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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ค. 2024
- In this video we tackle the much maligned 8-track format and look at it's history, sound quality and how to repair its infamous weak point. We also unbox some UK cartridges and find an ideal system for playback.
0:00 - Opening & intro
1:27 - 8-track invention & history
5:03 - Why it failed
5:48 - Cartridge & box designs
8:07 - Unboxing my 8-tracks
15:11 - Design flaws
16:30 - Replacing the foam pads inside a cartridge
21:47 - Buying a used 8-track player
22:13 - Sound quality issues of the format
23:06 - Hooking the player up to a mini system
23:36 - Sound quality analysis
25:25 - Conclusions
27:06 - Outro
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My earliest Beatles memory is listening to Magical Mystery Tour on 8-track in our family RV whilst driving from California to Georgia and back in 1970.
What a wonderful picture that paints.
That sounds as ridiculously cool as if somebody had made it up for a movie script.
They looped
I had Magical Mystery Tour on 8-track. Still have it.
Lucky
Back in 1973 For my 19th Birthday, My parents gave me a "New" Stereo, with AM-FM Receiver, 2 Speakers, a turntable, and a *8-Track recorder* !
All I had to do was buy blank 8 track cartridges. I would make my 8-Track Tapes. So cool! Made up my own Beatles Albums, Beatle Solo! I would glue a cool picture
on the tape cartridge! I would carry a couple of shoe-boxes filled with my 8-track tapes I made. for my car! I loved it! I had a good car stereo with great speakers.
Excellent sound, especially when the speakers are installed in the back dash board. The Trunk made them sound great!
For what ever reason -- of which I don't know the answer -- George Harrison probably had the most 8-Track releases of any Beetle (either group or solo). The 8-Track of his 1987 album "Cloud Nine" is considered to be one of the "Holy Grails" of collecting in this format as there were only a very small number produced. It is interesting to note that while "Cloud Nine" is on 8-Track, "Travelling Wilburys Vol. One" is not. Another extremely rare 8-Track of the same period is U2's "Rattle and Hum."
The US has a super rare 8-track for the 20 Greatest Hits album! They were released but recalled and destroyed pretty quickly. Something like 10 exist?
Of all the solo Beatles George was the last to release an album on 8 track ( 1988)
Yes! 8 tracks! I just got a few Beatles 8 tracks. " Blue Jay Way" sounds so eerie on 8 track
I have hundreds of tapes that I resplice, repad, and spin regularly, The early American “Flat Pak” tapes and other early Ampex were dubbed real time and have very close quality to reel. Some are real mind blowing with their sound quality, I have White Light/White Heat and We’re Only In It For The Money and they sound better than the vinyl to me. If your splices break I can show you some easy fixes!
Give this man an Oscar for editing! Loved the video
Don’t forget the 4-track cartridge, Madman Muntz and The Beatles on Muntz 4-track cartridges.
Nice! Just recently learned about 4-track tapes (by chance I got a copy of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on 4-track for free when I purchased Cheap Trick-In Color on 8-track) Learning the Beatles are on 4-track makes me want a player even more.
Yeah that was what I thought. He forgot to mention those, I have Mystery Tour on clear 4 Track Cartridge.
All of the Beatles US albums (except "The Beatles' Story") were issued on 4-track stereo-paks. Most were made by Muntz itself but the later ones (1969-70) were made not by Capitol, but by Ampex. This would be an excellent Parlogram installment!
Grew up Southern California had a pioneer 4 & 8 track in my 65 Chevy. The 4 track had hole in bottom for head to go up in it was different. I have collected many 8 tracks I have 8 track system in my garage when I do my wood working consistently listening.
As a European kid who grew up in the 80's and 90's, the first time I'd ever even heard of 8 tracks was in a Beavis & Butthead episode on MTV when they were ruining their teacher's 8 track collection (Three Dog Night et al), and I had no idea what the hell they were. They reminded me of those Super 8 film cartridges we had, or those old video games we used to play on the C64.
Saluton! Mi lernas paroli Esperanton.
I've had 8-tracks all my life. Around the turn of the century, I began collecting Quad tapes as well. The first time I moved, I probably took over 1,000 cartridges to the dump - but they were mostly garbage anyway. I kept all my good stuff. Today, I've over 600 Quadraphonic tapes and at least as many stereo tapes. And several large Tupperware bins full of tapes for trading, etc.
Have you digitized any of the quad tapes?
I had the UK Revolver on 8-Track in the late 70's (we got it in a US department store of all places)! I loved that tape, it was such a great way to discover the full UK album for the 1st time ever!
My favorite 8 track was the Hey Jude one from the US. It had the best stereo separation. I always thought that 8tracks sounded better than cassettes except for the interruption on some songs. Great video!
Yea! Twice the tape width, twice the tape speed... Consider that they were basically used for every radio station cart between 5 or so years ago all the way back to the mid sixties and they are literally the most widely heard format on the planet with about 10 to the power of 10 more plays than the next format down!
I agree on the best stereo separation!
@@h2ofield I am not trying to be contrary but best stereo separation has more to do with the actual mix than the format. S far as stereo separation the 8 track is about as good as the cassette, But given that the transport is actually partly in the tape shell the tape tracking has a lot to do with the construction of the tape shell itself the pressure pais the pressure pads and pinch roller and the quality of tape. The only thing that this really affects to any great degree is cross talk... Because of the 8 track and it's slightly sloppy cartridges pinch rollers and tape that was lubricated with graphite... They often were a little bit off centre in the way they tracked and the way the tape moved in the transport.... Where as the compact cassettes have a much more exact type of cassette shell and tracked in a more narrow groove... And the pinch roller and cap Stan were both self contained in the player... But I would say that given the actual tape with for each individual track was identical, 8 tracks have the edge by being twice the speed in inches per second. This would have been sufficient to keep 8 tracks in the lead and superior to cassettes at any point ever but because the format was largely abandoned later on cassettes improved in sound while the 8 tracks degraded... By the late late seventies you saw very few major releases with an 8 track version and even then the 8 tracks sounded worse and worse, the splices didn't last as long, the tape shells were cheap and inferior and the tape itself very inferior compared to the higher end cassette tapes being manufactured. It was basically a case of planned obsolescence. Were going to push one and pull the other and nobody in their right mind will be buying an 8 track in a year or 2. Same thing that happened with records by the way...
@@seansweeney3532
Radio carts are not 8-tracks though. They are similar, yet they're not the same. They usually have 3 tracks, 2 for Stereo sound, one for a cue signal. They usually play at 7.5 ips instead of the 3.75 of that of 8-tracks and 4-tracks.
8-tracks have the pinch roller built in. Radio carts and 4-track cartridges don't and have a hole there.
@@reinco sure, I guess I was just saying that the basic design of the continuous loop design and size/shell. Although, I had several 8 track quad tapes, and also mono 4 track tapes from the 60s... so they played pretty loose with the format even within the format.
I remember having “Let It Be” on 8-track. I remember George’s song “For You Blue” was divided into 2 parts between programs 3 and 4. When you hear George saying “Elroy James got nothing on this thing” the song quickly fades and the tape switches over to program 4 where the song continues.
My parents had an 8 track in our Chevy station wagon in the early 70s and we often played Beatles Revolver on the 8 track. Great album. Great memories.
I never knew Dolby was used on 8-tracks! Never saw a player with Dolby, never saw a tape encoded with Dolby. Thought I knew about all there was to know about 8-tracks but I learned something today!
Columbia Records used Dolby in their 8-Tracks. I have Billy Joel and Paul McCartney tapes that used Dolby, and a Pioneer/Centrex recorder that has a Dolby switch
Hello from across the pond!!! I loved your video about the Beatles on 8-track. The only Beatles albums I ever owned on 8-track were the "Red" and "Blue" collections I bought brand new back in the mid 1970's. Here in the US, the 8-track, at that time, was strictly chosen for its convenience, and not much more, as cassette tapes at that time were not only just not up to par on sound quality, but that most people (including myself) owned both an 8-track deck in their car stereo, as well as in their home stereo. The early Beatles LP's were absolutely perfect for the format, as the short songs were easy to arrange without having to split up the tracks between channels. Of course, after "Revolver," things get a little bit more difficult for 8-track mastering, as some of the songs not only became longer in length, but they had a cohesive order to them, from the LP's, being concept-type albums, such as "Sgt. Pepper" and "Abbey Road." I notice that the British EMI tapes (both cassette and 8-track) were a bit more progressive than their American counterparts, seeing that EMI was using Dolby B on the 8-tracks from 1973 (Columbia Records, and their family of subsidiaries, were the first label to incorporate that form of tape mastering on 8-tracks in the US the following year; it was first used on pre-recorded cassettes from Columbia in 1971, with "Chicago at Carnegie Hall" being one of the very first cassette releases to incorporate it). As far as mastering goes, I have always preferred the British releases versus the American releases. For example, I own 2 copies of Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" album. The 1st copy I bought on its release in October, 1973, on MCA Records. The first pressing on MCA was not a very good one: the midrange was emphasized too strongly and had an overall muddy sound to it. A few years later, I found, still sealed at a local record store, a first pressing of the same album on DJM Records. The DJM vinyl copy BLEW AWAY the MCA copy, and then some!! The DJM was crisp, clean, did not require any additional equalization to enjoy it, plus, it was made with cleaner and better vinyl. Thanks again for the great content and videos!! Cheers!!!
I love 8-track tapes! Whenever you get a new 8-track it is a good idea to check the condition of the aluminum sensing foil to avoid the tape coming unfurled in the player and possibly get damaged. (I learned that the hard way when I got my first 8-track tape.) You can get foil tape from Amazon.
Aloha,
I just started getting into 8-track tapes here in Honolulu Hawaii in October of 2023 after about 50 years of having one in my car back in the 1970's.
Today 8-track tapes are my go-to as for easy-access Playin. I still collect record albums but as far as convenience, 8-track tapes are for me.....
Mahalo Ed
Couple of things... if the label extends onto the back of the cartridge, poking holes in the label will be necessary to open the cart for servicing. Careful too, not to tear the label if it crosses the joint between front and back pieces of the cart itself. Second, I recommend cutting that foam piece where it gets smushed behind the pin. It will give a better, more even pressure behind the tape to make a more solid contact with the playback head.
You got lucky with this example. Usually the tape wants to escape and you have to be careful not to pinch it between the halves when reassembling it. I enjoyed this video. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for the memories, Andrew. In the 70s, my family’s Zenith stereo featured an 8 track player/recorder. My dad and I would buy blank 8 tracks and record some of our favorite LPs onto them for road trips. Two of my favorites for the road were Rubber Soul (US) and Sgt Peppers. My dad’s favorites involved fiddle music. On the road I would usually get my 15-20 minutes of the Beatles before my dad said, that was enough before switching it out for his favorite fiddler.😆I would also record many mix tapes for the road which I was able to listen to them longer when my dad wasn’t in the car.😆My dad did take to liking “Ob-la- Di, Ob-la-da” and referred to it as, “Ob-la-di, Oh-my-gosh”.
Great memories, Roger. Thanks for sharing them.
hehehe you have just described me Andrew, primarily I am stamp collector, a collector of the artefact first & foremost, & you can still have a lot of fun & that is what collecting is indeed all about lol !!! another great vid, cheers Henry
Your videos are always so informative and well produced and fun to watch. I wish I could afford to collect all these formats and variations, but in the meantime I’ll live vicariously through videos like yours!
I still have 8 tracks (Over 100 of them) and play them regularly on a well serviced player. Once the pads are replaced they should sound really good. The 8 tracks from the late 70's up till the 80's really started to excel in sound quality and may not have been so bad if they were easier to maintain
Just your intro was worth the wait! Back after listening to all of it!
Greetings from Liverpool, England… In 1984 I passed my driving test so one the first things I did after buying my first car was to find and fit a PYE 8 Track player and loved it. When I was a kid in 1976, a neighbour of mine bought a hifi system with an 8 track recorder. By chance, I bumped into my neighbour who, by my surprise, still had his old stereo along with some of old self recorded tracks and his own content which was acoustic guitar. After some persuasive hints, he agreed to lend me some cartridges and I played them the next day after some adjustment of the head on my player. The sound was really good, if a bit hissy, but these recordings are over 40 years old. He’d even recorded some of his original Beatles tracks mostly on 45’s but one album, Rubber Soul sounded superb with lots of presence and great midrange. Some of the cartridges needed new back plate sponges though so I took them back and he fitted new ones. As Andrew said, the format was flawed from the start but if one wasn’t bothered about rewinding, slightly noisy players or doing a bit of DIY now and again on the cartridges then the sound quality was very good indeed. 1976 was not only a great year for music, it was the year I got into hifi 👍😎
Wonderful memories. Thanks for sharing!
A little-known fact: a strange edit was on the version of Sgt. Pepper that I used to own way back when. In the Sgt. Pepper reprise, a verse was played twice at the end of the song. I've never been able to find this on any other format version of the album...
In 1979, my parents rented an RV (recreational vehicle) to drive from Arcadia Ohio to Tulsa Oklahoma to watch my brother compete in the junior olympics. It was my introduction to 8-track and the Beatles. The RV had 2 tapes, the only one I remember was 1963-1966. I fell in love (with the Beatles) instantly. I bought the vinyl version a few years later. The one thing I could never figure was in the song "And I Love Her." I seem to remember a different mix--the final verse being single-tracked vocal vs double-tracked on the vinyl. Doesn't matter. Hey, I love these videos! Thank you and please continue to entertain and inform us. I've lost my Capital pressing of Help, but not my enthusiasm for all things Beatle.
1:20 - The major design-flaw was the adding of a pinch-roller to EACH cartridge! Earlier versions (that were used by US radio stations right through the 1990s) employed their own pinch-roller that would pop up after the cartridge was inserted. This resulted in steady and correct tape-speed.
I first experienced the Yellow Submarine album on my brother's 8-track back in 1970! I still remember listening to the instrumental "Pepperland' over and over! It immediately followed 'All You Need Is Love' :)
It is the first time that I see this type of format, incredible! Thank you!
Really? How old are you then?
Thanks for this video Andrew! This was a very cool concept. I do have some experience with Beatles 8 track tapes. My uncle owned a copy of Sgt. Pepper which he left behind when he went to college. I borrowed it to play in our stereo system which did have an 8 track player. I remember the different song line up as well as bleed over from other tracks and having to sit through songs I might not have cared for in order to listen my favorites. I remember the sound wasn’t great but that could have been the 8 track player as this was older system....all in all a very interesting video. Thanks you!
My new favourite TH-cam Channel!
Good Stuff! The "alignment issue" especially in an automobile was cured by sliding a small book of matches under the cartridge. Ah, back in the DAY!😊
man this guy knows his stuff !! i always grab a beer before his video's and enjoy!! Thank you just another outstanding one cheers!
Glad you enjoyed it, Steve!
My mom had The Beatles Love Songd on 8 track! Wonderful memories!
*Songs
Been waiting for this... such a good video! Thank you so so soooo much for making such quality videos on interesting topics. Keep up the wonderful work!
Thanks for watching, Olav. Glad you enjoyed it.
Another great video. Thanks Andrew.
Glad you enjoyed it, Miguel.
I have a technique for changing the felt pads without having to snap those clips in the back and open the cartridge up, which often cracks the shell and rips and punctures the label if the earlier design.
I use one scissor blade to pull out a loop of tape about 5cm out, from the middle window, then use that blade to chip out the old felt pad strip, pulling it all out from under the left-hand window too. I then blow out the remaining felt and fluff chunks and scrape any difficult bits away with the end of the blade. I then cut a piece of draught excluder strip (the harder bright white kind, not the softer yellowy-white kind, because they themselves degrade or soften again after a couple of years) and I slot it in underneath the loop of tape, using the scissor blade to hold the tape out of the way while I'm doing it. I then do the same for the left-hand window, pulling the slack from the middle window. That just requires a slightly shorter piece of strip. After that I take up the slack using the pinch roller. And, hey presto... Fixed without breaking the cartridge open.
Great tip. Thanks for sharing it.
Really good coverage of the history of the format. I recently got into 8-track and have 100+ tapes already that I'm re-padding & re-splicing. I have noticed EMI tapes are generally better sounding, I think they had much better quality control with their duplication.
I agree that EMI’s were best. The ones made by PRT were awful.
Great Video as always.My introduction to 8 tracks was seeing a batch of brand new Hergest Ridge tapes by Mike Oldfield in a Sex Shop in Southend of all places. Also of note is the 8 track of Animals by Pink Floyd which had an otherwise cut guitar solo during Pigs on the Wing. Who else thought the theme from Shaft was playing during the Unboxing of the 13 Eight Tracks???
I was thinking "nice blaxploitation music" as I watched it. It set the 1970s mood.
You need more subscribers, this is a great channel.
I'm too young for 8tracks to have been a common thing in my life, but I found my mom's old Yesterday and Today tape.
It was unexpected to hear Day Tripper fade out and in during the solo part lol.
I had an EMI 8-track of Rubber Soul in '73. 2 songs were on twice not split in half but the same 2 songs on 2 different tracks!?! A tech friend that worked at a local cable TVstation had an 8 track recorder and we taped over those with Apple Scruffs & Let it Roll also made mix tapes on rare blank 90 min 8trk tape from LPs 45s and even Umatic videotape of CalJam with the audio simulcast on FM. Way before stereo TV Beta or VHS
These videos are very well edited !
Thank you very much!
Hi Andrew, wonderful as always! A very early TH-cam video of mine was actually a comparison of A Day in the Life where I played brief clips from vinyl, CD, cassette and 8-Track. The 8-Track performed surprisingly well. As I recall, I think I placed it second behind the vinyl. However, I no longer own any 8-Track cartridges and sold my deck a couple of years ago. I loved the format for its eccentricity but ultimately found that too many stars had to align for it to truly sound good.
One thing you didn't mention - and I apologize if you did and I missed it - was the horrendous wow and flutter inherent with a single reel format like this. And while the tape speed is twice that of the compact cassette, the fidelity was still problematic due to the poorer tape formulation of the 8-Track, something that was solved by the early 70s in the compact cassette.
You mentioned that 8-Tracks were around until the early 80s but in fact they lived on until around 1988, though by that point new releases were only available through mail order subscriptions liken CRC. Many of the 80s releases are quite rare because so few were manufactured due to the low demand by that stage.
Finally, one other issue with 8-Tracks tends to be the pinch roller. Your Please Please Me looked pretty good and is perhaps made of plastic? However, a lot of cartridges used rubber rollers and many have since turned into sludge. It's a pretty easy replacement job, though.
Hi Matt, The pinch roller on the UK tapes are rubber and still in good shape. The roller in the U.S. George Harrison cart, which I show in the close up of the damaged foam pad, was plastic any maybe why U.S. tapes had more issues.
Two things: 8 tracks had a tendency to split up longer songs, so you might find the first half on track 2, then the second half on track 3, so there would be a pause when the tape switched tracks, the standard cassette never had this, so you got the uninterrupted song. Also, 8 track set up its cassettes so a measured amount of music would appear on each track, and to achieve this, they sometimes would drop a song from the lineup that you would have found on the vinyl or the cassette, or fade out sooner. If you could overlook these faults, it was a decent format for playing in the car, or on your house stereo when you had a group of people together. For a person who wanted every single song on their 8 track that they had on the vinyl, not so much.
This is a great show and you made it so interesting considering I was not going to watch but glad I did, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Just was'nt familiar with this format at all before watching your illuminating video Andrew despite being aware of them in the 70's.So interesting about the packaging as well and enjoyed the DIY with the foam strip too! Cheers Ian
Loved this video! 8 Tracks are one of my favorite formats, so much so that I actually put an 8 Track player in my car. I love collecting them too, and living in the states I often find cheap lots of them at flea markets and antique stores and such. I have some pretty rare ones as well, London Calling by the Clash, Sunflower by the Beach Boys, The Pleasure Principle by Gary Numan, and I just today finally got my holy grail 8 Track, the extremely difficult to find Drums and Wires by XTC. It's a truly unique format with a lot of quirks but a lot of truly great attributes as well; like you said, "what format is really perfect anyway?" Plus you can't beat that vintage analog sound in my opinion. Can't wait to see what else you've got in your collection
Thanks for that Andrew. I only have one 8 track. (Sgt pepper) watching you change that foam head I thought I was watching blue Peter. Brilliant vid as usual.
True, it was a kind of sticky back plastic moment.
I would say it was very well prepared earlier, LOL.
I was having a Techmoan flashback.
Update...Just picked up a With the Beatles and a Dark Horse 8 Tracks. I blame you Andrew for getting me into these! 🙂
The foam pads can be made quite cheaply using draft excluder which is available at DIY stores for a couple of quid for 10 metres.
This is less convenient but considerably cheaper !
Having the pinch roller as part of the cartridge is quite ingenious because it greatly simplifies the player mechanism. Just push the tape against a fixed capstan inside the player, nothing else to drive the tape, no need to access the reel itself. Then again the pinch rollers were subject to manufacturing quality from cartridge to cartridge and aging.
Ideally, old cartridges should also have their pinch rollers changed as well as the foams to reduce wow/flutter and the risk of tape jamming.
1960's technology could not afford multi-head system so we were stuck with the loud clicking system. I had a player in early 1970's (can't remember the brand (: that had a small knob at the front panel to adjust the head tracking. I just had to readjust it every few months as the track mechanism slowly ages.
Amazing Andrew!
Petrol shortages and power cuts were around 71 to 73. By 1977 they had settled down.
I remember seeing 8 Track Cartridges in the Record Shops in 77, but I never saw anyone's home or never anyone who had a Player.
The Pink Floyd 8 Track Cartridge is quite interesting. The tracks Pigs Part 1 and Pigs Part 2 that bookend the album on the other formats, were put together with a Snowy White guitar solo in the middle. This version is unique to the 8 Track Cartridge.
Also the cart. of "Dark side of the moon," reportedly has an extra verse to one of the songs (according to "8 track mind" a website from a long time ago), I would like to find out if this is true but my UK cartridge had the tape split when I bought it.
@@OldSonyMan I doubt it's true. I have read a lot about Pink Floyd and especially about "The Dark Side of the Moon" and I have not heard of this extra verse. It may be true though, who knows. I notice you missed "The" off the title of the album. The correct title includes rhis word giving "The Dark Side of the Moon". Many people get the title wrong.
I remember my friend had a quad system...it sounded great and the 8track quad tapes were very discreet...the separation was phenomenal!
The first time I even heard of 8-Track was when I first watched A Clockwork Orange. The main character, Alex, pops in "Ludwig's Number 9" in his stereo,
and I can remember being fascinated with this huge cartridge thing I'd never seen before. It looked pretty neat, and of course, the music sounded very good
as well, which created the illusion that it was the 8-Track that produced that kind of quality, rather than the audio source and mix used for the film.
It was only later, when watching TH-cam videos, that I was made aware of the format's negative reputation.
But I still like the look of the things, and I wouldn't mind a digital version of 8-Tracks. Not USB sticks, but actual clunky cartridges!
Love those UK EMI 8 tracks and the various colors they came in. I'm in the USA but I collect Pink Floyd 8 tracks from around the world and the EMI UK tapes are my favorite.
I agree, Steve. The EMI ones are best!
I love collecting music from many different formats, the A-Trak’s were pretty good, except for the thing I didn’t really like was when one song and then the last track it would be in the middle of the first track of the first sign on the left.
I remember I had a couple of a track tapes one was Buddy Holly and the other one was the beach boys endless summer album which I bought on vinyl for $10 at a place in Salem called Ranch records. I’ve never heard any Beatles on a track before I might have to get some of those.
I still love listening to the Beatles on vinyl and on CD.
I’m Curious when your next video will be coming? Can’t wait!👍👍
Next weekend.
Love it keep it up Andrew fab.
Great show! I never had that much luck with the 8-track tapes. Plus there were edits (cut outs and fade outs) of tunes especially on the White Lp because of re-tracking and length of tape (is my guess). That was infuriating. I think that would be fun to chat about as well.
Thanks for showing how to repair the 8track cassette and as always...thanks for your candor and expertise!
Thanks pointing this out! The records were re-sequenced due to the 8-tracks being about 10 minutes per band and with the songs divided into 4 sections. Plus, as a band ended, if the song wasn't over it would fade down; then there would be a loud "click" as it changed to the next band, and then the song would fade back up where it had left off!
This took a lot of work by the manufacturer to accommodate the timing issue yet made for a pretty lousy listening experience as far as the running order. The sound was pretty great as I recall, though.
The other version of the albums are the reel-to-reel versions which are available online recorded on cd. Excellent sound and separation!
Love your videos! Have a few 8 tracks of the Beatles myself.
very informative Andrew. Before cassettes improved drastically as you say radio was also king in the UK for the car. I do remember a couple of my dads friends having players in their cars but an overriding memory is complaining of the tapes stretching and raveling-as you mentioned here lol
Love you are covering all the formats. so little on these lesser known and collected formats online.
Please do a video on books about Beatles pressings and collectibles. I have some but I'm always curious about more of them, what is worth getting and not. I've managed to get certain countries books on pressings, but its something I'm always curious about. There is a lot of info hidden in these often rare books. Also best sites you recommend, I can think of the best ones for where I live, but other countries I have no idea, often this stuff doesn't jump out immediately in the search engine and its forum links that give addresses. Seems like a topic that wouldn't be too hard to knock out and useful for the viewers. Thanks.
Good suggestion.
Interesting video. I’ve never owned 8 tracks either. Good to see another format.
My first Beatles album was the 8-track of the U.S. Rubber Soul, and I listened to it numerous times. Not all my 8-tracks had such durability, unfortunately.
Really interesting stuff! I love learning about past music technology. I've got vinyls and completely agree with that last statement about using them. I take care of them but would never just store them away never to be used again.
Hi Andrew, this took me back to a childhood/ teenage memory of my next door neighbour and his domestic 8-Track recorder. I had seen them in cars but not in a home. He and I would record LP's off each other (I had cassettes as well as Open Reel...still do actually). I ended up with about 10 Jethro Tull albums on tape. The format was not that popular domestically and gave way to cassettes here too. I enjoyed this video thanks. Especially when you repaired the tape cartridge. I had never seen the inner workings of an 8-track cartridge so that was interesting. Cheers mate 😊👍😎
Cheers Pete, glad you enjoyed it!
Pioneer Super Tuner under dash unit with 8-track! It was awesome. I routinely taped my albums onto blank tape to listen to them in the car as well as make mixed tapes. *-Tracks were big with truckers in the USA. Cassettes at the time had lousy sound, but that changed quickly!
Grew up on 8 track as a matter of face I still own several hundred and still play them quite often 8 tracks has some of the best bass response and I still enjoy them
Great video as always! Thanks very much.
Glad you enjoyed it, Steve.
Bought an 8 track machine for $10 Australian in an op shop in Geelong Victoria many years ago. Sat in a cupboard for about 15 years. Has been great fun restoring it. Was given a large collection of tapes which has been also great fun restoring, too. Will definitely look for some Beatles tapes.
As always very interesting
Great video - Brings back memories from the mid 70's when I was about 7 years old. My parents had an 8-Track in our car - I'm Swedish - so it was a Volvo 145.
They didn't have many cassettes to choose from. Not the format of choice in Sweden.
But we had Abbey Road. My choice for all long drives :) played it a lot.
That's a wonderful memory, Thomas. Thanks for sharing.
In the late 1970's, I found UK 8 tracks of "The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl" in the cutout bin of the Treasury department store in Hialeah, Florida, where I grew up. They were half the price of the US version, and were packaged much more attractively. They sounded great, too! I never knew there were so many other UK 8 tracks until watching this episode.
I have just bought a Sharp 8 Track Receiver. It outputs about 8 Watts RMS which is only adequate, one would think, but in fact is bright with quite punchy Bass. It is very 70s, sliver edging on black Plastic in a wooden shell. It looks very nice indeed. The playback I would describe as ice clear. A really stimulating sound much better than I expected.
Even better, the 50 plus 8 tracks consisted of Moody Blues, 10CC, Yes , Strawbs, Status Quo, Cockney Rebel, er, Gary Glitter (sorry), All the Stones LPs , Beatles, Stever Miller, loads of Mowtown, Barry White, Frampton, .... need I go on? Not one country or middle of the road tape.
All play very well.
Price paid? 40 Notes. Bargain. And a veritable treasure trove of Prog Rock. Very happy.
Subbed. Enjoy your content very much. Thank you.
Andrew, As you may be aware, the 8-Track held on in the USA well into the late 80s. Among the last people to continue to make them were the Columbia record club, or Columbia House, as it was known at the time. They held on well into the 80s. As such, there exists a US Columbia House version of George's Cloud Nine, which may be one of the pricier 8-Track tapes out there.
Now you need to do video on the even older 4-Track tape cartridge. Capitol issued every Beatles album, through Abbey Road on 4-Track. I had some cartridges I sold years ago, and somewhere in my junk piles, I still have a player.
I just recently bought an 8-track player and have been adding tapes to my collection. I am very pleased with the sound quality plus to have such a negative reputation these tapes are in great shape for 40 to 50 years old. Replacing the pads is simple enough. Plus there are no pops and crackles like old vinyl.
just noticed that the photo used on the sgt pepper 8 track was the alternate shot where they weren't yet ready to take the photo when they are fixing the angle of the original.
Enjoyed this video. Thank you.
Thanks for watching, Glenn.
I had an 8-track in my car because I was able to record and make my own tapes. It was freedom from radio - I could listen to exactly what I wanted. But 8-tracks had two major flaws: the short track length, and (even worse) the graphite tape backing that would wear off the tapes. Over time, the tape would become harder and harder to pull through the cartridge. And the tape heads were prone to a buildup of crud that required head cleaning. And the metal tab holding the tape together and signaling the track change would fall off. Cassettes were so much better, simpler, and smaller.
Blast from the past. My first car had an 8-track player, and I owned a whopping total of three 8-track tapes -- Abbey Road, Nazareth's Hair of the Dog, and a compilation of Scott Joplin piano rags. The soundtrack of my summer between high school and college.
It's unthinkable today, but there were many instances of songs being faded out - MID SONG - before the track change and then being faded back in. Track listings had to be rearranged just to fit music on each track, but sometimes it just couldn't be done. Portability was the big attraction for 8-track cartridges but not exactly ease of use. Most players did not offer fast forward or reverse - just the clunky track change and you wouldn't know where you were landing on the next track. But to play your own music in the car was revolutionary, so they sold well. And I forgot about the bleeding from other tracks...LOL.
I think the only reason 8-tracks were sold a little longer in the USA is that they entered the market earlier and thus there was a large installed base of players, many of them built into cars and all-in-one stereos. By the time I could afford a decent tape deck, in 1975, 8-tracks were already a little passe, though I owned the one that had been original equipment in my 1973 Coup Deville and borrowed a tape (Rolling Stones's More Hot Rocks) from my bosses collection. I still remember skipping around the 4 programs to hear the songs I liked as they came up. One of the first things one noticed about these tapes was that unlike records, reels and even cassettes, you didn't see anything moving, making them a little closer to what we're used to with digital music toady. One major flaw with these things was the fact that as the tape was pulled out from the center of the reel, the outer layers were constantly sliding against the inner ones, wearing the tape out faster. I don't know why Lear didn't go for RCA's original 1/4" cassettes (very much like the Phillips system, but bigger) from 1959, for which RCA made auto-reverse players; they would have been ideal for cars and planes and just as convenient.
PS: One of the best sounding 8-track players I've ever heard was made by Collaro of the UK, for Magnavox which installed Callaro record changers and tape decks in the consoles (stereograms) that were almost ubiquitous in early 1970s U.S. households. It sounded much better than the ones from the far east.
A truly wonderful video. Being a adolescent in the 70's...I was born in late 1969 and am 51 now...and American...the 8-track was everywhere. I inherited an all in one stereo system...radio, turntable, and recordable 8-track player, and I had tons of 8-tracks, mostly Beach Boys and, of course, Beatles and solo. I also bought blank 8-tracks, and would record mostly things from the radio. I still have a majority of them, and I still kinda have a player. I hope we get a look soon at those U.S. 8-tracks...those were unique...with an additional song to fill out the cartridge. Again, great profile...thanks.
I'm 10
8 Tracks can actually sound pretty damn good. If you have a decent player and have a decent release. just like vinyl some pressings can sound horrible and some can sound amazing. Really 8 track always has a boost in the low end. It has its own sound just like all analogue formats. 8 track just requires a lot of tape maintenance but so does vinyl! all part of the hobby. 8 Tracks with dolby even if you're not playing them on a dolby player usually sound really good.
The black colored Apple and Capitol 8-tracks were my favorites and those are now hard to get and so are the Playtapes Sears created.
Great video! I got quite a bit of Beatles 8-tracks as well and love em. I'm not sure if you did this because it wasn't in the video, nor was it mentioned, but when you change out the pad, you should *always* change out the foil splice tape... even if it looks good. I've had some that looked great but just popped off with a whisper. I also get my foam pads from a different seller; they're already on a backing plate, and they have a cut in the centre, so you don't have to jam it behind that post.
In the US, the White, Red & Blue Albums were on 2 tapes for each album
Opening up the tape container and the bow chicka wow wow starts.. hahah
The Reel To Reel also had the mixing of sequence. Especially the twofer packages.
Very informative, thank you for uploading! I knew next to nothing about 8 track cartridges and have only ever seen a handful for sale. They look like a LOT of faff to restore and get working. Gonna stick to LPs and CDs ;)
Think someone else mentioned on here though the guitar solo on Pink Floyd's Animals that bridges the two parts of Pigs on the Wing, which is unique to the 8 track release. It's floating around online and is worth a listen, because it loops the album back round to the beginning to make it a continuous album like Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. Which is nice.
I remember I had The Beatles 'white album' 8trk carts. My father used to hijack me during the summer (schools out) to travel with him while he did service calls. He drove a big Cadillac with a 4 front/rear sp system that sounded quite good...considering it was 8 trk. The 2 carts came in a black, not white, single slip case with Beatles embossed onto it. I also had The Monkees 'Headquarters', Cream 'Goodbye Cream' and Janis Joplin and Big Brother 'Cheap Thrills'. I played them to death. If not for those carts keeping my mind occupied, I would have surely slit my wrists.
Hi Andrew! I've just been watching an old Oddity Archive video (Episode 132) in which Ben explores the short-lived Playtape format, a portable tape player from 1966 which played two and four track tapes. Among the titles shown is Playtape No 0583, a Beatles four track Yesterday and Today EP (approx 3.06 mins in). Have you ever seen any seen any these out in the wild & are they worth anything? Maybe a candidate for a future video.
How about the 8-track tape's commercial predecessor, the Muntz Stereo-Pak 4-track cartridge? Looking through adverts in old issues of Billboard magazine, particularly under the market heading "CARtridges", it does appear that in the US Capitol licenced several Beatles albums for the Muntz 4-track format. I have a needing-repair Muntz home audio 4-track player and about 25 4-tracks, though none from The Beatles. When I last used my Muntz player a decade ago, those 4-track tapes sounded fairly decent. The Muntz Stereo-Pak mechanism is simpler than Lear Jet's Stereo-8 system, including the fact that there are only four audio tracks, two programs instead of four programs.
Still have 15 8-tracks, including 6 Beatles and 1 George Harrison. The Beatles Greatest has a picture of a 1960's go-go girl on it with the word ROCK!. Revolver is yellow, with a drawing in red of a girls face looking up. It also has the song Birthday on it. Great video!!
Those are obviously bootleg tapes. Easily available in convenient stores in the U.S. in the 70s.
A short summary:
The "Tombstone" (I came up with that phrase) design started in 7008 by DP, and lasted until 7201 when the gold 'Biggest Sound Around' design appeared but on the top label which remained in colour and the separate rear label remained. It was 7209 when the hard cases and C-cards in the same gold style appeared. 7308 was when the all-gold style changed to gold-top, 7402 is when the hard cases changed to floppy, brittle ones, 7403-4 was when there were no cases just shrinkwrapping, and 7405 when the laminated card cases with the wraparound printing were launched. All the packaging designs continued to use the same layout design - e.g. there were laminated wraparound cases printed with all-gold designs of titles that came out on 8-track when that design was current.
Shell colours changed every few months depending on stock. I haven't noted them all down, but for instance 7008-7102 were mostly blue, 7103-07 mostly green, 7108 to 7201 used crimson shells (I have a crimson, Tombstone version and a blue, gold colour label copy of Wings Wild Life, 8X-PCS7142, plus the latter style which I believe was used exclusively for 8X-PCS7143, "Mrs. Mills Music Hall Party" (yes, another one)), Feb 72 to later 72 used dark blue, then they went to green for a while, then during most of 1973 they used up their stocks of sky blue "Executive" shells on all tapes they made, then after another period of using dark blue in late 73/early 74, went to black, until later in 74 onwards when white shells seem to have been exclusively used.
Edit: The all-gold inlay cards with no date code are simply ones that used the artwork masters from prior batches - i.e. Pepper was first released on 8-track before date codes were used, and the back of the gold inlay is just a copy of the original back label. Similarly gold inlays showing 7009 are simply copying the original 7009 back label but would have been first issued in the gold style in 7209 but not stated as such.
All great information, Mark. Thanks for posting!
Even when I was a kid I couldn't figure out why my mom's 8 tracks would cut off in the middle of songs and I always remember the loud "CLICKS" when it changed over from one track to the other
I have about 30 8'tracks and the special carrying cases. Lots of artists, but best ones are " In Through The Out Door" by Zep and a Rick Wakeman one. Also have unopened blank 8-tracks and new headcleaner. My home 8- track unit is part of an " all in one" system which needs a service/ restoration. Must get myself an 8-track recorder soon.
You must get a player, Nick - they're so much fun. Watch out for another 8-track video next week!
@@Parlogram - many thanks for the response. I forgot to also mention i have 'The Slider' by T Rex on 8-track as well. My 8- track player still works well, but is part of a huge music centre with turntable, cassette, 8- track,tuner, guitar input ( bizzare but true), quad facility and very large speakers. Lovely switchgear too. Trouble is, it is very large/ heavy and parts are playing up, so is wrapped up in storage at present pending overhaul. *As you say, i must get a separate 8-track unit for my audio system. My wife will probably groan though ( more stuff in the house). Must subscribe methinks.
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@@nickbitten6037 Nice! I'm actually going one stage further and putting one in my car. Stay tuned to see that!
@@Parlogram Nice one.
I did not have an 8 track . For my 1st experience pre teenager, I had a Play Tape player. The tapes were smaller than an 8 track and had only had 2 tracks with two songs on each. On The Beatle ones, they would have a 1967 photo of the 4 individuals all with mustaches with George having additional hair growing in the chin area. The White Album for Play Tape used black and white still photos instead of the color photos and may have had 5 individual tapes to cover most of the album. I do not recall if I had any other Beatles post White Album Play Tape nor any other tapes in my collection. Sears was the store where tapes and the machine were sold where I live in MA. Then I went to cassette cartridge pre Dolby awful Capital/Apple recordings. Won a copy of a Parlaphone Rubber Soul CD. Once hearing that, said no thank you to CD's until The 2004? version of The Capitol Albums Vol. 1 and 2. Thought there would be a Vol 3. Instead purchased the revised versions on the rest of their albums along with Let It Be Naked. Now if any new recordings appear, I go to the steaming services.
The very 1st Beatle tapes i heard were 8 tracks from the red and blue albums in 1982. My older sisters boyfriend at the time use to loan them to me. I had to listen to them in my sisters car because everybody(including my family) hated the Beatles. I grew up in the inner city(the hood)and if you didnt listen to rap, soul, blues, or R&B, you were an oddball and out of touch. I used to get teased for listening to the Beatles so i had to listen to them when nobody was around or late at night.
I know this is an older video, but I recently picked up an 8 track player and bunch of tapes (including some Beatles and solo) for a good price. I’ve never had an 8 track player before, but was curious. The American Revolver has Tomorrow Never Knows split across two programs, while I Am The Walrus suffers the same fate on Magical Mystery Tour. I don’t mind, this is a novelty after all, and I can’t imagine anyone in the world claiming 8 track as their preferred format.
For anyone thinking about getting an 8 track, you need to know what you’re letting yourself in for. It’s almost a guarantee that any tapes you get will need some sort of repair, either the pad or a splice, and that’s if they don’t reach you tangled or jammed. I’ve also learnt that when opening the cartridge, if the reel comes off or too much tape comes out, say goodbye to your 8 track as they are a nightmare to put right again. So I have a bunch of tapes which are fun, but I won’t be adding to that collection or seeking out more tapes - maybe if an happen to see a Beatles 8 track in passing at a yard sale I might pick it up, but other than that.......