October 4, 2014 editorial: comments

Night of the Living Cassettes

It’s funny what people get nostalgic for. Just look at the incredible popularity of Instagram's retro filters, which make photos look like they were taken by cheap, mid-century film cameras. In the music world it's the cassette, which has come back to life like a zombie stalking the audio landscape. Now, bands are putting out entire albums on cassette.

The other day I received an email about a “cassette emulator” app for iOS. Its App Store blurb says, “Do you still remember the cassettes from the 80s? Now you can have it again.” What that grammatically challenged description is referring to is that this app processes your music collection to make your songs sound like they’re playing back on cassettes. Oh boy, I can't wait.

If you're too young to have experienced the original cassette era, let me assure you that you didn't miss much. The annoying little cartridges were loaded with skinny 1/8” wide tape that ran at a slug-like 1.875 inches per second (ips), compared to 7.5, 15 or 30 ips on reel-to-reel machines, and were notable for their copious levels of hiss. Yes, there were noise reduction systems of various types (remember Dolby B, C and HX Pro) that definitely improved the cassette's fidelity to some degree, but basically all of that was a vain attempt to, as the saying goes, “polish a turd.”

Oh, and then there was the cassette’s wonderful trait of randomly unwinding for no apparent reason — in the middle of playback or recording. I have memories of trying to wind back mounds of cassette-tape spaghetti by turning a pencil or pen stuck through one of the cassette’s supply reels, hoping fervently that the tape hadn't gotten twisted beyond repair. Probably the best thing you could say about the cassette as a format is that it was better than the dreaded 8-Track cartridges that preceded it.

Yet somehow, it has returned from the grave. This reanimation of the cassette format is very different from the resurgence of vinyl — you can make an argument for the sound of vinyl versus the sound of digital. But a cassette? If you A/B’ed a cassette against a digital recording the quality differences would be stark — like comparing a fast-food hamburger to a prime cut of steak.

Overall, the “lo-fi” craze is a bit mystifying, for me. A case in point: A friend of mine who is an excellent mixer, was working on a project for his 20-something son’s band, only to be told he was making it sound too good! Huh? With all the trouble we all go through to learn proper recording techniques and capture the best quality audio we can (not to mention spending our disposable and not-so-disposable income on more and better gear), what’s the appeal of purposely trying to make a recording sound less than stellar, and especially of embracing an inferior format like the cassette? Maybe I'm missing something important here, but I just don't get it. As always, your comments are welcome.

One programming note: the AES (Audio Engineering Society) convention is taking place October 10-12 in Los Angeles, and the Audiofanzine team will be there to cover it. Keep your eye on our news section all week, as some products are sure to be announced prior to the show's start.

Mike Levine

U.S. Editor, Audiofanzine