8 Track Tapes

[nhspike]

OK, confess.
What was the last 8 Track you bought, and when?
Mine: ZZ Top, Fandango (live), 1983ish

Come on Fett... fess up!!!!

[Rich#6]

I never bought one, but I remember vinyl.

[fett]

I used to by bootleg 8-tracks at a fleamarket way back when.:ROTF: The Feds actually busted those guys.:ROTF: There wasn't much going on in the mid to late '70's. I bought a ton of them before the <kerchick>. New track,:ROTF: they were shut down.

[toejam]

I never had one, but one of my cousins did. I never really did know how those worked.

[Cygnus X1]

Never had them.
I had cassettes, LP's, and 7" reels.
I couldn't get past the "program change" clunks, either.

[Cygnus X1]

I never had one, but one of my cousins did. I never really did know how those worked.

The tapes were on a continous loop.
The "program change" occured becuase of the location of the loops.
I think there were 4 per tape, a double-loop configuration.

As far as I could tell from looking at broken roadkill tapes, that is.

[fett]

Hell, I was there for 4-track tapes.:ROTF: I wasn't there for the record players that you could install in your car.:ROTF: But, I have some old Hot Rod magazines where they were advertized.

[toejam]

The tapes were on a continous loop.
The "program change" occured becuase of the location of the loops.
I think there were 4 per tape, a double-loop configuration.

As far as I could tell from looking at broken roadkill tapes, that is.

Kinda makes sense now. LOL

[Cygnus X1]

And, another oddball fact, AFAIK...
The width of the tape was supposed to increase fidelity, frequency response,
and reduce noise over the cassette. BUT, the technology of the cassette heads overcame that of the 8-track. Especially because of Dolby noise reduction standards.
The speed that the tape traveled was also twice that of the cassette tape.
Bottom line, the cassette won out because of size, and home recording capability.
There were some 8 track recorders, but they were rare.

[fett]

I'm just old. 4 and 8 track tapes was nothing more than using R-to-R tape in a car.:ROTF:

[AlexL]

And, another oddball fact, AFAIK...
The width of the tape was supposed to increase fidelity, frequency response,
and reduce noise over the cassette. BUT, the technology of the cassette heads overcame that of the 8-track. Especially because of Dolby noise reduction standards.
The speed that the tape traveled was also twice that of the cassette tape.
Bottom line, the cassette won out because of size, and home recording capability.
There were some 8 track recorders, but they were rare.

Actually, it wasn't the width of the tape that was supposed to give you increased fidelity, it was the speed of the tape. The width was essentially the same. Cassettes have 1/8 inch tape to hold 4 tracks (Side A Left & Right, Side B Left & Right), and 8 tracks had 1/4 inch tape to hold 8 tracks (Program 1 L&R, Program 2 L&R, Program 3 L&R, and Program 4 L&R). 1/32 inch per track, no matter which format you look at.

Regarding speed, however, cassettes move at 1 7/8 inches per second across the head, wheras 8-Tracks moved at 3 3/4 inches per second across the heads. The higher tape speed gives you a higher frequency range.

Remember when Hi-fi VCRs came out? The Hi-fi sound was derived from the fact that the rotating drum that contained the video heads also contained audio heads, so if you count the speed of the tape, plus the fact that the video and audio head drum was spinning, you ended up with an incredibly high head to tape speed, hence the fact that he audio was superb.

And by the way, I believe my last 8-Track was Love Gun. It had Christine Sixteen on it twice to make the timing work out. I still have it. I also have the two tape set of Alive II on 8-Track, which one of my cousins gave to me.

- E.

[SEEGERMANY]

The last six I purchased.

Hotel California - The Eagles
They Only Come Out At Night - The Edgar Winter Group
Made In Japan - Deep Purple
Wishbone - Wishbone Ash
Burn - Deep Purple
You Can Tune A Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish - REO Speedwagon

[Ace]

On the last Danzig tour we bought an 8 track player for the dressing room, and Elvis and the Stones tapes.

[OnlineStageGear]

I think my last one was Kiss LoveGun.

[toddstaples]

I dont know about my last one, but I distinctly remember playin KISS Dynasty on 8 track