Playing 50 YEAR OLD cassette tapes!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- I've collected some of the oldest cassette tapes from the 1960s and early 1970s. Do they even still play, and how good (or bad) do they sound? Let's find out!
Review of the Pioneer CT-W616DR cassette deck with Digital NR: • A cassette deck that e...
FYI: The equalizer's spectrum display is not that flickery in real life. That's just a camera effect, exaggerated by iMovie's single field de-interlacing.
You know what really makes that worthwhile? A pink noise signal and a calibrated mic and you can equalize out your whole system to sound as close to a studio as you will ever get. It'll change the way you think about music!
It's like the goofy blinking on traffic lights and other LED signs on dash cam footage. Looks goofy if you're not a digital video nerd and get why it happens, LOL!😉
can you show us how to find a pioneer like yours an ebay link in description and I recently got back into cassettes 2 years ago I even got a cassette deck put into a 2015 car the kind with a touch screen were you wouldnt normally have one also have you ever repaired a DAT tape so far none of mine have ver had an issue excpet for one and the tape wont move at all im afraid to open it up by the way I subscribed with notifcations on
Whoa... I'm rocking a nearly identical system with the EQA-10 TEAC equalizer and a Pioneer CT-W404R dual deck.
Sweet video as usual!
You might be getting flickering because of the shutter speed and the Hertz. In the UK it should be 1/50th sec (50Hz power supply) and in the US 1/60th sec (60Hz). LEDs are notorious for flicker which sometimes can't be eliminated in camera..
"Cassette tapes last upwards of 30 years"
*I turn around to find half my library has turned to dust
“Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good.”
Hahahahahahahaha...... So good.... My oldest tape is from 73 and my 8 year old brother listens to it all the time (I copied it onto a newer cassette of course....)
@@laserkahn5444 That was wise of you to make a copy.
Probably the perception of cassettes lasting 30 years is the amount of replays the cassette gets.
My mother recently gave me all of her cassettes that she recorded in 1968 to 1970 they all play perfectly well with no distortion at all!
What types of cassetes your mom has?
She must've taken great care of them.
Thats cool! You still got them??
Yeah it seems like tapes can last a lot longer than the popular estimation when kept well.
I've just bought a cheap radio cassette player to see if and how my old tapes will play.
They're quite distorted and low volume but I've been ff and rewinding them to see if it helps as some parts don't play.
Holy crap, that sounds good from that old cassette at the end.
That deck has analog to digital converter. It then processes the sound, removes hiss, corrects tonal balance and much more. Finally it converts digital signal to analog before giving the output. Just check the model details over the net.
@@brijlal973reddit brain at its finest
@@jacobg6528fr
Holy crap I remember the snap cases when I was a kid but completely forgot about them!
They look like crap tbh
I got tapes as old as 1968, and they still play and sound fantastic. Been playing my tape collection since I was a kid and they still sound great. Tapes do last a very long time. That's why they still remain my #1 choice for music. Plus over the years I collected so many different types and styles of them. Cassettes are awesome.
Excellent, same with me. Started collecting casette recordings from 1968 as well. My 2004 Rover and 2005 Citroen were equipped with CD and casette players- the CD players dont work but the casette players are fine ( touch wood!)
I also have a lot cassette tapes in my desk. when I have time I play one by one.
For that reason casette tapes are still used at banks to store data.
Cassette tapes from the '60 do not sound very good. Maybe you should have your hearing checked.
I'm curious to the mentality of the 14 people that thumbs down this video. No seriously, why would you thumbs down the video? It was made well, it wasn't rude, it didn't make any outlandish claims. It's just review of old cassette tapes and their cases and also how they still play.
I guess they are salty about VWestlife’s other supposedly rash claims regarding turntables.
Arif Akyuz I'll have to catch up to that one. You may be right.
Because they are bitter ignorant nasty jealous envious beings, I agree with you how could you thumb down this excellent video. People are generally ignorant dumb beings, unless educated they wouldn't understand a video like this
CeeStyleDj There are thumbs down because when I looked at the "50 years ago" and realized that I remember some of these and that was the 60's!!! .....50 years ago should be like, 1930 or something.....lol just kidding, people are doody heads, that's why!
CeeStyle, thank u!!!! I always wonder these things too. But you said it perfectly.
I actually loved the music you tested here!
Me too!
Jax Nean we
Me three!
Jax Nean
This is good music.These tapes want
remastering and re issueing so they save the music and the tapes.
I thought it was just me that liked this music (I even liked when I was a teenager even though it was considered "uncool").
The tapes I recorded (from new vinyl) on a three-head Nakamichi nearly 40 years ago still sound top-notch today when played on my current Nak. Even early pre-Dolby commercial tapes sound very good.
Moshe ben Asher My first tapes from the late 60’s from a stereo deck still sound great on my Nak’s as well.
Even though this is a relatively old video, I wanted to make a comment about survivability of old cassette tapes. I have a number of cassette tapes I had purchased back in the early 1970s that still play just fine on my deck. Sometimes the leader can break where it joins the tape, but it's quite easy to repair. Just yesterday I was listening to a recorded cassette letter my girlfriend had mailed to me in 1971, while I was serving in the US Navy. My girlfriend and I used to send each other letters on cassettes during my deployments. I decided to digitize that recording onto my Zoom H6 handy recorder, just in case the tape craps out in the future. That tape had been stored for 51 years until yesterday. All my other old cassette tapes from that era play just fine. Of course the really cheap cassettes that people may own would probably not last that long, especially if they are played a lot or stored wrong. By the way, I should have asked that same girlfriend to marry me back then, but life got in the way. I wish I had. She was quite a lovely young lady. It was great to hear her voice again, even if it was only a recording. But I digress.......
Your comment is something. My grandparents used to do this with my aunt and uncle in the 1970s and '80s. My aunt recently digitized them, and it has been quite a trip to listen to. It really provides a time capsule of a different time.
The cassette is an example of technology that excels because of it's simplicity. The 1980's and cheapo boomboxes are what stained it's reputation as a serious music format. Despite advancements like Dolby S, DSP like your Pioneer, and simpler and cleaner transports, it's time was up when digital came into widespread use.
I do find it amazing how your new VERY OLD STOCK Norelco can sound so good. Let's see how a 20 year old CD-R will be in another 10 years, if there is anything left to play them! that's where cassettes are still viable today: plenty of playback equipment in circulation and cassette players are still in current production. BTW like many I have 30-35 year old cassettes, some pre-recorded but most I've made, and hundreds of plays later they still survive and sound pretty damn good.
Not just boomboxes, but Walkman-style personal stereos. Being able to carry a lightweight audio system on you was a huge boon for cassettes.
My oldest CD-R records (Maxell Gold) still play fine now, after 21 years. But they have been stored out of the light. I stored a printed cd outdoors (but not in the rain or the sunlight) for twenty years here in Sweden, almost nothing was readable with EAC.
My exact thoughts on the Norelco tape. Either the formulation was excellent (assuming it is a normal bias) or the Pioneer Deck auto Bias calibration is that good (or both!). A tape that can go higher than 12 KHz at that time was ridiculously Hi-Fi!
I had a Walkman-type recorder with a built-in radio back in the 90s. I was happy that I got it (especially that I could record off the radio while on the go)...until I realized that the recorder part was garbage. The radio and playback were fine, but recordings made on it sounded like I recorded a transistor radio through a telephone.
@@rricci dc bias i guess...
I just remembered that the Black Sabbath - Paranoid tape that I just got is almost 50 years old. Goddamn.
only because that album came out in 1970 doesn't mean that the cassette were produced in that year.
Paranoid came out on cassette in 1970
If that cassette in 1970's snap-case, its really first release.
I have Black Sabbath Paranoid on 8-track. Plus pretty much all the rest of them. (Master of Reality etc. )
My record store has Fireball by Deep Purple in the slip case.
The greatest thing (as an old guy) about getting back into tapes is going through that box of old cassettes and finding out what you recorded on them 30 years ago when you were young. All those feelings coming back ("oh yes, that was the tape I recorded for that party where I met that one girl" etc.).
freibier XDD
freibier tru dat!
Yessss!
I am only 37 years old and I did that today, just sitting in my car listening to tunes from 20 years ago.
Those feelings can go both ways. How about that song that brings up bad memories, like a former love that broke your heart or a former job where you had to hear that song over and over?
As a lifelong tape collector & aficionado, thank you so much for this insight. I'm getting so sick of the format wars overall, so many people claiming "This or this or THIS is what you should be reaching for if you want to honestly hear music". Well, I've got news for ya, bunko; NOTHING really is indestructable. Everything from the very first Edison cylinder to whatever you're streaming out of your computer can become garbage if you have zero brain matter on learning the twin bugaboos of STORAGE & HANDLING. Like Stevie Wonder once sang; "Do Yourself a Favor....Educate your mind".
when you asked "Okay Google" at the beginning of the video, my google home, my phone, and my tablet proceded to answer! LOL. Great video. Very informative.
KaidoFujimi I have been known to walk along the train going OK google to screw with peoples phones.
My Amazon Echo (Alexia) does that whenever she hears her name or similar sounding phrase from TV, etc...
I'd be terrified with that much google I'm my life!
I own cassettes I recorded in 1981! They still sound as good as the day I recorded them!!!!! 37 years old!
Hey Gil! Good to see you on other channels I enjoy! King of the retro!
Oldest cassette I own is from 1968 and I still play it regularly in my car. Sounds great, not as good as cassettes from the 80s and 90s but still very decent quality.
Tom Jones was always underrated.
One of my mom's favorite songs was "Delila". I wsent on Wikipedia to read about that song. If you like that song, I don't recommend reading the Wikipedia article.
@@rricci I think you meant "DELILAH".
@@dm95422 I knew Imisspelled that title. TY, dm9542
Tom was never underrated here in Europe where he's regarded a true Legend (even in my Finland) And he's still touring... nothing's stopping him👍His voice is in a class of its own.
Just playing Hank Williams is enough to get a thumbs up from me 😀.
I've never heard that version of Why Don't You Love Me
Same here!!!
The only good tape in the bunch.
Very impressed by that. I knew these overdubbed recordings existed, but the entire idea seemed completely sacrilegious to me, but now that I've heard some of it, wow, it's like Hank lived on and 10 years later went into a studio to re-record some of his classics with Nashville's best. Now I have to try and track down a copy.
Will you be doing another video in 50 years time to see if it still works and sound good?
Maybe!
How about a video 50 years from now to see if TH-cam videos have held up good?
Wow, and I thought I had an old cassette... full of radio recordings made in 1978 that still plays perfectly today. This collection puts it to shame though!
I'd recommend digitizing a back-up. Just in case the tape gets damaged.
At a record shop once I picked up a bunch of radio recordings made on cheap cassettes. When trying to play one, the leader immediately broke off at the splice point. Since the cassette shell didn't even have screws, I had to carefully break it open with a screwdriver then re-splice the tape back to the leader before transplanting the reels to a spare shell! But in the end I was rewarded by being able to hear WMAL's "Music Free Hour", an hour-long compilation of back-to-back commercials (some dating to the 1930s) voted in by listeners. As of this writing Google only pulls up two results regarding this rare 1981 stunt.
I remember that my father used to buy BASF cassettes (early 70's) to record audio diaries for us kids when he was away on deployment. They used to have the first type plastic boxes, but they were clear. Brings back old memories! I think the tapes sounded exactly like I remember. Dr. Demento was my go-to party listening! Can't forget King Biscuit Flower Hours either!
I used BASF (chrome dioxide) when I was quite young...then as I got older and had a bit more money I started buying TDK SAX in bulk (10-pac boxes). But over the years I tried dozens of different brands...sometimes found some great quality brands that were in the cheapie bin, too.
We did the same when dad was away on TDY etc or isolated tour of duty.
I think I have a cassette player thats 40-50 years old. Just tried it again today and it STILL WORKS!!!!
Very impressive, they seem to have held up almost perfectly in terms of playability and holding the recordings. That blank tape at the end as well, extremely good! The fact that even though little bits broke off but you were able to repair them so easily is just one of the things that makes me love this format.
And hey, I see you picked up a smartphone too. You'll be posting all the great thrift store finds on Instagram before you know it ;)
For comparison I listened to a digital Amazon music copy of the Hank Williams song you played. And apart from the warm thick bass you usually get on a type 1 cassette, I don’t think it was any better or worse. In fact I think whoever mixed this for the cassette did a very good job doing the EQ.
8 Bit Guy theme!
ikr
They're all in cahoots with each other. It's one giant TH-cam orgy.
VWestLife, 8bit, LGR, uxwbill, etc etc
2dfx don't forget OddityArchive and TechMoan
Sounds awesome from that old tape.
16:35 Anders Enger Jonson's "Morning Dew" (just for the people in a hurry)
why would anyone fall asleep listening to 101 strings? honestly they sound good
People fell asleep NOT because the music is "boring", but because it was relaxing.
I have a couple of these tapes and haven't fallen asleep yet
Love 101 Strings. I have collected several LP releases!
I have one of those tapes. Was it a series?
Those tapes that he is reviewing is older than both my parents 😂
Hank Williams' Greatest Hits would have been at the earliest 1968. I don't know if you're familiar with him beyond the basics, but in 1968 MGM started overdubbing albums that had previously been in mono so as to tout them as being in stereo. The mono LP would have been issued in 1963. That sounds amazingly good. I enjoyed the Dean Martin as well-Jim Reeves did an excellent version of that song.
I still have a Philips cassette I recorded as a kid in 1972 - holding a microphone to a speaker at the time. Still works. That's my oldest recording. I still have literally thousands of cassettes I recorded throughout the 1980s. They've been mostly stored in a very dry, cedar-lined room with almost no humidity.
As long as they've been kept in dry conditions at a relatively stable temperature, audio cassettes (and reel-to-reel tapes) will last indefinitely. In fact the older the tape, the more likely it is to be of a higher-quality formulation that will last longer.
I've got cassettes from the late 60s that still work just fine, and reel-to-reel tapes from the 1950s that still sound perfect.
"I've got cassettes from the late 60s that still work just fine" but they sound like wooOOOOOoooo woooOOOOooo
Natural Mystic: If your tape player has a working counter it's easy enough to find a song using the card that comes with a tape. Most usually show the start times for each song.
They won't last indefinitely, the magnetic particles on the tape are continually fighting to return to their natural state of alignment, which is dictated by the magnetic properties of the tape and field around the tape (Earth). That combined with the fact the tape touches the head each time it's played, the medium itself is also slowly degrading. Never play it, it will certainly last longer but those magnetic particles are on the move no matter what! Time is the enemy!
@@HazeAnderson That is most likely on your player, not the tape.
I have a 50 year old 8 track tape still plays.
Bryant Floyd
It's a loop tape cartridge. Predates prerecorded cassettes. You can see one on my channel and I will be doing a test of an 8track recorder soon.
12voltvids
Next he'll ask what an LP is.
I once had a lot of fun explaining cassettes, and my rotary dial desk phone to my niece. The phone rang, and she jumped back, asking "Why'd it do that?"
Explaining a cassette to someone, who's life is all digital devices, turned out to be easier than I thought.
I wish I could've showed her the first computer I ever used, with a cassette drive.
I had a Sam & Dave 8-track which had differently stylized finger grips and the label was very wrinkled. I think it may have been from around 1968.
I have a computer that uses cassette tape. It is a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A probably still works if I can find all the cables for it.
12voltvids
The first computer I used was a Tandy 4K Color computer.
fixing pressure pads & the coppery hinge things they rested on could be a nightmare often involving prizing open the whole shell !
great sounds here tho for sure.....
cassettes were / ARE so nice when they play well on a top machine !
Those pioneer decks are great. I was given an Elite model to fix. I'm keeping it. Best sounding cassette deck I have heard.
The Kenwood decks from the early 90's were great as well.
Very true . They are 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Wow, dude... I was born in the 70s and still had no idea such cases ever existed...
I do remember the old plastic snap cases, but not the cardboard slipcases, with the tray
Same here
i forget that 1970 is 50 years ago, my mind still thinks 2000's never moved
If anyone cares to know, the reason that there are many Cassette Tapes from the mid to late 1970's and early 80's that will not play and "severely slow down, screech & squeal" and are UNplayable is because they started using a certain inferior binder in the tape oxide that absorbed moisture over the years (which it is not supposed to do) and now renders the tapes completely unplayable. This also caused the named "Sticky Tape Shedd Syndrome". This does not usually affect prerecorded Cassettes from 1966 (when they first were issued by Philips/Mercury) till about 1978 or so... Then around 1984 they seem to still play right, as they discovered this "bad binder" and corrected the problem of it absorbing moisture... This problem may have given Cassette Tapes a bad rap and people saying that they won't last or only play for 30 years? (lol) But as shown in this great video presentation, Yes the real old early cassettes still can play fine - as well as later 1980's and 1990's ones! If they had not used that bad binder, most ALL pre-recorded Cassettes would still play fine to this day.
Not only the audio quality, but the compositions themselves demonstrated here were beyond fantastic!
What an amazing theme music you chose for the test recording ;-)
(y) Definitely approve of 8-bit guy stuff!
Sweet nod to The 8-Bit Guy at the end there with that song choice!
I have the cassette soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Original 60s release. The media still retains a signal. Late 1950s color videotape is also still playable!
The recording of Anders song on that 50 year old tape was flawless! Amazing
The 8-Bit-Guy theme song (extended version) ;)
I have several older tapes, as long as you store them properly and care for them (as with every format) they will last!
The Tom Jones Proud Mary is enough to make me thumbs up for the video. I still keep coming back watching this montage and inspired me to make a Tom Jones Mixtape
I love it. Its got that warm fuzzy feeling. Gives me goosebumps.
I was blown away by your demo of recording onto the blank 50-yr-old tape at the end. Great choice of music with ample high-frequency energy and detail. I did not expect such crisp reproduction! It really goes to show that the characteristic "dull tape sound" has less to do with the tape itself and more to do with the source signal, the equipment used to record and play it back, and of course, azimuth alignment!
The main bottleneck in fidelity for those 1960s/70s pre-recorded tapes was the practice of many overdubs in production (because 32-track machines weren't available at the time) and of course multi-generation dubs from the master down to the cassette release. Today we take for granted the ability to make endless digital copies with no fidelity loss!
Hey vwestlife. Wonderful demonstration. I have a Phillips demo musicassette from 1965(it isn't in the best shape, but I kept it as it has a booklet and info). I 100% agree, cassettes can last 50+ years and more.
You triggered the ok Google command on my phone! :D
Mine too lol.
:D
Did the recording and your phone reply at same time?
My Google Home speaker got triggered by it too! :D
holy crap, what kind of witchcraft did you do on the tom jones tape
everything else sounded like a standard-stock music cassette from the '80s, but that tom jones one is on FIRE
as for using the 50-year-old new old stock tape, it ain't that bad. surprised that this sort of sound could come out of a standard first-wave ferric formulation. it sounds like your dime-a-dozen chrome tape.
Hal Emmerich.......TOM JONES IS ALWAYS ON FIRE.
Seriously this what music sounded like before everything was made loud and lifeless with compression.
Back in the 60's they couldn't cut vinyl any higher than 10 khz. (Later they would learn to heat up the cutting lathe - long story.) And they would filter out the bass below 50 hz.
It was rumoured that Motown Records back in the 60's used half speed mastering. Don't know if it's true. But their records would go up to 20 khz if it was true. And RCA used half speed mastering on it's classical line. (Can't confirm any of this....Sorry) No cartdrige of the day could track high frequencies above 12 khz. And most needles would jump out of the grove with a lot of low bass or too much bass. So the limited cassettes response of 60 - 10 000hz sort of mimicked the record players of the day. More of a problem now then it was then.
You want that great old world analog sound? Buy a good turntable and cartdrige. No Ebay! Go to a good HI-FI shop and buy a Project turntable. It will come with a decent cartdrige. ($350 - $600) The staff there will put it together and adjust everything properly. And then start buying records like crazy! Make sure you get a good phono preamp. A nice Project or an Audio Quest. All under $300.
OR.....
Go on Ebay and buy compact disks from the 80's and early 90's. These were often straight transfers to digital. No compression or silly Eq.
Buy an audiophile CD player. You can get a used Moon CD-1 (designed and made in Canada) player for under $650. 8 years ago the Moon CD-1 went for $1700 CAN.
I own one...Trust me...You will say...I DIDN'T KNOW COMPACT DISCS COULD SOUND LIKE VINYL.
I have many very, very old, 1960's/1970's/1980's cassettes. They're rarely played, but when they are, they play well. Just make sure they're stored in the proper environment. If you leave them in a box in your garage, you can forget about them. VHS tapes are another story. I have a ton of those that are a combination of purchased movies, stuff recorded off the air, and a bunch of movie studio screeners. I don't even bother pulling them out to watch, because more often than not, they're unwatchable, especially the stuff recorded off the air.
I'll tell you what. That 50 year old Norelco blank cassette sounded great on that tape deck you used in the video. I am so impressed.
I bought a Who cassette tape in one of those weird cases. I assumed it was a bootleg of some type, but now I know that it's just an older cassette. Amazing!
You are educating me on stuff I should have known about 40 years ago. I never knew it was called a J card. Please could you, if you have the time of course, do something on VHS stuff. There are a lot of VHS releases of concerts and they are disappearing fast. If you alert people to how awesome they are people might start saving them.Thank you.
I already did a video about VHS.
Sorted.
My Google home answered the question 😂
Glad I had my google mini muted :)
:D
I'm always so impressed by your methodology.
I enjoyed your video... I am planning on contacting and visiting the father of the cassette Mr. Ottens since he only lives a good 40 kilometres from here... He invented the compact cassette tape... Lingering on what questions to ask... He's 91 years old now... Kind regards, Chr.
Mr. Ottens is a genius! I am glad I got to see & hear him on the "Cassette" Documentary that came out recently.
@@evilgrows he is gone forever, god bless him, may he rest in peace
Thanks for the video. Tape really doesn't get the respect it deserves. I have (almost) the same tape deck, the Pioneer CT-W606DR. I love it. It changed my whole opinion of tapes. My favorite thrift store find is a $0.50 copy of the 1969 tape "The Moog Strikes Bach." I didn't expect much, but I was shocked by how good it still sounds.
That Norelco tape you record on at the end isn't the earliest one. It has removable anti-erase tabs. The original tapes Philips made in 1963 didn't have them either because the first generation EL-3300 recorders didn't have the anti-erase system including the little lever in the back left of the cassette well. The original Norelco Carry-Corder 150 kits from late 1964 included the straight flat-black cassettes without the tabs badged Norelco.
Still, it's at least 50 years old. The Compact Cassette logo wasn't as huge on later tapes.
It’s 2:25am and I have to be up at 8am to go to work. BUT I CAN’T STOP WATCHING YOUR VIDEOS!!! So many memories (101 Strings!!! OMG) .... so little time to watch more!!!
I’m from the generation that made cassette tapes by recording radio shows - so many Saturday nights spent making yet another cassette that was labelled in biro “Best Songs”.
So long ago, yet all locked away in my memory ❤️❤️❤️
The result of that last test with the Norelco cassette was amazing! Great sound quality for such an old tape! The oldest cassettes that we had at both my family's house and my own place must be not older than 45 years, but those have unfortunately degraded a bit in quality... Actually, I have a batch of cassettes which I got at a thrift store a few years back (at a very cheap price, of course), and I got some Beatles and other rock 'n roll tapes which must be from the mid 70's, but I'm not really sure...
Impressive. I've been trying to convince folks for years that my old tapes (70's) Maxell,TDK,are still good enough to enjoy. well done.
A song recorded in mono from 1965 still sounds better than anything produced today in 24bit/ 192khz on a fancy shmancy DAW !
A most interesting video. Much of the music reminds me of what I played when I worked at an "easy Listening" FM station in the late 60's. Also was very impressed at frequency response when recording the old tape on the modern machine. Great job VWestlife.
The recording sounds brilliant.
VWestlife
The quality of the sound on the 1964-65 Philips Norelco cassette is amazing!
Also shows that the media can hold up nearly perfectly if stored correctly.
watershed44 I think that 30 year guideline is worst case. Like say if you live in a desert and store them in wild swinging temperatures. I have seen cases of digital data being pulled from cassettes that are 40 years old with no issues. I have also seen tapes that became sticky due to bad storage, like excessively hot climates with no temperature control.
These same people say disks last about 7 years...but i myself have read disks over 30 years old which work just fine. In fact, i make use of writing on them as well, and they store the data just fine. Even magnetized media can be degaussed and used again. The storage density is so low on those that i would be amazed if they didn't work 100 years later and beyond.
I can hear all these cassettes, the wormth of the tapes just feels like home. Great video, 8Bit Guy intro music detected.
Defintely , the Tom Jones tape sounds better than the other tapes which (in my ears) sounds a bit muffled .
Techmoan style meets The 8-bit Guy music at VWestlife!
Great video! Tho thumbs up!
Collaborative video possible? Please do !!!!!
IMO, using any type of DSP could be considered cheating; as in, I'd want a 100%-analog signal path for evaluation.
Well, it is contemporary from the heyday of cassettes, so it isn't quite as if it would be if some more modern processing was applied :D
Remember that you're listening to digital audio that has been compressed by TH-cam down to 128 kbps, so you're not going to get a 100% analog signal path regardless of what equipment I was using!
OK I give you that; but I meant IRL.
VWestlife I would have to find it, but someone took the time to perform a detailed analysis of various TH-cam audio codecs and their effective frequency response and quality. This aligned with my own observations listening to YT via a spectrum analyzer. If the audio is encoded used OPUS, frequency response is up to 19Khz, roughly the same as a 192 - 256Kbps CBR MP3. VORBIS comes in second. Though I have seen that quality is not always consistent after the transcoding process, especially above 15.8Khz, sometimes the high end is lost, other times it’s left intact. I all depends on the source content.
even back in the 70s you'd most likely be using an EQ of some kind, even cheaper stereos had some filtering.
I didn’t snooze. Very interesting video.
The glue on the pads inside the tapes can wear out with time, but that's easily fixed. Although that technically could be considered a tape failure. 8-Tacks are tricker because the metal tape can fall off making it sometimes necessary to open up the tape to fix them. And storage makes a big difference. Badly stored tapes can loose their recordings.
i have some home recorded cassettes which still sound alright from the 70s and 80s...i wonder how long a cassette can actually last until its unplayable?
Honestly and ironically, they'll last longer the more you don't play them. Cassettes take a lot of physical abuse with use, especially with repeated FF/REW, exposure of the tape to the play head, ff/rew over the play head to find your next song, ect... Heck even playing the tape demagnetizes it a little. It may be the best format not to listen to anything on. LOL
In the 1960s the early ads for cassette equipment claimed that "tape never wears out". That's obviously an overstatement, but still, cassettes can be played hundreds of times with little or no audible degradation. There are examples on TH-cam of department store announcement and background music tapes that were played over and over again repeatedly for an entire month, and they're still listenable: th-cam.com/video/8t5TYw2bkOk/w-d-xo.html
Depends on storage and what kind of deck you got and how often or good you are cleaning it.
I'm going back to physical media and a lot of my tapes are 25+ years old. They play really well and there are no problems. The sound quality is fantastic. Some of my tapes are 40 years old and they still play great.
Cassettes came out the decade I was born. I didn’t play cassettes tapes until I got in my teen years in the 80’s. I remember riding in vehicles that had 8 track player in it. I’m glad to see videos of people bringing back all these old things like records, cassettes, vhs. Some are selling for big bucks on ebay. I found a bunch of these old things at a local Restore Habitat Humanity store.
Im so impressed by the quality of those 50 year old tapes. i have CD' s that sound crappy compare to these tapes. Great video.
My parents have a huge collection of old tapes I think 30-50 plus years. Its amazing how good they really sound when played on one of those machines!
played with pioneer digital NR sound good, how they sound without the Digital NR?
Not a fan of digital noise reduction. These things will always sacrifise some frequencies of the actual audio.
True. My dogs really miss those sweet 30kHz frequencies.
NR filters have a noticeable impact on audible frequencies. So while your "dogs" might be more pissed about them, humans can also notice...
True for the most part, I definitely prefer it not be used for most music, but for restoration projects involving speech or extremely buried audio where it's important to be able to understand it you can do some absolutely amazing things with modern iZotope software. RX is what Criterion uses to clean up film soundtracks and they never have that "watery" digital compression sound you'd associate with NR, clear as crystal
Us folks who lived through the 80s and 90s are laughing at this. You guys are seriously trying to get compact cassettes back in fashion? Go for it ... not gonna waste my time.
Haze Anderson Speak for yourself. Cassetes were a cool format. They're not gonna replace digital formata, but they have a right to stay around.
They are definitely biased toward the center of the spectrum but my LORD is that stereo separation incredible, even considering the TH-cam imposed compression! And it's much warmer than new, digital recordings.
Despite the stereo overdub, Hank was definitely my favorite part of the video.
That Norelco cassette blew me away! How sweet and mellow it sounds!
16:36 the 8 bit guy theme tune
Freaking awesome :D
I love cassettes so much. Definitely my favorite format. So easy to record on. Has that organic analog feel. If you're on tour super convenient to share with other bands. God I love casettes.
I think that style of cassette box that fully enclosed the tapes has kept them in good condition. I bet most of them were stored inside the house or in a good tape case. BTW My parents bought that Lawrence Welk LP when they bought their RCA Vista Console stereo in 1966. (It was on Dot Records and had a different cover). I instantly recognized "Copy Cat" when you played it. BTW that tape probably needs to have the slip sheets replaced.
Great Video!!!! I have over 150 of these snapcase / slipcase cassettes from 1967-1976 when they were made, most were bought by my me when they were first sold.. All play just fine as well. I also use the Pioneer deck you have with the Digital NR which really brings out the sound without the hiss. Love your electronic reviews!!!
Fantastic video,I own the same tape deck, it needs servicing though, for anyone who reads my comment looking into buying a cassette deck you also need an equalizer to have true hi-fidelity comparable to today's digital sound. I have cassettes that are 30 years old and still sound brand new and recording digital streams sounds as good as open reel machines, happy recordings to all:-)
In my opinion all of the cassettes in this video are true master pieces and a big part of cassette history and they sound amazing 30 or more years later people now a days show try this kind music it's got better vibes than today's music
That is impressive. I've been watching your vids for the past couple of years now, and it is amazing what you come up with for topics. Those tapes sound extraordinary for their age.
That's fantastic, I had no idea about the other styles or varieties of cassette cases. Thanks for sharing!
Funny how the local thrift store started selling tapes finally. It still is a shame they dont sell video tapes anymore.
I bought some eastern europe tapes to record over them and they sound VERY GOOD way better than the chinese junk!
Wow! Amazing sound from those...appreciate the demonstration
I find the leader tape comes off with age with some old tapes too, ended up having to splice it back together, definitely a delicate bond with age
Audio cassettes are fun to use, I went to a goodwill and tapes are selling out faster than vinyl records.
The Goodwills where I live are getting rid of records altogether. Not that they ever carried anything good anyway.
Half MT where are we going to find our Mormon choir records now XD
Half MT lots of the used vinyl records are in bad condition, they’re a waste of shelf space and not really selling.
Maybe we are all spreading the word a little too much 😄 time to scale back a little?
The Goodwills around here never have anything but SHIT, except for clothes.
That recording at the end blew me away!
We all love Anders Jensen. I have one of his 2017 tapes
That's the most SLAMMING bass sound I have EVER heard from the Lawrence Welk Band! I didn't need to hear Tom Jones sing "Proud Mary," though. I find myself for the first time ever, displaying double devil signs and screaming ""Blast that fuckin Welk MAN!!!""
The last garage sale I went to, there was a big box of cassette tapes over 60 (counted later) and I asked how much and the guy said free. Some pretty good 80-90's music.
8:49 my hair is curly and my eyes are blue
I collect cassettes
I play instrument
Im 14
Im an old soul
13:01 Reference point for song clip *with air horn* !
Oh yes, for those want a link to the song at the end...
soundcloud.com/eox-studios/morning-dew
And always remember: Never get rid of tapes or turn down people giving you tapes (especially if they are still in there plastic case). The parts alone are worth keeping.
That 'sticky' tape might just need a graphite slip sheet changed or even added (I don't know what the criteria was for including them in any particular brand or release).
The shell, screws, pressure pads, magnetic shields, guide rollers and slip sheets are worth their weight in gold for doing repairs. If a tape was not very popular that means the components are likely to be in good shape and just the thing to bring a favorite tape back from the dead. The slip sheet is probably the most important because the tightness can cause stretching or even break the tape, where with a new slip sheet it plays smooth as glass.
And yes, I'm laughing at people who say old cassettes don't play / sound good these days...I still have my Maxell XLIIs from back in the day and they sound great. One of my all time favorites was a test I did with the only Type IV tape I ever bought (they were WAY expensive) and that was a recording of David Bowie's Hunky Dory. People (including an audiophile friend) couldn't believe how good that tape sounded dubbed from the vinyl release (And I'm looking forward to playing it on the first day of fall this year...kind of a tradition of mine).
Thanks for the video and may everyone continue to enjoy music in all their favorite formats regardless of what others may say...it's their loss (-:
I never expect that an old tape can record this much good sound quality. Thanks for sharing!
Good video how do you not get flagged by TH-cam for copyright? I'm always nervous of playing any music on my channel ,, just in case thanks Shane uk 🇬🇧
Keep the music clips short, less than 28 seconds, and you'll be less likely to encounter any Content ID matches.
thanks buddy ,,,what a quick reply thanks shane uk
@ VWestlife About the track listings on some cassettes being different from their vinyl counterparts, I know another reason why some record companies had to scramble up the track listings on the cassette releases of some albums. It was because tape issues of those particular albums were issued on 8-track cartridges to begin with. As you know, 8-tracks each had four tape loops equal in length. The record companies knew that by joining the first two 8-track programs of the album on side A of the cassette and the other two programs on the other side, they would guarantee a cassette with two sides of equal length. Apparently, those record companies were concerned that people wouldn't know wher the rewind and fastforward buttons were on their tape decks. They were also concerned that if they put the tracks in the same running order as on the LP, people might face the problem of stopping the tape and flipping it over to find themselves in the middle of the opening track on the other side. At that point, people would have to rewind the tape and if you can't spare a few seconds just to rewind a cassette, then there's something wrong here.