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Cassette tapes are obviously a huge part of hip-hop culture and the musical zeitgeist of the 80's and 90's; chances are that if you're posting in this forum in the first place, you grew up with cassettes or with an older relative that played them. We have a couple of pretty incredible on-going threads in which heads are constantly converting their old tapes to MP3 and sharing the bounty. Does anyone still listen to the tapes, though?

Honestly, I'm one of those people that think certain music sounds better on cassette tape. (I know this sounds weird.) My travels have taken me to a lotta different second-hand stores and flea markets and I always pick up tapes if they're cheap and it's something I don't already have. Recently copped an Odd Squad I Can't See It/Smokin' Dat Weed cassingle at a thrift shop in Skowhegan, Maine (wtf?). Still stoked off the fact that the tape contains the instrumental versions of both tracks! My car also has a tape deck, so that's another reason to keep buying tapes...most of the stuff I buy nowadays is newer metal & punk releases but if I ever find copies of Ridin' Dirty or Dare iz a Darkside best believe I will cop. I was really tempted by the re-release of Madvillain on cassette tape too.

So whaddaya say? Still listen to tapes? Just collect them? Is this all just some hipster shit anyway? Speak on it.

I still do every once and awhile, I do thing it sounds a little better on cassette as in thicker and warmer as compared to mp3s that I get on the regular that sound thinner in comparison. I have a drawer full of my 90's singles and albums on cassette which I sit in front of everyday when using my computer on top of it.

I don't know much about the new hipster tape movement but I think if you really appreciate the music and enjoy the nostalgia then go for it.

i still listen to the mixtapes i used to make in the 90s on a regular basis.

I buy and listen to mixtapes on casette. more durable than cds, which are all scratched, plus 90 minutes! I wonder how long until they all rot and cannot be played anymore

i was still recording mixtapes to cassette , until the belt went on the deck recently. reason being if u drive the levels into the red it compress the sound and gives more consistency to the transitions between records. plus it has that grimy slightly distorted sound to it that works well with 90s music . also, if i record digitally i feel tempted to edit , usin tape u know u got to get it right in one take.
The old sony walkman i use has a really nice sound too, way more pleasing to the ear than any mp3 player ive owned , i dont know wheter its the tape or the circitry or maybe both, but it sounds a lot nicer than digital , even when the tapes been ripped to digital it loses somethin i duno. the bass response is definetly more juicy sounding. but its a brick to carry around tho and kind of embarrasing to be seen with it haha

yep still buying tons of demo tapes. converting some of them but play the others straight.

I'm too paranoid about them getting eaten. Strictly for collecting and converting for me, to be honest.

Only use tapes to record my own music and dirty up some sounds.
Can't find good tapes around here anyway

I see there's a bunch of mixtapes for sale on eBay...is that the preferred marketplace for the cassette connoisseur?

Fuck no. The only place I still have a tape player is in my shitty VW Polo.

while i always did love the dusty bangin sound on tapes, the only place i have a tape player is in my broke down volvo. so the latest limited trend of pressing tapes is not for me. I do still like tapes though.

I've got lots of tapes (at least 1,500 I would say) because it was the only way to record stuff when I was young and I decided that tapes were so cheap that if I felt something was worth recording in the first place, I should never record over it. I've got quite a lot of original tapes too, although I would usually buy vinyl and then dub that to tape for the Walkman. I still buy the occasional new tape, but only 1 or 2 a year.

I don't listen to tapes out of choice these days. I don't see the point. Preferring the sound of tapes is fine, but then if you record a tape to a lossless file on your computer it will sound the same. I think it's a bit like the folks who say they prefer the sound of vinyl - clicks, pops, crackles and all. That's not how the music was intended to be heard. The original master recordings don't sound like that. The change in sound is produced by limitations of the medium it's been recorded to. For me it goes CD rip > good vinyl rip > good tape rip every time.

bignormy wrote:I'm too paranoid about them getting eaten.

I pretty much feel the same. And with that bein said, I just don't really like tapes. When CD's came out in the 80s that's all I wanted although I continued to buy tapes for shit that only came out on tape. *shrugs*

I really don't get the fact that in 2014 tapes are popular again, even though it's a small group of Hiphop heads, but still. Give me the Vinyl or at least a CD.

The only time I listen to my tapes is when I convert them, that's it. I try not to mess with them after that. It's good to keep the hard copy (tape) in check, just in case the PC takes a shit on me.

Don't worry about cassettes being chewed, they are very easy to repair. Might be pushing the boundaries here, but its NICE to get a few broken ones on a lot, fix em up and be surprised at what you find. Rescued s few mixtapes that would've forever (I assume) be lost otherwise. Get that sellotape out!

All the time, I still got a whole wall of tapes, and 100's of old mixtapes, plus I just bought myself a new stereo equipt with a tape player, so it's on again.

I got a couple tapes lying around that get bumped every now and then. My whip got a tape player and cd player so I can still do it otherwise I don't know even know where I would get my hands on a decent tape player.

Anyone interested in trading tapes thru snail mail or starting a small trading group?

I know this sounds mad archaic but could be fun...fuggit.

GRiMEANDLiME wrote:Don't worry about cassettes being chewed, they are very easy to repair. Might be pushing the boundaries here, but its NICE to get a few broken ones on a lot, fix em up and be surprised at what you find. Rescued s few mixtapes that would've forever (I assume) be lost otherwise. Get that sellotape out!

used to call it tape surgery. or when you have a fucked up shell, you do a open tape transplant. gotta admit, i really enjoyed fixing tapes.

i was thinking along the lines of new tapes when i saw the thread, cause im a moron and didnt read first. i don't have barely any of my old tapes but at my boy's house we still go through old radio tapes once in a while. always finding treats still.

Philaflava wrote:i still listen to the mixtapes i used to make in the 90s on a regular basis.

made a tape a few days ago with a plastic turntable, a pile of scratchy records, and a technics cassette deck. starts out with a gil scott-heron x brian jackson song & veers off into some sade, prince, otis redding, roy ayers ubiquity, and a portion of an old hanna-barbera record called "the wizard of oz: snaggle puss & friends." the second side is mostly jazz but has some richard pryor and stevie as well.

i call this creation: "the spirit of doo-doo." if anyone is down to trade and this sounds like something you'd dig, pm me.

(warning: some of the shit sounds blown out & distorted but i kinda like it that way.)