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Revival Of The 8 Track?
- Thread starter ZiprHead
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Jimmy Higgins
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I haven't heard much good about 8-track tapes. I can't imagine listening to a mid-70s Yes album on one.
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Yeah, if you don't have any experience with them, you're not missing much.
ideologyhunter
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They were wonderful in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s in my car -- I got good sound out of my player. But they had real downsides:
Tape breaks -- typically, the silver track divider would come loose and the two spools of tape would roll back into the cartridge.
Tape snarls -- a song would suddenly bog down, and when you pulled the tape out, you'd find a huge mass of Raggedy Ann hair that used to be your tape -- sometimes wound around the player's capstan -- lots of fun to get that off!
Double tracking, common in many tapes, especially as they aged -- you'd hear the ghost of another song coming through.
On older Atlantic 8-tracks: the rubber rollers would degrade and turn sticky, which would make the tape stagger and also potentially smear onto the player.
Songs at the end of a track would often fade out for time requirements -- then you'd wait for the track to change and the song would resume.
Having to wait for a track to finish to get to the song you wanted.
The most fun I ever had with an 8-track: late one night I was driving home from grad school playing a tape I'd made of Bessie Smith. The tape jammed, and when I pulled it out, it had that scrunched-up accordion appearance that told me the tape would never play again. I was on a long country road and I decided to be a litter bug (politically incorrect narrative follows, but I was young & dumb. And bored.) I held on to the twisted tape and lowered the cartridge out the window. Its weight began to pull more of the tape loose -- soon I heard it bouncing and clattering behind me on the road, but I held on to the tape with my left hand, and it kept unreeling. It must have stretched out 20 or 30 feet behind my car. Finally I saw headlights ahead and didn't want to be spotted doing what I was doing -- so I abandoned Bessie to the roadway.
I had a lot of fun with 8-tracks -- played hours & hours & hours of the Dead, Aretha, Otis, the Beatles, Joni. I boxed up my last remaining 8s and donated 'em to an 8-track museum that some guy had started -- I think it was written up in Parade Magazine.
But they're sort of like Fizzies, aren't they? They've been superseded.
Tape breaks -- typically, the silver track divider would come loose and the two spools of tape would roll back into the cartridge.
Tape snarls -- a song would suddenly bog down, and when you pulled the tape out, you'd find a huge mass of Raggedy Ann hair that used to be your tape -- sometimes wound around the player's capstan -- lots of fun to get that off!
Double tracking, common in many tapes, especially as they aged -- you'd hear the ghost of another song coming through.
On older Atlantic 8-tracks: the rubber rollers would degrade and turn sticky, which would make the tape stagger and also potentially smear onto the player.
Songs at the end of a track would often fade out for time requirements -- then you'd wait for the track to change and the song would resume.
Having to wait for a track to finish to get to the song you wanted.
The most fun I ever had with an 8-track: late one night I was driving home from grad school playing a tape I'd made of Bessie Smith. The tape jammed, and when I pulled it out, it had that scrunched-up accordion appearance that told me the tape would never play again. I was on a long country road and I decided to be a litter bug (politically incorrect narrative follows, but I was young & dumb. And bored.) I held on to the twisted tape and lowered the cartridge out the window. Its weight began to pull more of the tape loose -- soon I heard it bouncing and clattering behind me on the road, but I held on to the tape with my left hand, and it kept unreeling. It must have stretched out 20 or 30 feet behind my car. Finally I saw headlights ahead and didn't want to be spotted doing what I was doing -- so I abandoned Bessie to the roadway.
I had a lot of fun with 8-tracks -- played hours & hours & hours of the Dead, Aretha, Otis, the Beatles, Joni. I boxed up my last remaining 8s and donated 'em to an 8-track museum that some guy had started -- I think it was written up in Parade Magazine.
But they're sort of like Fizzies, aren't they? They've been superseded.
8 track tapes were the first practical recorded music that could be played in a car. Chrysler actually had an optional turn table for some of their models. It was intended for use while parked, but was never popular. Cassette tapes were not suitable for music recording because the tape drive motor made caused a hiss that couldn't be tolerated. Ray Dolby invented electronic circuitry that filtered out the hiss in the mid 1960s and eventually this was reduced in size to be practical in portable players.
Cassettes quickly pushed 8 tracks out of the market for two reasons. First, cassettes were half the size of an 8 track tape and second, 8 tracks had a very short life, before the tape either wore out or broke.
The only reason I can see for reviving 8 tracks is to attract attention.
Cassettes quickly pushed 8 tracks out of the market for two reasons. First, cassettes were half the size of an 8 track tape and second, 8 tracks had a very short life, before the tape either wore out or broke.
The only reason I can see for reviving 8 tracks is to attract attention.