@@electrictroy2010 So in relation to it's size it holds exactly the same amount of music. I see no problem there. Besides that's just one aspect of this product...doesn't mean it's not well thought out in other areas, or overall.
@@electrictroy2010 Oddly, that 46 minutes enough for *most* albums at the time, since they tended to not exceed 45 minutes. Where you'll likely hit a snag would be when you run into something like Metallica, where the albums tended to be in the 50-60 minute range to take advantage, so a 60 minute cassette(also fairly common for a while) would be better for those. Honestly, the 120 minute one kinda spoiled us. Also the 45 minute cassette was a thing. I might still have a couple in a shed somewhere.
@@InfernosReaper But a C90 cassette is 45 minutes per side. So you could record two 45 minute albums per casette. And you could listen to a full 45 minute album without flipping the casette. This has some utility, unlike the reel to reel one, but its use case would be pretty niche. It lets you carry more music, but it is a lot less convenient to use. And convenience was usually king, you can easily carry several hours of music on a cassette (and you can listen to the same tape twice), which is more than enough for the vast majority of people and situations. Still a pretty nifty novelty regardless, though.
I know this has been said before but once again, I wanted to say I think the effort and quality you put into all parts of your videos is fantastic. Thank you for being so entertaining.
For weird unnecessary bits of technology like this, I like to imagine that someone out there used them religiously. Some girl in Tokyo would go to school each day with her bag rattling full of these, her latest albums recorded onto them so she could listen to them on her commute.
Although the MiniDisc was popular in other parts of the world, it was an obscure technology here in the US, but when I was in High School, I loved that format and my little player and bag of MiniDiscs went with me everywhere. People were always curious about it, and I can imagine the same thing happening with the hypothetical girl you mention.
@@saltysoysauce954 Well you most certainly can bring an Xbox into class and attempt to hook it up to the projector at the front. Somehow I doubt that'd end well though.
Man, this is an amazing little piece of engineering. It is like if Philips hadn't asked "How do we get an entire reel-to-reel recorder into a swappable cartridge?" and asked instead "How can we make a reel-to-reel recorder that self-loads?". Because I can see a world where the CC-1 is an adapter instead of an essential part of the system, and there's a whole bunch of machines that take the MC-46 cartridges natively. You'd stick it in, press play, and the machine pulls the loading hook past the pinch rollers and head before engaging them for normal playback. … I guess the inconvenience that tapes can't be changed without rewinding first could be an issue, and might even be a factor in the Philips design. Oh well, it was a beautiful dream.
That's exactly how DLT and LTO data tapes work, see th-cam.com/video/y-RpCzxPqac/w-d-xo.html or th-cam.com/video/D_0lqg1FlvY/w-d-xo.html for example. I share your dismay that this tech never made it to the audio world, though.
For anybody who's curious, the Japanese text at 1:44 reads something like this... Big white text in upper left: The little cassette Woman: I've never seen a cassette like it! Man: Right! It's a whole new kind of cassette. Mouse: Hang on now! (A play on words. The word "chotto" means both "small", like the cassette, and "Woah! Hang on a sec!", like, "Why are my feet not touching the ground?!") Cat: Pops in your pocket! Changing is a snap! Text on bottom: Change as often as you like. The cassette has come a long way.
Back in the 80's this would have given me back my cars glove box, which at the time was always stuffed full of normal cassette tapes. Mind you, accident rates would have shot through the roof, people trying to change the cartridge whilst driving down the motorway.
It's things like this that kinda makes me sad everything have moved to digital. Because this truly is a beautiful example of mechanical ingenuity that we quite possibly wont see ever again because physical media is dead.
Just learn some computer science and look into the ingenuity of various codecs, and you won’t have to be sad anymore. Computers are *way* more intricate than any other tech.
What a JOY it is to realise at the end of the video there's MORE! I appreciate the effort and dedication you put on the muppet segments, besides the regular show. Top notch.
It's amazing all the stop-gap efforts (and ingenuity) that were used to keep portable cassette music going. In hindsight it made more sense to push for digital audio. The problem was solid state storage. I've never heard of a lot of gadgets and technologies shown on your channel and I was a big cassette fan. You wonder how much money companies lost on these obscure inventions. Great channel! Thanks!
A translation of the captions in the blister carton at 1:44: "カセットカートリッジー" = "Kasetto kaatorijjii" = "Cassette cartridge" "ちょっとカセット" = "Chotto kasetto" = "Little cassettes", or maybe "quasi-cassettes" - "Chotto" literally means "a little" and is also used alone informally to say "Wait a moment" or "Hold on" "KONNA CASSETTE..." = "I've never seen such cassettes!" "SO-- NANDESU..." = "That's right! It's the revolution of cassettes!" "POCKET NI..." = "(Stored) swiftly in your pockets! Replace (them in the player) easily!" "CHOTTO!" = Like before, probably also a word play with its "Wait a moment!" meaning (the mouse is not at ease with the dancing cat and humans ^_^) Bottom one: "Swap freely, easy to carry. The cassette evolved in to this"
I really love these obscure format videos you do. I kinda always figured it was relatively smooth sailing from LP records to tape systems, but the diversity of different systems is pretty interesting.
As a person born in the early 80s, i love watching these videos. They bring back good old memories. Thanks so much for all the efforts you put in, and also the quality of your presentation is excellent
I definitely develop some new appreciation for older technology as I watch each video. Being born in 86, I went through cassetes to CD to Mp3 really quickly (about 12 years since from my first Walkman to my first Mp3 player) and didn't have time to further explore each technology and appreciate what went into each one or understand their shortcomings and the engineering involved. Thanks man.
I kinda skipped regular CD player in my collection and went to mp3 CD player around 02. I didn't get a flash storage mp3 player until 2007 when I just happened to find one Back in my cassette days, though, I'd have love the little cassette cartridges, thing(I also would've loved to have had a proper cable for recording said cassettes when making mixtapes instead of that rigged up garbage I was using)
for such a cheap item there very well designed and look very good quality, surely they could have made a specific player for those micro tapes would of made a very interesting device
Yeah, it's amazing that they clearly spent a lot of production design on something that was probably (judging by the cartoon characters on the packet) intended as a bit of a silly novelty.
I definitely think the company involved missed a trick, If they had designed a device to play just these cartridges and then you could use the cassette adaptor in a 'normal' player they might have had a winning formula.
Brian Jones I thought this too. but then, where would all tape being played run to? so I guess you always would need at least double the size of these small cartridges.
Best commentary on "vinyls" by your muppets ever ! And the cassette cartridges are cool. But, if you go back 2 decades, Revere had almost the same (failed) concept in the reel to reel days. One reel in a snap in cartridge. Auto thread to the other built in take up reel. Oh, and there were endless loop cassettes as well, in normal cassette housings from TDK if you want to combine cassette with 8 track technology...
I came across my first Techmoan video only a couple days ago, must've watched 30 odd since, can't seem to stop watching! Lost count of how many times I've searched ebay the past 48 hours too. I know finally know what I want to be when I grow up.
2:12 "It's got pictures that you can follow relatively easily" proceeds to completely ignore the pictures and never once insert the orange tab SIDEWAYS like the images clearly dictate lol. Great video though mate, keep up the good work 👍
bobman3563 I didn't even know these were in most of the videos. I thought it was just a really long credits section. Now I have to check these out more often.
Clever stuff. I started watching the video thinking this was a solution in search of a problem, until I saw how much smaller the cartridges actually were. Not sure about that reduced playing time, though...
Now that is a cracking idea, shame it didn't take off. As for the recording length issue, it probably wasn't back in the day as most vinyl albums were around 45 minutes long ;)
@@electrictroy2010 let's be real here, few CDs ever hit the 70-80 minute length limit. Most albums were still 45 minutes or less, so, for a mix-tape, it's not great, but for an album, it was fine most of the time..
I may be easily impressed, but I find the thought put into this system absolutely amazing. It seems that the folks behind this sat down, thought things through, tested, and reiterated until they arrived at what we see here. A lot of what I buy today seems poorly thought out in comparison. And to top all that off, the end product seems well executed and presented. Bravo. PS: that jaw drop at 13:59 is only valid response to what I can only call a graphic description of audio mutilation.
Indeed, unlike the Teac (and I commented on that system too), this one has a reasonable insertion/extraction process. Enjoy your videos, Techmoan. Keep up the great work. :)
I remember having three or four cassettes on me and you could make out the rectangular shapes in both my jeans pockets. The corners would dig in your leg!! This is awesome, I definitely would have gone for this if I was older in the 80's when it came about. If I even would have known about them! Seen so much crazy forgotten tech thanks to you. You belong on television, Mat! You're like the tech version of James May. That's a compliment. I love to listen to James go on about his train set. It's almost therapeutic, just like I love to watch you go on about random bits of tech. Keep it up. Looking forward to the next one.
More so then anything else, I love the design of that peg and how many purposes it fills for the product, winding/unwinding tool, peg remover, plug to keep the tape in place, and cool branding plug. All from one little bit of plastic. That's impressive design.
A brilliant strategy you've outlined. Buy records (I mean vinyls), convert them to MP3s, and then burn the MP3s to CDs! But wait, what to do with those useless vinyls afterwards? Oh, I guess you can sell them to have enough money to buy blank CDs!
I'm strangely addicted to this channel. Apart from being 50 and recognising some of the tech, it's fascinating to see some of the other stuff. I look forward to seeing the son and dad at the end and always find myself laughing at the them... Thanks for your great effort in these productions! All the best.
"but at least you managed to see some here in this video" I do love how you have managed to show off so many cool things I'd never get to see in person. this channel is great.
Cassette are actually amazing pieces of creativity especially this one. Just shows how people back then took pride and applied ingenious implements to make music an amazing creation through these formats
For computers, shorter tapes were handy, it's why they sold C-15 tapes. At least for the Spectrum and other computers that could load a program in 5 minutes. Rather than the 40 minutes Commodore and Atari took. Never got that, why were they so stupid? AND they cost more! Anyway... shorter tapes are better cos you can find your game easier without having to fast forward and rewind a longer tape. Since you've no way of telling what program you're on, cos it all sounds the same. So these being 23 minutes per side is no problem, and yep the smallness is great! What would've been nice is something like the Sinclair Microdrives, that also used a loop of tape. In this case it was video tape, cut lengthwise to be thinner. Because video tape can record higher frequencies. So Microdrive cartridges ran the tape very fast past the head, that recorded high-speed beeps. It could load a game in 20 seconds or so. This might've been good for something similar. Maybe a third party could've made them cheap.
Wasn't another purpose for the C--15 tapes, that if the tape was shorter that they could make the tape thicker and with a higher quality magnetic coating, I know Coleco actually make some special cassettes that had a very thick tape in them so that they could stand up to the high speed tape deck in the Adam Computer
Modern backup tapes do this. There's a single reel in the cartridge, and the tape is dragged out on a metal peg and wound across a take-up reel in the drive. Granted, LTO tapes are a lot bigger than a compact cassette, but still...
The CVS Pocket46 is basically a rebranding of this. Not sure which came first but the manufacturer is the same I'd imagine. Edit: To clarify, CVS here is not the US pharmacy chain.
Another great video, somehow despite being in to music for all my 63 years, I have never bumped in to these things, what a masterpiece of engineering, keep up the good work! Dave
"Only type 1 ferric tapes" Of course, those who are handy with tape splicing skills could swap the main run of tape for a better quality tape. Some reel to reel splicing blocks have 1/8" facility but you need to be handy with the trimming.
cmonkey63 What's wrong with that? Then again I guess it's how serious one takes the hobby and how they act. They call the crazy train enthusiasts here "foamers".
Wish I knew about these back in the 80's. The biggest benefit for me when Mini-disc (liked your video about that) came out was being able to take so many when travelling so I would of loved these cassettes.
Always amazing new stuff. I have no idea how much time you spend looking for this stuff, but thanks for the time and effort. You are always fun to watch.
That was professional, informative, and entertaining. Wasn't the first video of yours that I have watched but it's been awhile since I last watched one. This was a nice change from the crap I usually watch on TH-cam. Also was in 4K. Wondering why it looked good on my laptop. Good vid to wrap the night up and get to sleep.
I just figured I should say this, I'm 14. And I love your content! I love the different retro tech you show and I enjoy to hear your opinions. I've been a subscriber for a year and a half now, and I wanted to say, "Keep up the good work!"
As time goes by, younger people begin to appreciate the things the older people grew sick of. Most people I know above 50 do not understand *why* computer stuff from the 80s is so collectible now.
Best cassette technology I've been using for years (in the cassette player of my previous car) was a Bluetooth cassette. It connected with my phone so I could play mp3's over my car stereo and even answer phone calls over the cassette player.
Very informative! I very much appreciate these looks into the tech wonders of the past, and your detailed, passionate study of how they work and the history behind it.
Those are really cool. I love quirky Japanese innovations that make life easier. Also, I loved that skit at the end. I always enjoy your skits, but this one was my favourite so far!
This is a brilliant concept. They really thought it out. What comes to mind is the orientation of the concept: The Teac is about looks, and probably was invented by an industrial design specialist, and the Audiocraft was invented by an engineer, with the "looks" worked out after...
Interesting review. Thank you! Would you ever consider doing a video where you give your opinion of digital compression formats? (AAC, Mp3, Ogg Vorbis, etc). It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the subject.
But Techmoan's opinion on the subject would be worth hearing, because he'd say sensible things for good technical reasons. Unlike most commentators online.
I always like watching your videos. You find the coolest things to show, and most of it is right up my alley. When you do episodes like the minidisc, something I already had, I still learn a ton about them. Not many people take the time to go in depth like you do. Excellent videos, my good sir.
It's impressive to see how much thought went in to it, I'm surprised that they didn't come up with a way of fitting 90 minutes of tape inside a larger version of the cartridge, I can't see why it wouldn't be possible.
A 90 minute cartridge would be larger and would need a similar size reel on the other side, which would make it larger than a cassette tape. As he showed, with a regular 90 minute cassette, the two reels have to share some space in the middle of the cassette, something a system like this can't do. They probably could have made 90 minute cartridges if there had been a dedicated player that only played these single reel cassette cartridges.
i made a comment asking why they didnt do exactly that, make a dedicated single reel cassette player with a second reel and play head and everything else just built into the player instead of having to take a whole cassette out every time just change the reel once its rewound
do you know DJ Cash Money? he came up with the transformer scratch . dj Jazzy Jeff popularized this scratch. you reference hip hop culture a lot in your videos. what is your history with hip hop?
Yes - Cash Money and Marvelous a great DJ with a not-as-great MC, but still plenty of memorable tracks. I mentioned Jazzy Jeff rather than Cash Money because I suspected it might be confusing. My history is just as an appreciative listener.
I didn't even realize this was more than 10 minutes of video until you mentioned it. Take that how you will, though in my mind it means your content is more than interesting enough with enough quality to not feel like it's too long because, honestly, if you'd have told me you were going to spend 10+ minutes talking about a cassette thing from the '80s, I sure would've expected it to be boring. Cheers!
I made a joke on the comments for the other open cassette video suggesting that holding the whole thing together with string magnets would have been easier. I'm still getting an average of one notification a month from that comment thread from someone who didn't get it. Just enough to not be annoying enough to block.
Cyber TonTo72 J-pop, K-pop, C-pop, and if it exists, V-pop, 'cause you have to represent Vietnam. Do you guys listen to chipbeats too? Obviously I kid, because I even know what that stuff is!
I DO enjoy your videos SO much. They are so informative, but also beautifully presented. I realise that eventually you'll run out of things to feature, but I sincerely hope that day is a long way off!😀🔊
Your videos are amazing! Thank you for showing up this class of things, where I live is a very young city, so this kinds of objects aren't anywhere, I always learn a boat something new with your videos. My regards from Cancún Mexico.
Wouldn't it be easier to put that orange clip long ways into the sprocket to spool the cassette? Seems a little awkward to be using the tiniest tips of your fingers to turn that clip when spooling.
The speed of tape is set by the capstan and pinch roller. The feed and take-up spools ensure that there is some tension in the tape, but their speed is not precisely set.
I just realised that there would be several layers of tape already wound around the spool when the plastic leader arrives so a recessed slot would not be an effective remedy. Maybe a bigger chunk of the spool is cut out to compensate.
I think that was an excellent idea to carry around multiple tapes back in the eighties, shame I never came across them at the time. Knowing me though, I would have tried to swap out the ferrite tape for a Chrome or Metal one just to be different 😊 Once again, another great and informative video from you, I always look forward to your releases, they bring back some great memories. Keep up the good work Techmoan…
For a not too serious product, this is really well thought out.
Attila TheHUN honestly it would be pretty handy, it is literally more music per pocket
I thought the same, better thought through than some modern tech!
@@electrictroy2010
So in relation to it's size it holds exactly the same amount of music. I see no problem there. Besides that's just one aspect of this product...doesn't mean it's not well thought out in other areas, or overall.
@@electrictroy2010 Oddly, that 46 minutes enough for *most* albums at the time, since they tended to not exceed 45 minutes.
Where you'll likely hit a snag would be when you run into something like Metallica, where the albums tended to be in the 50-60 minute range to take advantage, so a 60 minute cassette(also fairly common for a while) would be better for those. Honestly, the 120 minute one kinda spoiled us.
Also the 45 minute cassette was a thing. I might still have a couple in a shed somewhere.
@@InfernosReaper But a C90 cassette is 45 minutes per side. So you could record two 45 minute albums per casette. And you could listen to a full 45 minute album without flipping the casette.
This has some utility, unlike the reel to reel one, but its use case would be pretty niche. It lets you carry more music, but it is a lot less convenient to use. And convenience was usually king, you can easily carry several hours of music on a cassette (and you can listen to the same tape twice), which is more than enough for the vast majority of people and situations.
Still a pretty nifty novelty regardless, though.
It wasn't until you put the craft cassettes next to the 4 'standard' tapes that I realized just how portable they are.
@@electrictroy2010 In same space as two normal cassettes you could have like 24 of these reels. Like he said in the video at 9:03.
I know this has been said before but once again, I wanted to say I think the effort and quality you put into all parts of your videos is fantastic. Thank you for being so entertaining.
Thanks old chap.
I would if I could, I would if I could ;-;
Contributions as low as $1 a month. I'm just saying...
I know right, and then the outro music is so perfect. It hits all of my nostalgia vibes
it's not a money issue, I'm an odd financial situation that makes it hard to easily use internet payment systems.
For weird unnecessary bits of technology like this, I like to imagine that someone out there used them religiously. Some girl in Tokyo would go to school each day with her bag rattling full of these, her latest albums recorded onto them so she could listen to them on her commute.
Although the MiniDisc was popular in other parts of the world, it was an obscure technology here in the US, but when I was in High School, I loved that format and my little player and bag of MiniDiscs went with me everywhere. People were always curious about it, and I can imagine the same thing happening with the hypothetical girl you mention.
from what i heard bringing non school related stuff into school is a big nono in japan, of course it depends on the school itself
@@khhnator Well usually it's a matter of getting caught.
Also a school being strict about non-educational stuff isn't exclusive to Japan, what.
@@SmoothTeeVee I can bring whatever I want to school except weapons, drugs and alcohol.
@@saltysoysauce954 Well you most certainly can bring an Xbox into class and attempt to hook it up to the projector at the front. Somehow I doubt that'd end well though.
Man, this is an amazing little piece of engineering. It is like if Philips hadn't asked "How do we get an entire reel-to-reel recorder into a swappable cartridge?" and asked instead "How can we make a reel-to-reel recorder that self-loads?". Because I can see a world where the CC-1 is an adapter instead of an essential part of the system, and there's a whole bunch of machines that take the MC-46 cartridges natively. You'd stick it in, press play, and the machine pulls the loading hook past the pinch rollers and head before engaging them for normal playback.
…
I guess the inconvenience that tapes can't be changed without rewinding first could be an issue, and might even be a factor in the Philips design. Oh well, it was a beautiful dream.
That's exactly how DLT and LTO data tapes work, see th-cam.com/video/y-RpCzxPqac/w-d-xo.html or th-cam.com/video/D_0lqg1FlvY/w-d-xo.html for example. I share your dismay that this tech never made it to the audio world, though.
@@nateb4630 It almost happened. Read about the Einlochkassette.
@@nateb4630 Came here to say the same thing. =) I'm actually disappointed we never got an audio tape cartridge that worked like DLT.
Man, what a clever system! Kinda wish they released dedicated portable players that could directly play the format
Sort of like if they had started releasing TV shows or cartoons on VHS-C. If it took off, they could have made dedicated kid-oriented VHS-C players
For anybody who's curious, the Japanese text at 1:44 reads something like this...
Big white text in upper left: The little cassette
Woman: I've never seen a cassette like it!
Man: Right! It's a whole new kind of cassette.
Mouse: Hang on now! (A play on words. The word "chotto" means both "small", like the cassette, and "Woah! Hang on a sec!", like, "Why are my feet not touching the ground?!")
Cat: Pops in your pocket! Changing is a snap!
Text on bottom: Change as often as you like. The cassette has come a long way.
I don't trust weebs...any Japanese people in this thread who can verify this?
I don't trust people who say 'weebs'.
Thank you for taking the time to write up the translation, Paul Jensen.
It's alright Shannon, you don't have to be embarrassed to admit you love weebs. I mean, it is embarrassing, but you don't have to be embarrassed.
The ignorance in this thread is shocking.
@@Phobos_Anomaly Clearly, how could nobody tell everybody in this thread is a weeb.
Back in the 80's this would have given me back my cars glove box, which at the time was always stuffed full of normal cassette tapes. Mind you, accident rates would have shot through the roof, people trying to change the cartridge whilst driving down the motorway.
I'm starting to think he brings all those weird formats from an alternate dimension.
"i have been searching them for 2 years"
....
*closes ebay*
I know I'm in for a treat when you say "that's it for the moment, thanks for watching" when there's still 3 minutes left on the video!
It's things like this that kinda makes me sad everything have moved to digital.
Because this truly is a beautiful example of mechanical ingenuity that we quite possibly wont see ever again because physical media is dead.
HOORAY
not
Not dead
On records, I like watching the needle as it plays, watching when the loud parts will come.
Just learn some computer science and look into the ingenuity of various codecs, and you won’t have to be sad anymore. Computers are *way* more intricate than any other tech.
There will always be enthusiasts out there.
What a JOY it is to realise at the end of the video there's MORE! I appreciate the effort and dedication you put on the muppet segments, besides the regular show. Top notch.
It's amazing all the stop-gap efforts (and ingenuity) that were used to keep portable cassette music going. In hindsight it made more sense to push for digital audio. The problem was solid state storage. I've never heard of a lot of gadgets and technologies shown on your channel and I was a big cassette fan. You wonder how much money companies lost on these obscure inventions. Great channel! Thanks!
A translation of the captions in the blister carton at 1:44:
"カセットカートリッジー" = "Kasetto kaatorijjii" = "Cassette cartridge"
"ちょっとカセット" = "Chotto kasetto" = "Little cassettes", or maybe "quasi-cassettes" - "Chotto" literally means "a little" and is also used alone informally to say "Wait a moment" or "Hold on"
"KONNA CASSETTE..." = "I've never seen such cassettes!"
"SO-- NANDESU..." = "That's right! It's the revolution of cassettes!"
"POCKET NI..." = "(Stored) swiftly in your pockets! Replace (them in the player) easily!"
"CHOTTO!" = Like before, probably also a word play with its "Wait a moment!" meaning (the mouse is not at ease with the dancing cat and humans ^_^)
Bottom one: "Swap freely, easy to carry. The cassette evolved in to this"
I really love these obscure format videos you do. I kinda always figured it was relatively smooth sailing from LP records to tape systems, but the diversity of different systems is pretty interesting.
6:40 The way he said "Amazing" made me wanna hear what special price I can get it for when I call during the next two hours
As a person born in the early 80s, i love watching these videos. They bring back good old memories. Thanks so much for all the efforts you put in, and also the quality of your presentation is excellent
I definitely develop some new appreciation for older technology as I watch each video. Being born in 86, I went through cassetes to CD to Mp3 really quickly (about 12 years since from my first Walkman to my first Mp3 player) and didn't have time to further explore each technology and appreciate what went into each one or understand their shortcomings and the engineering involved. Thanks man.
I kinda skipped regular CD player in my collection and went to mp3 CD player around 02. I didn't get a flash storage mp3 player until 2007 when I just happened to find one
Back in my cassette days, though, I'd have love the little cassette cartridges, thing(I also would've loved to have had a proper cable for recording said cassettes when making mixtapes instead of that rigged up garbage I was using)
"First of all"
"B."
"and fourth!"
Haha very funny Techmoan!
Absolutely ingenious. I love their brilliant solutions to small problems such as the possibility of the tape unspooling in your pocket.
The video starts at 12:29. You're welcome!
Seriously, your videos are great! And I also enjoy the muppets segment. :)
for such a cheap item there very well designed and look very good quality, surely they could have made a specific player for those micro tapes would of made a very interesting device
Yeah, it's amazing that they clearly spent a lot of production design on something that was probably (judging by the cartoon characters on the packet) intended as a bit of a silly novelty.
I definitely think the company involved missed a trick, If they had designed a device to play just these cartridges and then you could use the cassette adaptor in a 'normal' player they might have had a winning formula.
I was thinking the exact same thing. I wonder how small you could make a player if it only had to make room for these smaller cartridges.
My thoughts exactly then when home you could wack the mini cartridge in a full size adaptor to play on you hifi....
Brian Jones I thought this too. but then, where would all tape being played run to? so I guess you always would need at least double the size of these small cartridges.
Best commentary on "vinyls" by your muppets ever !
And the cassette cartridges are cool.
But, if you go back 2 decades, Revere had almost the same (failed) concept in the reel to reel days. One reel in a snap in cartridge. Auto thread to the other built in take up reel.
Oh, and there were endless loop cassettes as well, in normal cassette housings from TDK
if you want to combine cassette with 8 track technology...
They look fantastic. Wish I'd known about them back in the day. I love all these clever formats.
What a terrific little product. How is it that I've not seen this before during my 43 years? Great video again Matt
I used to record my records onto cassette tapes to listen to them in my car back in 2005. haha
I'm beginning to think that the true mark of an audiophile isn't how much you've spent on speakers, it's how many adapters you own. :D
I still do that now! I even had to wire in a cassette deck in my glove box so I can still play cassettes through my oem car radio!!!
JHMBB2 I do that sometimes but now I record my cds on my cassettes so I can listen to it when I go on vacation
I still record my cassette deck to record tapes and play them on my stang.
@@dancooper2377 sweet! I've picked it up again to play them in my Alfa Romeo.
I came across my first Techmoan video only a couple days ago, must've watched 30 odd since, can't seem to stop watching! Lost count of how many times I've searched ebay the past 48 hours too.
I know finally know what I want to be when I grow up.
2:12 "It's got pictures that you can follow relatively easily" proceeds to completely ignore the pictures and never once insert the orange tab SIDEWAYS like the images clearly dictate lol.
Great video though mate, keep up the good work 👍
exactly!
Well, it's not like his method is actually "wrong", it's just a lot slower........which might as well be wrong in this day and age.
@@jimmylu1375 it's kind of wrong as he's even put a timer to see how long it would take to swap these. This could have given a better timing.
It's incredible the love and dedication you put on every Techmoan video. Thank you very much, greetings from Guadalajara, Mexico.
honestly, my favorite part of every video is the puppet show at the end. please keep doing them, I love your comedy.
13:27 "none of those words mean anything to me" genius :D
bobman3563 I didn't even know these were in most of the videos. I thought it was just a really long credits section. Now I have to check these out more often.
Lol I find them annoying, I like the content of the videos enough and don't need stupid puppets for entertainment.
@@Laurensnl They're like hidden easter eggs
@@diktatoralexander88 maybe if your 5 years old.
Clever stuff. I started watching the video thinking this was a solution in search of a problem, until I saw how much smaller the cartridges actually were. Not sure about that reduced playing time, though...
Now that is a cracking idea, shame it didn't take off. As for the recording length issue, it probably wasn't back in the day as most vinyl albums were around 45 minutes long ;)
@@electrictroy2010 let's be real here, few CDs ever hit the 70-80 minute length limit. Most albums were still 45 minutes or less, so, for a mix-tape, it's not great, but for an album, it was fine most of the time..
I may be easily impressed, but I find the thought put into this system absolutely amazing. It seems that the folks behind this sat down, thought things through, tested, and reiterated until they arrived at what we see here. A lot of what I buy today seems poorly thought out in comparison.
And to top all that off, the end product seems well executed and presented. Bravo.
PS: that jaw drop at 13:59 is only valid response to what I can only call a graphic description of audio mutilation.
Indeed, unlike the Teac (and I commented on that system too), this one has a reasonable insertion/extraction process. Enjoy your videos, Techmoan. Keep up the great work. :)
I remember having three or four cassettes on me and you could make out the rectangular shapes in both my jeans pockets. The corners would dig in your leg!! This is awesome, I definitely would have gone for this if I was older in the 80's when it came about. If I even would have known about them! Seen so much crazy forgotten tech thanks to you.
You belong on television, Mat! You're like the tech version of James May. That's a compliment. I love to listen to James go on about his train set. It's almost therapeutic, just like I love to watch you go on about random bits of tech.
Keep it up. Looking forward to the next one.
Uniball still sells some pens that are great for rewinding tapes.
More so then anything else, I love the design of that peg and how many purposes it fills for the product, winding/unwinding tool, peg remover, plug to keep the tape in place, and cool branding plug. All from one little bit of plastic. That's impressive design.
A brilliant strategy you've outlined. Buy records (I mean vinyls), convert them to MP3s, and then burn the MP3s to CDs! But wait, what to do with those useless vinyls afterwards? Oh, I guess you can sell them to have enough money to buy blank CDs!
GoldenKingStudio
and you can scratch your initisls onto
vinyls...vinyls...The plural of vinyl is vinyl. please.
Vinyl doesn't have a plural because it's not a materiEL, it's a materiAL.
And I'm just here going "wait, vinyls have a limited dynamic range?"
Tetsuron The dynamic range depends very much on the speed at which the record rotates.
I'm strangely addicted to this channel. Apart from being 50 and recognising some of the tech, it's fascinating to see some of the other stuff. I look forward to seeing the son and dad at the end and always find myself laughing at the them... Thanks for your great effort in these productions! All the best.
"These are tactile nice to touch." That's what I call next level approach.
"but at least you managed to see some here in this video"
I do love how you have managed to show off so many cool things I'd never get to see in person. this channel is great.
Awesome and very informative!
Cassette are actually amazing pieces of creativity especially this one. Just shows how people back then took pride and applied ingenious implements to make music an amazing creation through these formats
I can imagine these would be handy back in the 8-bit computer era. Storing more data in less space.
For computers, shorter tapes were handy, it's why they sold C-15 tapes. At least for the Spectrum and other computers that could load a program in 5 minutes. Rather than the 40 minutes Commodore and Atari took. Never got that, why were they so stupid? AND they cost more!
Anyway... shorter tapes are better cos you can find your game easier without having to fast forward and rewind a longer tape. Since you've no way of telling what program you're on, cos it all sounds the same. So these being 23 minutes per side is no problem, and yep the smallness is great!
What would've been nice is something like the Sinclair Microdrives, that also used a loop of tape. In this case it was video tape, cut lengthwise to be thinner. Because video tape can record higher frequencies. So Microdrive cartridges ran the tape very fast past the head, that recorded high-speed beeps. It could load a game in 20 seconds or so.
This might've been good for something similar. Maybe a third party could've made them cheap.
Wasn't another purpose for the C--15 tapes, that if the tape was shorter that they could make the tape thicker and with a higher quality magnetic coating, I know Coleco actually make some special cassettes that had a very thick tape in them so that they could stand up to the high speed tape deck in the Adam Computer
Twisted World * fewer data ;-)
Modern backup tapes do this. There's a single reel in the cartridge, and the tape is dragged out on a metal peg and wound across a take-up reel in the drive. Granted, LTO tapes are a lot bigger than a compact cassette, but still...
I still can't put my finger on why this channel is so addictive. I've seen lots of similar channels, but this one puts them to shame.
Neat system. That actually seems like a pretty clever bit of design.
I adore this. It's so fun. It just adds to the mechanical and tactile aspects that make the medium so wonderful.
The CVS Pocket46 is basically a rebranding of this. Not sure which came first but the manufacturer is the same I'd imagine.
Edit: To clarify, CVS here is not the US pharmacy chain.
ponpojp interesting
Looks like it! Where was that one sold?
Probably at CVS pharmacies in the US
Do you know where I can find any of those? I can't find any.
Travel back 30 years in time, and I'm sure you'll have better luck.
Another great video, somehow despite being in to music for all my 63 years, I have never bumped in to these things, what a masterpiece of engineering, keep up the good work! Dave
"Only type 1 ferric tapes"
Of course, those who are handy with tape splicing skills could swap the main run of tape for a better quality tape. Some reel to reel splicing blocks have 1/8" facility but you need to be handy with the trimming.
My favorite channel on TH-cam. Thanks Techmoan. Always unique and very interesting items with great entertaining reviews.
One benefit to working early in the States is being awake to catch a new episode of Techmoan.
Get back to work - listen bud we're not paying you to watch videos of some limey.
Techmoan No, that's my job. Seriously... Professional Limey Watcher here! 😜
At least you're not a trainspotter, aye.
cmonkey63 What's wrong with that? Then again I guess it's how serious one takes the hobby and how they act.
They call the crazy train enthusiasts here "foamers".
I'm never even in bed when he releases another video :)
Wish I knew about these back in the 80's. The biggest benefit for me when Mini-disc (liked your video about that) came out was being able to take so many when travelling so I would of loved these cassettes.
Ah yes, I see you and James May shop at the same store for your shirts.
Always amazing new stuff. I have no idea how much time you spend looking for this stuff, but thanks for the time and effort. You are always fun to watch.
Thanks for brightening my morning with a bit of muppet logic.
- Eddy
Hi, Techmoan man. Just wanted to say that I am addicted to your videos, especially the retro tech stuff. Keep up the fantastic work!
Always ready for a new Techmoan video~
That was professional, informative, and entertaining. Wasn't the first video of yours that I have watched but it's been awhile since I last watched one. This was a nice change from the crap I usually watch on TH-cam. Also was in 4K. Wondering why it looked good on my laptop. Good vid to wrap the night up and get to sleep.
I just figured I should say this, I'm 14. And I love your content! I love the different retro tech you show and I enjoy to hear your opinions. I've been a subscriber for a year and a half now, and I wanted to say, "Keep up the good work!"
As time goes by, younger people begin to appreciate the things the older people grew sick of.
Most people I know above 50 do not understand *why* computer stuff from the 80s is so collectible now.
I’ve learned so much of obscures tech from the 70’s and 80’s thanks to you Sir!! Thank you.
That's some damn fine engineering.
That's Japan for you. Never knowingly half-arsed.
I absolutely love your channel you quirky chappy!
Best cassette technology I've been using for years (in the cassette player of my previous car) was a Bluetooth cassette. It connected with my phone so I could play mp3's over my car stereo and even answer phone calls over the cassette player.
Only design flaw it had was that it didn't take it's power from the spinning reel. It had to be charged over USB for 8 hours of use.
Eric Schol can I have a link please
hitechguy18 thanks old chap
What an awesome technology, thanks for the heads up and link...
hitechguy18 yes it was exactly this one! I know at that time there were one or two different brands available.
Very informative! I very much appreciate these looks into the tech wonders of the past, and your detailed, passionate study of how they work and the history behind it.
Excellent content, as usual.
Those are really cool. I love quirky Japanese innovations that make life easier. Also, I loved that skit at the end. I always enjoy your skits, but this one was my favourite so far!
*AGAIN* I hit thumbs up before laughing *out loud* at the end and wishing I could thumbs up twice!
This is a brilliant concept. They really thought it out. What comes to mind is the orientation of the concept: The Teac is about looks, and probably was invented by an industrial design specialist, and the Audiocraft was invented by an engineer, with the "looks" worked out after...
Interesting review. Thank you!
Would you ever consider doing a video where you give your opinion of digital compression formats? (AAC, Mp3, Ogg Vorbis, etc). It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the subject.
As much as the topic us interesting, it's likely way too much covered elsewhere to be worthy a video.
Besides it lacks both old and obscure!
But Techmoan's opinion on the subject would be worth hearing, because he'd say sensible things for good technical reasons. Unlike most commentators online.
I always like watching your videos. You find the coolest things to show, and most of it is right up my alley. When you do episodes like the minidisc, something I already had, I still learn a ton about them. Not many people take the time to go in depth like you do. Excellent videos, my good sir.
It's impressive to see how much thought went in to it, I'm surprised that they didn't come up with a way of fitting 90 minutes of tape inside a larger version of the cartridge, I can't see why it wouldn't be possible.
A 90 minute cartridge would be larger and would need a similar size reel on the other side, which would make it larger than a cassette tape. As he showed, with a regular 90 minute cassette, the two reels have to share some space in the middle of the cassette, something a system like this can't do. They probably could have made 90 minute cartridges if there had been a dedicated player that only played these single reel cassette cartridges.
John McMillen I was having a moment and forgot the tape is enclosed on all sides, you're quite right it just wouldn't work.
i made a comment asking why they didnt do exactly that, make a dedicated single reel cassette player with a second reel and play head and everything else just built into the player instead of having to take a whole cassette out every time just change the reel once its rewound
+WeAreGRID
Simple answer: that player would cost more than ten bucks, which would almost certainly change the demographic for the product.
This is why we follow your channel :) Never knew these and they look gorgeous. Something about the 90's clear plastic.
do you know DJ Cash Money? he came up with the transformer scratch . dj Jazzy Jeff popularized this scratch.
you reference hip hop culture a lot in your videos. what is your history with hip hop?
Yes - Cash Money and Marvelous a great DJ with a not-as-great MC, but still plenty of memorable tracks.
I mentioned Jazzy Jeff rather than Cash Money because I suspected it might be confusing. My history is just as an appreciative listener.
You guys would both enjoy the series "The Get Down" on Netflix. Awesome series.
I love those vintage formats that bring me chilhood memories. Thanks for your lovely videos!
if you turn this orange piece sideways you can screw better, thats why they rounded on the edge
Neat little product with a lot of clever product engineering in it. Videos like this are a prime reason why I subscribe to your channel. Great stuff!
couldnt you replace the tape with higher quality stuff?
it seems like this would work, its just secured with screws
I don't see why not.
I didn't even realize this was more than 10 minutes of video until you mentioned it. Take that how you will, though in my mind it means your content is more than interesting enough with enough quality to not feel like it's too long because, honestly, if you'd have told me you were going to spend 10+ minutes talking about a cassette thing from the '80s, I sure would've expected it to be boring. Cheers!
hello james may nice floral shirt
Egehan Yıldız
Well, they don't call me Captain Slow for nothing!
A beautifully designed and crafted product. The engineering is quite ingenious.
The conversion from Yen or 円 (pronounced En) is easy, remove the last two numbers and you have a good approximation.
happy to say that (i know it for decades!!!)
Alternatively: Just remember "Yennies" and you're good!
Thats actually some pretty clever tech. Thanks for bringing these little historic gems back into the light. You always do them justice.
I made a joke on the comments for the other open cassette video suggesting that holding the whole thing together with string magnets would have been easier. I'm still getting an average of one notification a month from that comment thread from someone who didn't get it. Just enough to not be annoying enough to block.
I've seen a picture online of a floppy disk stuck to a fridge with a fridge magnet bearing a note, "Is this the disk you were searching for?" :D
people triggered about the "vinyls" thing as well
Just where do people forget their sense for jokes...
People who obsess about vinyl don't have any space left for a sense of humour! ;)
Hahah, Alexander, I was considering posting the same joke, but then I saw your comment. Thanks for taking care of it; it had to be done. ;)
I do love putting magnets in close proximity to tape.
Great video and outro.
I had a friend ask me how to upconvert his DVD collection to 1080p so he could re-rip them to watch on his phone.
could you find maybe pre recorded "cassettes" from Japan ?! and show as
that would be amazing :P
I'll keep an eye out for him. ;-)
Ohhh not J-Pop... We'll have hardcore manga and Weaaboo types all over here in no time!
only weebos listen to J-Pop, Manga and anime fans listen to loads more than J-Pop :)
Cyber TonTo72
J-pop, K-pop, C-pop, and if it exists, V-pop, 'cause you have to represent Vietnam. Do you guys listen to chipbeats too? Obviously I kid, because I even know what that stuff is!
I DO enjoy your videos SO much. They are so informative, but also beautifully presented. I realise that eventually you'll run out of things to feature, but I sincerely hope that day is a long way off!😀🔊
I think it would be a great way to release singles on it.
Your videos are amazing! Thank you for showing up this class of things, where I live is a very young city, so this kinds of objects aren't anywhere, I always learn a boat something new with your videos. My regards from Cancún Mexico.
Does it have wifi?
tod4y no but you can buy one that does, just search for xcvb124-99f
oh my god people are actually replying to this with recommendations you do understand this is a joke right
No, but it does take a SIM card for network access
yes, in fact it's completely wireless.
Mar lol
Great video as always. These breakdowns of niche tech are always a treat to watch.
Wouldn't it be easier to put that orange clip long ways into the sprocket to spool the cassette? Seems a little awkward to be using the tiniest tips of your fingers to turn that clip when spooling.
I believe in the shot where he was showing off the directions, there was an illustration showing it used like that.
Tyler Younghaus shame on techmoan for not reading the manual haha.
Pff, who reads that?
I had never seen such a device and was skeptical. But actually those were a well thought out, engineered and practical idea.
How do they prevent the plastic leader to become a bump on the 2nd reel and thus preventing a speeddifference because the reel becomes elleptic?
The speed of tape is set by the capstan and pinch roller. The feed and take-up spools ensure that there is some tension in the tape, but their speed is not precisely set.
For sure there will be a bump, but it makes no difference to the speed as Asdarp points out.
I would imagine there is a small recessed slot for it.
Jeppe Thaning good point!
I just realised that there would be several layers of tape already wound around the spool when the plastic leader arrives so a recessed slot would not be an effective remedy. Maybe a bigger chunk of the spool is cut out to compensate.
Thanks Techmoan for doing my request, a great video as always!
it is very important to watch until the end because PUPPETS!!!!!!!!
"...We could use a Bic pen; as you're probably quite familiar." 😁 Takes me back to my childhood.
Это единственный человек которого я могу смотреть без перевода, и всё понятно!
Благодарю
Lol techmoan
I think that was an excellent idea to carry around multiple
tapes back in the eighties, shame I never came across them at the time. Knowing
me though, I would have tried to swap out the ferrite tape for a Chrome or
Metal one just to be different 😊
Once again, another great and informative video from you, I
always look forward to your releases, they bring back some great memories. Keep
up the good work Techmoan…