Cassette tapes don't last forever

[FMJ]

There's 2 versions of World Shut Your Mouth currently listed in torrent searches. One 128, one 320. Neither one are being seeded at the moment.

 

[JohnH]

Maplin did/do a cassette---> Mp3 cassette deck, play your tape in the cassette deck and by the power of Grayskull (or some such trickery) it converts it into an mp3 file on your computer.

Cheers, Jimo. I've already done a bit of the old cassette-to-computer transfer; I have a Griffin iMic plugged into the back of my machine and I can connect the tape deck to that using a phono-to-3.5mm-jack cable.

The results have been quite listenable -- so long as the tape was in good shape...

 

[JohnH]

sounds more like the cassette deck is the issue.

That was what I was thinking.

I have a tape deck that sporadically displays these symptoms on cassettes that play fine on other machines.

Cheers fellas. I've tried the problem tapes on both decks of the Denon machine. In fact, I first found that the 'Autobahn' cassette was in rough condition on the Philips radio/cassette fitted in my car; not only did it sound 'drunk', the cassette itself made an awful screeching noise when the spools were turning.

I thought that playing it thru the Denon would sort things out. It didn't. So I cracked open the cassette case and transplanted the tape and spools into another cassette casing. Still sounded awful and still screeched. I opened the casing up again and transplanted the tape onto different spools ("fiddly" doesn't come close to describing that job). Rewound it all the way to the beginning of side A, pressed 'play' and it sounded great.... for about 2 or 3 minutes. Then it slowed down. Then it stopped.

HMV want £17 for the shiny, new, bling 2009 digitally re-mastered CD of Autobahn. For a 36 year old album, I think that's a bit steep.

 

[JohnH]

Audacity is the software you need

Thanks RekiBorter. I've got Audacity on my Mac but I find that it crashes at the most inconvenient times... :roll: The alternative is to use GarageBand which ships with all Macs, but I just don't find it as easy to use as Audacity.

 

[JohnH]

Or you can use the power of t'interweb and as you owned the original and are allowed to MP3 it but you don't have the kit to do it so you just got a 'friend' to do it for you, then you can download it, probably quicker than going into the attic and rummaging through your boxes of tapes and vinyl.

Julian Cope
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8R1OIFSO
Kraftwerk
http://www.mediafire.com/?dxu2wvjxgwg

Thanks for the links Stew! I suppose that owning a cassette copy of the album means that I've bought the rights to play that album, whether it happens to be an analog or digital recording -- so I'm downloading the JC file as I type this...

There's 2 versions of World Shut Your Mouth currently listed in torrent searches. One 128, one 320. Neither one are being seeded at the moment.

Thanks for having a look around on my behalf, FMJ! The link that Stew pointed to has delivered the goods...

 

[Skeelsie]

The drive bands/belts in the deck have probably perished.

Snap up an old Sony TC-K611s on flea bay.

Even better an old Nakamichi that's had a service.

 

[MCsanandreas]

i have recently been rediscovering my cassette collection and some of mine are like the ones you describe. will try a cleaning tape just to see if that makes a difference.
failing that its dustbin time for some.

 

[dbmtb]

Could also depend where they've been stored. I have a load of tapes loads older than this that are still fine. But it they've been in a damp loft then some deterioration is pretty inevitable.

But my oldest cassette- David Bowies Heroes from 1978 or thereabouts - plays as good today as I ever remember it.

 

[JohnH]

Snap up an old Sony TC-K611s on flea bay.

There's one on eBay right now, and it looks great. It's amazing to compare how much these would have cost back in the day, and how much they're selling for now... :shock:

will try a cleaning tape just to see if that makes a difference.

It's worth a try. I'm sure that I've got one of the old Allsop head cleaners, I just need to dig out some isopropyl alcohol to apply to the pads.

Could also depend where they've been stored. I have a load of tapes loads older than this that are still fine. But it they've been in a damp loft then some deterioration is pretty inevitable.

That's a very good point. I might only have myself to blame for some of this....

 

[dbmtb]

How long has the tape deck been down from the loft? There may be moisture that's not evaporated yet that's affecting the performance too.

I saved a deck from the tip a couple of years back that nearly went straight back there but when I tested it again after 3 weeks in the house, it worked fine.