The cassette is dead... long live the mix tape...

[Dave Lewis]

R.I.P. The cassette tape

It will be a sad day when I, you, and everyone we knew* will no longer have a tape deck on our stereo systems, and the mix tapes we lovingly compiled for ourselves, for our friends, for our lovers, for people we fancied, and people we knew we hadn't got a chance with, will no longer be something they, we, or us, can listen to.

But even sadder still, is the fact that since we all started making CD compilations or playlists for our iPods, the poor ol' tape has not so much been left to die, but massacred. The cassette, sad to say, is dead... or as near as is possible... the live support machine has been turned off, and the tape within the plastic casing is breathing its last.

I made a mix tape for a mate in 2005, and a mix tape for somebody I'd like to have got back together with in 2004... I also made a brand new version of an old audio recording (with new updated excitement) for somebody, the same mate I made the 2005 mix tape for, as recently as last Autumn. But the world of cassettes is over, I fear. Sad but true... it's easier to make a CD, or a playlist, with far better quality, and more tunes thereon, than a tape could ever have handled. But bloody heck, I've got a massive stack of tapes, lots of them compilations made by me, and for me, and the fact that we'll never see their like again is terribly, terribly sad.

So, I ask you to tell the world of PS your tales of mix tapes, copying albums onto tape (surely it's okay to discuss that now), and all the great songs, performances, audio verite moments, and home taping excitement that you have, had, or wish you'd had on the magnetic threads safely contained in a plastic case.

And also, to all join now in lament for the death of the cassette tape, and the fantastic dubbed copies and splendid mix tapes we made. Their time has come and gone.



*Wang Chung, "Dancehall Days"... tune.

[Pip Madeley]

Jack Black pictured with Dave Lewis, yesterday.

[Dave Lewis]

That truly was me, once... Mr Cusack looks fully like a Dave of yesteryear.

Alas I look nothing like that now... I suppose now is an opportune moment to mention that I had my head shaved today...

[Pip Madeley]

New avatar needed!

I used to make mix tapes fairly often in my pre-Internet days, the last one I remember doing was for an ex-girlfriend of mine for a Valentines about five years ago. I followed the rules, starting off with a bang but trying hard not to peak too early.

But enough of my sex life.

[Wayne]

Blimey! I stopped using cassettes before someone else!

I last used a cassette in 2002. Which co-incidently was the year i got a PC.

It wasn't a 'mix tape', though. I think it was actually a Bjork CD from the library. I've still got about 500 cassettes gathering dust in those storage drawer thingys. They're in a corner piled up to the ceiling, virtually. I don't know why i don't throw 'em away really......

[Jon Masters]

I still use casettes - as my car only has a tape deck, no CD (though now I've also got one of those tape-MP3 gizmos, so how long they'll last).
As a student I used to record the entire top 40 and then edit onto another tape the ones I wanted. I've still got a pile of tapes somewhere labelled Bits'NPieces 1 to 18

I still put new albums and BF & DW audios onto tape so I can listen to them in the car for a while; now I just tape over them when the next one comes along.

More serious IMO is the death of the casette storage box - you know, those vinyl covered boxes withe the handle and the satchell-like clip on the side. You'll not find them any more, even in Argos

[Wayne]

I still use casettes - as my car only has a tape deck, no CD

You don't want 500 Rock/Jazz/Blues/Classical/Ambiant cassettes do you?

What? You've only got a Mini? Oh, ok then.

[SiHart]

The last mix tape I made was for Steve in 2004 to celebrate our first year together. It was full of songs we'd listened to together and some old favourites too. The machine chewed it up shortly afterwards.

I sort of miss it. Making CDs is good and all that, but it's not the same as sitting there, hoping you'd not missed the start of the song as you pressed record and the hiss you got on playback! I used to make so many compilations. I'd send them to friends, and indeed I seemed to spend a vast amount of time at university planning, compiling and posting off tapes toi my best friend. I think I did about 20 or more over the years for him, all loving put together with little home made covers and the like... L is for Lyricless, I'm Sorry I Haven't Got Anything by Take That, The Sounds of Summer, The Croxley Green Appreciation Society... those were a few of the gems.
Equally I got some great ones back- The one from the Macra, Airlock by Maarga and the Chumblies... Happy Days!

We had some good times, but when was the last time you listened to a cassette? I bet it's been ages.

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

The one from the Macra, Airlock by Maarga and the Chumblies

I used to enjoy the sense of satifaction you'd get after using a pencil (or pen) to manually respool a tape that had splurged (technical word) itself out of the casing and into the tape player.

And I quite often listen to tapes, where it's stuff I don't have on CD (which is a lot of stuff). All my ABBA tapes are, er, tapes; and so are those exciting off-air recordings of The Paradise of Death. Oh yes!! Not to mention the second act of Chess (the first act having been beyond my abilities to respool when a certain toddler got her hands on it pre-the millenium)!

[Carol Baynes]

Apparently HMV and Woolworths no longer stock them and Currys are ditching them after all the current stock is sold. Fewer than 1 million are expected to be sold this year; it would have been over 80 million in 1989 (which is incidentally about how many they still sell in India!).

I'll miss them in a nostalgic way. They're clunky and were often unreliable, as well as easily damaged- once the tape deck chewed it up it was never the same!

I have lots of great dance music tapes from the early '90s which various DJ mates kindly did for me, and lots of less professional compilations from various friends (which are the best ones really. They were full of great tunes....) I was still taping compilations in the early 2000s, but I was sensing it's day was almost over.

Also, when was the last time anyone bought and album on cassette? Long time ago, I bet. Most new albums are no longer issued in cassette format are they?

[Matthew T]

I used to make endless amounts of compilation tapes to listen to on the walk to work. I was still doing it until 2003 when I finally got a CD recorder, and what a revelation that was! So much easier. I'm afraid I just threw all my tapes in the bin!

[Si Hunt]

Ah fond memories: the poor quality, the draws full of clunky tapes, sitting with a pair of scissors and selotape trying to repair a bit of tape when it snapped...

Best of all was when CD's arrived, and turned to be of completely incompatible length to tapes. If you had a 90 minute tape it was always agonisingly just fractionally too short to fit an album on each side.

I still have every missing episode of Doctor Who on audio tape - fact! That was a pain too, since of course 90 minute tapes are agonisingly just fractionally too short to fit two episodes on each side... I had to hunt down rare 100 minute tapes, which was a challenge.

Si.

[Ralph]

I last used a cassette in 2002. Which co-incidently was the year i got a PC.

I've been using a laptop pc since 1991 but no internet connection until 1999.

Enough of this sentimental claptrap for inferior technology!! let's not forget:

1That valuable tape that snarled up in our player
2That tape that stretched and didn't play at the right speed thereafter
3The bulkiness of all those tapes
4The difficulty of trying to find a specific track
5Having to wait several minutes to get the tape rewound so you could listen to a particular side.

I've got a few left but most are destined for the bin.

[Si Hunt]

The problem with tapes is, it was so easy to "lose" things on them. I still have a bag of all the old tapes I made in my childhood, full of 'interviews', mock shows and plays we did, but I physically don't have the man-hours to go through them all seeing if I want to keep them. Maybe I will one day.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

Enough of this sentimental claptrap for inferior technology!! let's not forget:

1That valuable tape that snarled up in our player
2That tape that stretched and didn't play at the right speed thereafter
3The bulkiness of all those tapes
4The difficulty of trying to find a specific track
5Having to wait several minutes to get the tape rewound so you could listen to a particular side.

He's got some good points. But there was a little bit of magic involved when making your own mix tapes, that somehow doesn't feel the same when you burn a CD. It's all too easy. That's an odd complaint, but it's how I feel... so meh.

[Wayne]

I agree with Ralph. Especially point 4!

[Paul Monk]

Don't fear! You can get a cassette deck for your pc, so now all those mix tapes could be saved.

http://www.pcmech.com/article/plusdeck--a-review/

[Stephen Morgan]

Enough of this sentimental claptrap for inferior technology!! let's not forget:

1That valuable tape that snarled up in our player
2That tape that stretched and didn't play at the right speed thereafter
3The bulkiness of all those tapes
4The difficulty of trying to find a specific track
5Having to wait several minutes to get the tape rewound so you could listen to a particular side.

I've got a few left but most are destined for the bin.

Sentimental claptrap HAH!!!

I was first introduced to cassettes around 1969 when a schoolfriend of mine used to get some of the Motown stuff on album and cassette, some of that stuff is probably now quite rare.
I got a cassette player of my own in '73, a Waltham portable thing, probably cost me about 7 back then. I used to record the top twenty every Sunday, sadly none of those recordings survived beyond the year, but I still have some reel to reel recordings from 1972.
I did actually buy a lot of cassettes, I have some recordings from 1975 to 78 of some top twenty stuff, and some complete recordings of Paul Gambacinni's Saturday shows from the late 70s early 80s.
Being fond of the History of Rock, I recorded the series 25 Years of Rock n Roll from Radio One in the early 80s, still have these upstairs, I'm glad to say they still play, I hope.
I don't think anyone here has made mention of the Cassingles that appeared in the early 80s, the like of Gary Byrd's The Crown only came out in this format. Nor has anyone mentioned the Chrome tapes that appeared in the early 80s. They were supposedly a higher sound quality than conventional tape, true enough, but I found they quickly wore your recording heads down. Tapes I have in this format include Bowie, The Police, Elton John and The Power Station, long left unplayed though since the advent of CDs.
As for making mix tapes, yeah, I've been there, and the points that Ralph has made above stand true, that's all happened to me and I do miss those days of cassettes and the old fashioned way of recording.

[cullsoft]

Bah, I still use cassettes for the old BBC Audio shows and such.

Although I've transferred ~90% or so of my audio pleasure to MP3s and such, I still fly the flag for tapes... especially as the CD player in our car is knackered so we've got to rely on them in there, so they've always got a place in my heart. (And perhaps an even bigger place when I FINALLY get on with learning to drive...)

[Si Hunt]

Charmingly, a few CD albums still leave a little gap after half the track listing, so you can see where "Side B" would have begun.

Si.

[Dave Lewis]

I've been using a laptop pc since 1991 but no internet connection until 1999.

Enough of this sentimental claptrap for inferior technology!! let's not forget:

1That valuable tape that snarled up in our player
2That tape that stretched and didn't play at the right speed thereafter
3The bulkiness of all those tapes
4The difficulty of trying to find a specific track
5Having to wait several minutes to get the tape rewound so you could listen to a particular side.

I've got a few left but most are destined for the bin.

For that, Pertwee will die. Again!

[Ralph]

For that, Pertwee will die. Again!

Thats why I said it in the first place!

[Stephen Morgan]

Slightly It's struck me that we could be saying exactly the same about all those bulky VHS or Betamax video tapes we all have. You know the ones, the ones that have held our precious Who recordings over the last 25 years or so, although all my offair Who vids went about five years ago when BBC video completed the releases. I still have a lot of stuff on VHS tape, but it's being gradually depleted as I transfer some of it to DVD. I haven't got a formula or programme to work to I just see something on the shelf and think it'll be better on a disc, although I still have a recording of Beat Room from BBC4 a few weeks ago on my HD, somewhere upstairs is a tape of some 60s shows which will go nicely on a disc with it.

[Captain Tancredi]

I don't honestly think I've bought anything on cassette in a good ten years. Blank ones I bought until a few years ago, for when I went through phases of taping 'Letter from America'.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, however, the vast majority of my saleable VHS tapes have now gone and I'm gradually doing a Pamela Nash with a lot of my copies, although for now I'm not binning any off-air Who.

[Jon Masters]

Our local 'cheapie - everything - in - one - shop' shop is my only source now of the fabled Maxell 120 minute casettes - just right for those DW / extra long BF audios