Does anyone still listen to cassettes?

Post by **Zarathustra** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 6:32 pm

We just finished moving this weekend. During that week-long process, I decided to throw away a lot of stuff in the attic, rather than move it. And that included--you guessed it--my '80s tape collection. I haven't listened to them in over a decade, but I never got around to throwing them away because a lot of my college band's recordings were on this ancient medium. Rather than sort them all out, I've just shuffled them from attic to attic over the years.

With the hesitation of fond nostalgic memories, I've finally dumped dozens of them in the trash. The only tape player I have is a crappy portable player we bought for our kids years ago (they both now have MP3 players, and don't use it), so I really can't enjoy them anyway, even the ones I haven't replaced on CD. But I still felt a pang of regret that my kids won't have the experience of holding their music as a tangible piece of plastic in their hands--something that doesn't get scratched or fingerprinted, something they can toss into a drawer or box and not worry about irreversibly scarring. I know, tape has its drawbacks (of course, or we wouldn't even be having this discussion), but there's still something kind of magical about these chunks of plastic. All my teenage "cruising" memories are inextricably tied to these cartridges. Popping the perfect tape into the car player, and committing to one band, one release, for the next 30-45 minutes of cruising. Forcing ourselves to listen to the whole damn thing because FF or RW was such a pain in the ass. Or carefully choosing the limited number--my favorites-- to take to the pool and play on my boombox, since carting my whole collection into the sun and water wasn't really practical. These are decisions our kids don't have to make. They can have their whole collection on one small device, and skip around with schizophrenic disregard for the artists' intentions of their creative package. Sure, LP record fans have voiced similar lamentations about our modern, digital fracturing of the music-listening experience, but I think a lot of people overlook the fact that cassettes combined this long-form appreciation with portability. It was truly a transitional medium--an aspect I haven't really noticed until now.

Anyone else have fond memories of the tape collection? Anyone still listening to them?

Post by **Savor Dam** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 6:53 pm

I am -- slowly -- transcribing all my cassettes (and my vinyl) using Acoustica Spin It Again so I can make CDs or just load it to mp3 devices.

A brilliant piece of software, versatile (it handles track breaks well and can be set to clean up pops, crackles and tape hiss), very easy to use, and much less expensive than dedicated mp3 transcription turntables or cassette decks. As long as you have an output jack (line or headphone) on your existing ways to play the albums/tapes, this is worth looking into.

Post by **dANdeLION** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 10:05 pm

Savor Dam wrote:I am -- slowly -- transcribing all my cassettes (and my vinyl) using Acoustica Spin It Again so I can make CDs or just load it to mp3 devices.

A brilliant piece of software, versatile (it handles track breaks well and can be set to clean up pops, crackles and tape hiss), very easy to use, and much less expensive than dedicated mp3 transcription turntables or cassette decks. As long as you have an output jack (line or headphone) on your existing ways to play the albums/tapes, this is worth looking into.

I've done that with nothing but CDEX, which is free. I just used the cassette player I already own.

Post by **Savor Dam** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:58 am

I was not aware of CDEX, but I checked out it's web presence since dAN mentioned it. Free is a powerful draw.

Already being a Spin It Again licensee, I won't be switching, but I would encourage anyone interested to try both, since CDEX is free and Spin It Again makes a fully-capable free trial available (lt costs $35 for a license). While I have not exercised CDEX, I can attest that Spin It Again works well and easily for someone like me who has far less musical talent than dAN.

I can almost play the radio compentently...

No, I am not a shill, just a happy user for the past two years.

Post by **StevieG** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:32 am

I still have 2 cassette cases left (20 in each) that I can't part with yet. I haven't updated them all. There are some mixed tapes and stuff off the radio and I'm still too nostalgic to part with them.

Even the writing on the tapes reminds me of the old days - some that have been elaborately inscribed with each song etc etc.

Post by **danlo** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:31 am

I got rid of everything thing including Yessongs and Quadroahenia. It was a sad day indeed.

Post by **Savor Dam** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:16 am

Please tell us that you gave away Yessongs and Quadrophenia to good homes, rather than tossing them in the trash.

(I feel like the mother on the AT&T Wireless ads who's children are throwing away perfectly good airtime minutes instead of holding them over for use in another period...)

Post by **Akasri** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:33 am

I have about 4 cases of cassettes sitting in my closet - probably 40-50 tapes in each. About half of them I have on CD now, but the rest I don't, so I just hang on to them all

I'd love to transcribe them over to my computer so I could burn them to CD or put them on my iPod. What equipment do I need to be able to do it? About the only cassette player I have left that works is a Sony Walkman - is there any way to do it with that?

Post by **Savor Dam** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:52 pm

Akasri wrote:About the only cassette player I have left that works is a Sony Walkman - is there any way to do it with that?

Absolutely. What you will need is a cable to connect the headphone jack on the Walkman to the line-in jack on your computer. With that, you can use either of the software products dANdeLION and I were discussing up-thread.

Hopefully, you have an AC power supply for your Walkman. Transcribing that many tapes will draw down a lot of batteries!

Post by **wayfriend** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 2:31 pm

So far, I've gotten 1 tape converted to MP3s.

It didn't come out too good, as I had the record level set too high on the analog recorder software (dumb me). So the sound quality wasn't ideal. And the track splitting process was quite laborious.

So I converted it again, with a better record level. But when I went to split the one giant MP3 into different MP3s for different tracks, my MP3 splitter trial period was over. I downloaded another free one, but it's too buggy to work. So I am jammed up there.

So I am in search of better software.

These ones mentioned - CDEX, Acoustica Spin It Again - how do they fare in these departments?

Post by **dANdeLION** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 2:37 pm

I decider to listen to a cassette yesterday. I put it up against my ear, and it sounded like the ocean. What is odd is it wasn't even my Houses Of The Holy cassette.........

Post by **Savor Dam** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:09 pm

wayfriend wrote:So far, I've gotten 1 tape converted to MP3s.

It didn't come out too good, as I had the record level set too high on the analog recorder software (dumb me). So the sound quality wasn't ideal. And the track splitting process was quite laborious.

So I converted it again, with a better record level. But when I went to split the one giant MP3 into different MP3s for different tracks, my MP3 splitter trial period was over. I downloaded another free one, but it's too buggy to work. So I am jammed up there.

So I am in search of better software.

These ones mentioned - CDEX, Acoustica Spin It Again - how do they fare in these departments?

I will have to defer to dAN or another experienced CDEX user for details on that product's level-setting and track-splitting capabilities.

As for Spin It Again:

Recording levels can be manually set, but I use the product's wizard which has you play a 30 second sample of what you will be recording and then sets levels based on that. This is a little less convenient with tapes that have to be rewound vs. albums where you just lift the stylus, but it works well.

Track-splitting is also a built-in feature. When you finish recording, the software asks you if you want the recording split into tracks. After splitting, it then goes into a preview mode that plays the first 5 seconds and last 5 seconds of each track. This is usually spot-on, but if the track breaks are not the way you want them (usually due to silences during a track or inter-track material), you have the ability to adjust the breaks using a visual display of sound levels and sliders to mark timepoints.

Download a trial copy (theres a link in my post upthread) and see what you think.

Post by **dANdeLION** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:25 pm

I had to manually stop CDEX at the end of each song, and yeah, you have to pay attention and listen through the whole tape, and manually title each track, which is more involved than ripping a cd. How I set the level was easy enough; I used a stereo 1/8" male to male cable out of the headphone out on my cd/tape player, and into my pc. Then I set the player's level to be the same through my pc's speakers as a regular mp3. Most of what I're ripped have been old tapes of the various bands I've played in, and some of my friend's bands. Most everything else I have on cd. Which means the 100+ tapes I have left that are mostly redundant. Maybe I should just throw them out.

Post by **Akasri** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:52 pm

Savor Dam wrote:
Akasri wrote:About the only cassette player I have left that works is a Sony Walkman - is there any way to do it with that?
Absolutely. What you will need is a cable to connect the headphone jack on the Walkman to the line-in jack on your computer. With that, you can use either of the software products dANdeLION and I were discussing up-thread.

Hopefully, you have an AC power supply for your Walkman. Transcribing that many tapes will draw down a lot of batteries!

Would that be like the cable I use to plug my iPod into the "Aux" port in my car? Or something different?

Seems like I researched it one time and it needed something special in the cable.

Post by **wayfriend** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:53 pm

Savor,

Auto-leveling seems nice.

The one album I am working on happens to be a recording of a concert broadcast on the radio (in the eighties!). So automatic breaks are not an option.

Given that you manually have to set where a track begins and ends, some software makes this easy, and some software makes this a pain. That's kind of what I was asking about.

What would be really good is the ability to save and reload your track breaks, so that you don't have to start all over if you don't like what you did the first try. Just for example.

Post by **Savor Dam** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:21 pm

Akasri: Yes, that's the right cable for this purpose.

Wayfriend: In SIA (if I may resort to the acronym), manual track breaks are pretty easy when the material does not lend itself to the wizard's break-detection. Just scroll to the approximate location of the breakpoint you want, play the track at that point (moving backward or forward to pinpoint where you want to place the break, then split the track at that point. In addition to being able to burn CDs or generate mp3s, you can save the raw recording with your breakpoints still adjustable for future refinement.

Take a look at the product; that should be clearer than my explanations...

Post by **aliantha** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:18 pm

I had a fair collection of cassettes at one time, but one by one, they started to develop that nasty-bad hummm thing, so I tossed almost all of them. The ones I wanted to keep, I replaced with CDs.

Pretty much the only ones I still have are mix tapes. One contains all the Christmas songs that I cadged from the music library of the radio station where I was working at the time. Among them were such priceless works of art as "Snoopy's Christmas," "Santa Claus and his Old Lady's Commune," "The 12 Days of Christmas" by the MacKenzie Brothers, and so on. Oh, and Carpenters and John Lennon and Paul McCartney, too. I really ought to have that tape burned to CD and/or MP3, before it develops the dreaded hummmm.

The vast majority of my audio collection, pre-CD, was on vinyl. Over the years, I've replaced all of those that I care to replace with CDs.

Malik, the one thing that you left out of your Rhapsody to the Cassette was the now-bygone sight of an unspooled cassette, abandoned by the roadside...

YouTube · Post by **Menolly** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:52 pm

Thanks to a certain Watcher, I have an mp3 of Snoopy's Chr-stmas...

Post by **stonemaybe** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:14 pm

I'm loving this thread!

I have alot of casettes and vinyl that isn't available on cd, that I'd love to have on my pc/ or cd. Will experiment!

Post by **Cagliostro** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:04 pm

I still have a car that only takes cassettes. Which sucks when I buy a new CD and can't listen to it, but it works so much better with my iPOD (with the cassette adaptor) than trying to tune it to a radio station. And since I can power my iPOD with the cigarette lighter...
I do still have tons of tapes. In fact, I have nearly gone through all my tapes and I got rid of the ones that I have no desire to ever hear again. I should go through them all again, and either pick them up on CD or transfer them over. Currently, though, I am transferring my albums over, as I just bought one of those USB turntable thingies. It's uphill work. The software it came with was not especially dynamic, but I do have something that is making it work. Unfortunately, I am getting a lot of skips, as either I haven't balanced the needle well enough, or the turntable is a piece of crap (I suspect the latter). But probably when I change cars, I'll start ditching cassettes at a furious rate. Right now, it's just easier throwing in one of my 200+ cassettes instead of fiddling with the iPOD. I pretty much only bring that along on trips.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

Does anyone still listen to cassettes?

Does anyone still listen to cassettes?