Anyone still listening to Music from Audio Tapes

[O.F.I.N.S.I.S.]

Hi.

Around two weeks ago, within two hours both tape decks from my Technics RS-TR-272 auto reverse tape deck broke. Since I couldn't fix it I bought a new (used) one from a local store which is selling used Hi-Fi equipment. An Uher UCT-370-CR in black color.

Today it started making weird noises, which I first suspected would came from the old AGFA Cassette. But no, it seems to be the engine, as the noise appeared on all other cassettes too. I feared it will be dying soon. So I opened it up, checked everything out and tried to give some fluid/oil to the engine (the kugellager (ball bearing)) where it's turning, as it seemed to be completely dry.

To get access to it I had to remove the complete device of the cassette being inserted to. After giving two drops of oil to it, it runs again silently. By now, for a hour plus some minutes there's no weird noises.

I'm still loving to listen to music from Audio Tapes. The oldest one I got is around 40 years old, recorded in the end of 1970s or 1980. It's a BASF SM 60 and I recorded Rick James Live in Germany at Rockpalast to it.

I also still have an old Technics M230 Tape Deck. Fast forward and rewind doesn't work anymore, but it still plays and records well.

Anyone else still listening to Music from Audio Tapes?

What Tape Decks do you have in place?

[LNSmith]

Hello O.F.I.N.S.I.S,

Leslie here - fr. Australia. No - I don't use cassettes - only CDs. In that sense I still live in the past too. I have nothing on disk or thumb-drive. I can buy a classical CD from the local 'thrift' shop for $1.oo and I see titles by composers that are 'new' (at least to me). In this way I'm broadening my musical interest quite a deal.

When CDs were popular I paid $30.oo for one CD. I now buy the same CD for $1.oo I call this "bargain". Few people have an interest in 'classical'.

All the best from au.

Leslie

[Flash]

O.F.I.N.S.I.S., I have transcribed several audio books from tape to mp3 format so I could listen to them from a flash player. The best way I found to do that is with mhWaveEdit in Puppy.

[Makoto]

I'm pretty sure we still have our old 8-track portable player and reel-to-reel, plus a minimum few remaining selections for each. On the other hand, we still have all our old cassette tapes, and an older stereo capable of playing them. (Same for our large stack of records.)

[dancytron]

I had some cassettes that I listened to in my old van until about a year ago when the transmission died and it got sent to the crusher.

[NathanO]

I have some old reel to reel tapes and cassette tapes that I have never found a cd of. Still like the sound.

Nathan

[rockedge]

an entire collection of our electronic music as the band WormGear since the early 1980's up to the mid 1990's is archived on metal cassette tapes and reel to reel!

Some of it has been converted from master tapes but most from cassette's to FLAC and mp3...but most of it just exists on old tapes. Our 1980's sampler used a really strange disk drive and disk format so after I repaired the drive I was able to transfer some important samples we had made from a modular synthesizer we managed to get some time on at a nearby university which we recorded on reel to reel and then created samples from that tape on a Roland MKS-100 Digital Sampler (circa 1986). The original reel to reel tape exists and works but the reel to reel tape machine has long ago bitten the dust and gone to the electronic storage locker in the sky.

The sampler still works. As does the Roland D-50 and Yamaha DX-11 that we originally also used to create the tapes. Some times since we had no money we recorded directly to cassette using a 4 track Fostex portable recorder/mixer and mixed it down to stereo.

*

[O.F.I.N.S.I.S.]

Thanks for the replies. Good to know that there's still some people who like audio tapes.

@rockedge

Yes, the good old synths and 4-track recording machines. I still have Yamaha SY22 Synthesizer, TG55 Sound Module, Roland D110 Sound Module.

We had also recorded to 4-track and mastered to stereo. Once I had a Yamaha MT100 4-track recorder with DBX noise reduction. Some time ago it broke.

On my YouTube channel there's a video, Baby Snakes Live which was recorded live using the Yamaha MT 100. Two tracks from stereo out of the mixer, two tracks room microphones. Video was recorded with an old VHS video camera.

28 years after the concert I received a digital copy of the video. So, I could master this video using KdenLive and Puppy.

Btw: what is "reel to reel" ?

[Flash]

...Btw: what is "reel to reel" ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reel-to-r ... _recording

[O.F.I.N.S.I.S.]

...Btw: what is "reel to reel" ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reel-to-r ... _recording

Thanks.

I suspected this already, but wasn't sure about it. In German we call this "Tonband" which is on the "Spule" or "Bandspule" and the recording machine is called "Bandmaschine" or even "Tonbandmaschine".

On YouTube there's a few tracks of Simon Phillips and his "Protocol 4". They/he still using reel to reel to record the music. One can see a really fat one recording in some of the videos. I think it's probably a 16 tracks or even more tracks reel to reel tape recorder.

Great music by the way...