I have been legally blind since 1992. (I was 3 at the time). I have been using this audio book service pretty much my whole life. It's awesome to see one of my favorite TH-camrs doing a video on obscure tech that has been such a huge part of my life. Thanks! Best of luck with your vision loss too. I know it's tough.
@@MenaceGallagher I have a large monitor on an adjustable arm so that I can get it really close. I won't say it's comfortable, but I can make out most of what's going on. I do have software called ZoomText that can magnify the screen, but I find it to be EXTREMELY annoying because I can only see a small portion of the screen at any given time when its zoomed in. It's ok for reading documents, but it''s really frustrating to use on websites or spreadsheets.
Sooo how do you see to type your message . Just curious is all. I'm not bashing you by any means. So I'm going to apologise in advance. I apologise to you
Casey Urie There’s a guy on TH-cam called Tommy who talks a lot about his experiences of being blind. Just search The Tommy Edison experience. He zanswers loads of people’s questions about his disability.
When you have all your senses working (hearing, sight, etc) it's easy to forget that others young and old may find it a huge struggle to do simple things like read a book. My great aunt was legally blind towards the end of her life, and now I appreciate the organisations who make these devices. I am especially surprised by the quality of them. It may look like an old piece of tech junk, but after watching this I gained a new appreciation for the folks who make devices and services for the disabled. So, thanks.
Yeah. I think some brain disorders also hinder the ability to read books. Edit: Due partially to both that and my upbringing, I had trouble reading fiction books back when I was a kid, which was made worse when I had to go to normal school, where I had to read some kind of book during morning assembly (I live in Singapore, where that's perfectly normal in schools). Back then, I didn't know much when it came to diversity in book formats, but thanks to my own book research project where the original premise was to compare what got lost from a print illustrated novel to an EPUB file, I eventually discovered that graphic novels existed. I now realise that I seem to have trouble reading regular novels and long news articles, but seem to do better when reading comics, including webcomics, comic books (excluding mainstream), and graphic novels, and somewhat better when reading illustrated novels. I want to try reading print books, but the fact that I'm stuck living in a tiny apartment (that was spacious back when I first moved in), means I have to settle with e-books, and I use one of those Android based e-readers in order to read from multiple services. It honestly feels weird reading colour comics like the "Wolfie Monster" series on one of those "digital paper" devices like my Likebook Mimas, as a result, but it's a little tolerable when I think of it like watching a show in colour on a black and white CRT screen.
I lost 90% ofmy hearing at 28. After the initial depression you learn to adapt. When you basically loose a sense another one gets better. Mine was smell... Not my first choice but you take what you get.
@Chris Russell I blast audiobooks into my head on amplified headphones to drown out the tinnitus at home at work I use my cochlear processor. At first I felt the same as you. Then I learned to mentally frame it as I'm listening to a movie that's very descriptive. Reading is way faster and more efficient. I get it. I have cochlear and can pump audio in without anyone knowing. My coworkers wave at me when they need my attention. Lemons to lemonade. If anyone is interested this is what I have. www.cochlear.com/us/en/home/products-and-accessories/baha-system
I absolutely love learning about various accessibility techniques. There are so many great features included in this device that the designers ought to be congratulated! I hadn't even realized what was going on with the hole in the cassette door, but once the instructional tape revealed its purpose, it's so genius! So simple, and yet perfectly effective.
I realize the host of TC is a real person who exists outside of TC. However, I cannot help but imagining him sitting in his studio filming, when the Techmoan notification arrives. The slight squeal of glee and all filming pauses. A giggle and the posting of this thread. Then straight back into filming while I await the TC notification.
I love your channel too. I would love to see all the giants in TH-cam Technosphere all together. A good mid including @8bitguy and others like @vwestlife , the TH-camr who promotes cassettes and all those guys who are obsessed with recording vinyl rips on $15,000 turntables just getting together and geeking out and letting us all come along for the ride.
I have a Relative who is blind from birth he told me a joke “The blind are people too and have feelings you shouldn’t say bad things about them, you should write them.” He hangs out in a meeting room at the local library With with a club for the seeing impaired And a librarian reads aloud the local newspaper and books and magazines When I last talked to him he offered to drive me home
I went to a technical school and one of my classmates was legally blind since birth. He could make out some things, but to try to read print he had glasses with extended lenses, and a reading machine that worked sort of like a cross between an overhead projector and a microfilm reader. He could ride a bike, and told me how he got pulled over for speeding on it once! He also demonstrated once how he could use his hearing; walking down a quiet street one day, he snapped his fingers several times, and was able to tell me how many windows there were on the second floor of a house across the street, and how large those windows were. A truly nice and remarkable guy!
I'm sorry to hear about your condition, Techmoan. I couldn't pay as much attention to the video thinking about you saying you're lost some sight. I'm kinda sad right now.
Thanks Mat. The system you demonstrated is fascinating. I have a blind friend who uses USB now. She remembered the old slow 12 inch records, then compact cassettes. I played your video (on my laptop) and I audio described it and she asked me to say thanks to you. Her computer does not have a monitor, she has a screen reader instead that can read stuff at a very fast speed. Her motto is "Blind not daft". Audio books are great she got me into them, great for long journeys. I wish your sight remains steady. Best wishes.
Great video as always. I've been completely blind since birth, I started following your channel a few years ago and really enjoy the content you put out. You do a really good job of describing what you're doing and how the thing you're looking at looks and functions like, even down to where all the controls are. Whether intentionally or not it makes your videos really easy to follow without vision. It's quality content from people like yourself that make the internet a more interesting and accessible place! I wish you all the best with your health, I can only imagine how it must be more frustrating to lose your sight later in life. Keep up the good work!
I lost my right eyed vision when I was 15 -- this week actually marked crossing over to having been blind longer than not. It certainly makes you grateful for the vision you have and cognisant of the possibility of being left without it. It's great that these services still exist in any form and great to see you take a look at them. Thanks for the years of wonderful content!
I am legally blind and my late father was also legally blind. I have years of experience using and working with various technology devices for the blind. I own a large collection of audio technology for blind people, much of which I've used myself through the years, and some of which I have just because I collect and enjoy audio equipment as well. I have a few points for you: 1. The HandiCassette II actually came out in the late 1990s, I used one in high school in 1999. There was also a previous mode (HandiCassette) that was manufactured by GE and bore a GE logo. I have working examples of both machines. The original HandiCassette was actually smaller than the II, and the main functional difference was it lacked the stereo output capability. APH also manufactured (and I have) a tabletop version of the 4-track recorder that resembles one of the "classroom" tape recorders. 2. The machine that many blind users would have used to listen to the 4-track format was manufactured by Telex and is known as the C-1. It is easily recognized by its striking yellow color. C-1 machines were (and I believe still are) available to blind individuals in the US at no charge. The C-1 cannot record at all. The main reason anyone would purchase a 4-track unit was either for record functionality and/or for portability, since the tabletop C-1 is a large and heavy unit. (Yep, I have a working C-1.) 3. Many other third-party devices were modified by various companies to be compatible with the 4-track format. I own an Aiwa walkman, a Sony dictation-style handheld recorder, and a Panasonic mini-boombox style recorder that are all capable of playing the 4-track format as well as standard stereo 2-track cassettes at either speed. 4. The modern incantation of books for the blind provided at no charge involves a "Cartridge" format. The cartridge is actually just a USB flash drive in a custom shaped casing, and an accompanying tabletop player (again, available at no charge) can be used to listen. Books are stored in the open DAISY format (EPUB and DAISY are very closely related); an encryption scheme is used to prevent "unauthorized" people from listening to the materials. Similar to the cassette formats, many third parties make compatible portable book players that can read the same DAISY format files from an SD card. Blind and other print disabled individuals in the US can download these special format books and magazines for free via the Internet. 5. You mentioned that the Choice Magazine Listening recordings predated the cassette - this is because, originally, magazines and books for the blind shipped on both reel-to-reel as well as record. Reel-to-reel is pretty straightforward - they did the same thing that was done with cassette using a stereo reel-to-reel deck to achieve four tracks, and ran the tape at 1 7/8 IPS. Reel to reel was in some ways even more efficient, as a typical 1800 foot 90 minute reel could hold 12 hours of audio. (Yep, I do have a working 4-track reel-to-reel recorder that can play these tapes, but I don't have any actual examples of officially recorded reels, but I do have a few I've made on my own for fun.) Records are even more fascinating to me. The records were originally simple vinyl records recorded at 16rpm, but this obviously was not economical for a "Throwaway" application such as magazines. To solve this, a flexi-disc format was used running at the amazing speed of 8 RPM. A typical flexi-disc could hold about an hour per side and was played on a record player that was also available at no charge to blind people. The record player had the unique feature of having a "reversible" needle - once the stylus went bad, you would simply flip a lever and the other side of the stylus would be usable as another stylus. (It was at that point that you would contact the library for the blind to request a replacement stylus be mailed to you.) I do have a working record player, and I am pretty sure I still have some of the flexi-discs but I haven't been able to find them... I've got a ton more trivia and facts about audio technology for the blind that I'd love to share. @Techmoan are you interested? :-)
I was born in 2003 and my family was still mostly using older media types, and I remember listening to books on cassettes in kindergarten on those big clunky grey headphones. It’s crazy how much I remember about cassettes/VHS and other people my age don’t really remember.
Thanks for being open about your vision problems and raising awareness of this interesting machine and format. One of these days I should record my grandfather's war memoirs as an audiobook.
Hi Mat! Vaporwave is totally still a thing, and many of us adore your videos! In fact, the vaporwave scene is putting out new cassettes, Minidiscs, vinyl, and are even hosting concerts! Thanks for indulging in our shared love of the retro and obscure.
Another brilliant piece of work, Matt. Thank you. I'm partially sighted, an audio engineer and a bit of a technical nerd so this stuff interests me too. That is a very useful piece of kit. The pitch adjustment essentially adjusts the formant. This refers to clusters of frequencies spread out over the human vocal range and created by the vocal cords. They give character to the human voice. When you speed up or slow down the voice it sounds odd unless you adjust the quality of the formant to match the speed. This is something usually only available on Studio software for pitch changing voices. Thanks for your continued work, for the interest and always the humour.
It has nothing to do with formants. Every frequency is scaled down by a fixed factor. It's ordinary DSP, I remember this being available as a plugin for Winamp around 1999.
@@cebruthius formant is very interesting, but anyway, I still use Winamp and occasionally mess around with the pitch and speed with the Pacemaker plugin
I remember as a 12 year old in the early 60's my sisters and I sitting with an Elizabethan 4 track reel to reel recorder and taking it in turns to read childrens stories onto 3" tapes to create audio books for the blind. I seem to remember they were destined for Africa but perhaps they were sent elsewhere as well.
Great to see this is still provided as a service, I remember my grandfather (in the 80's/90's) with his huge headphones and Philips cassette player. I always had to post the cassettes to send them back to the (special) library. Thanks Matt :)
I'm not sure if I understand what "Vaporware" means in the context of music. To me the term became a joke for all those features of computer hardware or software that were promised by the sales hype as being so amazingly wonderful, but then never materialized or worked as advertised. These days I tend to joke about vaporware condensing down into "Clouds" (because of all the hype surrounding "the cloud" and "cloud computing").
@@renemunkthalund3581 Oops! I did NOT catch that, and normally I do! I can only blame it on lack of proper sleep and dirty eyeglasses. Thank you for the clarification, I now know at least roughly what *Vaporwave* is...
Techmoan gets a mention on Candy Apple Blue's Vaporwave video 'When You Decide to Vaporwave' after he used their album 'Powers Activate' in a review of the Superscope PSD300. It was thanks to Mat's video that I fell in love with the album, and #CandyAppleBlue.
Thank you for being so open about your health issue in creating this video, it really puts a different perspective on the topic. Being so candid really suits you, this is when you're most engaging - you could be talking about anything and I'd watch!
I think I know the machine you mean. They turn up on eBay every now and then, but I’ve held back on buying one as I’ve never once seen a single tape for them. It all worked like a library, so all the tapes went back once they were finished with.
@@TechmoanI used to be "servicing volunteer" for them, going round to people's houses to fix them when they broke, which they did a lot because they were pretty cruddy - terribly "agricultural" internally. I have a vague memory that the tapes were about 12hrs in total, and the books were always read completely unabridged so sometimes took several tapes even at that length.
@@Techmoan I used to work for the RNIB, I'll see if any of my contacts still have access to vintage talking book tapes. Everything has been USB and CDs in the DAISY format for quite some time now which means they're searchable and some titles are indexed at a word-by-word level so you can skip to any part of the recording.
Techmoan It should work with any four-track tape for the blind- the standard never changed. Also I’m sure there were plenty of kids like me who just never sent the damn things back/lost them/copied them/whatever.
I suspect the pitch adjustment, in addition to helping negate the pitch shift from speeding up playback, also helps with people that are tone-deaf. Adjusting the pitch may help a bit in bringing the audio into their hearing range.
Those Weirdos being tone deaf refers to not being able to distinguish different one note from another. Some people suffer hearing loss at a certain frequency range so pitch control may be useful if you could stand listening to chipmunks or darth vader... but that condition is not tone deafness.
@@screaminlordbyron7767 Would have to get Magazines or audio books appropriate for it, to fully enjoy the absurdity of Darth Vader / chipmunk voices on said content XD
When I worked for a local PBS station, we had services for the blind and hard of hearing. The volunteers did everything from magazines to audiobooks. They recorded everything to Adobe audition and went from there.
Most of the audio description for US TV is still done by WGBH, I think. Netflix now use a different international outfit I’ve never heard of but everyone else still uses PBS. It’s one of the many things public broadcasting does just beneath the surface.
Voices like Jack Fox's reproduce well and are easily understood on low-fidelity equipment. Even if he sounds old-fashioned, the audience can understand him on even the lowest quality equipment without struggle. This makes him ideal for a medium that is trying to keep costs reasonable.
My dad had macula degeneration and loved the digital version of this product. He would get send tapes every week and just consume them. Incredible organization and service. It was a lifesaver for my dad. Thanks for covering this.
Interesting note: while listening to this in the car, when you tested the index tone it was beyond a noticable hum. One of my car speakers on the left went mental. Heavy loud bass tone.
You're listening to Techmoan videos while driving? I just imagine the situation being in a Drive Thru. So the person taking orders is thinking there's somebody with you in the car, talking about cassette players and messing with the radio. :)
I am a blind technophile and audiophile who listens to your shows regularly with much pleasure and nostalgia. It pleases me immensely to see you cover a product made for blind people. Before the digital revolution began, I used to listen to audiobooks recorded by the RNIB on 8 track cassettes. I was amongst the 1st to try out audiobooks recorded in a digital format from Audible. Would love to see you feature more things like this in future episodes. A lot of technology these days unintentionally serve the needs of blind and partially sighted people. For example, announcements in railway stations, and on buses and trains, voice navigation on Google and Apple maps provide extremely valuable location awareness and useful information which we would otherwise not be available to us. Apps for public transport was intended for the convenience of able bodied people, but they have also enabled visually impaired people with built in text to speech on their phones, to use public transport more independently.
Hi Techmoan! Fellow TH-camr Robert from R3dn3ck Breawing here. I'm from Tennessee in the US. I'm so glad you made this video. I've not thought about the APH in 20 years but, I owe them a huge debt of gratitude. I'm not blind or visually impaired but learning disabled. When I was 8, I was diagnosed with dyslexia. I was able to get my text books on tape through the APH at no charge. That helped me so much. I fully believe that a disability is only as much of a disability as you allow it to be. Thank God we live in a time that technology can give people with disabilities the same chance in life! Love your videos, Cheers and Thanks Again
That pitch control is extremely natural-sounding. I'm impressed. Even in digital audio workstations, it's hard to accomplish that when you're also messing with the speed.
This has been a known magical trick with tape for decades. Digital stretching imparts very odd (sometimes pleasing) artifacts and so does tape but nothing is squared or converted so you hear it more smoothly and closer to the original without as many imparted artifacts
I have a friend who is blind so I really appreciated this. It's good to have a focus on people with disabilities and making sure that we don't leave them behind when it comes to tech. I often listen to her talk about frustrations with this so I really want a bigger focus on it. I hope you make more videos with a focus on this kinda stuff :)
Before he even said vapor I was on ebay searching out this machine. Prices immediately rocketed....maybe techmoan has a deal with aph to sell their old stock lol. Great vid love this kinda of tech for playing audio the way it wasn't intended
@@screaminlordbyron7767 The best way I could describe it is that it's slowed down music, typically music from the 80's or early 90's. Some of it is original, some of it just old remixed songs. It's supposed to sound hazy and nostalgic. It's supposed to sound like music that would be playing in a mall, during a commercial or phone hold music.
@@mattwolf7698 You forgot A E S T H E T I C lol. A lot of it is nostalgia for old music, tech and software. If techmoans vids were music it would basically be vaporwave. Its basically music for geeks, me included
Dude I hope you get well someday. MS is such a bitch I only read about it but I really wish we had a solution to this awful disease. I wish you the best of luck.
Great video as always Matthew. I'm sorry to hear about your battles with your vision but I am pleased that you have used this to your advantage, bringing us yet another technologically obscure video that has caught my attention! Keep up the good work :)
The rear speed and digital pitch controls are reversed one compared to another. This makes sense, and they're intended to be operated in tandem and brought to the same position in order to retain the natural pitch and formant while modifying the playback speed. This also determines the range of these, as digital slowdown really doesn't work all that well, the double or multiplied transients become apparent.
I figured it was only a matter of time until Techmoan did a video on these alt formats, but I also like the guy's humility. Once something starts to affect you directly you tend to start looking at things a little bit differently. Huge respect for that! I never had that particular machine, but I had friends that did. I used these books and magazines on tape most of my life though... I used to use the players loaned from the library until I started college in 2002. There used to be companies that would mod commercial tape recorders to be able to play and record these 4 track cassettes. I still have a modded Sony recorder that's the size of a typical later cassette Walkman, but it doesn't have the tone indexing that the Handicassette 2 does, and it also can't play quite as fast. That made it an absolute pain in the butt to find reading assignments in some of my early college textbooks... it ended up being more trouble than it was worth. Fortunately around that time everything started going digital so I haven't used that player in years.
I REALLY appreciate you sharing this info, and for reminding me of the great Jack Fox. I grew up listening to him and many others through our National Library Service for the Blind's "talking books" program. I am saddened at your loss of vision, and I can imagine it is worse for knowing what you're missing. Don't let the frustration win out. For one thing, you have a built-in adaptability you've learned from messing with tech for so long. For another, there are many many many resources to help you out. Having Mrs. Techmoan by your side is a huge advantage. I so enjoy your channel! Thanks for many hours of fun!
LOL like telling a gamer "git gud noob". 😆 But yeah, we often forget our favorite TH-camrs have private lives where their health is not as perfect as we think. boogie2988 is a prime example of this, yet logically we all know he's suffering, is in not great health, and trying to do better and get better, but that doesn't stop people from criticizing him about it and not believe him. If it's degenerative, my condolences. I can't imagine what's it's like to lose my sight completely and I'm paranoid that I will go (it's one of my phobias because I make my money as a graphic designer). If it's something they can possibly reverse with that experimental medicine, good luck. I hope it get's better. 😁
Working in optics now for a few years certainly has opened my eyes somewhat to those who are partially sighted~ Amazing video as always- hope everybody else enjoyed too! :)
This video was fantastic! Every Product Manager should watch it. It blew me away how great this product must have been for its customers. It seemed to solve every problem and done so in ingenious and simple ways.
There is a radio station about 50 miles from my location does the does The Big city's and little small-town newspapers in Michigan USA. It's pretty neat though how they do it.
Really sorry to hear about your sight deterioration. You've provided many hours of education and entertainment to me and others over the past few years; and I have no doubt that you'll continue to do so for many years to come! Wishing you all the best.
That's what might throw a seeing person a little off balance, I suspect, myself included. Fortunately there are text labels next to the buttons. That all said, the concept itself is marvellous.
Fascinating service for the blind I had no clue existed. Those folks go home every night with righteous pride. (You broke a little piece of heart in all of us. Take care. Thanks as always.)
@mipmipmipmipmip I've never heard about UV exposure causing it, thanks! I did stare at the sun a lot in elementary school. I believe surgery is fairly effective, but at the rate it's progressing, I won't need that for another 5-10 years, probably (or be able to afford it, lol).
If I knew this cassette deck existed while my great uncle was alive I would have bought him one he was legally blind. I miss him I lost him my junior year he was like a second dad to me.
Hello Matt, I've been a long time subscriber to you and love all of your films. Also as a Christian I'm praying for your eyesight to be fully restored. We love you a lot here in the US. Take care and may God continue to bless you and your family. Also, please don't go blind ever I don't know what I would do without your films
I think its really cool how a company is still helping vision-impaired people with wanting to hear stories, what's going on with America and the world in magazines, so its really cool how companies like APH are helping with that!
As someone who is gradually losing his hearing and sight (so far not *too* bad), as well as spending more time in hospitals for various other reasons, I had to laugh at the mention of the posters for those who are going blind. Exquisite black comedy there! (Whether intended or not). I can only hope that you are able to continue to produce great videos like this one for many years to come, and that your vision loss stabilises. I am happy to be one of your Patreon sponsors, and I hope it helps.
I've had some sight problems myself and had to sit in those same clinics so I know how nerve wracking it can be. Prayers up for our boy Matt! Love your work mate.
So sorry to hear about your vision difficulties. My mother lost the use of both eyes to macular degeneration over time in the last decade. Now one eye is only light and shadows, and the other functions like a blurry peephole, requiring her to use a lot of “pan and scan” and magnification in order to read, and it’s very tiring. I had no idea this was in our family, and man, it’s not something I look forward to dealing with in the future, if it comes for me as well. It’s painful to see my mom struggling with everyday tasks, so I’m thankful that you have at least one eye functioning. Please take good care of it. Best of luck.
This brings me back. I was born blind in 2000, and I remember getting these from the library of congress. They actually started using vinyl as a format for books before the commercial market picked it up as a medium for music.
So here's your creepy connection for the day... I first heard of the show Mindhunter thanks to your video about the reel-to-reel tape recorder shown in the opening credits, watched it, and fell in love with it. Like many, I was horrified and fascinated with the story of Ed Kemper, and looking him up on the internet, one of the things I discovered was that as he's been in prison, one of the jobs he's had is reading books-to-tape for the blind. So...if you get any from the US, there's a chance you're being read to by him.
I had no idea you were experiencing sight loss. But man, does this resonate. In 2015 I woke up one morning with a searing pain in my right eye. Turned out it was uveitis, an inflammation of the structures within the eye caused by an immune reaction. That was dispatched fairly swiftly with low dose steroids, only to flare in the other. Unfortunately the inflammation had damaged the drains in the eyes which then caused the pressures to soar to 45 (they're meant to sit between around 10-15). Operations on both followed, but the damage was done: loss of most of the lower peripheral vision in my left, and my right is now down to a small, badly blurred dot. Fortunately our wonderful NHS (what *are* we going to do without it, as now looks almost inevitable?) managed to save enough vision in my left eye that I can still work, read, get about, and watch videos such as this. All the same, I've gone from having 20:20 vision to being unable to drive (tough in a country with almost non-existent public transport), ride a bike, navigate crowds without people constantly crashing into me (and then getting mad at *me* for being in the way!) I do get incredibly down about it sometimes. They've still no idea what caused the original inflammation. In 95% of cases, it's unexplained - one of those 'shit happens' things. I've certainly had my share of that - in 2013, my wife died very suddenly, leaving me to raise our infant son alone, and there have been suggestions that the stress of that could have been a trigger for immune system issues that are already present in our family. (The effects of stress on health, including development of things like diabetes that are blamed on the individual, are only just beginning to be understood). What I do know is that, for every person like that idiot below who likes to throw around blame and point fingers, there are still many good people who understand that bad things happen to other good people and spend their time developing things like this to make life that little bit more tolerable. I hope I never need transcribed audio texts, as I love to read, but if I do, I'll be very glad that they exist. I hope you don't need them either Mat, and that whatever the cause, the experts we trust with these things are able to get to the bottom of it. Technology is fun but it can also be life-changing, and who knows, with the pace of change, the next few years may offer some sort of Star Trek-style device or even a means of repairing damaged ocular structures using stem cells or the like. Fingers crossed...
I love how brutally functional it is, that's a kind of beauty I find in many purpose-built machines. Also, it's as it turns out, combined with a Retro Groves cassette, a vaporwave machine! I love it!
I've been essentially blind in my right eye since childhood. It's not a big deal really, if your other eye is alright. I don't even consider it a disability, because my working eye works. Hope yours does too, and that it stays working!
I have been legally blind d all my life. I started using recorded books when I was in elementary school. I started with the LP records, then moved to cassettes which were originally recorded in the standard format and later used the style you demonstrated. In the last few years, the digital cartridge format is what is used. You can borrow the cartridges from your library, or download the books you want onto your own blank cartridges.
hehe true, it probably was meant to be not noticeable on the provided headphones, doubt they would bundle these with good enough sound quality ones that could do deep bass, specially back then
This is a really nice machine all things considered. Here in the states, the library system provided a much larger, but still portable player free of charge, as well as every book imaginable to the blind and disabled. The standard machine was the same design for as long as I can remember going back at least 35 years or so. About 10 years ago a digital format began replacing the cassettes, pretty much a very robustly built mp3 player that reads from a USB flash drive, with the books coming on a flash drive in a case roughly the same size as a cassette tape... As far as I can tell this was done so the same plastic mailers could be used. In addition to the tapes for books they also until quite recently provided magazines on flexible records, and also provided a "portable" player for those. Growing up with a blind parent this stuff was all common place in our home. In general cassettes were used for books, intended to be sent back to the library, and the records were used for weekly publications and you just kept them or tossed them out when you were done. As a side, recording into the computer at normal, or even double speed then manuluipulating the tracks was something we did from time to time, to save books onto the computer, long before the library started providing them that way.
This is definitely a blast from the past for me! I’ve always been legally blind, so I remember getting these types of tapes from recording for the blind and dyslexic in grade school. I also had a Sony tape player that was kind of like this where you could change the settings from normal cassettes to 4- track. The player you’re using is definitely more attractive than the ones from recording for the blind and dyslexic, because those were always a gross yellow color… Maybe because they were so old. thanks for sharing!
I think this may be my favorite video of yours. What a fascinating device. I love when an inventor is able to use the limitations of a medium as a strength.
Fascinating tech. I was gifted a mid 90's era Teletype some years ago by a friend (cleaning out their garage, they found a box of tech stuff and they knew I was interested). After learning a bit about their history and usage, I found it to be a really interesting little piece of tech. They're still in use to this day, too, just like the machine you showed.
@@marionette5968 While there are plenty of other videos on the talkboy on youtube i searched techmoan's channel and got this error when searching: This channel has no content that matched "talkboy".
That was nice to watch. My sister was blind and had one of these machines as well as its predescessor. She got tapes from the Library of Congress and listened to a great number of books. Sadly we lost her before digital books went mainstream.
I am very sorry that your vision is degrading in one eye. I admire your inner strength that you have kept it to yourself over all this time (I have watched most of your vids and do not remember you speaking of this condition before). I am not sure what to do is best - but I imagine many people in your position would talk about it quite often on their TH-cam channel. Your 'stiff upper lipedness' is extraordinary...I would probably be blabbering on about it ad nauseam were I in your shoes. I sincerely hope that 1) they can restore your vision to normal one day soon; or 2) at the very least, they can completely save the vision in your other eye.
Thanks for the video, Mat. You’ve reminded me that my grandfather used to record books for the RNIB and he later suffered macular degeneration (sounds like you have a similar condition) in both eyes and then he used to receive the books instead! You’ve inspired me to do some research and see if his recordings are still available somewhere. It’d be lovely to hear his voice again.
I almost lost my sight last year due to an infection as well as something causing the pressure in my eye to be too high. It's a very long story which I don't feel like going into as it makes me angry as I don't think I was treated well at the eye hospital I went to. Anyway, after a few months, my sight is back enough to keep me satisfied, although most days it can be tricky to read anything but large signs. Also, at the time (I spent over a week in the hospital with no sight at all) I thought "Well we can be transferring all our music to the computer all we want, I still don't have a way to select a song and play it!"
21 years ago, (1998) I used to have one of those brand new, costing me around $140.00. They provide a great set of features for great functionality for use in stereo or mono material such as book listening etc. I love the fact that this machine plays and records on four tracks per cassette. Your Video is very accurate about this machine. What I hated, it's a flimsy cheaply constructed machine. Beware, with a lot of use on it, the wires behind the tape heads will fall apart over time. When you have a moment, you should buy the big brother of this machine and it's better built too! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
![ละลาย (LALALYE) - DAOU PITTAYA ต้าห์อู๋ พิทยา [OFFICIAL MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wo6r9TgausI/mqdefault.jpg)
I have been legally blind since 1992. (I was 3 at the time). I have been using this audio book service pretty much my whole life. It's awesome to see one of my favorite TH-camrs doing a video on obscure tech that has been such a huge part of my life. Thanks! Best of luck with your vision loss too. I know it's tough.
sebastian gallagher I can get away with getting close to the screen or using magnification software.
@@MenaceGallagher I have a large monitor on an adjustable arm so that I can get it really close. I won't say it's comfortable, but I can make out most of what's going on. I do have software called ZoomText that can magnify the screen, but I find it to be EXTREMELY annoying because I can only see a small portion of the screen at any given time when its zoomed in. It's ok for reading documents, but it''s really frustrating to use on websites or spreadsheets.
Sooo how do you see to type your message . Just curious is all. I'm not bashing you by any means. So I'm going to apologise in advance. I apologise to you
@@BrodyPetree_Thegamer_123 we dinosaurs call it 'touch typing'
Casey Urie There’s a guy on TH-cam called Tommy who talks a lot about his experiences of being blind. Just search The Tommy Edison experience. He zanswers loads of people’s questions about his disability.
When you have all your senses working (hearing, sight, etc) it's easy to forget that others young and old may find it a huge struggle to do simple things like read a book. My great aunt was legally blind towards the end of her life, and now I appreciate the organisations who make these devices. I am especially surprised by the quality of them. It may look like an old piece of tech junk, but after watching this I gained a new appreciation for the folks who make devices and services for the disabled. So, thanks.
Yeah. I think some brain disorders also hinder the ability to read books.
Edit: Due partially to both that and my upbringing, I had trouble reading fiction books back when I was a kid, which was made worse when I had to go to normal school, where I had to read some kind of book during morning assembly (I live in Singapore, where that's perfectly normal in schools). Back then, I didn't know much when it came to diversity in book formats, but thanks to my own book research project where the original premise was to compare what got lost from a print illustrated novel to an EPUB file, I eventually discovered that graphic novels existed. I now realise that I seem to have trouble reading regular novels and long news articles, but seem to do better when reading comics, including webcomics, comic books (excluding mainstream), and graphic novels, and somewhat better when reading illustrated novels. I want to try reading print books, but the fact that I'm stuck living in a tiny apartment (that was spacious back when I first moved in), means I have to settle with e-books, and I use one of those Android based e-readers in order to read from multiple services. It honestly feels weird reading colour comics like the "Wolfie Monster" series on one of those "digital paper" devices like my Likebook Mimas, as a result, but it's a little tolerable when I think of it like watching a show in colour on a black and white CRT screen.
They also come In very handy also for people with mobility and pain conditions.
I lost 90% ofmy hearing at 28. After the initial depression you learn to adapt. When you basically loose a sense another one gets better. Mine was smell... Not my first choice but you take what you get.
@Chris Russell I blast audiobooks into my head on amplified headphones to drown out the tinnitus at home at work I use my cochlear processor. At first I felt the same as you. Then I learned to mentally frame it as I'm listening to a movie that's very descriptive. Reading is way faster and more efficient. I get it. I have cochlear and can pump audio in without anyone knowing. My coworkers wave at me when they need my attention. Lemons to lemonade. If anyone is interested this is what I have. www.cochlear.com/us/en/home/products-and-accessories/baha-system
Spot on, @cmonkey63! As Carly Simon said, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.
I absolutely love learning about various accessibility techniques. There are so many great features included in this device that the designers ought to be congratulated! I hadn't even realized what was going on with the hole in the cassette door, but once the instructional tape revealed its purpose, it's so genius! So simple, and yet perfectly effective.
I realize the host of TC is a real person who exists outside of TC.
However, I cannot help but imagining him sitting in his studio filming, when the Techmoan notification arrives. The slight squeal of glee and all filming pauses. A giggle and the posting of this thread. Then straight back into filming while I await the TC notification.
Hey Alec!
Closed captions are for me, by far, the most useful as they allowed me to learn english from ntsc laserdiscs in the 90’s in Madrid, Spain.
I love your channel too. I would love to see all the giants in TH-cam Technosphere all together. A good mid including @8bitguy and others like @vwestlife , the TH-camr who promotes cassettes and all those guys who are obsessed with recording vinyl rips on $15,000 turntables just getting together and geeking out and letting us all come along for the ride.
You also have a great channel as well!
I think Techmoan's voice would be ideal for voice cassettes. Very smooth and clean.
I feel as though JerryRigEverything Zack's voice for the same thing would make it more like ASMR.
that and the sort of rhythm of his speech make the things he say so much easier to parse
Yeah I think so. I would also vote for Big Clive.
Techmoan could be a radio presenter
He should send a cassette of him singing "Get Lucky" to The 8-Bit Guy
*_oh wait..._*
I have a Relative who is blind from birth he told me a joke
“The blind are people too and have feelings you shouldn’t say bad things about them, you should write them.”
He hangs out in a meeting room at the local library
With with a club for the seeing impaired And a librarian reads aloud the local newspaper and books and magazines
When I last talked to him he offered to drive me home
Good to see he's taking it in good spirit haha
Blind guy can drive?
That would be a sight to see
I went to a technical school and one of my classmates was legally blind since birth. He could make out some things, but to try to read print he had glasses with extended lenses, and a reading machine that worked sort of like a cross between an overhead projector and a microfilm reader. He could ride a bike, and told me how he got pulled over for speeding on it once! He also demonstrated once how he could use his hearing; walking down a quiet street one day, he snapped his fingers several times, and was able to tell me how many windows there were on the second floor of a house across the street, and how large those windows were. A truly nice and remarkable guy!
I SEE he has a million of those jokes.
I'm sorry to hear about your condition, Techmoan. I couldn't pay as much attention to the video thinking about you saying you're lost some sight. I'm kinda sad right now.
Techmoan video opening trademark:
"A couple of months ago"
He couldn't copy Letterkenny,
"The other day....."
Well, it does take a few months from storyboarding to uploading....
Thanks Mat. The system you demonstrated is fascinating. I have a blind friend who uses USB now. She remembered the old slow 12 inch records, then compact cassettes. I played your video (on my laptop) and I audio described it and she asked me to say thanks to you. Her computer does not have a monitor, she has a screen reader instead that can read stuff at a very fast speed. Her motto is "Blind not daft". Audio books are great she got me into them, great for long journeys. I wish your sight remains steady. Best wishes.
Haha.. thanks for making Kristine instant Vaporwave! That was hillarious!
Anders Enger Jensen and a tiny bit of nightcore too
it is always nice listening to your work! hearing it on here and Bbitguy is nice, and this is from another fan in the UK ^^
Satan sings Kristien
Anders Enger Jensen she sounded like Rick Astley at one point. Haha
Vaporwave to nightcore in seconds...
Great video as always. I've been completely blind since birth, I started following your channel a few years ago and really enjoy the content you put out. You do a really good job of describing what you're doing and how the thing you're looking at looks and functions like, even down to where all the controls are. Whether intentionally or not it makes your videos really easy to follow without vision. It's quality content from people like yourself that make the internet a more interesting and accessible place!
I wish you all the best with your health, I can only imagine how it must be more frustrating to lose your sight later in life. Keep up the good work!
I'm sighted, but I like to listen to techmoan's videos without watching because yeah, he's very good at describing the important bits.
Huh, I know you from the Audio Game Dev Discord server. Didn't expect to see someone's name I recognise here. :p
I lost my right eyed vision when I was 15 -- this week actually marked crossing over to having been blind longer than not. It certainly makes you grateful for the vision you have and cognisant of the possibility of being left without it. It's great that these services still exist in any form and great to see you take a look at them. Thanks for the years of wonderful content!
I am legally blind and my late father was also legally blind. I have years of experience using and working with various technology devices for the blind. I own a large collection of audio technology for blind people, much of which I've used myself through the years, and some of which I have just because I collect and enjoy audio equipment as well. I have a few points for you:
1. The HandiCassette II actually came out in the late 1990s, I used one in high school in 1999. There was also a previous mode (HandiCassette) that was manufactured by GE and bore a GE logo. I have working examples of both machines. The original HandiCassette was actually smaller than the II, and the main functional difference was it lacked the stereo output capability. APH also manufactured (and I have) a tabletop version of the 4-track recorder that resembles one of the "classroom" tape recorders.
2. The machine that many blind users would have used to listen to the 4-track format was manufactured by Telex and is known as the C-1. It is easily recognized by its striking yellow color. C-1 machines were (and I believe still are) available to blind individuals in the US at no charge. The C-1 cannot record at all. The main reason anyone would purchase a 4-track unit was either for record functionality and/or for portability, since the tabletop C-1 is a large and heavy unit. (Yep, I have a working C-1.)
3. Many other third-party devices were modified by various companies to be compatible with the 4-track format. I own an Aiwa walkman, a Sony dictation-style handheld recorder, and a Panasonic mini-boombox style recorder that are all capable of playing the 4-track format as well as standard stereo 2-track cassettes at either speed.
4. The modern incantation of books for the blind provided at no charge involves a "Cartridge" format. The cartridge is actually just a USB flash drive in a custom shaped casing, and an accompanying tabletop player (again, available at no charge) can be used to listen. Books are stored in the open DAISY format (EPUB and DAISY are very closely related); an encryption scheme is used to prevent "unauthorized" people from listening to the materials. Similar to the cassette formats, many third parties make compatible portable book players that can read the same DAISY format files from an SD card. Blind and other print disabled individuals in the US can download these special format books and magazines for free via the Internet.
5. You mentioned that the Choice Magazine Listening recordings predated the cassette - this is because, originally, magazines and books for the blind shipped on both reel-to-reel as well as record. Reel-to-reel is pretty straightforward - they did the same thing that was done with cassette using a stereo reel-to-reel deck to achieve four tracks, and ran the tape at 1 7/8 IPS. Reel to reel was in some ways even more efficient, as a typical 1800 foot 90 minute reel could hold 12 hours of audio. (Yep, I do have a working 4-track reel-to-reel recorder that can play these tapes, but I don't have any actual examples of officially recorded reels, but I do have a few I've made on my own for fun.)
Records are even more fascinating to me. The records were originally simple vinyl records recorded at 16rpm, but this obviously was not economical for a "Throwaway" application such as magazines. To solve this, a flexi-disc format was used running at the amazing speed of 8 RPM. A typical flexi-disc could hold about an hour per side and was played on a record player that was also available at no charge to blind people. The record player had the unique feature of having a "reversible" needle - once the stylus went bad, you would simply flip a lever and the other side of the stylus would be usable as another stylus. (It was at that point that you would contact the library for the blind to request a replacement stylus be mailed to you.) I do have a working record player, and I am pretty sure I still have some of the flexi-discs but I haven't been able to find them...
I've got a ton more trivia and facts about audio technology for the blind that I'd love to share. @Techmoan are you interested? :-)
I was born in 2003 and my family was still mostly using older media types, and I remember listening to books on cassettes in kindergarten on those big clunky grey headphones. It’s crazy how much I remember about cassettes/VHS and other people my age don’t really remember.
Thanks for being open about your vision problems and raising awareness of this interesting machine and format. One of these days I should record my grandfather's war memoirs as an audiobook.
Hi Mat! Vaporwave is totally still a thing, and many of us adore your videos! In fact, the vaporwave scene is putting out new cassettes, Minidiscs, vinyl, and are even hosting concerts! Thanks for indulging in our shared love of the retro and obscure.
Another brilliant piece of work, Matt. Thank you. I'm partially sighted, an audio engineer and a bit of a technical nerd so this stuff interests me too. That is a very useful piece of kit. The pitch adjustment essentially adjusts the formant. This refers to clusters of frequencies spread out over the human vocal range and created by the vocal cords. They give character to the human voice. When you speed up or slow down the voice it sounds odd unless you adjust the quality of the formant to match the speed. This is something usually only available on Studio software for pitch changing voices. Thanks for your continued work, for the interest and always the humour.
It has nothing to do with formants. Every frequency is scaled down by a fixed factor. It's ordinary DSP, I remember this being available as a plugin for Winamp around 1999.
@@cebruthius formant is very interesting, but anyway, I still use Winamp and occasionally mess around with the pitch and speed with the Pacemaker plugin
I remember as a 12 year old in the early 60's my sisters and I sitting with an Elizabethan 4 track reel to reel recorder and taking it in turns to read childrens stories onto 3" tapes to create audio books for the blind. I seem to remember they were destined for Africa but perhaps they were sent elsewhere as well.
Great to see this is still provided as a service, I remember my grandfather (in the 80's/90's) with his huge headphones and Philips cassette player. I always had to post the cassettes to send them back to the (special) library. Thanks Matt :)
I never expected Techmoan to mention Vaporwave in any context.
I'm not sure if I understand what "Vaporware" means in the context of music. To me the term became a joke for all those features of computer hardware or software that were promised by the sales hype as being so amazingly wonderful, but then never materialized or worked as advertised. These days I tend to joke about vaporware condensing down into "Clouds" (because of all the hype surrounding "the cloud" and "cloud computing").
@@bobblum5973 Vaporware is excactly this. However Techmoan talks about Vaporwave a microgenre of music.
@@renemunkthalund3581 Oops! I did NOT catch that, and normally I do! I can only blame it on lack of proper sleep and dirty eyeglasses. Thank you for the clarification, I now know at least roughly what *Vaporwave* is...
@@bobblum5973 All good.
Techmoan gets a mention on Candy Apple Blue's Vaporwave video 'When You Decide to Vaporwave' after he used their album 'Powers Activate' in a review of the Superscope PSD300. It was thanks to Mat's video that I fell in love with the album, and #CandyAppleBlue.
Thank you for being so open about your health issue in creating this video, it really puts a different perspective on the topic. Being so candid really suits you, this is when you're most engaging - you could be talking about anything and I'd watch!
I remember my Aunt Catherine having a huge machine from the RNIB that did talking books and newspapers
I think I know the machine you mean. They turn up on eBay every now and then, but I’ve held back on buying one as I’ve never once seen a single tape for them. It all worked like a library, so all the tapes went back once they were finished with.
@@TechmoanI used to be "servicing volunteer" for them, going round to people's houses to fix them when they broke, which they did a lot because they were pretty cruddy - terribly "agricultural" internally. I have a vague memory that the tapes were about 12hrs in total, and the books were always read completely unabridged so sometimes took several tapes even at that length.
@@Techmoan I used to work for the RNIB, I'll see if any of my contacts still have access to vintage talking book tapes. Everything has been USB and CDs in the DAISY format for quite some time now which means they're searchable and some titles are indexed at a word-by-word level so you can skip to any part of the recording.
Techmoan It should work with any four-track tape for the blind- the standard never changed. Also I’m sure there were plenty of kids like me who just never sent the damn things back/lost them/copied them/whatever.
@@Techmoan I have one of the machines and 2 tapes. Do you want to borrow it for a video. Big fan of the channel. Cheers
I suspect the pitch adjustment, in addition to helping negate the pitch shift from speeding up playback, also helps with people that are tone-deaf. Adjusting the pitch may help a bit in bringing the audio into their hearing range.
Those Weirdos being tone deaf refers to not being able to distinguish different one note from another. Some people suffer hearing loss at a certain frequency range so pitch control may be useful if you could stand listening to chipmunks or darth vader... but that condition is not tone deafness.
@@screaminlordbyron7767 Would have to get Magazines or audio books appropriate for it, to fully enjoy the absurdity of Darth Vader / chipmunk voices on said content XD
When I worked for a local PBS station, we had services for the blind and hard of hearing. The volunteers did everything from magazines to audiobooks. They recorded everything to Adobe audition and went from there.
good shit bro
Most of the audio description for US TV is still done by WGBH, I think. Netflix now use a different international outfit I’ve never heard of but everyone else still uses PBS. It’s one of the many things public broadcasting does just beneath the surface.
Impressive how the voice of the manual sounds just like that of an 60s military instruction video.
Jack Fox's voice sounds like he was pulled straight from one of those 50s era informational videos
Sounds like the guy who did the intro to the 1978 Battlstar Galactica series.
@@greggv8 lololol... OMG, he totally does 😂🤣
Voices like Jack Fox's reproduce well and are easily understood on low-fidelity equipment. Even if he sounds old-fashioned, the audience can understand him on even the lowest quality equipment without struggle. This makes him ideal for a medium that is trying to keep costs reasonable.
@@TWX1138 Yes, I'm sure. Still sounds like Battlestar, so it's still funny to me.
Also sounds like the guy who did various voiceovers for Star Trek, like the TV announcer in Bread and Circuses
My dad had macula degeneration and loved the digital version of this product. He would get send tapes every week and just consume them. Incredible organization and service. It was a lifesaver for my dad. Thanks for covering this.
Interesting note: while listening to this in the car, when you tested the index tone it was beyond a noticable hum. One of my car speakers on the left went mental. Heavy loud bass tone.
Yep, sent my subwoofer buzzing. Quite late here so surprised it didn't wake up anyone 😆
You're listening to Techmoan videos while driving?
I just imagine the situation being in a Drive Thru. So the person taking orders is thinking there's somebody with you in the car, talking about cassette players and messing with the radio. :)
probably hit a resonance for you. I could hear it for sure with a subwoofer system but it wasn't intense.
I was listening in the car, the tone sounded almost exactly like I was driving on a rumble strip. Threw me off for a moment.
My headphones are apparently perfectly capable of playing those tones very loudly indeed as well...
I am a blind technophile and audiophile who listens to your shows regularly with much pleasure and nostalgia. It pleases me immensely to see you cover a product made for blind people. Before the digital revolution began, I used to listen to audiobooks recorded by the RNIB on 8 track cassettes. I was amongst the 1st to try out audiobooks recorded in a digital format from Audible. Would love to see you feature more things like this in future episodes.
A lot of technology these days unintentionally serve the needs of blind and partially sighted people. For example, announcements in railway stations, and on buses and trains, voice navigation on Google and Apple maps provide extremely valuable location awareness and useful information which we would otherwise not be available to us. Apps for public transport was intended for the convenience of able bodied people, but they have also enabled visually impaired people with built in text to speech on their phones, to use public transport more independently.
Go from vaporwave to anime theme tune with just the flip of a switch! 16:26
Suddenly: Nightcore!
15:31 And by switching it to reverse you'll get "Tomorrow Never Knows".
I hate how accurate that is
Hi Techmoan! Fellow TH-camr Robert from R3dn3ck Breawing here. I'm from Tennessee in the US. I'm so glad you made this video. I've not thought about the APH in 20 years but, I owe them a huge debt of gratitude. I'm not blind or visually impaired but learning disabled. When I was 8, I was diagnosed with dyslexia. I was able to get my text books on tape through the APH at no charge. That helped me so much. I fully believe that a disability is only as much of a disability as you allow it to be. Thank God we live in a time that technology can give people with disabilities the same chance in life! Love your videos, Cheers and Thanks Again
That pitch control is extremely natural-sounding. I'm impressed. Even in digital audio workstations, it's hard to accomplish that when you're also messing with the speed.
This has been a known magical trick with tape for decades. Digital stretching imparts very odd (sometimes pleasing) artifacts and so does tape but nothing is squared or converted so you hear it more smoothly and closer to the original without as many imparted artifacts
I have a friend who is blind so I really appreciated this. It's good to have a focus on people with disabilities and making sure that we don't leave them behind when it comes to tech. I often listen to her talk about frustrations with this so I really want a bigger focus on it. I hope you make more videos with a focus on this kinda stuff :)
"Is Vaporwave still a thing" he said...
Before he even said vapor I was on ebay searching out this machine. Prices immediately rocketed....maybe techmoan has a deal with aph to sell their old stock lol.
Great vid love this kinda of tech for playing audio the way it wasn't intended
What's vaporwave?
@@screaminlordbyron7767 The best way I could describe it is that it's slowed down music, typically music from the 80's or early 90's. Some of it is original, some of it just old remixed songs. It's supposed to sound hazy and nostalgic. It's supposed to sound like music that would be playing in a mall, during a commercial or phone hold music.
Such a good description! ☺️
@@mattwolf7698 You forgot A E S T H E T I C lol. A lot of it is nostalgia for old music, tech and software. If techmoans vids were music it would basically be vaporwave. Its basically music for geeks, me included
I like the fact that when you played the retro grooves and played with the buttons, it did sound alot like vaporwave!
+ 1 vote for mentioning Vaporwave
I've watched your videos for awhile sorry to hear about your eyesight you are one of my favorite channels on TH-cam.
Really sad to hear your sight issues. I am severely sight impaired due to MS so know what you are going through. Take care
Dude I hope you get well someday. MS is such a bitch I only read about it but I really wish we had a solution to this awful disease. I wish you the best of luck.
strudders2112 I’m in the same boat. It’s really a drag when you’re into gadgets like these that almost always need repairs.
When you pressed the index button at normal speed during recording, my woofer started going nuts and rattling. Gotta love low frequency sine waves.
Great video as always Matthew.
I'm sorry to hear about your battles with your vision but I am pleased that you have used this to your advantage, bringing us yet another technologically obscure video that has caught my attention! Keep up the good work :)
The rear speed and digital pitch controls are reversed one compared to another. This makes sense, and they're intended to be operated in tandem and brought to the same position in order to retain the natural pitch and formant while modifying the playback speed. This also determines the range of these, as digital slowdown really doesn't work all that well, the double or multiplied transients become apparent.
bit like pixelation, except for audio. : )
This comment has so much for me to research, I'm screenshotting it
I figured it was only a matter of time until Techmoan did a video on these alt formats, but I also like the guy's humility. Once something starts to affect you directly you tend to start looking at things a little bit differently. Huge respect for that!
I never had that particular machine, but I had friends that did. I used these books and magazines on tape most of my life though... I used to use the players loaned from the library until I started college in 2002. There used to be companies that would mod commercial tape recorders to be able to play and record these 4 track cassettes. I still have a modded Sony recorder that's the size of a typical later cassette Walkman, but it doesn't have the tone indexing that the Handicassette 2 does, and it also can't play quite as fast. That made it an absolute pain in the butt to find reading assignments in some of my early college textbooks... it ended up being more trouble than it was worth. Fortunately around that time everything started going digital so I haven't used that player in years.
16:00
I had an old Saisho "walkman" that did all this without me even touching it! :-0
I REALLY appreciate you sharing this info, and for reminding me of the great Jack Fox. I grew up listening to him and many others through our National Library Service for the Blind's "talking books" program.
I am saddened at your loss of vision, and I can imagine it is worse for knowing what you're missing. Don't let the frustration win out. For one thing, you have a built-in adaptability you've learned from messing with tech for so long. For another, there are many many many resources to help you out. Having Mrs. Techmoan by your side is a huge advantage.
I so enjoy your channel! Thanks for many hours of fun!
Don't know how one of the best people on this platform is plagued with health issues. Get healthy.
I’m like Mr Burns, there are so many things wrong with me that together they’re keeping me going.
@@Techmoan It seems like it. Though between you and me, I like you better than mean old Mr. Burns.
@@Techmoan and its really hard to find parts for obsolete equipment.
"Get healthy"? Really? I've rarely heard such an ignorant comment.
LOL like telling a gamer "git gud noob". 😆
But yeah, we often forget our favorite TH-camrs have private lives where their health is not as perfect as we think. boogie2988 is a prime example of this, yet logically we all know he's suffering, is in not great health, and trying to do better and get better, but that doesn't stop people from criticizing him about it and not believe him.
If it's degenerative, my condolences. I can't imagine what's it's like to lose my sight completely and I'm paranoid that I will go (it's one of my phobias because I make my money as a graphic designer). If it's something they can possibly reverse with that experimental medicine, good luck. I hope it get's better. 😁
Working in optics now for a few years certainly has opened my eyes somewhat to those who are partially sighted~
Amazing video as always- hope everybody else enjoyed too! :)
Techmoan I was waiting for him to say"this tape will self destruct ",sorry to hear about your health issues don't give up on these excellent vids.
This video was fantastic! Every Product Manager should watch it. It blew me away how great this product must have been for its customers. It seemed to solve every problem and done so in ingenious and simple ways.
That's really neat. Love it when you upload. Its always something cool. Appreciate the vids!
My heart goes out to you dude. Thank you for giving us awesome and informative content for as long as you have.
There is a radio station about 50 miles from my location does the does The Big city's and little small-town newspapers in Michigan USA. It's pretty neat though how they do it.
I've been on that radio station two times already since I've listened to him since 2005.
Really sorry to hear about your sight deterioration. You've provided many hours of education and entertainment to me and others over the past few years; and I have no doubt that you'll continue to do so for many years to come! Wishing you all the best.
Odd that the "play" button has a circle on it, which would normally be a "record" symbol. Interesting tape player, though.
That's what might throw a seeing person a little off balance, I suspect, myself included. Fortunately there are text labels next to the buttons. That all said, the concept itself is marvellous.
Fascinating service for the blind I had no clue existed. Those folks go home every night with righteous pride. (You broke a little piece of heart in all of us. Take care. Thanks as always.)
I'm on the path to losing sight in one eye as well ("surfer's eye", even though I don't surf) I sympathise, Mr. Techmoan.
@mipmipmipmipmip I've never heard about UV exposure causing it, thanks! I did stare at the sun a lot in elementary school.
I believe surgery is fairly effective, but at the rate it's progressing, I won't need that for another 5-10 years, probably (or be able to afford it, lol).
Sorry to hear about your sight issues. Thank you for the excellent content you provide!
If I knew this cassette deck existed while my great uncle was alive I would have bought him one he was legally blind. I miss him I lost him my junior year he was like a second dad to me.
Liberty Bell1776 im sorry for your loss
F
Sorry for your loss
Hello Matt, I've been a long time subscriber to you and love all of your films. Also as a Christian I'm praying for your eyesight to be fully restored. We love you a lot here in the US. Take care and may God continue to bless you and your family.
Also, please don't go blind ever I don't know what I would do without your films
Praying won't do shit.
Tuesday Techmoan? Awesome!
Keep up the good work fella! Always interesting.
I think its really cool how a company is still helping vision-impaired people with wanting to hear stories, what's going on with America and the world in magazines, so its really cool how companies like APH are helping with that!
I have a friend is blind.
If he cannot find a printed copy or a digital copy. He asked me to make him a tape for him. And I do.
SublimeHawk6
I second this.
A hero you arr
You’re a great friend.
@@Derpy1969 I will be on youtube soon
@@Derpy1969 I'm TH-cam now
I'm really glad to see more people on youtube talking about the actually very interesting and extremely important topic of accessibility features
Vaporwave is still a thing as far as I’m concerned
its growing
thenormalyears I’m old and yet I enjoy it
Vaporwave will never die.
My bandcamp purchases are an indicator.
May it forever be a thing
As someone who is gradually losing his hearing and sight (so far not *too* bad), as well as spending more time in hospitals for various other reasons, I had to laugh at the mention of the posters for those who are going blind. Exquisite black comedy there! (Whether intended or not). I can only hope that you are able to continue to produce great videos like this one for many years to come, and that your vision loss stabilises. I am happy to be one of your Patreon sponsors, and I hope it helps.
As a kid I would have spend so much time playing with the pitch from Rupaul to James Earl Jones.
I've had some sight problems myself and had to sit in those same clinics so I know how nerve wracking it can be. Prayers up for our boy Matt! Love your work mate.
Oh wow I remember having that during middle school. I'm visually impaired and they didn't switch from cassette for a while.
Off-topic: I ❤ your profile pic #danganronpa
So sorry to hear about your vision difficulties. My mother lost the use of both eyes to macular degeneration over time in the last decade. Now one eye is only light and shadows, and the other functions like a blurry peephole, requiring her to use a lot of “pan and scan” and magnification in order to read, and it’s very tiring.
I had no idea this was in our family, and man, it’s not something I look forward to dealing with in the future, if it comes for me as well.
It’s painful to see my mom struggling with everyday tasks, so I’m thankful that you have at least one eye functioning. Please take good care of it.
Best of luck.
15:42 A S C E N D E D
QUICK THEY'VE GONE PINK FLOYD
a e s t h e t i c s
Damn that really sounded like some good Vaporwave
This brings me back. I was born blind in 2000, and I remember getting these from the library of congress. They actually started using vinyl as a format for books before the commercial market picked it up as a medium for music.
So here's your creepy connection for the day...
I first heard of the show Mindhunter thanks to your video about the reel-to-reel tape recorder shown in the opening credits, watched it, and fell in love with it. Like many, I was horrified and fascinated with the story of Ed Kemper, and looking him up on the internet, one of the things I discovered was that as he's been in prison, one of the jobs he's had is reading books-to-tape for the blind. So...if you get any from the US, there's a chance you're being read to by him.
That's freaking crazy
incredible
I had no idea you were experiencing sight loss. But man, does this resonate. In 2015 I woke up one morning with a searing pain in my right eye. Turned out it was uveitis, an inflammation of the structures within the eye caused by an immune reaction. That was dispatched fairly swiftly with low dose steroids, only to flare in the other. Unfortunately the inflammation had damaged the drains in the eyes which then caused the pressures to soar to 45 (they're meant to sit between around 10-15). Operations on both followed, but the damage was done: loss of most of the lower peripheral vision in my left, and my right is now down to a small, badly blurred dot.
Fortunately our wonderful NHS (what *are* we going to do without it, as now looks almost inevitable?) managed to save enough vision in my left eye that I can still work, read, get about, and watch videos such as this. All the same, I've gone from having 20:20 vision to being unable to drive (tough in a country with almost non-existent public transport), ride a bike, navigate crowds without people constantly crashing into me (and then getting mad at *me* for being in the way!) I do get incredibly down about it sometimes.
They've still no idea what caused the original inflammation. In 95% of cases, it's unexplained - one of those 'shit happens' things. I've certainly had my share of that - in 2013, my wife died very suddenly, leaving me to raise our infant son alone, and there have been suggestions that the stress of that could have been a trigger for immune system issues that are already present in our family. (The effects of stress on health, including development of things like diabetes that are blamed on the individual, are only just beginning to be understood).
What I do know is that, for every person like that idiot below who likes to throw around blame and point fingers, there are still many good people who understand that bad things happen to other good people and spend their time developing things like this to make life that little bit more tolerable. I hope I never need transcribed audio texts, as I love to read, but if I do, I'll be very glad that they exist. I hope you don't need them either Mat, and that whatever the cause, the experts we trust with these things are able to get to the bottom of it. Technology is fun but it can also be life-changing, and who knows, with the pace of change, the next few years may offer some sort of Star Trek-style device or even a means of repairing damaged ocular structures using stem cells or the like. Fingers crossed...
It's a sad state of affairs when arriving home ones excitement on seeing their wife is drowned out by the anticipation of another Techmoan instalment.
AshGCG - ‘Seeing’ the wife eh? 😉😉
@@jaydunstan1618 Ouch! But true. It is always a possibility.
I love how brutally functional it is, that's a kind of beauty I find in many purpose-built machines. Also, it's as it turns out, combined with a Retro Groves cassette, a vaporwave machine! I love it!
I've been essentially blind in my right eye since childhood. It's not a big deal really, if your other eye is alright. I don't even consider it a disability, because my working eye works. Hope yours does too, and that it stays working!
I have been legally blind d all my life. I started using recorded books when I was in elementary school. I started with the LP records, then moved to cassettes which were originally recorded in the standard format and later used the style you demonstrated. In the last few years, the digital cartridge format is what is used. You can borrow the cartridges from your library, or download the books you want onto your own blank cartridges.
"Starting from here we will press the ind-"
*subwoofer proceeds to explode*
Oh yeah, it's noticeable.
With a pair of Skullcandy Hesh 2 headphones on, it most certainly is.
hehe true, it probably was meant to be not noticeable on the provided headphones, doubt they would bundle these with good enough sound quality ones that could do deep bass, specially back then
I would suspect that for it to come out as a beep when fast forwarding it would need to be a long deep tone at normal speed.
@@Kalvinjj In 2005?
@@8bits59 Is that player from 2005? Don't recall it being that new... Or even if it was produced in 2005, it's definitely an old project.
This is a really nice machine all things considered. Here in the states, the library system provided a much larger, but still portable player free of charge, as well as every book imaginable to the blind and disabled. The standard machine was the same design for as long as I can remember going back at least 35 years or so. About 10 years ago a digital format began replacing the cassettes, pretty much a very robustly built mp3 player that reads from a USB flash drive, with the books coming on a flash drive in a case roughly the same size as a cassette tape... As far as I can tell this was done so the same plastic mailers could be used.
In addition to the tapes for books they also until quite recently provided magazines on flexible records, and also provided a "portable" player for those. Growing up with a blind parent this stuff was all common place in our home. In general cassettes were used for books, intended to be sent back to the library, and the records were used for weekly publications and you just kept them or tossed them out when you were done.
As a side, recording into the computer at normal, or even double speed then manuluipulating the tracks was something we did from time to time, to save books onto the computer, long before the library started providing them that way.
I'm happy watching with my ears.
This is definitely a blast from the past for me! I’ve always been legally blind, so I remember getting these types of tapes from recording for the blind and dyslexic in grade school. I also had a Sony tape player that was kind of like this where you could change the settings from normal cassettes to 4- track. The player you’re using is definitely more attractive than the ones from recording for the blind and dyslexic, because those were always a gross yellow color… Maybe because they were so old. thanks for sharing!
*BASS BLARING*
Techmoan: It's a noticeable hum.
17:00 a cassette player with a manually adjustable speed key, that has been a daydream for me! 😍 No cassette player could play the exact speed!
I used to read newspapers for the blind, didn’t know they made magazine stuff like this too!
Its one thing to continue to support tape format but quite another when its a specialized format. Props to this organization!
16:27 sounds like an anime intro
I think this may be my favorite video of yours. What a fascinating device. I love when an inventor is able to use the limitations of a medium as a strength.
"And the device itself" Thought I was on Ashens channel there.
Fascinating tech. I was gifted a mid 90's era Teletype some years ago by a friend (cleaning out their garage, they found a box of tech stuff and they knew I was interested). After learning a bit about their history and usage, I found it to be a really interesting little piece of tech. They're still in use to this day, too, just like the machine you showed.
3:43 Sounds like The Chipmunks are having an argument :D
Never would have realised you had sight issues. Thanks for letting the viewers (and listeners) know and share it.
Sorry to hear about your sight problems.
This review is 20 minutes too short. Fascinating. ...Never knew this was around. Mr. Ottens would be very proud, such a noble cause. Cheers.
Reminds me a little bit of the "TalkBoy" from the Home Alone films that Argos sold back in the 90s. Wonder if you could find one of those?
@@marionette5968 While there are plenty of other videos on the talkboy on youtube i searched techmoan's channel and got this error when searching: This channel has no content that matched "talkboy".
@@renakunisaki I got so much use out of my Yak Backwards!
That was nice to watch. My sister was blind and had one of these machines as well as its predescessor. She got tapes from the Library of Congress and listened to a great number of books. Sadly we lost her before digital books went mainstream.
16:27 Techmoan dabbles in Nightcore
Best comment ever for modern day teens.
I am very sorry that your vision is degrading in one eye. I admire your inner strength that you have kept it to yourself over all this time (I have watched most of your vids and do not remember you speaking of this condition before). I am not sure what to do is best - but I imagine many people in your position would talk about it quite often on their TH-cam channel. Your 'stiff upper lipedness' is extraordinary...I would probably be blabbering on about it ad nauseam were I in your shoes.
I sincerely hope that 1) they can restore your vision to normal one day soon; or 2) at the very least, they can completely save the vision in your other eye.
I’m sorry about your eye D: A family member went though something similar, and I know it can be fairly scary :/
I'm really sorry to hear about your sight loss.
Best wishes from a long-time viewer.
“What's this? An audio book for squirrels?”
- someone playing a tape in a regular player, probably
Thanks for the video, Mat. You’ve reminded me that my grandfather used to record books for the RNIB and he later suffered macular degeneration (sounds like you have a similar condition) in both eyes and then he used to receive the books instead! You’ve inspired me to do some research and see if his recordings are still available somewhere. It’d be lovely to hear his voice again.
I almost lost my sight last year due to an infection as well as something causing the pressure in my eye to be too high. It's a very long story which I don't feel like going into as it makes me angry as I don't think I was treated well at the eye hospital I went to. Anyway, after a few months, my sight is back enough to keep me satisfied, although most days it can be tricky to read anything but large signs. Also, at the time (I spent over a week in the hospital with no sight at all) I thought "Well we can be transferring all our music to the computer all we want, I still don't have a way to select a song and play it!"
21 years ago, (1998) I used to have one of those brand new, costing me around $140.00. They provide a great set of features for great functionality for use in stereo or mono material such as book listening etc. I love the fact that this machine plays and records on four tracks per cassette. Your Video is very accurate about this machine. What I hated, it's a flimsy cheaply constructed machine. Beware, with a lot of use on it, the wires behind the tape heads will fall apart over time. When you have a moment, you should buy the big brother of this machine and it's better built too! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍