A Brief History of Magnetic Recording - The Era of 8-Tracks and Compact Cassettes

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

If you were around, what's your favorite memory from the era of 8-tracks and cassette tapes?

[@ArturdeSousaRocha]

It's gotta be recording music from radio. My own personal random mixtapes.

[@mcgintymedia4316]

Favorite memory: making mixtapes, the sound of the tape player and, in a strange way, rewinding them with a pencil after the tape got tangled in the player. Nothing better than sitting by the radio and waiting until your song came on so you could record it...then it was yours forever!

[@Scudmaster11]

On a metal tape yes it does

[@Scudmaster11]

I'm from 2004 so I have vary faded of thoes memories of cassettes but I remember using them infact I still use the... they are great and I am a person that will say that cassettes sound better than vynal

[@shawnjolly2089]

I was still using my dad's Sony Walkman in High School 2007 to 2009 and I'm still using that tape player everyone was walking around their phones but I didn't have any phone

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

that's incredible! do you still have a pretty big cassette collection?

[@shawnjolly2089]

@@MusicTheoriesChannel yes I do

[@MutantShredder214]

Wow! Such an informative video! This is awesome. Loving this series!

[@zulumax1]

6:32 Muntz and Lear came out with the 4 track cartridge before the 8 track that followed. No built in rubber wheel, 2 programs, and a locking brake for the hub that the 8 track lacked. some larger 4 track carts were make that were much bigger than an 8 track as well were made.

[@tomdegan6924]

Excellent presentation.

[@soniafazalkhan4107]

thank you so much for this video.

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

You are so welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@eddiebrancovictor]

Very informative and interesting video! I was wondering why a channel with such quality content had so few subscribers. Then I noticed have you recently made a comeback. Hope you keep producing! I love this format of videos.

[@baconpanda1406]

Love this series. I hope this channel blow-ups soon!

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

I hope so too! :D thank you so much for watching!

[@filipbarski6990]

Very nice video, one nitpick 6:18 the photo shows a later Nagra either III or IV

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

yes! good catch - couldn't find any photos. thanks for watching!

[@blockswingperry158]

i have my mothers and aunts and uncles cassette tape collection. its fun to have around when the internet goes down. ive taken a couple of cassette tapes from trashes to record my favorite spotify playlists onto and meme sound collections. i regret not taking my cassette player with me to college :')

[@whosdeea]

Underrated Thank you for putting all this info out there

[@prowlermadmax2]

The reason i collect vinyl records vs cassettes, is that cassettes tapes in time drys out and produces a high pitch noise when playing.

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Thanks for sharing your perspective!

[@alexanderkramer6047]

I always heard cassette was introduced in 1963 not 65. Meaning it even came before the 8 track.

[@magnoliamike]

Video and audio is very intriguing. Video is a little more easier to understand because it’s just fast moving pictures, but audio on the other hand is very confusing

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Could you be more specific about what’s confusing? I might be able to elaborate!

[@Andersljungberg]

You forgot. Sony's L cassette and DAT = digital audio tape. And even mini discs record through magnetism. But real to reel tape still has the absolute highest sound quality. and such you could find in Folk's homes in the 70s and 80s. The compact cassette was not originally made for music from the beginning. but as a dictaphone

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Thank you for sharing!

[@jackcrook4435]

Great presentation! I've never heard of anybody with the opinion that cassette has a better sound quality than vinyl though haha. Maybe there are people who enjoy the medium more subjectively (I love listening to music on cassette), but nobody can argue the frequency responses are even close to being as hifi on a cassette when compared to vinyl.

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

I, personally, don't have an opinion but according to the internet, some feel very strongly about this!

[@cheesecakefox7106]

Guess that makes me rare? 😂 because I love cassettes and collect them.

[@musclecarfan74]

lesser known are the RCA Cassette,1958, 4-track 1962 Play Tape 1966, and Sony Elcaset 1976

[@AlexRamirez-fj4dj]

I have a 2 track and 4 track open reel recorders. The 2 track has great sound when i taped a cd on it to see the quality. It caught the sound of the cd better than the audio cassette due to its higher speed of 7.5 ips. Vs 1 7/8 ips. I still enjoy using them since i have old tapes only recorded on either machine.

[@mcgintymedia4316]

Instant subscribe. Great video! Great voice! I look forward to binging your other videos. PS...I still collect cassettes and reel to reel tape.

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@billyyoung7764]

This is amazing if you think about the history of the world at that time wow

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Right!!

[@pashtosongs848]

Well done

[@ShiverBruce]

Great content!

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Thank you!

[@muhammadasifanwarasif2122]

Very Nice

[@tasawarmehmood4105]

v nice mam. plzzz make a new video of this type. great mam

[@JIm-w1b]

While I'm not an authority, I'm certain they had American tape recorders from about 1930 on, when they made all the bugs bunny cartoons. Tape recorders came along at the same time as talking movies

[@eddyrocks]

Absolutely love this channel! Where can we find you on socials?

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Thank you so much! I actually haven't made any social accounts for this channel yet😳 maybe I should!

[@Dr_Nobody2962-YouTube]

I was born in the 21 century but I was raised like a 90s and 80s kid so I knew lots of stuff kids my age did not know.

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Cool!

[@ScottGrammer]

Nicely done. But we're still in the era of magnetic recording. You have a computer? Odds are it has a hard drive, unless it's one of the few that only has an SSD. Hard drives are magnetic recorders. Further, since perhaps 75% of all recordings ever made were made on tape, there's a lot of tape out there to hear and to transfer to digital before it disintegrates or succumbs to Sticky Shed Syndrome. BTW, the machine you show at 5:52 is not a conventional tape recorder. It is an early steel tape recorder.

[@somethyguyerson6987]

Technically we are still in the Iron Age. Do you own metallic products? Odds are they are made of Iron or some alloy of Iron. I would also like to know where you got that 75% statistic. Also: www.startribune.com/cassettes-are-making-a-comeback-but-cds-are-the-superior-vintage-music-format/480377883/

[@ScottGrammer]

@@somethyguyerson6987 The 75% figure is an estimate, based on my own 44 years in audio, and the fact that the audio recording industry switched from recording direct to disc to recording on tape in 1948 and never looked back except for some audiophile labels in the '70s and '80s. Add to that the fact that there was a lot more recorded music made after 1948 then from say 1880 to 1948, and add to that the fact that analog studio recordings never really went away even after the digital era began, and I think it's a fair estimate. Your point about the iron age is well taken.

[@halitmarmaris]

Thank you 🎵

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Thank you too!

[@MikinessAnalog]

9:29 a radio / cassette player (recorder) that could also transmit as well?

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Yes! It was basically a radio that could also play/record cassette tapes. This is how people used to make mixtapes before the internet (:

[@dahawk8574]

​@@MusicTheoriesChannel Excellent series. This part would have been better if you hadn't skipped over one of the most significant steps along the way... The Transistor Radio. It was the Walkman before the Walkman. Btw, the original US name for the Walkman was actually perfect. The Soundabout. You've earned my sub. And I will not be surprised to see you blast through 100K subs over the next year. Congrats.

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

@@dahawk8574 thanks for the support! If I covered everything, the video would be much longer 😅 wanted to keep it as short as possible (as well as keep some of the content for the future!)

[@djhrecordhound4391]

I was a cheap kid in the late 80s who didn't mind quantity over quality. 8-tracks were literally a dime a dozen. Then the 90s "vinyl death" era came...I'm still a dumping ground for full collections. Funny that an 8-track I got in 1987 for ten cents can now sell anywhere from $5-$50. (Vinyl values usually make those who gave me their records highly embarrassed. Having 5 to 20 copies of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" or Meat Loaf's "Bat Out Of Hell" used to be annoying, but even those can fetch $5-$10 each nowadays!)

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Love this!

[@djhrecordhound4391]

@@MusicTheoriesChannel 20 years ago lots of stuff wasn't available digitally yet, so I taught myself audio restoration, specializing in hard cases (broken/scratched/damaged records, shedding tape, reviving badly-recorded audio, etc). With a well-tuned player, well-recorded 8-tracks, and filters set properly to drop tape hiss, I've had excellent digital results. Bass so deep and clear that a subwoofer does it justice!

[@ralphreinhardt6020]

You've done a overall good job on this video. With a good voice, nice and clear. Just one thing and its a small thing. You need to pronounce the letter T more clearly. As I said , overall a job well done. 🙂👍

[@lukeroberts201]

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[@HaharuRecords]

Cool, seems like some guys got other cool things to do instead of making bombs..

[@MusicTheoriesChannel]

Thank God!