Honestly I did not think you could recently have purchased a new car in the USA with a stock cassette deck. Apparently in 2010 the Lexus SC430 still had that option. The NYTimes has a story titled For Car Cassette Decks, Play Time Is Over in it today about the end of the wait to rewind or fast forward era in cars. Of course you can still get after market cassette decks.

“That nostalgic affection for tape holds no sway with automakers, though. For the 2011 model year, no manufacturer selling cars in the United States offers a tape player either as standard equipment or as an option on a new vehicle. The most recent choice for a factory cassette deck was the 2010 Lexus SC 430.” – NYTimes.com

For more info: nytimes.com/2011/02/06/automobiles/06AUDIO

photo credit: Ian Muttoo

I don’t usually wear T-shirts that say things or even have images on them but I like this one.

“Tape top. Soft crew neck tee with Cassette Stacks graphic at the front. Exclusive to Urban Outfitters.” – Urban Outfitters

Available at: Urban Outfitters

Something was really lost when the mixtape died. You see once upon a time a boy could make a mixtape for a girl. I personally took part in that exact ritual. The music on the tape represented how cool I was and the lyrics on each song were specific planned out messages. I took pride in knowing I had to coolest music. I walked the streets of NYC going from record store to record to be sure of just that fact. It’s a shame every tune in now just one click away. I wonder what teenage boys are giving girls these days.

““Mixtape”, a wonderful short film by Luke Snellin brings back the memories for those of us who used to spend hours making music mixes on cassette tape.” – Scott Beale

via laughingsquid.com

Good old AM/FM. The last time I listened to regular radio outside of my car was in the 80s. I used to listen to stations for hours just to catch and record a song I liked onto cassette. Lucky for me that habit created a giant box of tapes recorded from the airwaves which I will make digital someday. These days most radio is harsh, loud, repetitive and loaded with more than 60% commercials. Since I moved back to New York from Berlin I bought a car and so I’ve been listening and seeking through stations.

The craziest thing happened. I find myself stopping on 106.7 Lite.fm more than any other music station. Lite.fm is one of those you know adult contemporary stations playing elevator, oldies and love songs (Joe Cocker). You still can hear a lot of Korg M1 sounds on this station! I got to thinking what’s keeping me at this part of the dial. I think it’s the fact that these songs are full of melodies and clear vocals/lyrics I can understand. If I don’t know a song I like to follow along and hear the message. I’ve noticed a lot of songs I once thought were really horrible cheese are actually pretty good. I’m not leading this blog post to some profound point I just wanted to share. I know your going to say I’m getting old. That maybe but I still love me some kill evil music. They never really played any of that dark stuff on the radio anyway. Sometimes I check out 89.1 WFDU (Fairleigh Dickinson University) radio but it’s hit or miss depending on the DJ. When it comes to AM NPR is where it’s at.

My radio listening days are almost over as I finally ordered a new radio with an iPhone hook up. Pandora, Last.fm, Slacker, Simplify Media, podcasts, audiobooks here I come!

Do you still tune in?

photo credit: dsearls

Apparently today is the 30th anniversary of the Cassette. Create Digital Music has a great walk down memory lane worth checking out: Happy 30th, Sony Walkman: Your Memories and the Best of Cassettes on CDM

Related post: Cassette tape nostalgia. Rewind.

Take a look at that cassette above called “Unics”. I made that sometime in the late 80′s and it has some of the first songs I ever recorded on it. I should have probably spelled it “eunuchs” right? Maybe since I was a geek then too possibly “Unix” was the correct spelling. I’d like to say I was being smart and wanted my own unique band name and way of spelling but you all know I’d be lying to you. From what I remember the music was sequenced on a Yamaha QX7 and the sounds were from a DX7, Electrocomp-101 and some Casio home keyboard. I had a Tascam 4-track and Shure SM58. Do you like the cover I printed on a dot-matrix printer?

So where’s the hilarious audio samples of my old songs? Well if I had a working cassette deck you would be listening and laughing right now. I did save two old decks but both are eating tapes so I don’t dare but the above mentioned gem in them. I could order a head cleaning kit or even possibly find a repair shop to look at a deck. However, there’s a new kind of Cassette deck that just recently became available: USB Cassette Decks.

The Ion Tape2PC and Alesis TapeLink USB are both dual cassette decks with built-in audio interfaces. Take a close look at these two units. They must come from the same Chinese manufacturer right? The Tape2PC is silver and comes with “EZ Tape Converter for free with Gracenote® MusicID technology”and has a street price of $149. The black Alesis comes with BIAS SoundSoap (which I have used to good effect in the past) and has a street price of $199.

So what do you think? Should I clean and repair my old Sony Dual Deck or just grab one of these new USB guys? The advantage of the built-in USB is I can bring it around with me to different rooms without an extra interface and cabling. I do wonder though if these new decks will sound as good as my old Sony.

For more info: www.alesis.com/tapelinkusb and www.ionaudio.com/tape2pc

Here an interesting new application for Mac OS-X called TapeDeck. It’s an audio recorder that looks like an old Radio Shack cassette deck. You can label your recordings cassettes with notes that look handwritten.

Your archived recordings are displayed in virtual cassette cases. All of this is pretty ridiculous except one feature could be very useful: Upload to YouTube.

Upload to YouTube sends your audio to YouTube and the video diplays your Cassette, the labeling your put on it and a little animation so you know it’s playing:

For more info tapedeckapp.com

Related post: Cassette tape nostalgia. Rewind.

via TUAW

A few months ago I performed at a club called Rumours in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. This required us to get picked up from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and be driven about two hours north. In the car I was shocked to see there was no CD player or MP3 jack. Staring me in the face was a cassette deck. Looking around some more I noticed about 50 cassettes stuffed in various places. About an hour into the drive I realized how good these cassettes sounded. There was some very nice high end going on that I had not heard in years. The bass sounded warm and sincere.

There is hardware software that will emulate tape saturation. On the hardware side check out Robert Neve’s 5042 True Tape FX unit.. Software wise there are lots of options including Digidesigns Reel Tape Suite and PSP’s Vintage Warmer.

But what if you want to bring back some good old fashion tape noise? Adding a few seconds of noise before your song starts will trigger your listeners mind into believing your song was recorded in the 1980s or earlier. My favorite plug-in for the task is Izotope’s free plug-in called Vinyl. Here’s a list of some of the “sounds” you can add into your song using Vinyl:

• Mechanical Noise
• Wear
• Electrical Noise
• Dust
• Scratch
• Warp Depth

You can also adjust “Warp Models”, year and RPM of the Vinyl emulation. Lastly, there is a mono/stereo switch. Using the Dust and Scratch settings you can get a nice Portishead sound. I have to say I really love this plug-in and if it cost money I would buy it. Big thanks to Izotope!

There are many other ways to get some noise into your tracks. Sometimes I turn off a synthesizer’s Oscilators and turn up only the Noise Generator. Adding a filter modulated by the LFO to the Noise makes some nice wave or storm sounds. Sonic Charge has a superb software drum machine called uToniq. I use it as a noise generator by clicking the oh so ever awesome random button. Or why not record some real noise with a microphone? Even aiming a mic at your computer’s fan while it edits a large Photoshop document will do the trick!

photo credits: Lee Jordan and Breakfast for Dinner

Living in New York in the 80′s I spent a good amount of time recording the local radio onto cassette tapes. Classic rap shows like DJ Red Alert’s Rap Attack on Kiss FM and DJ Marley Marl on 103.5 WBLS. I also grabbed freestyle hits like When I Hear Music by Debbie Deb and Silent Morning by Noel. As my music taste broadened I discovered I could pick up a faint signal from a alternative Long Island Radio Station WLIR and recorded Depeche Mode, New Order and other new wave masterpieces.

I had a giant Conion boombox I bought at the Spring Valley flea market. It was the size of a car door! It had a double cassette deck, turntable inputs, an alarm and the above said FM tuner. If you want to see how big these boomboxes really were check out this YouTube video.

One of my favorite pastimes was making mix tapes for my friends and the car. Heading over to Tower or Sam Goody to pick up a 10 pack of blank Maxxell XLS-II 90s was a weekly journey. I miss opening the plastic wrapping and cracking open a clean new cassette. Each mix needed a unique name. It took special handwriting skill to write the track list super small and neatly on the paper inlay. Next one would apply two rectangle stickers with the name of the mix onto the cassette itself (one on each side). Finally I would snap out two little plastic squares on top of the cassette. This was a record protect system. In an emergency you could tape back over the hole where you snapped out the plastic and record onto the tape again.

I have a few thousand of these cassettes in storage. Before they deteriorate I plan on taking photos of each one and making them all digital. I’m going to leave the tape hiss. It’s going to be a kick hearing 80s radio commericals like “Crazy Eddie! His prices are insane!” Those of you who live in the New York area will know what I mean. If you have cassettes but no machine to play them in not to worry because Tascam still makes new ones.

There were over a hundred cassette manufacturers. Two great websites have galleries of blank cassettes. Warning: this is extremely nostalgic. Tapedeck.org is slick and has been featured in many hip lifestyle magazines. 365.com has large user generated archive of blank cassettes.

But cassettes were useless without boomboxes and the Sony Walkman. The great website pocketcalculatorshow.com has a fantasic journey into the boombox era and a great homage to the Sony Walkman.

What if you made a mix today? Add a customized cassette album cover to the mp3! Head over to says-it.com/cassette, pick a cassette style, input the name of your mix and it gives you an image free to use as you like.

Lastly before you head back into the future Wikipedia’s entry on the cassette is worth a look. Did you know cassette is the French word meaning “little box”?

photo credit: Dead Air, Joseph Robertson, and chaos.nt