You might be seeing a few more like this over the coming days and weeks. Just fun really.
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Old tech
This is what I’ve been using to retrieve my old songs from often crumbling cassettes. Sadly it too is somewhat past it’s best and I’m not sure how much longer it will last.
I’m considering getting an old cassette 8 track. Probably not immediately, but in a while I think.
Some more about old multitracks
If you’re interested in old multitrack stuff then here’s a few more posts on the subject.
I can’t believe I missed Cassette Store Day
It was last weekend and I missed it completely. Which is a real shame for me. So, to make it up to myself I thought I’d post a few of my favourite cassette pictures.
Cassette Store Day 2015: The Awesome Tascam
Thinking about cassettes for me has to include a tape 4-track, or in this case, 8-track. A beautiful and highly functional piece of hardware.
Look what I found
I haven’t seen one of these in ages, but in unearthing loads of old cassettes you can find some real treasures. This is a TDK Metal tape with an aluminum body. A great find, and I think they were pretty expensive when they first came out.
I wonder what else I’ll discover?
A cassette magazine from a long time ago
SFX was a cassette magazine from the 80s. I remember it well and thought it was really innovative back in the day
Finding my first cassette recorder
When I was about 11 or maybe 12 I really desperately wanted a tape recorder, and for Christmas I got one. It was a fergusson and it looked like this. I found it again at a very weird museum a few weeks ago. It took me right back. I used to use it for recording…
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Four Track Futures
Since I started going back over my old tapes and retrieving them I’ve been thinking about the process of recording to tape, or if not to tape in a linear way and not wholly sequenced.
I liked that way of doing things in the past. There was more room for error and because of that more room for inspired accidents. I miss that. You just don’t get that so much with sequencing.
So I am giving serious consideration to tape again. I might even consider getting a tape 8 track at some point!
Tascam Cassette Multitrack 
Teac Blue Reel to Reel Cassette 
TDK Metal Cassette 
Teac Black Reel to Reel Cassette 
You won’t see one of these I’ll bet
I checked the tapedeck site to see if they had one of these in the list of cassettes and they don’t, so I sent them some photos.
I have 3 of these Teac cassettes and I can remember that when I bought them that they were pretty hard to get hold of back then. Now, well I doubt that there would be many of them around any more.
I’ve only got one of the blue ones and the other two are black and not in as good condition.
Beautiful though isn’t it?
I love tape, so I love this …
I’m a fan of Deerful’s music so it was good news when she announced a cassette release. It’s a really nice EP too and very well put togeher.
Old fashioned Cassette Recorder (biscuit tin)
I had one of these years ago. In fact, I had a number of these. But one that was very like this one. I think it was the Ferguson that was almost identical to this. It was excellent. Ok, not excellent, but really good for its time. I used it to record all sorts of…
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Listening to myself
I’ve mentioned before that I’m currently going through a process of moving all my old cassettes to digital. It will take a long, long, long, time. I assure you.
But part of the process is listening to music I haven’t heard in years. Mostly things I’ve recorded myself, some great, some terrible, some embarrassing, and all enjoyable in one way or another.
It is a good reminder of why I love music, why I love the creative process. A reminder that software and hardware are just tools for doing something creative and should be looked at as that.
I think it can be really easy to get lost in tools you’re using to the point where you focus so much on what the tool can do and can’t do that you forget what it is you’re trying to achieve. That’s the danger and listening to my old stuff made with simple hardware and usually no software at all made me realise that perhaps I need to think long and hard about where my music is going, or more importantly the fact that it isn’t going anywhere at the moment.
A signed copy of Steve Jansen’s ‘Slope’
I already have this album, I got it when it first came out, but when I heard that Steve Jansen was selling off the last remaining stock and signing them I thought I ought to buy it again. It’s always lovely to have a signed copy of things and this album especially so. I hope…
Listening to the West Norwood Cassette Library
With a band name like that I could do nothing else but listen to them. I remember the days of using cassette libraries and borrowing tapes. All too often the tapes would be somewhat damaged and wobbly, but that was in many ways the nature of cassettes themselves. Of course cassette libraries are all but…
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The Poetry Library
I spent a very pleasant hour recently in the Poetry Library at the Southbank centre. I’ve been a member of the Poetry Library almost since it first opened, and it is truly a national treasure.
It is such a peaceful place, such a great place to sit and read poetry (of course) and discover new writing.
When I worked full time in London I used to make a lot more use of it, but now I only get to pop in every now and then. Even so, it is a joy to visit it every now and then. I hope to get to use it more.
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If you want to find the National Poetry Library
Here’s a map to show you where it is. I’d certainly recommend it as a great place to visit
Listening to Laurie
I found this tape the other day when I was clearing out old cassettes (a job that’s going to take me a while I think).
I’d forgotten I even had this, so it is great to listen to Laurie Anderson as I’ve been a fan for many years now, and interesting to hear her talk about her work in the present tense from so long ago.
Laurie Anderson has to be one of the most original people of all time
A thought about Laurie Anderson after listening to ‘heart of a dog’ again
Seeing Laurie Anderson’s film “Heart of a Dog”
I’ve been wanting to see this film for ages now so when it came up at the Tate Modern I was really pleased. But when I got there the added bonus was she was there too. Which was amazing. She gave a little talk at the beginning and then answered questions at the end. It…
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When tapes go wrong
I’ve been clearing out old tapes, and when I say old I mean old. Some of the tapes are of my own music so I’ve been converting a few tracks to digital and finding songs that I’d completely forgotten about.
Sadly, one tape seems to have decided to give up and of course it had to be one which had lots of long forgotten treasure (for me anyway).
There’s only one thing for it. I’m going to have to open it up and see if I can splice the tape together, and I haven’t done that for years!
Cassette Store Day 2015: Fostex X-14
I used to have a Fostex X-15, but when it finally gave up I got rid of it. So I got the X-14 to replace it. It’s not as good. It’s ok, but it isn’t the same. Even so, I do like these old cassette 4 tracks. Their kind of awesome.
Cassette Store Day 2015: Favourite Cassettes – An interview with Laurie Anderson
Of course, not all tapes are music. This is a favourite interview with Laurie Anderson, who remains as one of my favourite artists of all time. I’ve listened to this often, and always find it insightful, although I think I just like to hear the sound of her voice.
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Palm Apps from the past …
If you’ve been reading my PalmSounds blog for a long time you’ll know that in the past I’ve dabbled with making my own Palm OS apps with a little bit of success. The apps I made were never going to be totally amazing music production apps, but they were free toys and a little bit of fun to play around with.
Anyway, I’ve moved them all here now and you can get them in the ‘PDA Obsessions‘ page.
I do plan to do some more apps using old Palm OS and some other mobile OS stuff too, most notably Android, but more of that in another post.
For now I hope you like the old Palm stuff. Give me some feedback if you do.
Here are a few other PDA related posts
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I am Ashley Elsdon 