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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:36 am
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PaulLF wrote:
I remember often finding 8 track tapes in thrift stores. For some reason, it was usually solo albums by Nils Lofgren. He must have made a bunch of those. :P My sister used to have an 8-track player back in the day, and so did my brother. One of those giant console systems that looked like furniture, that had all of the odds and ends to them, record player, stereo, etc. I think you could even plug your guitar into the thing. That's one thing I miss about the 70's that I remember, the stereo equipment.

That’s the beauty of old formats. Not that the quality was good or great, but that it was there at all. As with Nils I can’t say whether or not his specific contribution that you mentioned was unique to the 8 track, but a lot were. Same with 78rpms and other records including 16rpms. For some reason, most (but not all) pre-recorded cassettes stuck pretty much to the mainstream media. Digital is an advancement that will never have copies of it all. I inherited some 78s including Buddy Holly that I intend to spend an afternoon with just for fun. I collected them as a kid with my Dad, kept a few rarities, and unloaded hundreds because they were not great for moving about, and I never got the jukebox that I had planned to have.

I once had discrete surround tape and discrete 4 channel CD4 record playback, and all the other Quad formats, and that migrated to the car on tape. Beats mono - even in digital. IMHO. I think we should always have the surround/stereo/mono option; and yes, old school mature technology with its funky equipment has it’s charm, while new school has it’s convenience. :D
Not many pro studios are found without tape decks (at least a cassette deck) being used or collecting dust. There are definitely fewer by the day though.

Incidentally, the last deck I bought was several years back. I ordered it from New York as Canada had few cassette recorders if any available at the time until this retro resurgence. Since then others have offered me a few. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I don’t subscribe to that. I do think an old dog has tricks for the young dog too. Check out the Beatles and a slew of others. :wink:

FSB

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:29 am
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The last time I had a record player, was back in the 90's, when I found one in a pawn shop in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida for $15. It was one of those combo ones that had a AM/FM receiver and I think a tape deck, but I'm not sure. It did have the option to play 78 RPM records, which I thought was cool, because I had inherited some from a bunch of records that my brother gave me, which was a bunch of stuff that he also got from my grandparents and parents, besides what he had. It was definitely multi genre material, including Russian folk music, since my grandparent were Russian/Ukrainian. In fact, the 78 RPM stuff was Russian, with things like the Russian Red Army Choir from 1945, and some guy playing piano and singing. That one was almost rock and roll sounding, the way it was performed. A lot of their folk music is kind of uptempo like that, especially the drinking music.

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:12 pm
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Those 78s were something, Paul. I love listening to the variety, scratched or not. It’s like reading a variety of books and not just one over and over. Some of those ethnic records are interesting. I had some flamenco ones with gypsy music. Old vaudeville, opera, and a bunch of other ones.

I found an original 78 rpm copy of “If I Had A Million Dollars” that was covered by the Bare Naked Ladies which once again shows 78s are a great influence and motivation for making one’s own music.

I have a Russian Army Choir LP from the sixties that I inherited. It would be interesting to compare the two, knowing that your version was probably outstanding, Paul. I’ve never heard a drinking song in any language that I didn’t have a liking for. :lol:
As a kid I had a couple of wax cylinders that got lost over time with nothing to play them with, and I have a miniature plastic gramaphone that plays one of six records the size of a 50 cent piece. My USB stick collects music like a vortex. It just doesn’t have any character. :D
Blues records are cherished. So the next time someone brags about their digital gem, show them this article:

http://www.tefteller.com/html/rarest_78_record.html

Who’s to say what undiscovered record will become the rarest or most valuable?

I wonder what the rarest and most valuable pre-recorded cassette or 8 Track is?

“The Versace Experience - Prelude To Gold” a limited cassette by Prince sold for $4000 last year.

A contender for the most expensive 8 track:
http://8tracksrock.blogspot.ca/2011/02/ ... m.html?m=1

This’ll round it out:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... le_records

FSB

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:31 am
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There's an internet archive site that has a lot of 78 RPM recordings and things like that. https://archive.org/details/78rpm

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 9:25 am
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Thanks a bunch, Paul. Really interesting and fun for this thread. I look forward to enjoying it as I hope others will find too. :D
FSB

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 2:13 pm
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There's a lot of stuff out there. I especially like the Okeh Records stuff.

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 3:09 am
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PaulLF wrote:
There's a lot of stuff out there. I especially like the Okeh Records stuff.
Okaaaaaay! :lol: I like it too. :D Record labels can be a collectors' hobby too. I have a large picture book on that. Some pretty interesting stuff and the rarities. Label collecting can be a forever thing so I didn't take that so seriously; but, it can pay off if your patient and eager. 8)

FSB

Here's a nice thing about tape over MP3 cards. On tape and/or the case you can list the songs and the artists before you play it. :P

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 6:23 am
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Yeah, and with vinyl, you have a step further than that with the full artwork, liner notes, and all of that.

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 9:42 am
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“Yes, Tommy. MP3 is cool, but you’ll have to save your pennies for something really cool”.



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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 12:37 pm
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Not knowing that 8 Track was going to replace 4 Track, I bought a 4 Track for my car. I wondered why there weren't many 4 Track tapes available at that time. Lost a few bucks on that one a month before 8 Track.

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 6:21 pm
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Didn't cassettes actually come out in the late 60's, but were very expensive, or am I thinking of something else?

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 6:34 pm
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Mr. Nylon wrote:
Not knowing that 8 Track was going to replace 4 Track, I bought a 4 Track for my car. I wondered why there weren't many 4 Track tapes available at that time. Lost a few bucks on that one a month before 8 Track.

I totally get that. I used to have to travel to the States to peruse 4 track Quad pre-recorded open reels. Quad 8 track cartridges were everywhere, and there were some great ones. Doobies, Eagles, Doors, Nilsson, Aretha, and some dynomite mixes. I wish I had transferred all to my 10” reels, but, thankfully, I have some of the better stuff and may connect it to the AV receiver which, being older, has discrete inputs to allow it. Then I’ll cry about the 8 tracks and discrete LPs I traded off. :cry:
Amongst playback media, demodulators, and a whole slew of accompaniments, the audio game is risky and costly. Constant development, usually by the same players, has a habit of getting shelved for a lesser product because the public won’t support it from either getting burnt previously or because they don’t see any value. Unfortunately, we usually revert to mono and stereo because it’s easy and cheap.

I think virtual surround has a leg up here even though I have plenty of choices for discrete surround media.

That’s one of the problems - speakers, speakers, and more speakers and even more with multiple systems in one’s possession. Often multiple speakers are inferior to two or three. That is where virtual surround technology can be beneficial. IMHO. I’ll take it over mono in every room any day.

The last of 3D TV as we presently know it (LG and Sony) are vacating the home as higher resolution, etc. is the marketing for now. I know a great deal about that, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see reality TV and grade B movies aren’t going to fare any better any more than the News with 3D. I know 3D is a niche product not for everyone, but quality video as a whole can be at times too, so why not include the option to reduce the costs and to show an interest? Movies do it all the time and they seldom stop being progressive.

I’m betting home grown digital multi track recording to multi track playback consumer media is more in reach than allowed.

Just put our music in surround throughout every car and I’ll be a happy camper. Oh, and one other thing . . . give me the choice to make a decision if I want to dumb down with a switch for stereo or mono.

Now where are my beaten up discrete 4 channel headphones? :P
YMMV

FSB

You are right about the late 60s for the popularity of cassettes, Paul.

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 7:32 am
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PaulLF wrote:
Didn't cassettes actually come out in the late 60's, but were very expensive, or am I thinking of something else?


The first cassette tapes I saw was in late 1969, early 1970. A guitar player I knew, and worked with was starting to use them. I do remember sitting in his Econoline Ford van, on a way to a job, and saying to him, "Those will never take the place of 8 Tracks." And then a few years later, CD's strolled along, and pretty much displaced everything else. I also remember going to a local Peaches Records And Tapes store one day, then going into it three weeks later. All of the LP's, and 45's were in cartons, on sale, and sitting on only three good size conference tables. The rest of the store was mostly CD's, and some cassette tapes. That was fast. :shock: :roll:

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 2:18 pm
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You are pretty much bang on for the timeline of car introduction of the cassette, Glenn. 1968 was reported to be the first, at least on this side of the pond. Agreement that 8 trk was, for a time, superior in sound to cassettes at first seeing that cassettes and players started out several years earlier for dictation and thus not optimized for music. The sound was okay . . . but, compared to later, just okay. Toyota and associated Fujitsu would eventually test and change the audible dynamics of car interior design as a combined effort, and Dolby along with DBX did their part (although, as many are aware, even 8 tracks could have Dolby on their recordings). My Concord car deck, now in a box in case that evasive classic car shows up in my driveway, has a speed control for those frigid winter days that slow the tapes to a crawl.

Cars definitely were and still are responsible for many media innovations being introduced to the public in a big way. I have one or more audio demo music cassette tapes from a dealer and I even have an old DOS promotional floppy from a dealer somewhere amongst my collection of paraphernalia.

One of the cool things about working in the media in the early days is we got to see and hear the future ahead of schedule. We even got the failures. Often a company rep or visiting engineer from companies like Philips, RCA, Sony, Panasonic, and the like would walk in to talk about something of interest and they would then show up on the doorstep full of excitement bringing a prototype or pre-release for us to drool over and, hopefully, buy or promote. Often something like an Elcaset or Michael Nesmith’s LaserDisc would sit with us for enough time for everyone to participate in the fun (a lot in the off hours). The first time I saw OLED, our Sony rep had a small display rolled under his arm! Many years would pass before introduction as plasma had just been introduced.

But, I digress, as Mr. Nylon said, it seemed to be a quick turnover from 8 track, to cassette, to CD. I can attest to that. For me, it happened so fast that my automobile cassette with analog tuner was soon replaced with a digital tuner and then quickly replaced with a CD. Ah, but my 8 track had surround. Why DVD audio with potentially longer playing time and surround support and also those SACDs didn’t catch on is a bit of a mystery. IMHO. New cassettes, however, just seem to stick around having found a new life. I saw some the other day for $20 Cdn. Obviously, someone is buying them, and the LPs for more.

Wikipedia did a great job documenting the cassette history if one would like to read it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Cassette

FSB

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Post subject: Re: “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!”
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 2:58 pm
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Now records have made a comeback and even cassettes seem to find a niche again, to some degree. Everything old is new again, I suppose. Fashions are like that, quite frequently.

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