What's with the current trend of artists releasing their albums on cassette? Is there any advantage to using cassette? Does the cassette sound different from the flac version of music?
Cassettes sound different, usually worse than other physical formats. Artists are releasing cassettes because they are super cheap to produce compared to vinyl and are also much easier. They are cheap and can be sold for $5 a piece and still make a decent profit. They are a cool piece of memorabilia and a nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up in the 80's or 90's. It's easy to forget how much it fucking sucked to spend $10 on these and have them sound like shit in less than a year.
>>64149754
Is there any kind of usb cassette play to listen to them on your computer besides those shitty mp3 converters? How do they sound different? Just seems strange that people are suddenly buying these again?
>>64149754
Pretty much this, we put our stuff on tape because it's so cheap. If you don't listen to the same tapes over and over (as you would have in the 90s) they're fairly durable. You can also put a card in it with a dl code so people get something physical to show for their purchase rather than paying for digital media.
They're a much smaller hassle for all involved. I've released on both tape as well as vinyl and while vinyl certainly has its appeal, it takes much longer to do and is much more involved. I can go from sending the files to having it up for sale within a week with tape as compared to vinyl which can take months. Other than that, it has its aesthetic appeal. You can personalize it much more easily in smaller runs, and the sound quality itself can sound even better than on vinyl with certain genres.
All this debate about one or the other format being superior is a bit silly. I release on both formats for different things precisely because they have their own different appeals, which means it's too different to faithfully compare
>>64150298
Why release on tape instead of CD though?
it's cheap and easily made. also, honestly, listening to it on a cassette player has a certain charm to it's sound that is irreplaceable.
One word: lo-fi. Not only is it a genre, but it's an A E S T H E T I C that is currently trending
>>64150345
>>64150402
What is a high quality but affordable cassette deck then?
>>64150339
Because cassettes are much more fitting for certain releases in terms of sound and the physical format. Music that's made specifically lofi is going to only sound better on cassette, and it's easier to personalize each cassette than it is with a CD.
Plus it offers something different than the digital release. Tape and vinyl have unique sound characteristics that come with the physicality of their format, while CDs just sound the same as a digital release. So if all you care about is supporting the artist but want the cleanest sound quality, it's easier to just purchase the digital files instead
>>64150487
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVoSQP2yUYA
I grew up with cassette tape.
I have no wish to revisit it.
Have to keep the tape heads clean.
Have to demagnetize the tape heads.
No matter how well you care for the cassette tape, over time it will start to sound worse and worse.
And let's hope it doesn't eaten by a hungry tape player.
Nope. Give me digital files, please.
It's the new hipster chic. Especially, for those too poor for vinyl, but can drop $5 on a cassette.
>>64153868
Oh, I forgot all about having the Dolby noise reduction calibrated properly.
Or the alignment of the heads.
Or the calibration of the bias.
Analog tape truly is a nightmare.
I can't believe people are still fucking around with it.
>>64149615
Hispters are finding out that """"the scene"""" uses cassettes to trade and shit.
Which is fine by me, cause I collect shoegaze cassettes, but it's just a trend.
>>64149615
i don't think it's a trend, nobody does it in the mainstream, not even in the surface level underground
>>64149910
Just download the album you idiot. You are obviously supporting the artist if you bought the fucking cassette. Plus you know it sounds better that way.
>>64149615
it's a cheap way to physically release your music on an analog format
besides that it's useless, the nostalgia is stupid
there's some arguments for aesthetics tho
At least where I'm at all the local bands are running cassettes. I think it mostly has to do with ease of production, the delays on producing vinyl and the difficulty of doing real CDs (beyond just copying shit onto a standard R/W disk). It's a cheap and easy way to put out a lot of shit and try your hand at recording and most of the folks doing underground music are poor enough that we're still running cars with cassette players anyways.
>>64154079
That's not what I mean. I don't want to convert them to a computer file on my HDD I want to pass through the analog cassette sound to my computer headphones to listen to the actual cassette playback while on the computer. My headphones are USB.
>>64149615
#1 reason is retro/novelty value
>>64153969
>""""""""
go home unty
>>64149615
It's a gimmick just like vinyl.
>>64149615
aaron ellis & pink pots are releasing a tape should i buy it?
>>64149615
It's a nostalgia thing, also it's a pretty weird way of storing music when you think about it, vinyls and CDs have random access whereas tapes are linear.
t. someone who keeps dreaming about listening to tapes for no reason
>>64154183
this. same is true of vinyl.
Question for people who actually know their shit about tapes: I've been buying a bunch of tapes off bandcamp recently (don't hate) because they're the only thing my piece of shit car can play and i think they're weirdly aesthetically pleasing.
Anyway why do some vary so much in sound quality? Some will sound relatively sharp and crisp whereas others are muddy and distant. These are new cassettes too, not old or second hand.
>>64149615
Man, I was drunk and flamed a local band hard for putting out cassettes. They literally gave me one and instead of being cool and saying "thanks" i was like, "what the fuck do you think I'm going to do with this?/"
I went on and on about how nobody had a fucking Tape player and if they did they sound like shit. The guy I was talking to looked hurt, but I let him have it. He said that "it's super cheap" and I said "so are CD's" and he was like "these are cheaper" and I'm like "people actually will listen to a CD. You're a fucking idiot"
GG
>>64157638
different types of tape
also poor bandcamp artists often just reuse old cassettes
i dont even remember how it sound when i using it frequently at teenager. maybe its tinnitus
Releasing tapes is kind of dumb as shit. If you want the aesthetic, just get some tape saturation and wow/flutter plugins and you're golden, but without any of the bullshit that comes with an analog format. People need to figure out a new way to make digital formats accessible physically instead of digging up obsolete technology.
>>64157667
man you sound really cool i'd love to hang out with you
>>64157638
Also the skill of whoever is duplicating them. Some people do it at home themselves without having any skill or experience.
>>64157667
if you wouldn't attend beta indie acts someone would probably beat you to shit for that
>>64157638
mastering & audio level, head alignment variations between recording deck and playback deck, shit tape
>>64154157
its a fucking cassette you retard, get a cassette player. jesus fucking invalids
>>64157874
you win the blue ribbon for stupidest post my man
>>64159157
Are you retarded? A cassette player won't pass the sound through to my computer? You fucking moron.
>>64159739
It's called a 3.5mm audio cable going out of the cassette player and into your computer's audio input friendo
>>64159739
I'm still kinda having trouble understanding what you're looking for.
>>64149615
I release stuff on them bc they're cheap as hell to produce so even if they din't sell I only loose a couple bucks
>>64159755
There is no audio input.
>>64159311
>ur stupid
>i win
I would actually argue that wanting to buy cassette tapes and/or vinyl is retarded but hey
>>64160115
Get an external DAC then
>>64159739
get a fucking aux cable you fucking retard
>>64160168
Why can't I use my audio interace? It has xlr input.
>>64160180
And what good will that do when I have no input for it you moron?
>>64160234
Get a 3.5mm to xlr cord then
>>64160281
Okay, thanks.
>>64150644
What types of releases/music are they more fitting for? Also, how do the tapes sound different from vinyl/digital?
>>64161646
Just download or listen to a cassette rip on youtube. If you want to really hear the difference find a flac version of that album too
https://youtu.be/mZwV0RfDTx4
>>64161755
Outside of the tape hiss I don't hear anything that could potentially make it better for certain types of music.
>>64161934
tape warble/'warmth'
>>64161934
Do you maybe have difficulty understanding what an "aesthetic" is? You sound literally autistic
For example music that is supposed to make you nostalgic like "vaporwave" for example works great on cassette, because the tape hiss and physical cassette are very natsukashii desu
or another example is black metal which is very low budget usually makes it "rawer" and accenuates the fact that the band doesnt give a fuck about so called good production.
there tried my best to explain it hope you understnd
>>64161977
Thanks.
>>64162034
And just simply going "aesthetic" doesn't explain what sounds "aesthetic" you retarded faggot.
>>64162081
>you retarded faggot.
oh you're trolling
delete this thread
I explained it to you in detail, i didn't simply "go a e s t h e t i c"
anyway, i will be leaving now but please do respond if you must have the last word.
>>64162126
>delete this thread
I'm not OP you dumb shit.
>I explained to you in detail
Oh after you sperged out like a fucking moron over how I should just understand everything after you go "It's aesthetic man."
Honestly you just sound like a complete fucking faggot.
>>64149615
lo-fi is trendy
cheap to make, good profit when sold for cheap so they sell well and actually make decent gas/food/etc money on tour, sound cool (my band bounces all of our shit to cassette before mastering bc it sounds nice), aesthetically pleasing as an object to own/design
best format for everyone involved desu
>>64149910
get tape player
hook up 3.5 jack from computer mic input to headphone/lineout on player
open audacity
hit record
play
congrats anon you have digitized your cassette
>>64150339
CD is fucking worthless and an incredibly easy way to lose money. If someone wants a CD they can just download it off bandcamp and burn the shit themselves, it's literally exactly the same
>>64154019
m8 I walked into a fucking metal/noise shop and they had Mac DeMarco tapes with the other "shit we stock to sell to retards who don't know any of our music"
I have my own label and I can say that cassettes are a great way to promote growth in a music scene. Local bands don't have money to press their music into vinyl, where cassettes are cheap and easy. It has been a ton of fun, got me way more involved in my local scene, and people are usually really stoked on it.
>>64157667
CDs aren't cheap and they don't sell you fucking retard. The turnaround on manufacture is awful for no reason, they can't sell for a decent profit, and nobody who actually goes to shows buys them.
a small, DIY, touring act will fucking sink if they drop the cash on that useless shit
>>64150298
Vektroid pls go
>>64160089
and when they do sell you can make double what you spent, and that's if you're only charging $5
bump it up to $7 (generally the most ppl will pay for a tape) and you're swimming in glorious gas/McDs money
