Sharp's Back-to-Back Boombox mixtape madness
Compared to the shambles of my incomplete yet still pending video, this one was a breeze to put together. Everything just seemed to fall into place, including the weather.
A bit of behind the scenes info - this is the only video I’ve shot entirely with a DJI Pocket 3. This was used because it’s easy to carry around and yet still has a wireless mic. You might also spot one of its face tracking shots used in here. I recorded most of this one away from the house to mix things up a bit, that and the fact my studio table and cameras were set up to shoot the other video. I think it worked out well. I couldn’t shoot every video this way, but it made sense to do this for a portable stereo.
https://youtu.be/mUKtAa31Lm0
Hope you enjoy the video. Have a good weekend, take care… but please be sure to read the rest of this if your name has inexplicably vanished from the end credits.
...
I’ve taken a crack at getting the end credits name list bang up to date. It’s very possible though there may be some names erroneously missing now due to the less than stellar way Patreon presents this data.
If you are signed up to the appropriate tier to have your name listed but your name doesn’t appear on this particular video - please let me know in the comments here on Patreon - or send me a message if you prefer, and I’ll fix it in the next video and hopefully trace the error back to avoid this happening again. I apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused.
Comments (68)
I'm a couple of weeks behind on viewing, but looks like my name on the credits didn't make the transfer. Hope all's well!
I have a few patents myself, I say that as a disclaimer. Because I think that sometimes companies get in love a little too much with their patents.... And never quite got why. Sometimes an idea gives you a little edge but sometimes is just the novelty and indeed is a an idea with a best before date. Of course they invest in the tooling and all but... For many years after having a stereo system, I had a portable cassette player, don't remember the brand but was awful anyway, I just had mix tapes. Radio and cd copies. Sure I didn't copy much from other tapes (because I didn't have a double cassette player) but yeah. It is interesting cool though
Thanks for the excellent singing performance at the end, without sound ON it looked like you were having a shave :) Great video! ;)
I well remember these "Back to Back" decks, I worked for SHARP as a Technical Training Officer when they came out. The decks were a PITA to repair and often needed such as the SUP/TU spindles were often bent by custards pushing tapes down onto them by not inserting the cassette properly and trying to shut the door. The parts were more expensive than standard parts to sorry Mat, there was no cost saving there. SHARP loved their Acronyms, APSS, ANSS, ABSS and so on. The Back to Back decks were originally going to have the ability of being able to Play a tape whilst Recording from the radio on the other tape, so the acronym would have been for Combined Recording And Playback, but for some odd reason, it was never used. ;-) BTW, Tier 4 and no credits :-( Chas Large
Chas, Patreon list you as being in the free tier, hence why your username doesn’t get exported in the ‘names in the credits tier’. I can see you paid for a year back in February, so I’ll add you in manually, but I’m guessing you both paid for a year and then downgraded immediately after, which befuddled the system.
The most counter-intuitive cassette mechanism ever? It would have made more sense if they had fitted a second set of transport controls on the top, there's clearly the room. As it is, it's better than a single cassette deck, but only just.
It's a limitation of the way the spindles work. They likely share one set of belts and motors; they can only really engage one set of spindles at a time, and a physical pin slides in when you engage dubbing mode that locks both spindles together to move them simultaneously.
I don't think my 'name' has ever appeared in the list at the end of the credits - I wonder why?
I don’t think you’re in the $5 tier.
it’s true. there’s no dj like chuck
We’ll, it appears I’m one of the ones who’s name has vanished into the mist. Thanks for the attention, Mat.
You’re the first one, I was expecting to be inundated. I’ll try and find out why patreon didn’t export your name in the list it generated. Many thanks.
Ah the wobbly screech of a high speed dubbed copy of Jet Set Willy that even if you could get it to load, the security system then stopped you in your tracks! Those were the days, no instant gratification like today, you had to wait for the utter disappointment. Love the out and about setting Mat!
loved the format and production of this episode!
As someone who grew up in Maine, I enjoyed your hat! Great video, demonstrating lots of info efficiently.
Thanks for the video! I remember these when I was a kid, but never used or tried even one... I was already aware of the limitation that you could not swap the other tape when the first one was playing, never realised that there would be no option to wind one of the tapes... By the way: recording a Type II tape (real chrome I see in this case!) on that deck is also not the best idea (not enough bias), but what did we know in that time?
Another cool thing in this video: the editing trickery at the beginning. Nicely done. If you shoot in the storage locker again, the mountain of electronics might serve as an interesting background. It was nice seeing it in the third Mission Impossible video.
I really like these backdrops! But I wonder: how many shots failed due to undesired “extras” entering the scene?
Fortunately I was left alone for the whole thing - but there were still multiple retakes due to utter incompetence.
I remember them well, never had one, but remember looking at them in the electronics shops. My faves were the Hitachi 3D Super Woofer range and the Panasonic RX-DT75 'Cobra' with motorised lid/display panel and subsequent models
Hi Mat, Viewer feedback is that the DJI 3 is perfect for the job. Good lighting contrast.
Never did I think I’d see the day when you were “Killing Music” for the entertainment of others !!!!!!!! You, foul, foul fiend you! Totally awesome video as always, but that system has a truly awful user experience doesn’t it.
Yes I probably should have gone more into why not being able to wind one tape while listening to another is a hassle, but hopefully the viewer could see that this isn’t as useful as a regular twin deck.
Just watched the video, high quality as always. Cassettes were my first love in "retro tech" and I still enjoy learning new things about the format. Side note, I live in the US and have never been out of the country, the first thing that jumped out at me was the beautiful grassy landscape you recorded this around, all that to say I really like this "experiment" of yours. Also seeing my name in the credits made my night, cheers.
Many thanks for signing up - as I was typing your name in I was wondering if you were from Birmingham (U.K.) - (it’s sometimes called Brum) and you’ve now answered that one. We do have some nice grassy bits if you get away from the other stuff. Of course it’s only green because of all the rain. As soon as I finished shooting these outdoor clips it started raining, and three days later….its still doing it.
First experience of a boom box I ever had, was surprisingly my grandparents having one back in the mid 80's and I've still got that same one somewhere in my lockup. It's purely kept for nostalgia, cause It's a terrible sounding cheap thing, but the 'mugs eyeful' looks to it, makes it worthy of carrying through the streets on your shoulder.
In 1981 I remember a man in his fifties bringing a huge, high quality Sharp Boombox into work to play Christmas carols on and eulogising about it. The funny thing was he was the type of man who most definitely wouldn't have approved of Elvis Presley or his music.
Was it only Sharp that had back to back tape mechanisms? I had one but I'm sure it wasn't made by Sharp.
I only remember the Sharps, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t others - just that my memory isn’t great.
I really liked this video. The DJI performed admirably. Thanks for what you do. P.S. I always check out where my name falls at the end credit. It's a little like "Where's Waldo."
I suspect that unfortunately you’ll currently be working your way up the screen rather than down.
Very good video. The thumbnail image choice is perfect, as it shows off the unusual mechanism at a glance. I could tell right away that this was something I'd never seen before. The change of venue was nice. Very fitting for a boombox to be shown outdoors. The backwards cap at the end was the perfect touch and got a big laugh from me. Great job.
I do remember being about ten years old and seeing one of these, and having a good fiddle about in the shop by opening it up to see the length of the spindles. Did Boots ever do something like this, or was it solely Sharp? Boots and electronics, those were the days.
I bought one of those Sharp back to back tape ghetto blasters in about 1987? I think the only thing I played on it was Live In The City of Light by Simple Minds, down the local park. It wasn't great, I seem to recall something to do with the double cassette mechanism being shite, so i took it back and swapped it for another Sharp one I think it was, where the speakers detached. EDIT: I probably made about ten mix tapes throughout the whole of the 80s and that was more than anybody else I knew I reckon.
I think one issue with the romanticised memory of passing mix tapes to every passing acquaintance is that tapes weren’t cheap, I’m not giving away my SA90s to anyone.
Excellent video. I remember seeing the Sharp units at the time and thinking they looked cool, so pleased I didn't get one. I still have my old trusty Aiwa CS-W300 dual cassette boom box. It was small and low spec but the light weight meant it was easy to take away in the family car on holiday.
I certainly never made a mixtape as a "romantic" gesture for a lover as I see portrayed in films. Maybe I was super boring and repressed. School days were NOT the best days of my life. Thanks for a great video!
You and me both - perhaps it was just all the rage at Hollywood High.
Great video. That back to back mech is rubbish!
Succinct but I can’t argue.
My friends and I made a lot of mix tapes to share and play in whoever had a car in the moment. And of course it was a sly way of flirting with a girl or guy you liked. But there was definitely a bias among my friends against tape-to-tape dubbing as we always assumed vinyl was the gold standard of sound and recording from a tape would result in an audible loss in fidelity. This assumption was based on our experiences with VHS recordings that would start to look wonky in a second generation dub. We didn't think in term of audio and video being very different types of signals. I thought the be-all-end-all of features was adjusting the recording level! A lot of what we liked were from live recordings and it felt... powerful? to be able to fade a song out or match with with another recording as it faded in!
I hated Vinyl, but knew that the quality was always better when taped onto a decent blank cassette than buying a prerecorded one. So I used to play my records once to get them on tape and then never again!
I think it's an interesting design despite its limitations. Since both tapes are driven by the same capstan, I wonder if speed variations during copying would simply cancel out. An experiment could be to copy a calibration tape and then check the wow and flutter of the duplicate in a known good cassette player. Chances are that you already thought of this and deemed it more trouble than it was worth. Anyway, thank you for sharing your insights into a truly unusual design.
I’d have to travel back in time 30+ years to do that test accurately - the only test I’d be doing now would be to find out how worn out and knackered an early 90s boombox is after being used and abused for three decades.
Back in the 80s, for me, to make a "proper" mixed tape, I used a tape deck. But I covered the erase head so that I can blend 2 songs together. This worked great with songs that had no beats towards the beginning or end such as live concerts. This would only work with a blank tape of course. Today, I use djay AI and let the software mix, beatmatch, echo, etc, my playlist to tape. I wish I could send you one of these tapes if possible.
Djay AI sounds like an app that I need to check out. 👍🏻
Lovely Video.. I remember looking at one of these in t'80's 90's and thinking this is daft... engineering over practicality. Now of course I just ask my AI to create a "mix tape" based on artists I really like, and I get a rich potpourri of artists I really hate. How times have changed.
In a sort of serious, but not all that serious vein, another compromise of the Sharp twin-deck layout is that it is fatter front-to-back than the standard layout which could be troublesome for those folks whose living accommodations are limited with shelves that are particularly narrow (or for those people with particularly narrow shoulders). Hey why not design the cassettes to loaded from the top, sort of like a toaster? 🤔😊🤦♂️
Sharp's GF-8 shown in one of the catalogues tried that with a single cassette. Back in those days manufacturers were competing on differences rather than price.
Loved the videography one this one, great camera angles, great editing, great locations. The bar has been raised so high now that most YouTubers can't even see it anymore.
Great video. I enjoyed it as a snapshot of a time and a place where the details have been forgotten... Copying video games... Mix tapes... Automatic record levels!!! Grrr.... The video bounces along really nicely.
I had one of these for most of my school days here in New Zealand. Only difference is mine was coloured in a fetching army green. Main use was computer tapes.
Great subject and a lovely location to shoot this, I hope you didn't get disturbed much. The Pocket 3 was impressive too, I would've never rated it for this kind of video.
Love this one. Although you’re not fond (and you shouldn’t) or aiming for that typical fast paced Vlog/YT “entitled” style.. I do like that there’s more energy in this one than usual, meanwhile keeping it real ;). Good work.
Despite plenty of prior boombox videos, this has just reminded me: On numerous school trips to London back in the 80s, I have a vague recollection of browsing the electronics shops on Tottenham Court Road, I'm sure there was one of those huge boomboxes that had a mini TV screen built into it. Did anyone know if I'm just imagining that?
I’ve got a couple of those.
Within this video I love: ✔️ Location Shoot ✔️ The BPC acronym ✔️ Tape mixing ✔️ Molehills at 2:46 ✔️ Brochure/Catalog screenshots ✔️ Hip Hop Mat Incidentally, in the Potpourri I just put in the chat room I listed two double cassette 'boomboxes' - SPC and BPC, or better? Both are certainly overpriced! Sharp GF-575Z w/Box, Manual, and Power Cord https://www.ebay.com/itm/226191752732 National RX CW200F Compo 'Boombox' https://www.ebay.com/itm/166810085248 The various location shooting is really great. It's very apt because of the portability of the 'boombox'. I figured you'd eventually feature this twin cassette item; well done. Take care 🤍 🤍
I never knew that that kinda mechanism even existed. And I like the outdoorsy parts of the video. Something new and fresh. Perhaps you could do this more often if the video is about something mobile or something that can be worn.
Reminds me of watching Z-Cars episodes from 1974-75 when the BBC moved the recording from BBC TV Centre to Outside Broadcast.
Interesting, but I never saw the value in a twin deck until you mentioned computer tapes.
Each scene being in different location worked incredibly well I thought.
Really enjoyed the shooting and editing in this one, fun to see you in alternate locations and taking advantage of the lovely scenery.
Hi, good effort but yes you've missed Hugh Garse, Ivor Biggun, Annette Curtain, and possibly many many more from the credits. Passing it on for a patreon admin.
Absolutely loving the creative camera work and locations! Being out and about in the video works thematically well with boomboxes You’ve mentioned in the past how you’re always looking for ways to improve and new things to try - it’s cool to see some of those experiments in action here. I imagine doing that kind of thing keeps it fresh and fun.
I used to have a Sharp ghetto blaster with this back to back functionality, with X-BASS and detachable speakers. I thought it was ace. Looking back the speakers were cheap, hollow plastic boxes that have it terrible sound quality, especially with that X-BASS turned on. 🤣 Sharp WF-T380E. Rare according to eBay...
Now that I've watched it, I can give my 2p worth. I don't think creating mix tapes would be as big as a deal breaker as Mat makes it in the video. I'd keep swapping the tape in to the other deck to fast forward and rewind before swapping and starting the recording. Saying that, I had completely forgotten that one of the mechanisms was crippled severely compared to the other. Each to their own opinion. 😅 Also, by the time these were out in the early 90s, I doubt many were still playing on their Spectrums. My main use for it was connecting it up to my Mega Drive and then my Amiga to use it as the main audio rather than my crappy portable TV. The TF380 had phono inputs on the top so ideal for this purpose. (ignoring the sound quality of course). I do recall the Surround just have more expanded sounding audio, ie worse. The surround on mine was achieved by the extra speakers that were pointing in a different direction to the main drivers. One thing that struck me as making this as a high quality item was the smooth and slow action to the tape deck when ejecting. I notice Mat was in a rush to show the dubbing palava and was more forceful with the mechanism, not giving it a chance to show is smooth operation. Just imagine Carlos Sainz jr. And you'll have it. 😀 Loved the change of scenery for each part of the video, great job Mat. 👍
I think we had one of these at primary school, which I attended in the late 80s/early 90s. It looked slightly different, because of course they changed that every 5-10 minutes but I remember the dual tape drawer and the SURROUND system branding.
Checked the credits straight away. Get a life, me. This looks very interesting. 👍