In an age where vinyl is making a storming (with a small s) comeback, it’s only logical that minds turn to other forms of media to see if they can be rerinsed to make some cash from hipsters. And bugger me if the venerable cassette isn’t popular all over again. Capitalising on this are the QRATES team — we covered their somewhat spiffing vinyl service a little while ago, and it looks like they’re aiming to do the same thing with cassettes too… or QASSETTES as they would have you call it.
The process is the same as QRATES — upload your music, design your cassette, and start the funding process to make it happen. Looking at the image, you get a choice of cassette colour and I would imagine that this extends to printed label and inlay too.
CASSETTES. REALLY?
I do have a nostalgic love for cassettes. Being of an age where I can say that I made and sold mixtapes in my local record shop, it’s hard for me not get behind such a venture. And while I know that they wouldn’t be doing this without thinking that there’s a demand, I struggle with the idea that people would go back to carrying around walkmans, putting up with lower quality than digital audio, and having to FF to the next track. But it’s not just about the portability or quality — it’s about having something tangible and real in your hands again.
Indeed my friends Jon Furst and Mr Brown are involved in cassette projects. But despite the constant sharing of Mr Tape and similar clips, cassettes are not for DJs to play out with. It is however easier to make actual physical mixtapes and not have to do it in one 30 or 45 minutes take. But with CDs costing pennies, giving out mixtapes isn’t a cheap endeavour.
But what about playing cassettes? Not a problem. eBay is chokka with old units, and Amazon is littered with all manner of new devices. And unlike two years ago, blank cassettes are easy to get hold of too, but sadly not the AD90s that I used exclusively. Not that I plan to make cassettes again anyway.
While the aesthetic of home dubbing and hand labelling still appeals to me, the Qassettes concept may well be better for more than a few at a time. This service is still at announcement stage, but should you want to keep up to date, sign up here.
There’s literally nothing good about audio cassettes. Bring back Minidisc, I say! God, I loved my MD recorder.
EDIT: The only good cassette is Cassetteboy. https://www.youtube.com/user/cassetteboy
I loved ATRAC too, but it seems that Sony continually shots themselves in the foot over proprietary formats.
the only good thing about cassettes was that in their time they were a small, portable format and an affordable way to record and duplicate a signal.
tape is a byword for low audio quality. that can be good fun in the studio, but rapidly goes downhill every stage it passes through from there to the final consumer.
i don’t see any reason to resurrect them as a consumer format since we can probably embed better files in this comment section in a matter of seconds.
I have 2 recording minidisc decks and a minidisc car deck.
The Good:
They remind of your youth, nostalgia
You need to add points to you hipster lifestyle
The Bad:
No track markers
You need to physically rewind and fast forward
They don’t sound as good as Records, CD’s MD, or MP3s
They can be eaten by the tape player
They take up more space then digital files
You can’t email them like digital files
Tapes are expensive
You have to dub in real time 2X faster than real time (slow)
Each copy you make from it will degrade in sound
If you didn’t invest into high-end tape decks. Everything listed under bad is true. I have still today the best tape decks, reel to reel and recordable 8 tracks, that can record the highest quality and sound as good as the original source.
i found Metal tapes to be excellent sounding on a good quality tapedeck
however MDs were my favorite format when it comes to portability
Is this real?
Or is it Memorex?
First cassette tape I ever bought I still have, Dinosaur Jr, Bug!
Great album :)
:)
Sorry. Forgot about these awesome cassettes. http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/4/47/Madman_comic_Soundwave_ejects_tapes.jpg
our band just released a casette. There ain’t nothing wrong with a properly recorded chrome cassette, sounds way better than a lo bitrate mp3 any day. You musta had really crappy decks. I even seen some people DJ with two pitchable cassette decks, IIRC abt two years ago
Agreed, convenient it is not. But then again, vinyl isn’t either
Play that tape 100 times then tell me it sounds better than low bitrate audio. Cassettes start out at 96kbps and degrade each time you play them, like vinyl. For a certain age group, their certainly a collectable medium with a lot of nostalgia, but definitely not a listening medium.
yep, cassettes.
Seeing an RME sound card atop a cassette player is really ironic.
I know, right? Shit, it’s almost like I can be funny sometimes.
No.
I remember when DMC mixes were sold on cassette. And yes, some DJs played them in clubs. I used TDK SA90 chrome tapes myself. There was a brand called That’s once too. Got a few of those.
I’m a cassette fanatic and last year, upon realizing I hadn’t so much as touched a cassette or player in 13 years, I quickly bought up a few pro decks and all the eBay hauls of cassettes I could find. My goal is to DJ with them like I did in high school. I’m sure some hipster bar could appreciate that.
‘cassettes are not for DJs to play out with’
Have you guys not seen guys like ‘tapes’?
Literally five words before the quote is a link to a Mr Tape video. ;)
Cassettes were the first medium I experienced hip hop through so they have some real nostalgic value to me, but more than that, they have a life about them that I don’t hear much in digital recordings. The hiss, wow and flutter of old tapes added an extra element to the music I grew up with – sharing tapes of tapes of tapes with friends because money was tight and supplies of good original tapes (or LPs) were even tighter.