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Solved Problems (by kplx) (piefed.kobel.fyi)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world
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[–] 5 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

Gen z here. I don’t feel like I’ve earned the right to talk about cassettes as a youngster, but a Type II cassette on a well maintained dual capstan deck and a well biased recording sound pretty good. Add a touch of Dolby type b noise cancellation and it’s even better.

Specifically, I’m using a Yamaha k-1020 deck ($350 refurbished), and Maxwell XL-II 90 tapes ($5-10). I’m running a proper audio interface into the cassette deck. Since I’m using my phone, I have the luxury of rapidly skipping around an album on my phone while I’m checking levels for an entire album. And I’m using a 3 head deck, so I can hear exactly what’s being recorded in realtime.

You might read that and be like “that’s too much work”, but that’s kinda the point imo. Why do people still do film photography when it’s more work than digital? (I also shoot film lol)

Admittedly, things fall apart a little when you move to portable cassette players. Modern players are kinda crap. I haven’t gotten my hands on any vintage walkmans yet.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    I grew up with cassettes. Type II was a rarity and not what you’d buy from the store. Those were type I tapes.

    Plus the whole format was a compromise. CDs almost whipped them out, but when digital came both were gone in a flash.

    I think the only benefit of cassette today is making mix tapes, but on a retail and purchasable music standpoint. They weren’t good.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah. Most of the modern prerecorded tapes are still crap. Although maybe like 20% of the pre recorded ones sound decent, surprisingly.

    Cassettes were never designed for music, from what I understand. Instead, it was a format that music adopted later. Considering that, cassettes can actually sound really good imo. But I do have the luxury of using type II tapes. Type 1 isn’t bad if you have a really nice deck and a really good recording.

    But isn’t there a whole lot more to this story? I believe cassettes were responsible for getting many underground artists started, who record labels would have never signed. I also heard a story where disregarded tapes set for recycling made their way from USA to other countries. Those tapes influenced music in that country, and they never would have been if they were another format.

    That last point isn’t about audio quality, but it always seemed like cassettes didn’t get the respect they deserved imo.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago

    Yeah. Daniel Johnston got to be a known musician because the guy was one of those creative souls that couldn't help but to create music in this case, he released his music in cassettes and one of them somehow got to Kurt Cobain's hands.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago*

    IMO, sound was never really the issue with tapes (at least not for portable use), it was longevity - it doesn't make a ton of sense to buy pre-recorded tapes when they can break so easily, but it was also kind of a PITA to record them yourself off CD, vinyl or radio.

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