Tapes

[Peter]

How do you feel about tapes? Do you actually listen to the tapes? Or do you just like having something physical and just listen digital anyway?

Discuss.

[keith.]

i dont like the way they sound
sure its a cheap way to get your music into a buyable medium, but i find them annoying and it seems like its just a way for people to up the punx and have something obscure again, even though they are terrible

no sir, i do not like it

[age of quarrel]

tongue tied demo sounds better on the cassettes than in mp3 imo

[reece]

If tapes are done properly they are amazing.

[keith.]

also yes, i do have cassettes. but ill try to only get them if i cant find mp3s online or vinyl of course
if theres no other options, then ill buy your damn tape

[grind/bro]

i have never put on a casette tape in the past 4 years probably, maybe the last one i did was when Sanctum played here for the first time and thats ALL they had. anyway tapes are the worst format possible. i'd rather have 128 kbit/s mp3's than a tape.

[dalamar501]

i enjoy tapes. Mostly for a bands demos I prefer their albums to be released on vinyl if possible.

I don't have a working tape deck here. Tyler has a walkman.
I play tapes on my radio show however. It's fun.

Mixtapes are fun to make.

[tylerp]

I am in support of tapes, though they are not my preferred medium. I think my favourite thing is that it's a great way to soak in an entire album as a seamless thing. here's a little list.

pros:
-convenient thing to carry around in a walkman and listen to without having to fiddle with
-awesome built-in system where you can't skip tracks, as is often the case in our impatient world of 2010
-analog analog analog analog
-super cheap to make, not hard to distribute, fun and interesting to decorate
-something physical to own, read, and treasure (vs. mp3s which are not physical or permanent in the same way)

cons:
-sometimes they get eaten by tape players
-hard to listen to when you're on your computer all day hanging out on facebook and tumbling and all that shit
-admittedly very inferior, quality-wise, to records
-larger than an ipod with a tiny percentage of the "capacity"
-I like TAPES WITH FUCKING GIANT SILENT SECTIONS. BUY TAPES AT NATIONALAUDIOCOMPANY THAT ARE THE RIGHT SIZE FOR YOUR FUCKING DEMO. FILL BOTH SIDES. IT'S NOT THAT HARD and nobody seems to GET this. UGH. this seriously ruins some tapes for me.

I am not a "collector" that keeps everything in new condition - I listen to the music that I buy, so my points might not apply to other people

[KYLESTYLE]

I like mix tapes, but I only listen to the tape version if I don't have a way to listen to the mp3's. The only time I love tapes, and I guess this is a lot, is driving at work because the truck only has a tape player and the radio, even cfuv, is really, really bad most of the time. This reminds me to listen to Troy's mix tape today. As for band tapes, I like the diy aspect and the cost effectiveness, but I would rarely, if ever, listen to them. I grew up listening to those fucking things and I mostly like them. Remember taping cool songs off the radio????

Let's start a mix tape club.

[SewnFlesh]

I appreciate the fact that tapes are a cheaper way to put out a physical release than vinyl but they lack all the good things about vinyl which is longevity, sound quality and large format for artwork.

I won't be dragging out my cassette deck to jump on the new cassette release trend personally. I'm fine with either digital format (download not cds) or vinyl.

[ZACH ATTACK]

I used to be really against tapes because they sound shitty and wear out to fast making them seem more like a collectors piece than something that one would actually want to listen to. Now I like them because they're sweet for playing super loud and my boom box that I carry around with me only has a tape deck.

[trappedinside]

tapes rule. we listened to nothing but tapes for a month and a half on tour because all our van had was a tapedeck. i love having record sessions and making mixtapes consisting of a whole bunch of rad 7''s, i own a walkman which i rock on a regular basis, i buy tons of tapse because they're cheap as fuck and i find it to be a fun musical format. i also put out tapes because vinyl is fucking expensive and CDs are kind of lame. shit yeah.

[LAxPB]

I love tapes. I play them in the car all the time. Mind Melt out of Washington is putting out a tape for Putrid. Should be available next month.

[Jordan f.]

Demo tapes > demo CD's

[age of quarrel]

i want one of those putrid tapes

[dalamar501]

i want one of those putrid tapes

[Jordan f.]

i want one of those putrid tapes

[trappedinside]

also everyone hates on the sound quality but i've gotten some really awesome sounding vinyl rips onto tapes, i would argue that it's a pretty good way to make your record collection portable while still retaining the essence of listening to a record. not to mention i have lots of records that are tricky to find even on music blogs or soulseek and have no idea how to rip vinyl into mp3 format, so mixtapes can in fact be somewhat practical for that.

[officespace]

i want one of those All For The Best tapes

[darcy]

I don't actually listen to tapes. I do have a tapedeck, but I would much rather listen to the music on CD or digital first (I haven't been much for vinyl since I moved and haven't had a setup).