Cassette tape
𐑒𐑩𐑕𐑧𐑑 𐑑𐑱𐑐
Compact Cassette tech specs
- Released: 1963
- Company: Philips
- Speed: 1⅞ ips
- Tracks: stereo pair (×2)
The cassette tape (more formally the Compact Cassette) was a popular analogue audio medium released by Philips in 1963.
It was perhaps most famous as the medium used by Sony's Walkman, allowing consumers to listen to their own choice of music while out and about.
Depending on how careful you are with the signal strength, it can introduce a decent amount of background noise ("tape hiss"), dynamic range compression, and distortion ("tape saturation") — far more than the higher fidelity reel-to-reel tape medium. While usually still not very noticeable, it can be purposefully emphasised. This grungy, low fidelity quality has a certain amateur charm, making the medium a pretty nice (albeit slow) effect in its own right.
At a pinch, it can also be used to store data. This was the medium of choice for home computer owners in the UK in the 1980s.
Quotes
Everything was originally mastered on standard tape on a hi-fi cassette deck... With the first track, the tape had chewed in about seven places... It's a retrospective look, and the tape munching was all part of the stuff I was doing, so I've left it in.
— Richard D. James (Aphex Twin), 1993[1]
References
- "The Aphex Effect" Dave Robinson, Future Music, Apr 1993, pp. 22—23
Further reading
Analogue aesthetics: CRT | Cassette tape | Orchestron
Audio storage media: CD | Cassette tape | DAT | MiniDisc
Data storage media: CD | Cassette tape | Cassette tape as a data storage medium | DAT | Floppy disk | IBM Card | MiniDisc | microSD card
Cassette tape: Cassette tape as a data storage medium | Cassette tape as an effect
