i wonder if i can make my own cassette tape player if i'm careful enough and can get the right tools and don't worry about quality too much
i dont know why i like cassette tapes so much honestly; they're a little before my time. i was born in 1995 so i grew up with CDs. i guess it's because cassettes are pretty compact and feel very tangible to use? and cos you can watch the mechanism turn on some decks? not sure
@typhlosion honestly i picked up a forty dollar hifi cassette deck from a thrift store and it was worth it.
@lunalapin i gotta find a good thrift store near me... though im probably not gonna feel like walking very far given the weather lately
@typhlosion i love them because they go kachunk and then music comes out.
@Mareepy YES the kachunk is so important
@typhlosion my fondest memory of cassette tapes is recording songs off of AM radio stations
@typhlosion they're a nice little format
if you're at all like us (who are just one year older), you probably also grew up with cassettes as well, though mostly ones of like nursery rhymes and kids' songs and stuff (by the time we were interested in our own music that wasn't parent-selected, it *was* all cds)
-F
@typhlosion to be fair I used a tape walkman until... 98ish?
tapes were reasonably durable and error-resistant, unlike CDs
@typhlosion 1) Cassette tapes offer a curated experience. You can't skip through their presentation easily without significant interruption. You're in for the ride and so are more invested in the ride.
2) Cassette tapes are mechanical. They are tactile. You can roll their ribbons around with a pencil. They have a specific scent.
3) Cassette tapes are malleable. You can record over them if you want.
Maybe these help?
@Aradia that's true... i do tend to listen to albums as the full album rather than just listening to individual songs, so i suppose cassettes are compatible with my habits in that way. i think the tactile mechanicalness of them is the most important thing though
@typhlosion they look like what they are; moderately hard to mess up, inexpensive if you do, it’s relatively easy to make your own mix tapes at fairly good quality.
@typhlosion it's a good shape for music, lots of crunchy buttons to push. It's like a mechanical keyboard, nice finger ritual!
i know in my head that a handmade tape deck of better quality than the crappy ones made these days would probably require a watchmaker's hand and cost too much to be worth it
but i know in my heart that it would be worth it to *me*