Odditapes
I’m really happy with the way this video turned out, so I hope you enjoy watching it too. I’m posting it here a few days earlier than usual as I want to spend the rest of the week editing the patrons-only behind the scenes video I recorded recently.
Despite this video being short, it has been in development for quite some time. The earliest elements (the research & photos) were saved to my computer back in April 2016 and I bought the second item shown even before than that, in May 2015. It's only with a recent purchase of a couple more unusual tapes that I felt there was finally enough to warrant a video.
Anyway got to go, I’ve just heard a delivery van pull up outside and if it’s delivering the piece of RetroTech I think it is..I can’t wait to try it out.
Odditapes - Rare & Unusual Tapes from my collection (YouTube)
Comments (45)
I always like hearing about these "special purpose" recordings. The closest thing I have to what you have in the video is a promo tape for the Pokemon "2.B.A. Master" album. I think it was send to smaller music stores to get them to pick up the album.
A fantastic insight into some forgotten and unknown releases, I dread to think what a modern day Album from an Airline would sound like!
Thanks for yet another wonderful video. Also: "Amersfoort" on the not-for-sale DCC is actually a city in The Netherlands.
I thought it was. Loads of people telling me this in the comments too...I must have given out some kind of vibe that I really needed to know, but I presumed it was in the Netherlands because of the spelling and with DCC coming from Philips.
Thank you for keeping the DCC format alive.
Hey mate - do you have this? <a href="http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SONY-DVW-A500P-Analog-Digital-Betacam-Editing-Video-Cassette-Recorder-PAL-/112528261774?hash=item1a3335028e:g:0lUAAOSwnn9ZlOKQ" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SONY-DVW-A500P-Analog-Digital-Betacam-Editing-Video-Cassette-Recorder-PAL-/112528261774?hash=item1a3335028e:g:0lUAAOSwnn9ZlOKQ</a>
I don't...but unfortunately I also wouldn't have any use for it, or anywhere to store it. However thanks for thinking of me as there have been quite a few things I've bought over the years as a result of tips received.
I am so happy to see another physical format video for audio. I love the tangible music formats, nothing is the same as opening a new album (or used for that matter) and pushing play as you flip through the liner notes and the album art. I am so honored to have been able to have a tiny part in helping you and others like Ralf (Dr.DCC) keep physical media alive. Thank you for all you do to keep retro technology in the modern mind.
Hi, and apologies for not being aware of you before.. I stopped keeping up with the music scene some time in the 90s, and even back then I was only really following hip hop artists. I now mostly concentrate on funk from the early 70s. I wish you every success with the album and thanks for becoming a patron.
I love these obscure formats, and really appreciate the efforts you put into finding them and telling us about them. Sad that Sony no longer adventure into unusual formats and technologies. I have a friend who worked for Sony and had access to the staff shop, where all kinds of weird and whacky tech would appear for very little money
Fantastic, love these rare finds!
Another great informative video. I truly enjoy your videos because I always seem to learn something from them in addition to the entertainment. Thank you for doing what you do. We all genuinely appreciate the effort you put into them.
I'm always learning things while I'm making them, that's one of the best parts for me.
I love your retrotech videos and this is another great one. Miss the puppets though. Anyway, I think it's pretty interesting and ironic how all these tapes have held up so well over the years, while CDs, which were supposed to last forever, are often becoming unusable due to scratches and disc rot.
The puppets were only supposed to be a couple of videos, but so far they've appeared in over 40. Those scenes are surprisingly challenging to shoot and I'm still not sure whether they really bring any value to the videos in the form of more subscribers or greater numbers of views....perhaps it's the opposite.
Is the NT tape helical scan like a VHS tape?
Yes, amazingly it is. You'll find out a tiny bit more about the format in my old video about it <a href="https://youtu.be/fXo3_wmqtEQ" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/fXo3_wmqtEQ</a>
In the future you may consider opening a museum with these retro beauties ...Great video and info..As always! Thanks.
I'll probably just stick to this virtual online museum on YouTube that people from all over the world can visit (even when I'm asleep).
Wow, these are delightfully obscure. Tapes and Techmoan go together like peanut butter and jelly, always great to see an episode on the topic pop up!
I love Poetic Justice. Cant believe you have that. #RIP2Pac
Have you ever noticed the small text on the back that says "This album does not contain a Janet Jackson recording". It's not often an album tells you what's not on it.
Nice video, as ever. Doesn't old tape deteriorate? It seems surprising that material from the 60s plays so well.
Some forumulations are known to shed...but the better made tapes do seem to have an extraordinary long life. Funnily enough a lot of people ridiculed the recording I played from an RCA Tape Cartridge in a video a while back where the chap on the tape said "tape as you know, never wears out" - they joked about the ludricrous nature of that comment...not quite connecting that I was playing it back from a 60 year old tape that sounded as good as if it had been recorded yesterday. <a href="https://youtu.be/Li699Qflv3g?t=23m31s" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Li699Qflv3g?t=23m31s</a>
Very interesting video. I've come across quite a few of the American Airlines reel-to-reel tapes at estate sales here (I live in an area with a lot of military retirees, many of whom flew commercial after their military careers ended). As you said, the tapes are remarkably clear for 3.75 ips, and offer a wide spectrum of musical styles. Thanks again for an interesting and educational video!
Those AA tapes can make for a difficult listen, one minute you're hearing Motown, next it's classical. I don't think there are many people around who would enjoy all the tracks.
Wonderful job, as always! You have a real talent for creating interesting content with great production values.
Ralf "Dr.DCC" from the DCC Museum is a personal friend of mine, and I helped him a bit to produce Jeremy Heiden's DCC release. As you mentioned, a DCC-175 with a PC-link cable to a Windows-95 or Windows-98 computer was used to record the music and the title information, which means the title information can only be seen on the following recorders and players (by the way these are 3rd generation, which was the last generation of DCC so there is no 4th or 5th generation): - Philips DCC-730 - Philips DCC-951 - Philips DCC-822/DCC-824 (car stereo) - Technics RS-DC8 (probably!) Other recorders (including the DCC-175!) can only display track titles that were recorded on prerecorded cassettes, not on user-recorded cassettes. And though this DCC is sold as a prerecorded cassette, the equipment to format DCC tapes as prerecorded tapes doesn't exist anymore, as far as we know (if you can prove me wrong, please contact the DCC museum!) so the tapes are formatted as "super user tapes". Exclusive reveal for the Techmoan Patreon channel: I'm trying to reverse-engineer how title information is stored on prerecorded DCC cassettes, in order to make it possible to produce cassettes with the same features as prerecorded cassettes (e.g. fast searching, and searching by title), on a regular DCC recorder. Stay tuned to my websites <a href="https://digitalcompactcassette.github.io" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://digitalcompactcassette.github.io</a> and <a href="https://hackaday.io/jac" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://hackaday.io/jac</a> for future updates on this.
Thanks for the insight and it's amazing how interconnected the world of RetroTech is.
That one in particular was very enjoyable. At first I was really puzzled about what SONY had in mind with that NT cassette. It just does not make any sense. But then I remembered something: A long time ago there were scientific data recorders that used tiny cassettes. I think they were TEAC branded, but could be wrong. It could be that these used NT cassettes.
Yes now you mention it, I remember seeing a recorder that attached to a PC that used NT for data backup.
To those who don't create video content, they have no idea the amount of time/planning/research/frustration/joy comes out of creating a video. You always do a superb job and actually gave me hope my mainly retro car audio videos would start to gain interest. Between you and 8-Bit Guy, there is proof people like watching videos about old technology. I'll always support your content as it is among my favorite in any platform (TV/YouTube or other). Thanks for all you do!
People have asked me to do retro car stereo reviews...but it's not something I'm at all knowledgable about or geared up to do. So if you do decide to carry on making videos, there are definitely people out there who are interested.
I think of all the you tube channels I subscribe to, yours is the most interesting. You are always finding things that I would never have known existed, but are really interesting too. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, that's really great to hear.
So amazing to see such rarities. Again thanks for this amazing video! If I understood correctly the DCC tape is handmade by writing the data to the tape using the portable player, then putting on the stickers manually. I would love to see how that process is being done, and what encoder can produce DCC compatible audio data nowadays. I mean I remember I've found a very old mp1encoder which is the closest thing you can get to PASC (I never heard a DCC tape, so I wanted to approximate it somehow) but there has to be a better tool for this. Would it be possible to do an interview with the DCC museum guys? I would love to see that happen.
I've never done an interview...but you're right it could be very interesting. I'll need to have a think about it.
I love these videos when you explore releases on obscure formats. I loved the reel to reel video you did a while back that contained lots of jingles. More please! :)
I do have another of those reels containg the adverts jingles I bought from the same place. That video really divided the audience...it was possibly because it was almost all audio with very little to stimulate the eyes.
We certainly have lived in a very transitional time period, from vinyl through various media to pure digital. Amazing.
I always prefer a bit of inconvenience with my music...so in my world the Sony NT cassettes would have become the portable format of choice. I like the idea of buying cassettes in tiny boxes with fingernail sized artwork and a track listing that required a magnifying glass to read.
Wonderful! I like seeing what people have done on these sorts of paths no longer traveled. ..or maybe have just the one guy traveling them.
Well I thoroughly enjoyed this one!
Thanks for doing what you do. Your work provides a welcome diversion and it has been enjoyable to watch the progression of your production quality. Kudos!
They say if you do anything for long enough you'll get pretty good at it. I did my day job for 25 years and got progressively worse...but I like to think that I'm starting to get the hang of these video things.