This is a Cartrette
Thanks to the eagle eye of a patron I’m taking a look at an audio tape cartridge you’ve likely never seen before, I certainly hadn’t. It’s a neat little format…albeit one that now suffers from a few age related issues.
Thanks to Alucard for spotting this one and for taking the time to send it over.
The personal air-con I showed last week helped me to finish this one. Things got very hot in the studio for the last day of shooting so it was ten minutes of full blast neck-con, followed by five minutes of trying to get a section recorded to camera until my head eventually overheated and then back to the neck-con again. As an air cooler it's definitely not a patch on any of my car’s air-con systems but it did enable me to get this video finished, so it has its uses.
Hope you’re all well, take care and enjoy the rest of your week.
UPDATE
I’ve added a couple of on-screen annotations and as well as thirty seconds of additional information on the Cartrette at approx. five minutes into the video.
The updated video is the one now embedded above and linked to below.
https://youtu.be/OefACe8g-Sc
Comments (62)
Enjoyed the video Mat. Two techmoans for me today with being away last week (this one and the Bose) Love the quicky and unusual tech videos like this. Nearly fell off the sofa laughing with the Drill section - fabulous.
I was half way through the video and was thinking it was going to be a bit of a disaster; good on you for persevering on such a obscure bit of tech. Not only obscure but really rather fragile!
By now I shouldn't be surprised that YT commenters neglect to read annotations. It's enough to make the brain hurt. Also, ironically amusing.
I’m pretty sure by now that I could post a half hour video with a single word such as ‘Orange’ displayed on the screen and repeated over and over on the audio and someone would ask why I didn’t mention orange in the video.
I shamelessly pride myself on knowing what noshnetia was before you revealed it 🙈 That’s too much time playing with half track recorders for you
What a great start to the weekend that was! Thanks!! Surprisingly good quality on the tape, considering how it was intended to be used. My previous apartment building had that same guy, I’m sure, as the voice of fiery doom. I can still hear “…and move awaaaay from the building.”
Amazing if the sound on the tape was just screaming and people panicking.
Matt!! Love it when you do these videos where ‘will it work out in the end or won’t it’ 😁 Thanks so much for working so hard on these videos. I honestly get excited every bloody time a Techmoan video drops 🎤 Cheers Lee
I feel I can always count on a positive message from you Lee, it’s appreciated.
A beautiful upload and thank you for sharing this rare device
Thank you for spotting it and sending it over. 😀
Literal LOL for the "drill" "bit." And I swear that same voice was used during fire drill/shelter in place announcements in the previous building I worked in, which was just 3 years ago...
It was the first thought that came to mind when I heard it and it made me chuckle. I’m glad it translated.
Nicely done updates - informational and educational. I can't help but wonder how different things would have been if this format took off with upgrades and improvements.
NOITNETTA NOITNETTA NOITNETTA
This is the stuff right here. Nice video. The drill puppets were a really nice touch too. Made my day.
This was an absolutely lovely video!
Just Another Excellent Video, sir. Another tape format to be examined. Never saw a cartridge like that before here in the US, had to wait until it crossed the Pond to see it....
When you used the crappy cassette player you connected both heads together. You did not unsolder the head of the crappy cassette player itself. I think the head in the crappy cassette player is basically a short circuit to any other head that is connected there so it could not work. It would just be extremely quiet.
Yes a few people have pointed this out - it looks like I’ll have to add an annotation to the video to avoid an avalanche of similar comments.
Hooray! Everyone loves a muppet. And the puppet wasn't bad either ! Enjoyed that video, thanks Matt!
A new format! Enjoyed that. Also, nice subtle joke using the word ‘incompetance’. Made me smile :)
So the tape speed is 1,7/8?
Yes.
Again an odd cartridge format, you keep finding them, cool! And of course thanks to the chap who sent it all the way from the States!
Ah, something comforting on a hot summer's night. Love it, I would have done the same as you Mat, so therefore your method must be perfect!
What a fantastic video! It's one of my all time faves from your channel now
That was great Mat - a Techmoan video that has everything: A novel tape format, disassembly of an old machine, belt replacement, soldering, tape splicing, cannibalising other devices AND puppets. I am sure you'll get millions of views for this one!
I appreciate and admire your confidence. I’ll put down a deposit on a yacht, the YouTube money is as good as in the bank.
Didn't know that buildings had recorded evacuation alerts like that. I worked in a tall office building from 2006-2014 and all we got were random fire alarms with a horrible buzzer & near-seizure inducing flashing lights. Does the tape head produce line-level signals or does it require additional processing to get line-level output? I wondered why you didn't just put some RCA connectors on the head and patch it into an amplifier that way.
That’s one thing I never thought of…perhaps it would work.
• Thanks Alucard! • Very nice efforts on your part to get the original item operating as intended. I thought your hack through the portable tape player was clever despite it not working. • No weird-ass speeds for this format, interesting. I imagine they didn't use old-fashioned compact cassettes to avoid security employees stealing the extras and using them deviously? • It's great to see the 'life cycle' of this device - from the OP's message in the community chat to the finished video. • Is that puppet Uncle Moan, the degenerate raincoat-wearing black sheep of the Moan family? Funny as hell, loved it. Thank you personal aircon. • When the announcer said 'walk...walk...walk' I kept thinking 'run like hell' because of these signs: https://ibb.co/CmxzP3s • The company I used to work for had announcements worded almost exactly the same as on these tapes, and the voice was very similar... • Let's hope the company wasn't still using these just shortly before renovations 😅 Have a wonderful day and take care. 🤍
Automatic devices talking to the public over loudspeakers seem more common in the US. Possibly because that’s where the Cartrette salesman worked. I’m reminded of “The red zone is for the loading and unloading of passengers only” as lampooned in Airplane! It does seem quite possible that those systems used this same cart format.
Looks like it was last checked in ’80 not ’82? (I know, it doesn’t matter.)
I suspect you might be a pharmacist - you have a skill for deciphering sloppy handwriting.
I read somewhere about "discovering and learning each of God's names" as one of the keys to true Enlightenment. I'm convinced that your path to Enlightenment is discovering every conceivable recording format. It's possible that the only great universal truth you've discovered thus far is "first, replace the belts."
A classic Techmoan: odd tape formats. I enjoyed it and I loved the drill joke! BTW, I had ordered the Nikon monocular after you reviewed it and it arrived recently. Thank you for the pointer! I have a squint and binoculars are useless to me. This thing, on the other hand, is perfect. I'm really happy with it!
I’m happy to hear that.
Yes, thanks Alucard for sharing this. There doesn't seem to be a big advantage to turning the tape 90°. Odd choice. I did a quick search, and the Seattle company mentioned seems to have disappeared.
It does make for a slim cart, but of course all that’s irrelevant when it’s used in a rack-mount tower.
Fascinating time capsule recording. It would be more helpful if a fire alarm would actually tell you what to do, however, it would get annoying real quick. The normal fire alarm sound isn't so bad after all.
This was great! At the company I work with they have a fire alarm test once a week with an announcement along the lines of "the fire alarm is about to be tested, no action is required" - for the past few years I swear it is Bill Patterson who voices it which I like as he's a great actor with an excellent voice!
Thank you for this entertaining video. Of course I was intrigued by the link with Belgium and I went looking for that company ‘STAAR’ and it turns out this mister Staar was quite an inventor of things that seem to earn a place on your show, Mat: https://www.radiocollection.be/fr/staar_fr.html
Thanks, another interesting tape format, how many do exist out there ? At least another one, I used to play around 1974 with something named "magneto kid", the cartridge was around the same size, with the tape at the usual position, around 3 minute duration.
Very enjoyable video Mat It was good to see these devices and how they work and that you joined all the bits of tape together to hear what was on them. I wonder how long these systems would have survived may be 90s ?
I suspect that any building that had these systems only considerd replacing them when a solid state digital alternative was available.
Love it. A laugh out loud moment with the puppet. Love that you don't take the simple route. The announcer's voice, and the backwards section reminded me of Red Dwarf.
Ah, Arthur Smith's rant - I felt so proud of myself when I managed to reverse that! I have a recollection along the lines of "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to the one sad git in the country that has managed to turn this around and work out what I'm saying!"
The “This is a drill” part made me proper laugh.
Fascinating stuff, really enjoyed that. Genuinely laughed out loud too. Love the idea that there's more like this just waiting to be discovered/saved
I remember seeing this on the community page. Thanks Al for allowing Mat to make an excellent video.
Very interesting, Matt. Do you happen to know what the playback speed is? The quality seemed very good.
It’s the same as a regular cassette.
I am a fire protection sprinkler engineer, and I can tell you that Simplex (now merged with Grinnell as SimplexGrinnell), is still in business today, making fire protection equipment. And there's a Grinnell fire sprinkler bell on the outside of the building in an earlier video you did: https://youtu.be/etl_bSIy-p0?feature=shared&t=183 That's why I watch this show. For the deep-cut fire protection industry references.
I really enjoyed this "kitbash kit" video. Watching you build a bodge device to revive a literal piece of trash was quite entertaining.
This is a drill. Hillarious! Was so good to see the puppets again!!! What a great video. Thank you!!!
Have to say I loved the puppet drill, that did make me smile. Great video.
A never before seen member of The Moans. :-)
I'm just a tinkerer, no proper electronics knowledge but I feel that detaching the wires from the walkman's head would have done the trick. As it was setup the signal from the cartridge head would be atenuated by the coils in the walkman head. Other than that cool video. Each time you show a new format I wonder if the list will ever be complete :)
If I ever get into this situation again I’ll try that.
Another interesting and rare audio device. Always like these videos where you try to resurrect failed old audio systems, especially when you can at least hear the audio on the tape. From your description of how hot it's been in your house, is it finally time to get some sort of air conditioning system installed, even if only in the bedroom or the lounge?
Unfortunately for reasons way too boring to go into here, fitting aircon in the house just isn’t feasible.