Cassettes

[leatherface]

Just wondering whether anyone here is into buying/collecting metal on cassette tapes. Or any other kind of music.  I started a new collection  (mostly classic metal to underground metal) after stupidly selling a load of my metal tapes back in the day.

I see Tool had a cassette version of their last release and while I am not the biggest fan of the band, I still think its cool that they did so, I think even some pop stars have also released cassettes recently.

There is something quite vibrant and organic sounding about tapes, especially if they are old and you have decent enough equipment to play them on.

[Carnage]

They were great and handy back in the '80s and early '90s but once CDs became affordable they lost my interest. I can't be bothered with any format where you have to change sides and/or deal with tape hiss anymore so I'm done with them. I have a few boxes here that I'll be selling once I sort through them.

On that note - y'know the white substance that builds up on unused tapes over time, that shite that ruined the heads, is there any cure for that or is the tape fucked once that appears? A few of mine went that way and I'm just curious whether I should bin them altogether.

[Pedrito]

For nostalgia's sake I love to play them every so often. Once they're in their boxes and stored away in a fairly dry spot it seems they last without too much issue. I would say it depends on the player too. My old Sony stereo is still in really great shape. I love the format, the way the inlay spreads out, the struggle to read the details. If they were still cheap I'd probably keep picking them up.second hand like I used do in Freebird records etc back in the day. Was a great way to explore bands' whole back catalogue for very little money once CDs became the go to format.

[astfgyl]

The great thing about cassette in hindsight was how it forced me to go through the whole album rather than bother getting up to fast forward the tunes that weren't so good. I think the decline of the format contributed to a decline in albums as a whole but vinyl has brought that back a bit. The only cassette player I have now is a tascam 4 track and as much as I like the nostalgia I probably won't be buying one any time soon

[jobrok1]

I honestly couldn't understand the cassette revival a few years back. But have definitely warmed to them again in recent years.

Probably bought more cassettes than CDs this year.
Actually! Probably bought more vinyl than CDs this year, too.

I'm a sucker for owning a physical format. Even though I'd listen to mostly downloaded music on the go these days. So buying something from Bandcamp with the additional download is my preferred way of buying music.