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rayman612 wrote:in my experience tho, cassettes sound like garbage

are there new cassettes that have better sound quality

unless its hip hop, i dont want music to sound like garbage

Firstly they don't sound that bad on a good player if they have been kept probably

secondly yeah even when they sound their best they have a kind of dirty sonic quality which you can want. When some dude is playing droning horror synth stuff a certain level of dirt can enhance the atmopshere the artist is going for. Look at the link I posted. Go on the catalog and scroll down and find TREPANERINGSRITUALEN's tape. listen to the preview and it will make a little more sense.

I like the crackle and phase that tapes get when they start aging, it adds a bit of character!

Got so many old reggae sound clashes on tape, the sound quality on some of them is hideous

I personally think its people being abit hipster.. Cassettes were great for one thing and that was recording stuff very easily on your tape deck.. Whether it be pirate radio or someone else's tape from a helter skelter or sidewinder tape pack.
Other than that, I think they're a poor alternative to cd.

I bought the khan and neek grime tape and was impressed, not from the sound quality but the nostalgia of it all.
Will I be purchasing other cassettes? Probably not
Why? Because I already collect vinyl, the reason I collect vinyl is because it's like an addiction.. Call me a loser but Its a very special feeling when that tune you've always wanted gets delivered to your house in wax, you take it out the packaging and listen to it on your record player. I sure as hell didn't have anywhere near that same feeling when this cassette got delivered.. I listened to it once then actually lent it to my mate who I used to go sidewinder with.
I sure as hell wouldn't have lent out my copy of sunklofree when it got delivered, or my copy of drycry.

Maybe it's just me being an anti hipster but I think it's just another hype thing where people like to be different.

The bottom line is I paid £5 for a single tape worth 45mins of music, which they probably bought for 20p.. It's a very large margin of profit and they market it through the nostalgia factor and that it's a release thats different.

idk i dont like it

feels like im getting ripped off or something for some reason

to each his own tho, if u like tapes get on it

http://www.cicadashell.com/

Geey wrote: Maybe it's just me being an anti hipster but I think it's just another hype thing where people like to be different.

Actually I think it still makes you a hipster

constrobuz wrote:http://www.cicadashell.com/

Any way to get a discount if I order all three together?

mo respect wrote:

Geey wrote: Maybe it's just me being an anti hipster but I think it's just another hype thing where people like to be different.

Actually I think it still makes you a hipster

If you mean me being an anti hipster makes me a hipster.. Thank you for pointing out the obvious

I think there's also an element of deliberate reaction to digital culture in it as well.

Firstly tape loses the perfect reproduction thing and is just a bit more unique[1] than an mp3 which is just another copy in an endless series of copies.
Secondly it's innately more difficult to listen to, which means you actually have to be a bit more conscious and deliberate about listening to it rather than just having it come on on shuffle and nodding your head until the next thing comes on.

I'm not one of those twats who goes on about "how much we've lost" and how we've all given up our souls and individuality to the computers, I'm all over the great things about digital culture and ludicrously cool stuff it lets us do - eg you can be listening to a tune in London this evening that was written by someone in Moscow this morning and mastered by someone in Capetown this afternoon - but sometimes it's cool to have someone swimming against the flow as well.

[1] my soul will spend fifty years in language pedant hell for that, but I can't think of a better way of putting it

It's not that you're being ripped off. You're buying for the aesthetic quality the format imparts on the music. It's not a hipster thing either. You buy it because the sound of the tape fits the type of music. There's types of music I sure as fuck wouldn't buy on tape and there's stuff I own on tape that I wouldn't like as much on cd. The packaging for tapes holds a certain character too.

I'm amazed how many people will happily say they buy vinyl because they like the sound and the physicality of it but can't understand that tape can be enjoyed in those ways (though for very different reasons).

Geey wrote:

mo respect wrote:

Geey wrote: Maybe it's just me being an anti hipster but I think it's just another hype thing where people like to be different.

Actually I think it still makes you a hipster

If you mean me being an anti hipster makes me a hipster.. Thank you for pointing out the obvious

Your whole post actually made you sound like a hipster, but yeah, that line was the easiest to pick out. Like Slothrop said, its about a reaction to digital culture as well. People want physical copies...but wax just isn't mobile, and that is what makes the real interest in cassettes; not just the fact that they're recordable.

slothrop wrote: Secondly it's innately more difficult to listen to, which means you actually have to be a bit more conscious and deliberate about listening to it rather than just having it come on on shuffle and nodding your head until the next thing comes on.

This pretty much sums it up

wolf89 wrote:I'm amazed how many people will happily say they buy vinyl because they like the sound and the physicality of it but can't understand that tape can be enjoyed in those ways (though for very different reasons).

yeah. it's an odd one.

as for hipsters... you'll find hipsters in every area. you'll always find people doing things for dubious reasons. I wouldn't write off every cassette release because a few unimaginative people piggyback off the format.

mo respect wrote:

Geey wrote:

mo respect wrote:

Geey wrote: Maybe it's just me being an anti hipster but I think it's just another hype thing where people like to be different.

Actually I think it still makes you a hipster

If you mean me being an anti hipster makes me a hipster.. Thank you for pointing out the obvious

Your whole post actually made you sound like a hipster, but yeah, that line was the easiest to pick out. Like Slothrop said, its about a reaction to digital culture as well. People want physical copies...but wax just isn't mobile, and that is what makes the real interest in cassettes; not just the fact that they're recordable.

So whats wrong with cd's?

wolf89 wrote: I'm amazed how many people will happily say they buy vinyl because they like the sound and the physicality of it but can't understand that tape can be enjoyed in those ways (though for very different reasons).

I think it comes down to sound quality again though. Most people, here anyways, were listening to tapes in the car or on the move, and lets face it, those speakers generally sounded like shit/they didnt take care of their tapes. Its like listening to an LP when you haven't changed your needles in forever...


And whats wrong with CD's? Nothing, aside from the fact that they don't have that warmth. You get a CD if you want something to sound crisp and clean.

One cassette I really wish I had:

Further Records - http://furtherrecords.org

Further have put out some decent stuff on cassette. ekoplekz, wanda group, nochexxx, hieroglyphic being & pye corner audio, to name a few.

mo respect wrote: And whats wrong with CD's? Nothing, aside from the fact that they don't have that warmth. You get a CD if you want something to sound crisp and clean.

So Is it the same with dvd's to VHS cassettes?

Geey wrote:

mo respect wrote: And whats wrong with CD's? Nothing, aside from the fact that they don't have that warmth. You get a CD if you want something to sound crisp and clean.

So Is it the same with dvd's to VHS cassettes?

well, yeah although I don't think format plays as much of a role in film as it does music for a lot of people.

cloquet wrote:

wolf89 wrote:I'm amazed how many people will happily say they buy vinyl because they like the sound and the physicality of it but can't understand that tape can be enjoyed in those ways (though for very different reasons).

yeah. it's an odd one.

I collect vinyl like a fiend, but if you're gonna start comparing formats, then vinyl is ludicrous. Expensive to produce, so expensive to sell, heavy as fuck, so not portable, hard to carry to gigs, expensive to ship, the equipment you need to play it also very expensive, and you're limited to about 18 minutes a side at best quality. The sound quality argument is at best debatable now that WAV/FLAC are widely available and digital storage is so cheap.

Why do I buy things on cassette/vinyl/CD/digital? Because that's just what they come out on, simple as that.

Kahn & Neek - Gorgon Grime came out. What format? Cassette >>> Buy cassette.

Too much to grasp?