old world problems

[bobMarinelli]

I'm doing cassette stuff tonight. I had forgotten they had "protection tabs" on them. for a moment I was like "why won't this record!?!". and then I broke out the scotch tape.

every day is a new adventure, or maybe an old one where you forgot the details of the lay of the land. hmmmph.

[mouthofinfinity]

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. I picked up some blank 30 second tapes and couldn’t figure out why they weren’t working. I even took apart my little recorder to find out if that was the problem. The tabs never even came to mind because why would blank tapes be missing the tabs?

[shrouded.in.antiquity]

Sometimes blank tapes won't have tabs because they're intended for high speed dubbers which don't require tabs for recording.

[bobMarinelli]

I picked up some blank 30 second tapes

Hahaha, the idea of a 30 second tape blows my mind!

[bobMarinelli]

Sometimes blank tapes won't have tabs because they're intended for high speed dubbers which don't require tabs for recording.

that right there, is worth the price of admission. never knew such a thing before.

[shrouded.in.antiquity]

Unfortunately it is difficult to find quality high-speed dubbing machines that weren't intended to mass produce low quality audio cassettes. Sometimes you can find them in church basement sales, since some churches used to release recordings of sermons and have long since forgotten they had one of them.

I inherited one from a family friend who was cleaning out his office before retiring as a language professor. He wasn't sure what to do with it and just wanted to get rid of it. Turns out it's mono only but if the master tape was loud it copied the audio pretty faithfully. Unfortunately the thing was so old the dubs began to fade in volume pretty quickly and neither cleaning nor demagnetizing fixed the problem. I would be curious to know if anyone has and/or uses a high quality, high speed cassette recorder. It would exponentially reduce the time spent by real-time dubbing.

If I'm recycling a tape or dubbing tapes with no tabs I use small pieces of masking tape with 1 end folded over to cover the holes. I think it also helps to change them quickly between copies when dubbing a batch of them. But you can easily find small removable plastic tabs from National Audio Company or Duplication.ca if you want to avoid taping your... uhh... tapes.

[mouthofinfinity]

I picked up some blank 30 second tapes

Hahaha, the idea of a 30 second tape blows my mind!

Cryptic Carousel had a bunch of them for $1 each so I picked up ten for the hell of it.

Sometimes blank tapes won't have tabs because they're intended for high speed dubbers which don't require tabs for recording.

Never too old to learn something new.

[moozz]

I picked up some blank 30 second tapes

Hahaha, the idea of a 30 second tape blows my mind!

SRR (Self Released Records) had a tape series in 2004-2005 called Waste Of Plastic. It was all 1-minute tapes. It had tapes from well-known names like The Rita, Ahlzagailzehguh, The Haters and Pedestrian Deposit. Never owned any and the ones I'd be interested in I have never seen for sale anywhere.

[moozz]

Of course now that I said I've never seen them for sale anywhere The Cherry Point tape is actually available on Discogs. But for $15 plus shipping to Europe (like $25?) plus the possible tax and customs fees, I don't think I want to pay that for a 1-minute tape :)

[SS1535]

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. I picked up some blank 30 second tapes and couldn’t figure out why they weren’t working. I even took apart my little recorder to find out if that was the problem. The tabs never even came to mind because why would blank tapes be missing the tabs?

Where did you get these tapes?

[shrouded.in.antiquity]

Where did you get these tapes?

See:

Cryptic Carousel had a bunch of them for $1 each so I picked up ten for the hell of it.

[mouthofinfinity]

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. I picked up some blank 30 second tapes and couldn’t figure out why they weren’t working. I even took apart my little recorder to find out if that was the problem. The tabs never even came to mind because why would blank tapes be missing the tabs?

Where did you get these tapes?

Looks like the exact ones I got are out of stock and you can only order them in batches of 50 at the moment.
https://store.crypticcarousel.com/colle ... ade-ferric

[SS1535]

Where did you get these tapes?

See:

Cryptic Carousel had a bunch of them for $1 each so I picked up ten for the hell of it.

Thank you!

[SS1535]

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. I picked up some blank 30 second tapes and couldn’t figure out why they weren’t working. I even took apart my little recorder to find out if that was the problem. The tabs never even came to mind because why would blank tapes be missing the tabs?

Where did you get these tapes?

Looks like the exact ones I got are out of stock and you can only order them in batches of 50 at the moment.
https://store.crypticcarousel.com/colle ... ade-ferric

Thank you also!