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Eight Track Tape

Started by roadman65, July 11, 2022, 08:42:08 AM

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roadman65

Who remembers them? Who still has them left behind?


I think most of mine split at the track change where the continuous tape was glued together and couldn't play without the connection.  I may have some lying around.

Those died about 1980 I think, as the cassette became more popular due to its ability to rewind and fast forward unlike the eight track which only moved in one direction and used one reel with the tape pulled from the center and replaced on the outside.  The beauty of that particular tape was no flipping over a disc and could play inside your car when driving to avoid listening to what a program director wants you to hear and most of all no commercials.

Only downside besides the lack of rewind capability was some songs had to have a break so the track could change.  Songs like The Whale by ELO from Out of the Blue got interrupted during play to change from Program 1 to Program 2.  Plus to fit all the songs perfectly on the four equal tracks, the order of songs had to be altered from the album.  On Out of the Blue, Mr. Blue Sky was the last song on the tape before returning to Program 1. On the Album it was not the final song hence the Vocoder at the end of the song saying " Turn Me Over."  As Mr. Blue Sky ended Side Three of the double album for one more turn.

Billy Joel's Glass Houses was altered on Eight Track as well. Sometimes A Fantasy was the second song on Side One of the LP, but it was not the second song on the tape.  In fact the song I Don't Want To Be Alone was featured twice to fill in any long gaps with a minute of dead air  still at the end of Program 4.


A piece of nostalgia that many millennials don't even know about today.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe


NWI_Irish96

I remember my parents having 8 tracks when I was very young, but by the time I was 8, they'd all been replaced with cassette tapes.
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Stephane Dumas

My old sister had once the movie soundtrack of "Once Upon a Time in the West" as well as Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" on 8-tracks.

1995hoo

My wife and I have a few in a drawer somewhere (not sure what's on them other than one being an ABBA album), and we have a unit that's capable of playing them, but that unit is stored in my mom's basement and we haven't tried to use it in at least 20 years. I never saw any 8-tracks when I was a kid because my parents didn't have an 8-track player. We went straight to cassettes.

I remember the TV commercials for compilation albums always had the price for records and the price for 8-tracks or cassettes (always listed in that order) until CDs became common around 1985 or 1986 (roughly contemporaneous with the legendary "Freedom Rock" commercial).
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

hbelkins

Had (and still have) gobs of them. Most of them were replaced with vinyl or CD over the years. I actually bought a Realistic 8-track stereo tape deck to hook up to my home stereo to copy off some of those old 8-track tapes to cassette.

The sound quality was not great, the nature of the medium required songs to be split or ordered differently than the album, and they were prone to malfunction.

Funny -- one of the Chicago/Terry Kath Facebook groups I'm on was waxing nostalgic over 8-tracks this weekend.


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bandit957

We had John Denver, Billy Joel, Jim Croce, and Keith Carradine - all from the '70s.

Sometime in the '90s, my mom sold the stereo that had the 8-track player, as well as all the 8-tracks. I had no idea she was going to sell it until after she sold it. I could have rigged up something to dub all the 8-tracks to cassette, but I never had the chance.

I think we had both the 8-track and the vinyl LP of Billy Joel's 'The Stranger'. Supposedly it was because the vinyl album kept getting all scratched up, but we played it years later, and it played just fine.

One of my uncles in the late '80s was angry that you couldn't get 8-tracks anymore. He said 8-tracks were a really good format. They actually were pretty good, even by '80s or any pre-MP3 standards.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

Rothman

I fear my parents have all of their old tapes and their old busted 8-track stereo, which has been busted for literally 40 years and they won't get rid of it because they paid so much for it...
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

bandit957

Anyone remember Playtape? It was a portable tape player from the 1960s that used tapes that were sort of like 8-tracks, only much smaller and they only fit a few songs.

I don't remember anyone getting CD's until the early '90s when my brother got a CD player. I was actually very surprised when he got it. That was unheard of back then. I still kept buying vinyl, usually 45's, though I was disappointed at how hard it was getting to find those.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

bandit957

Also, our stereo that had the 8-track player also had a turntable that allowed you to stack up 6 records at a time. One time, my brother had a stack of 10 records he was about to play, and he was thankful that I warned him it could only play 6.

Apparently, these stackable turntables actually damaged records. Maybe not as bad as some other features of some later turntables did, but it was still risky.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

mgk920

Quote from: bandit957 on July 11, 2022, 12:25:38 PM
Anyone remember Playtape? It was a portable tape player from the 1960s that used tapes that were sort of like 8-tracks, only much smaller and they only fit a few songs.

I don't remember anyone getting CD's until the early '90s when my brother got a CD player. I was actually very surprised when he got it. That was unheard of back then. I still kept buying vinyl, usually 45's, though I was disappointed at how hard it was getting to find those.

Those sound like old radio station carts.  The biggest drawbacks to the continuous loop 8-track tape systems that I remember is their lack of capacity (and related bulkiness) and short lives.  The tape cartridges did not last all that long.  Their only advantage was that they were handy for the driver to use in a car.

Mike

skluth

I never cared for 8 Track and used cassettes even in the early 70s. My cousin had 8 tracks of the James Gang and Steppenwolf; I hated that it switched tracks mid-song so I never considered buying one even though they were far more popular than cassettes in 1972.

cjk374

I still have 2 stereos that can play 8-tracks. They are in a closet and haven't been hooked up in 20+ years.

When my siblings & I were kids, we wore out ABBA Gold & the soundtrack to "The Muppet Movie."
Runnin' roads and polishin' rails.

RoadWarrior56

As somebody who spent most of the 70's divided between High School and College, I remember 8 track tapes very well.  I had very few of them, since I didn't have an 8 Track player in my car. (by choice).  One of the many differences between me and my brother is that he was big into 8 tracks, while I had gone for cassettes from a very early period.  I could record my own tapes, they could rewind and they were smaller and easier to carry.  I would say where long term popularity and longevity of audio formats are concerned, I was more right than my brother, and BTW, I hated and still hate 8-tracks with a passion, I feel no nostalgia for them.   

catch22

I never had any 8-track players or carts, but most my friends did.

I worked at my college radio station from 1969 to 1972 and the station made heavy use of Collins cartridge machines to play commercials, PSAs, and some songs that were in heavy rotation. These carts were prone to failure (some might say "designed to fail") and we all got weary of repairing them.

The 8-track format was derived from the Collins cartridge (AKA "Fidelipac"), and was just as unreliable due to the single-spool design, but since most of the carts were glued together repairs were difficult if not impossible. My experiences with the Collins carts steered me away, and I used cassettes instead (which were also much easier to make mix tapes with).



GaryV

Back in the early 70's, we rented a motorhome that had an 8-track player. There were a few tapes that came in the RV. I think I remember listening to a lot of The Lettermen.


bandit957

I worked at our college radio station in 1993-94, and we had those cartridges for some of the music. But we used some vinyl too.

Somebody kept stealing those little round hubs you would put on the spindle to play 45's.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

roadman65

Quote from: bandit957 on July 11, 2022, 12:29:49 PM
Also, our stereo that had the 8-track player also had a turntable that allowed you to stack up 6 records at a time. One time, my brother had a stack of 10 records he was about to play, and he was thankful that I warned him it could only play 6.

Apparently, these stackable turntables actually damaged records. Maybe not as bad as some other features of some later turntables did, but it was still risky.

That's why they eliminated them eventually.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

nexus73

What I liked best about 8-tracks was that they were easier to switch out when driving than cassettes or CD's.  Later on I would use CD cartridge holders for ease of switching in my car.

Rick
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triplemultiplex

I only remember that the 8-track buttons on my dad's old stereo made fun sounds.  Sort of like a mechanical, springy robot noise, and I found it entertaining when I was like 5 to push the buttons in rapid order so it would make that sound.

I don't remember actually using the 8 track player on that stereo or there being any 8 tracks laying around. I think it was broken. I hope not because some dumbass little kid was mashing buttons on it. :-D
The record player was still fine, so my parents had that thing until the end of the 90's.
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bandit957

I remember my grandparents having a stereo, but it broke when I was about 6 and then it just sat there for another 15 years or so. I do remember my grandmother playing some old big band record on it before it broke, but that's about it.

Also, the turntable on our stereo had 33, 45, and 78. I remember my mom selling a portable record player we had when I was about 4, and supposedly it could also play at 78 as well. Along with the record player, she sold a perfectly good Monkees album for something like 25 cents. Years later, when the Monkees had their big comeback, we found out that album was worth a ton of money.

I think the stereo we had was a Magnavox. It was a big, wooden console-style 1970s stereo.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

1995hoo

^^^^

We had a turntable that had all four speeds: 16, 33, 45, and 78. It was also a changer (could change either LPs or 45s), though as has been noted elsewhere, using that feature wasn't good for records.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

bandit957

I don't know if I've ever seen a record player that had 16 RPM. I was told in my day that 16 RPM was used only for audiobooks.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

ce929wax

Quote from: hbelkins on July 11, 2022, 11:17:03 AM
I actually bought a Realistic 8-track stereo tape deck to hook up to my home stereo to copy off some of those old 8-track tapes to cassette.

Any idea where I might score an 8 track player that would hook up to a modern stereo system I have my eye on?  The stereo system in question has 33/45/78 vinyl player, tape deck, cd player, and an AM/FM tuner.  I've looked on Amazon, but no dice.


bandit957

When I was very young, we had a record player in the bedroom that played at 33 and 45. We had a lot of 45's in the bedroom, but the albums were stored in the rack in the stereo in the living room.

However, one of the 45's actually played at 33, probably because it was from back when they first came out with 7-inch singles. So we thought the height of comic genius was to play it at 45 and dance around the room to it.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

skluth

Quote from: bandit957 on July 19, 2022, 06:13:25 PM
I don't know if I've ever seen a record player that had 16 RPM. I was told in my day that 16 RPM was used only for audiobooks.

I've only ever heard the 16 speed was for future vinyl development. I've never seen a 16 rpm record. We did have a Zenith phonograph that could play at that speed though in the 60s when I was a kid. It was in a console which included fabric-covered speakers with a tweeter and a good-sized (10" or so) woofer on each side. The phonograph could stack 5-6 records and the console also had an AM/FM radio. I remember thinking I was a badass playing my parents Herb Alpert and Ventures albums really loud when I was stuck babysitting my little brothers. I started buying 45s about 1968. I remember buying Hey Jude and Time is Tight along with crap like the Cowsills and bubblegum singles.



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