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Playing back the joys of tape
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Then, more-enhanced- factory-installed
players appeared. Musical styling was
definitely happening. While preparing this
article, I learned National 8-Track Day was
April 11 and that William Powell Lear was
the guy who developed this technology.
Yes, the same Lear as in the designer of jets!
Who knew?
Then, the amazing cassette came into
our world. These invented by some Dutch
Dudes in the early sixties.
Remember your first cassette recorder
with a plug-in microphone and a suction
cup to record phone calls? We could record
everything from family members singing
“Happy Birthday” to grandma, to our own
voice speaking — which immediately had
everyone thinking, “Do I really sound like
this?”
Then music became available on this
more modern way to transport our tunes
and our personal recorded memories with
even better and more compact devices to
play them. Factory in-car systems took us
to the next levels of up-close-and-personal
sound. The Sony Walkman changed
everything again. Boom boxes came along
with sometime ear-piercing decibels that
could fill a room, or a large outdoor space.
In those days you could stop at an
intersection with roadside clutter that
included cigarette butts and unidentified
objects mixed in with a long piece of skinny
brown tape dangling in the breeze. This
told me that someone’s music prize had
bitten the dust.
Now we complain about slow internet, a
poor signal, and weird wi-fi — just like our
children and grandchildren.
Happy bandwidth to you! QH
From the Crates
Kelly McCoy
Kelly McCoy
is a veteran Atlanta
broadcaster who
writes about the
days popular music
only came on vinyl
records, which often
were stored in crates.
Tape
Not duct tape, electric tape, measuring
tape, packing tape or any of the 790-or-so
other types of tape. Recording tape.
Lives were impacted by this wonderful
invention ... creation ... label it as you
wish. I was searching for old audio to assist
a group of my friends who are on their
adventure with a new group, Friends of
Georgia Radio. That search gave me the
idea for the subject of this article: audio
tape.
In the 1890s, Alexander Graham Bell
and some friends came up with the way to
record audio on wax cylinders. Later, tape
recording pioneers and engineers changed
the world by capturing audio with a more
durable and efficient technology than wax
that could crack, or even melt.
The recording tape of our youth came
on reels, 8-tracks, and cassettes. Tape
quickly became our “no static at all” friend.
I wouldn’t even attempt to get into the
technical side and history of how sound
gets on tape. We used reel-to-reel recorders
in radio stations for many tasks. Our
commercials, shows, newscasts, anything
audio was captured on a reel with a grease
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pencil, razor blade and splicing tape nearby
to correct any errors.
Reel-to-reel people were the audiophiles
of the time. The serious admirer of music
had elaborate reel-to-reel machines powered
by amazing amplifiers, and music was heard
through high-end and often high-dollar
speakers. These walls of sound equipment
stayed home and were seriously protected
and maintained.
While listening to recordings from a
great old jazz masterpiece to anything with
a multitude of players and singers mixed
together (sometimes with full orchestras),
I stop and realize the greatness of these
recordings made with limited editing
capabilities. When one player or singer
screwed up.. .back to note one. Everyone
had to start over. Too bad those
errors and outtakes weren’t
preserved. Can you imagine the
historical gems we didn’t have
the opportunity to hear?
Before smaller and portable
ways to transport music, we
had players at home. But when
8-track machines became a part
of our automotive audio world,
we were in music heaven. It
was beyond cool and exciting to
have an 8-track player in your
ride and almost mind-blowing to
hear an album in the car with no
crackle or clicks we’d heard on
well-played vinyl.
In the beginning, we had
aftermarket players added to the
bottom of a car’s dashboard. The
add-on speakers were another
cool accessory. Even then, a
tune would sometime skip if you
bounced over a huge mound or
encountered a pothole. Then
there was the ongoing problem
of the player changing to the
next “track” in the middle of a
song. What a struggle.
52 MAY 2022 | [□
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