Cassettes

chaosmongers

Is anyone here in agreement, that it's bloody annoying that shops decide when to make a product obselete (and not the consumers)?

I recently bought a new analog 4-track portastudio for making music with (that uses audio tape) - but could I find a decent quality blank tape to buy for it?

Took me a whole day searching around town for one, and then when I found a specialist shop that sells them, I could only get a 'cheapo' one.

I have no problem getting special length (C-10/C-15) tapes wholesale for the Cronosoft stuff, but finding a 60 minute chrome tape in the shops is damn near impossible.


I'm aware that people use digital media for everything these days - but considering a lot of new hi-fis have tape decks, you'd think you could find the tapes.

Shops also tried to kill vinyl records and failed, and now they are trying to kill videotapes.


I'm glad to get that moan out of my system :)

Philip Kendall

On 2006-01-06 13:37, chaosmongers wrote:
I have no problem getting special length (C-10/C-15) tapes wholesale for the Cronosoft stuff, but finding a 60 minute chrome tape in the shops is damn near impossible.

Maplin will sell you a 5 pack of 90 minute tapes for ?5.99. First place I looked :)

chaosmongers

I know I can get them mail order, but when you need one there and then, there's nothing like the convenience of nipping to a shop to buy one :) Unfortunately, we don't have a Maplin store anywhere near us (I think the nearest one is in Norwich, about 80 miles away)

I think I'll stock up next time I order some Cronosoft blanks.

sirclive1

ive got some new old stock on c90s , sealed , let me know if either of you want a pack or 2 , Andy.

alanspec

The only thing that kept records alive was the massive amount of (proper)DJ's in the world (you can see when a tune is about to "break" etc on Vinyl and it's directly controlled :) - there's probably no large group of tape-heads like that unfortunately.
ASpec.

DEATH

In Bristol there is a specialised cassette tape shop (called "The Cassette Shop" in Denmark Street. I used to pop in there almost every week for C12's etc. Maybe he does mail order at a better price than you currently are getting?

I havew no problems here getting ferric, chrome and even the odd BASF (Emtec) metal tape. Have to admit though, I do miss TDK AD, ADR and SA media

Bermondsey Bob

I can still get them in a few of the sea front shops.BASS C90's I think. About ?3 for 5. But they don;t have them all the tim, and they sell fast when they have them.

HMV on the other hand stock TDK C90's for about ?4. They are usually on a "3 for the price of 2" offer too! Check out your local brance next time you're near one!

robert@fm

On 2006-01-06 21:12, Bermondsey Bob wrote:
BASS C90's

Er, ITYM BASF -- or is this the cue for a string of fish puns? ;) [For cod's sake, no -- Ed]

Ian Hamilton

Cassette tapes are still easily available in Kilkenny. I can get TDK brand tapes in several places here.

Necros.

BruceNorton

Tesco's sell TDK C90 tapes in a pack of 10 for about ?4

MatGubbins

Sainsburys... Woolworths.... Scope... the local pound shop... WH Smiths... Aldi. Yup, bucketloads of tapes of various brands and timelength in stock here in Sunny Sittingbourne.

chaosmongers

Cheers all :)

Found some now, but in Chav City...erm...Boston,
Woolworths had none, WHSmith had none, Boots had none, neither did any of the 'pound shops'.

Well...actually... WHSMITH did have ONE...

The had a lonely solitary TDK tape which I tried to buy, but they wouldn't let me.
The said it was originally part of a multipack, and it would be against the law to sell it to me. This REALLY infuriated me! How can it be against the law ? Did it contain a load of pirated Spectrum games by THOR on it?


Incidentally, this is where I get my bulk tapes from...

http://www.jethro.co.uk/jda/index.htm

Ashley Pomeroy

I recently bought a new analog 4-track portastudio for making music with (that uses audio tape) - but could I find a decent quality blank tape to buy for it?

Cor, I used to have a Tascam Portastudio. I still have a bag of tapes that are useless to me because four-tracks record at double-speed to improve the sound quality (the tape runs twice as quickly, and so a C60 tape is only 15 minutes long (because you only record on one side)). It was great fun although I ended up using it just as a mixer.

The next thing to go is surely 35mm film. You can get it in pound shops and Tescos, but it can't be long before it is discontinued and gone. APS will die off too, and probably Minidisc what with portable MP3 recorders. The only hope for the above is the niche market, but although there is still I think a niche market for reel-to-reel tape I can't see compact cassettes thriving. They were mocked when they came out in the 1960s. Retro:
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/tape4.html

Similarly I imagine it must be almost impossible to get hold of an old-fashioned mid-80s cassette tape recorder. I had a +2, which had one built in. My word, I have come back on topic.

chaosmongers

My 4-track is a TASCAM MF-P01 - I bought it brand new last year, and have only just had time to use it!





I've just had a look at Richer Sounds website at their range - they have some decent decks in there...

http://ws1.richersounds.com/productlist.php?cda=productlist&sgroup=CASSETTEDECKS&sort=price

... though looking at the prices, it seems the laws of supply and demand have pushed the prices up quite a bit! :) I bought a twin deck from them a few years ago for 60 quid.

I was shocked to see that PC world still sell DOT MATRIX printers too... though they are nearly 200 quid for the cheapest one.

jil

On 2006-01-07 01:56, Ashley Pomeroy wrote:
Similarly I imagine it must be almost impossible to get hold of an old-fashioned mid-80s cassette tape recorder. I had a +2, which had one built in. My word, I have come back on topic.

Argos still sell a Sony mono tape deck for 25 quid, so I guess some people must still buy them.

DEATH

Yeah but that Sony one (and an almost identical Sanyo one at Maplin) is about all you can buy - I used to have three or four little tape decks and one or other of them would always load difficult tapes (except Brian Bloodaxe). Seems you can't get them anymore though - maybe second hand shops cos charity shops won't sell electrical goods for some reason. Must be cos too many grannies fried their fingers playing with dodgy stuff.