You're missing out on the funnest and rarest media of all!!!
THE 8-TRACK CARTRIDGE!!!
the most labour intesnive music hobby. constant maitenance...not for the faint of heart but I love the sound of cartridge music, it's so Mellow and the headroom on the recordings is a bit different than a Record, same sound quality but a completely different mastering for Tape than when a recording went down on to vinyl. so those of you who want to pick out subtle things in songs you love on LP will REALLY appreciate hearing it on 8-track, subtle things in the mix, Toms stand out as well as the ROOM sound is fuller and vocals can just be WAY TO REAL SOUNDING, the dimension in the sound is INCREDIBLE!
AMAZING LOW END FREQUNCY ON CARTRIDGES!!! these things will blow your speakers easy!!!
8-tracks are ingeneous in design, but there was one fatal flaw, The Splice.
some tracks were too long to fit at the end of a program and had to fade out.
like Right in the middle of Edgar winters solo on "frankenstein" for example...that's fucking BULL!
but they played at a tape speed of 3 and three quarters an Inch per second...so that means they were above broadcast frequency...
if you can't find a mint LP of "black sabbath" and you want to hear it with no scratches or pops in all it's AMAZING analog glory, try the cartridge, it's pretty much as high quality as the frequency response of a 33 and a half RPM record album, Excepting a little tape his.
The high end usually would wear out from people playing them over and over because they basically would just continuously play forever untill you unplugged the cartridge. ALSO most people didn't bother cleaning the playback head or demagnetizing it causing the high frequency to be partially erased.
so it's hit or miss, you gotta be a mechanic to deal with cracking a cartridge open to change the rotten sponge pads and re-splicing the loop after the glue dries out, they are also a pain to RE-spool.
you must play a cartridge once in a few years to keep the mylar tape backing from getting Cross-talk from the magnetic bleedthrough. (another problem with mylar as opposed to acetate tape, however I think mylar was better because acetate tended to stretch out if it got caught in the pinch roller)
the mylar breaks clean and you can splice a tape and it really doesn't effect a track too bad, you might catch a split second of drop out from a splice as wide as a peice of scotch tape. not too bad. if the tape gets chewed you can IRON it between some fabric, and it's good to go (if you accdentally chew your prized 8-track for example!) also the tape is a bit of a pain in the ass, you can't REW a cart.
and if the tape gets pulled out, it's a little tedious to get it back again.
tape is a fragile medium, and unfortunately if you're not keen on electronics, 8 tracks are you're WORST nightmare...the machines will last forever if you know how to deal with them.
if you ever find any classic 8-tracks LET ME KNOW!!!
I'm in the market and will give you TOP TOP DOLLARS for
Zappa, handrix, anything rock like ad/dc or sabbath, or anything obscure!!! Firesign theatre for example!
actually there are a lot of Defunct labels you can't find on LP that are just found on 8-track format.
lots of obscure bands, just when you thought you knew all the oldies, you can always pick up something amazing on 8-track, from some bizarre label and band you NEVER saw on LP.
if you're band didn't sell enough you'd only make it to cartridge because they were probly the cheaper Media at the time.. something like that...so there are a TON of bands you never hear..unless you're collecting carts.
lot of funkadellic stuff you never probly heard. but also some lousy disco and country too.
I've always wanted to Jam the Live at slims cartridge in the slot and CRANK THE FUCK!!!
