5 ms·

Tapes can do 110 minutes and sound just as good to non-audiophiles as cd's. You could put around 50 MB data on it, which translates in around an hour of high fi

Tapes can do 110 minutes and sound just as good to non-audiophiles as cd's. You could put around 50 MB data on it, which translates in around an hour of high fidelity music (Opus codec or HE-AAC). You can't put a CD in your pocket, you can do so with a cassette. They have a much higher nostalgia value... With the fast-forward/backward, pause and record buttons you can more easy copy or record stuff to create a mix-tape. The linear user interface is very simple. My car only has a tape deck and a radio... it didn't have anything else.. so now I use a 3.5 audio jack cable to tape converter thingy to play my podcasts from my phone through the tape adapter to get the audio to my carspeakers. There is a very annoying periodic tick I have no clue were it's coming from but at least I am downward compatible... come to think of it - now I can play all those tapes I have stuffed away somewhere!

nizmow 10y ago
>You could put around 50 MB data on it, which translates in around an hour of high fidelity music (Opus codec or HE-AAC) How on earth are you supposed to play that back?
- fsiefken 10y ago
  You have to put a decoding chip in the cassette device... or but the audio cable in the line-in of a pc and decode it there... but then I think I'd say, why bother. Stick with audio and analog for tapes (except when you are using a C64 and record data from radio or modem). Not sure if a wav decoder has been done for C64... Opus and mp4 are out of it's league (not sure about running it in an emulator on faster hardware).
SomeCallMeTim 10y ago
I always carry a 16Gb USB flash drive in my pocket. I can play music from it in both of my cars (USB ports), at most places I visit (plug it into a computer), and the music doesn't degrade with playback. Oh, and I could throw about 133 hours of high quality audio onto it and it would still be half empty. AND...my phone has plenty of room for another 8Gb of music, and to play that I just need to hit play; plugging it in to an amp or headphones is optional, but recommended. Why are we even having this discussion?
- alistoriv 10y ago
  For starters, not everybody can afford that kinda stuff. The comment you're replying to even talks about how his car only has a tape player and a radio. This cassette revival is primarily happening with young people who are in college or have otherwise low paying jobs (or no jobs). A lot of young people have old used cars with cassette players. For people in bands, as well, putting out music on a cassette is the most cost effective way to put out music physically. And to address the bit about the phone, you'd be surprised how fast phone storage fills up with other stuff. My (admittedly several years old) phone's 8gb storage is more than half filled by system bloat so I have to use an sd card to put music on it. And that's not even including apps. This, unfortunately, isn't really an option anymore for the vast majority of phones (with the notable exception of most Samsung phones).
  - SomeCallMeTim 10y ago
    $5 gets you a gadget that will stream music from a headphone jack into a tape player in a car. I had one for my last car; it worked great. Or are these folks so poor they don't even have a smart phone? "Free with plan" Android phones can easily play tons of music. Yes they fill up, but many do have an SD card option. Or you can spend $15 on an MP3 player (or pick one up at a thrift store for less). Considering tapes cost more than digital tracks, you'd save enough by buying digital to pay for the MP3 player and the cassette adapter by just forgoing a couple of tapes. As to "cost effective": Blank tapes cost way more than blank CD-Rs. A quick search finds 30 name-brand discs for six bucks [0], and I've seen them less than $0.01 each in bulk. [0b] Tapes cost nearly a dollar each. Almost everyone, in college or otherwise, needs to have a computer, or has access to one (libraries!), and most inexpensive computers have CD-Rs. If you don't have a CD burner in your computer, one costs less than a decent cassette recorder. $11.99 on Amazon will get you one, in fact. [1] And it will be faster to make copies onto CDs, and the copies will be strictly better, than using tape. Tapes are simply a retro "style" thing. They're not cheaper, and they suck. Trying to justify them in any way just doesn't work. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-Branded-Recordable-30-Disc-95152/dp/B000FN476U https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-Branded-Recordable-30-Disc-9... [0b] https://www.amazon.com/Smartbuy-700mb-80min-Recordable-1000-Disc/dp/B00K6NDNPA https://www.amazon.com/Smartbuy-700mb-80min-Recordable-1000-... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-XuBlack-External-Supports-Computer/dp/B01MTKMDVA https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-XuBlack-External-Supports-Co...
phjesusthatguy3 10y ago
>My car only has a tape deck and a radio... it didn't have anything else.. When I was a kid, my parents' station wagon had an 8-track deck in the dash. We had a converter that plugged into it that would let us play our cassettes.

nizmow 10y ago

>You could put around 50 MB data on it, which translates in around an hour of high fidelity music (Opus codec or HE-AAC) How on earth are you supposed to play that back?

fsiefken 10y ago
You have to put a decoding chip in the cassette device... or but the audio cable in the line-in of a pc and decode it there... but then I think I'd say, why bother. Stick with audio and analog for tapes (except when you are using a C64 and record data from radio or modem). Not sure if a wav decoder has been done for C64... Opus and mp4 are out of it's league (not sure about running it in an emulator on faster hardware).

SomeCallMeTim 10y ago

I always carry a 16Gb USB flash drive in my pocket. I can play music from it in both of my cars (USB ports), at most places I visit (plug it into a computer), and the music doesn't degrade with playback. Oh, and I could throw about 133 hours of high quality audio onto it and it would still be half empty. AND...my phone has plenty of room for another 8Gb of music, and to play that I just need to hit play; plugging it in to an amp or headphones is optional, but recommended. Why are we even having this discussion?

alistoriv 10y ago
For starters, not everybody can afford that kinda stuff. The comment you're replying to even talks about how his car only has a tape player and a radio. This cassette revival is primarily happening with young people who are in college or have otherwise low paying jobs (or no jobs). A lot of young people have old used cars with cassette players. For people in bands, as well, putting out music on a cassette is the most cost effective way to put out music physically. And to address the bit about the phone, you'd be surprised how fast phone storage fills up with other stuff. My (admittedly several years old) phone's 8gb storage is more than half filled by system bloat so I have to use an sd card to put music on it. And that's not even including apps. This, unfortunately, isn't really an option anymore for the vast majority of phones (with the notable exception of most Samsung phones).
- SomeCallMeTim 10y ago
  $5 gets you a gadget that will stream music from a headphone jack into a tape player in a car. I had one for my last car; it worked great. Or are these folks so poor they don't even have a smart phone? "Free with plan" Android phones can easily play tons of music. Yes they fill up, but many do have an SD card option. Or you can spend $15 on an MP3 player (or pick one up at a thrift store for less). Considering tapes cost more than digital tracks, you'd save enough by buying digital to pay for the MP3 player and the cassette adapter by just forgoing a couple of tapes. As to "cost effective": Blank tapes cost way more than blank CD-Rs. A quick search finds 30 name-brand discs for six bucks [0], and I've seen them less than $0.01 each in bulk. [0b] Tapes cost nearly a dollar each. Almost everyone, in college or otherwise, needs to have a computer, or has access to one (libraries!), and most inexpensive computers have CD-Rs. If you don't have a CD burner in your computer, one costs less than a decent cassette recorder. $11.99 on Amazon will get you one, in fact. [1] And it will be faster to make copies onto CDs, and the copies will be strictly better, than using tape. Tapes are simply a retro "style" thing. They're not cheaper, and they suck. Trying to justify them in any way just doesn't work. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-Branded-Recordable-30-Disc-95152/dp/B000FN476U https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-Branded-Recordable-30-Disc-9... [0b] https://www.amazon.com/Smartbuy-700mb-80min-Recordable-1000-Disc/dp/B00K6NDNPA https://www.amazon.com/Smartbuy-700mb-80min-Recordable-1000-... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-XuBlack-External-Supports-Computer/dp/B01MTKMDVA https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-XuBlack-External-Supports-Co...

phjesusthatguy3 10y ago

>My car only has a tape deck and a radio... it didn't have anything else.. When I was a kid, my parents' station wagon had an 8-track deck in the dash. We had a converter that plugged into it that would let us play our cassettes.