The lost art of "i'll make you a tape"

zeitgeist · Post by **zeitgeist** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 3:27 pm

i spent countless hours as a kid sitting behind the living room couch with headphones on, next to the old hi-fi, listening to all the radio stations my parents wouldn't normally let me listen to, and recording all my favorite songs. i'd get so upset when the DJ would be talking over a track intro that i'd wait all day just to hear it air again and get a better recording. i used to bring that walkman everywhere with me.

i was actually back home just last week and was super delighted to see that my parents had kept all my old tapes. now i just need to find a player for these ancient things. i can't imagine what crappy 90's rock and early R&B i'm going to find on them.

Betacord · Post by **Betacord** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 12:44 am

Making a recording and then rewinding very slightly before making the next... The previous recording then jarringly 'fading out' with a dull plop and muffled as the new recording starts, cutting in just over the top. That was the sound of my later off the radio compilations - rough, spur-of-the-moment things, no precision of course - but equally great in its own way.

A_Northern_Soul · Post by **A_Northern_Soul** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 8:28 am

In a nod to my heady compilation tape making days in the 1990s, I am including Twisterella by Ride...

fujee · Post by **fujee** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 11:19 am

I love Ride. Good choice

A_Northern_Soul · Post by **A_Northern_Soul** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:17 pm

It's a perfect pop song. And a nice bridge between The Byrds' "Renaissance Fair" and My Bloody Valentine's "Sometimes".

fujee · Post by **fujee** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:29 pm

Ride are underrated really. Shame one of their members became an Oasis member

Dissolved · Post by **Dissolved** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 6:25 am

Apart from Tapes being an important element and close to my heart in terms of my music making now ,It's nice to see threads like this and know that there's some love for the lost cassette mix out there. My Mixcloud is dedicated to my days of making such tapes for friends and the fun of painstakingly choosing the tracklist, coming up with a name for the compilation and creating your own insert art. All for 1 person who you literally couldn't wait until they heard a certain track. The excitement came from the music but also the pleasure it would give the person you created it for. It was the most important thing ever sometimes. Long phone calls to a friend regarding 1 super obscure track John Peel had played the previous night that just changed everything for you.
Sometimes, on the couple of occasions I've heard "A few old tunes" I've actually felt a bit creepy because I know I'm listening to something that was created for a very select group of friends and never intended to extend out of that arena.

My mixcloud- Quagmire of the Antler People.
http://www.mixcloud.com/dissolvedpaul/d ... -layabozi/

A_Northern_Soul · Post by **A_Northern_Soul** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 8:06 am

So it lacks the charm of a TDK C90 with hand-drawn artwork, but:

"Hip-shakers & Heart-breakers"

Torn n Frayed · Post by **Torn n Frayed** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 12:57 pm

A_Northern_Soul wrote:So it lacks the charm of a TDK C90 with hand-drawn artwork, but:

"Hip-shakers & Heart-breakers"

Big ups for the Spiritualized!

A_Northern_Soul · Post by **A_Northern_Soul** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 4:34 pm

Torn n Frayed - I could have easily filled it with Spiritualized. Already kicking myself for what I missed off (no Velvets? Tom Waits? Just 1 Stones track?)

saurus · Post by **saurus** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 9:50 pm

I guess I was late for the making a tape/cd thing. To impress the opposite sex i'd usually send an mp3 over MSN (haha) and explain why I loved that particular tune and its sentiment behind it or whatever. Fat load of good that did for me.

I actually got made a mix CD a few years back by a girl. To this day I regret not tapping that.

pianoforte · Post by **pianoforte** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 3:02 am

fujee · Post by **fujee** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 10:35 am

Haha, I just found a mix CD from my friend who was skint one christmas and made me a mix for secret santa. Actually a really cool present.

It is titled "BEST MIX EVER!"

Has some good hip hop and soundtracks on it.

IanRedpoint · Post by **IanRedpoint** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:58 am

fujee wrote:Haha, I just found a mix CD from my friend who was skint one christmas and made me a mix for secret santa. Actually a really cool present.

That beats pretty much every secret santa I've ever been given.

I can imagine doing that now would draw some really blank looks. The recipient probably wouldn't even have a tape deck or CD player any more!

Cryabetes · Post by **Cryabetes** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 1:00 pm

that's why someone needs to make a combination cassette/2gb flashdrive.

Betacord · Post by **Betacord** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 3:45 pm

IanRedpoint wrote:
fujee wrote:Haha, I just found a mix CD from my friend who was skint one christmas and made me a mix for secret santa. Actually a really cool present.
That beats pretty much every secret santa I've ever been given.

I can imagine doing that now would draw some really blank looks. The recipient probably wouldn't even have a tape deck or CD player any more!

Hang about... No CD player? Well that'll be me buggered then!

For truly bemused looks, can't much go wrong with recording your latest compilation onto a wax phonograph cylinder.

pianoforte · Post by **pianoforte** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 4:09 am

I am returning to this thread briefly to mention an interesting resource:

tapeheads.net

They have discussion forums dedicated entirely to tape - recording, decks, blanks, etc. I have registered there under the username Saturation/Generation, although I'm not sure how much I'll use my account. I'm sort of trying to slim down on forum accounts, but this was too good to pass up.

edit: Wow! It looks like this is my 500th post! Time flies...

pianoforte · Post by **pianoforte** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 2:29 am

A_Northern_Soul · Post by **A_Northern_Soul** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 6:11 pm

Annoyingly enough, no TDK C90 ever told me which tunes I could or couldn't put on a mix tape; unlike YouTube - not available for iPad, I ask you....