyl, but forgotten. but thanx 4 the history lesson :-D !
I hated them, a pain in the ass to fix, seemed to never work right. And different sized tapes via vendors made it worse, had to put a matchbook under it to get some to play at all. I tossed that damn thing away when I got my cassette deck.
How the hell did they make vinyl record players for cars as he says at 1:08? How is it possible to play a record in a moving car and not have the record skip like crazy? That's just bizarre! Also, I never understood why 8-tracks were divided into programs, and why you couldn't fast forward / rewind to a particular track you wanted to hear like you could on a cassette. It just seemed silly that you'd be listening to a particular track on a particular program, then skip to another program, and it would be halfway through another song. You had to time it just right to be able to switch programs and be at the beginning of the song you wanted to hear. It was a ridiculously problematic piece of technology.
Yeah, vinyl records in cars didn't work out too well. The arm with the cartridge and needle had to be weighted pretty heavily to avoid skipping (still problematic on less than very smooth roads - probably only reasonably reliable on interstates), and as such wore out the records pretty quickly. But he is right, there were record players in cars though that never really gained a lot of popularity I think.
At 3 minutes in, you made your FIRST mistake. The Head DOES NOT physically move! The head contains the reading gaps for all 8 tracks arranged one above the other in pairs of two. The top pair is for Programme 1, the second pair for Programme 2, the third pair for Programme 3 and the fourth(bottom) pair for Programme 4. The cart has a small piece of aluminium, note, al-u-mini-um foil attached which triggers a solenoid switch to switch through each stereo pair while the tape traverses the head at 3-and-3-quarter inches per second. The head "gap" is less than the width of a human hair.
Amazing. Somehow that copyright excuse didn't stop other videos playing music. Hell I just watched a person compare a song on vinyl to 8 track, then to cassette to cd. Guess they will come and serve that copyright stealing son a bitch any minute. Kinda feel bad for him now. Damn
is it true that you cannot rewind or fast forward an 8TRACK to desired locations until the whole album ends and only then you can rewind that damn hing but only to the absolute beginning?
a few players had fast forward but it was only like double speed but if you want to rewind just listen to another track wait for the kerchunk and change back to that program
some people play there music when making videos why can't you.? they play all formats? it's your house your video your music why can't you play what you want?
theres something on the cartridge that tells you like there are 4 programs it tells you what songs are on the 4 programs when you stop the tape and eject the tape and then put it back in from where you left off is probably where the cartridge would pick up. just like the cassette.
Thanks Ed, that was fun to watch. I wasn't aware of the trick to get the tape to self wind, much appreciated!
I didn't know you could just tug on the tape to get it back in, thank you :)
I used to have over 400 hundred 8-tracks and repaired a few. Even had the adaptor that lets you play cassettes in it.
my mother had an 8-track player and got tapes from Columbia House....I have that Eagles' Greatest Hits album on cassette got it from my uncle after he died...interesting piece
Loose tape and head azimuth weren't the only issues with 8 tracks. The built-in pinch rollers were often poor quality, the pads needed replacing frequently (especially the foam ones...the springy pads are better), the metal splices are susceptible to separating from the tape, and there is much more wow and flutter vs just about every other audio medium that has been released in the last 60 years.
Having said that, I do like the humble 8 track. It's one of those inventions that shouldn't work yet somehow does. And 8 tracks CAN sound really good on decent equipment. I have some that sound terrible but I just got The Beatles 1967-70 and decided to try it out yesterday. I put on A Day in the Life by the Beatles and was blown away by the audio quality. Really good channel separation, no drop outs, wow and flutter was acceptable, no detectable cross talk, and I was really pleasantly surprised.
I remember my uncle had an 8-track player in his Ford Bronco. And machines destroying the tape was also a huge problem for cassettes too. The tape player in one of my old vehicles destroyed this really awesome Van Halen mixtape I made. Once CD's came out, the days of analog and all the headaches that went with it were numbered!
I bought a Sears Solid State stereo in 1979 that had a turntable, AM/FM radio, tape player/recorder, and 8 track tape player. I had a total of three 8 track tapes: "Double Vision" by Foreigner, "Discovery" by ELO, and a blank cassette that I recorded songs from the radio to.
The 8 track tape player had limited appeal because you couldn't rewind it, and the player played tapes in four sections and there would be a loud click right in the middle of songs when it moved from one section to the other.
I remember the first 8-track tape I saw when I was about 4 years old was KISS Destroyer; it was my mom's tape. That was back in '78...how I remember this? No damn clue LOL! This was so much fun to watch, thanks a million for the humor at the end, hehe ;)
8-track wasn't that bad if you maintained your player. Virtually all the problems could be traced back to lack of maintenance. Okay, yeah, the 8-track required more attention than cassette did, that's very true. But a good quality, well-maintained Stereo-8 machine was largely trouble free. I never had any serious problems with mine other than the occasional failed tape splice.
I don't think I'll ever forget that episode of THE 70s SHOW. On Eric's birthday, he asked for JUST ONE THING. That was of course an audio cassette player for his car. NOT AN 8 TRACK! And of course Red gets him an 8 TRACK! Poor Eric. Oh, I could picture my father saying: "Well, 8 TRACK is what you're getting." But he would have gotten me a CD player or at least an audio cassette player.
Like the little trick to snap the tape back into the cartridge. As a radio personality, surely you remember the four track Fidelipac carts used for radio broadcast jingles and commercials? Those soldered onthroughout the 80's and into the 90's, but they were based on similar endless loop tape technology.
InflatablePlane I remember those. I also remember minidiscs that we were attempting to basically play a "set" of commercial breaks on them.
There were actually some pretty good 8-track players/recorders. But you didn't mention what was possibly the biggest flaw that doomed any 8-track cartridge as it was played over and over again: the wind out from the reel of tape was from the center, while the take up was at the outer edge of the wound up tape. Hence, on each revolution of the tape, it was taking up more tape than it was letting out. Over time, with enough playings of the cartridge, the tape either had to stretch (ruining the sound, timing, etc.) or break. (By the way, the fact the spool of tape took up more tape on each revolution than it let out is why that trick of simply pulling on the tape would result in it "magically" all going back into the cartidge.) I suspect the record companies tried to minimize or delay the inevitable by winding the tape relatively loosely when manufactured.
I had an 8-track player / recorder - a Soundesign (remember them?) stereo - and got pretty good at repairing (splicing back together) tapes that had broken and getting more plays out of them (with the inevitable glitch in the sound where I spliced it), but eventually I realized 8-tracks were a losing proposition and moved on and bought a better stereo setup with a cassette deck.
I Love 8-Tracks. Still have a 8-Track Player at Home.
Le'gene Mathena that's great what brand is it????????!!!!
I have a Sanyo, Sounddesign and Panasonic.
i have a century mk iv, although i have no idea where the company went... LOL
Le'gene how cool is that?
I still use one
Thanks cool old guy
Man great video. These were before my time tried to talk about them to my friend who had no idea what it was so I shared this.
Denmark didnt have this...only cassette tapes and i´m so happy as cassette tapes took smaller space in the car
These kinds of videos are great very informative unlike the trending nonesene videos!
Damn, you literally threw it back.
i noticed a few occurrences in movies where someone played some music, asked "y'like it?", and the response was:"meh... i miss 8-track tape"
me bein a european spec-nerd at the time (mid-80ies) , am like "wut ? wut ? wuttufu is 8-track tape ?"
izzit like 4x stereo ? garage bands can use this for multi-track ?
what's the awesome about this ? -i'd like to hear more of that, in stead of the downsides.
Seems like an era as loved as vinyl, but forgotten. but thanx 4 the history lesson :-D !
we all miss the 8 track tapes they were and are very cool.
I hated them, a pain in the ass to fix, seemed to never work right. And different sized tapes via vendors made it worse, had to put a matchbook under it to get some to play at all. I tossed that damn thing away when I got my cassette deck.
In this age of digital files, I kinda forget how much music fueled and drove the technological market
I was born in late 1985 so I don't remember the 8-track. This is very interesting.
How the hell did they make vinyl record players for cars as he says at 1:08? How is it possible to play a record in a moving car and not have the record skip like crazy? That's just bizarre! Also, I never understood why 8-tracks were divided into programs, and why you couldn't fast forward / rewind to a particular track you wanted to hear like you could on a cassette. It just seemed silly that you'd be listening to a particular track on a particular program, then skip to another program, and it would be halfway through another song. You had to time it just right to be able to switch programs and be at the beginning of the song you wanted to hear. It was a ridiculously problematic piece of technology.
Yeah, vinyl records in cars didn't work out too well. The arm with the cartridge and needle had to be weighted pretty heavily to avoid skipping (still problematic on less than very smooth roads - probably only reasonably reliable on interstates), and as such wore out the records pretty quickly. But he is right, there were record players in cars though that never really gained a lot of popularity I think.
At 3 minutes in, you made your FIRST mistake. The Head DOES NOT physically move! The head contains the reading gaps for all 8 tracks arranged one above the other in pairs of two. The top pair is for Programme 1, the second pair for Programme 2, the third pair for Programme 3 and the fourth(bottom) pair for Programme 4. The cart has a small piece of aluminium, note, al-u-mini-um foil attached which triggers a solenoid switch to switch through each stereo pair while the tape traverses the head at 3-and-3-quarter inches per second. The head "gap" is less than the width of a human hair.
thank you
Amazing. Somehow that copyright excuse didn't stop other videos playing music. Hell I just watched a person compare a song on vinyl to 8 track, then to cassette to cd. Guess they will come and serve that copyright stealing son a bitch any minute. Kinda feel bad for him now. Damn
is it true that you cannot rewind or fast forward an 8TRACK to desired
locations until the whole album ends and only then you can rewind that
damn hing but only to the absolute beginning?
a few players had fast forward but it was only like double speed but if you want to rewind just listen to another track wait for the kerchunk and change back to that program
My dad had an 8 track player in his car.
Nice
YOUR BACKWARDS SIR...LOL
some people play there music when making videos why can't you.? they play all formats? it's your house your video your music why can't you play what you want?
Ready player one
Great video! But I don't get 8-Track... If it's an endless loop and you can't rewind, how do you know where the album or songs start?
theres something on the cartridge that tells you like there are 4 programs it tells you what songs are on the 4 programs when you stop the tape and eject the tape and then put it back in from where you left off is probably where the cartridge would pick up. just like the cassette.
play to a kerchunk then quickly press program button till you get back to #1