Cassette Owners Rejoice

You Refused to Junk Your Cassette Tapes. Smile Smugly.
ADAM BAER

As cassette tape decks faded from the standard lineup of home audio equipment, it appeared that a generation's mix-tape memories might be headed the way of the vinyl disc and eight-track. But a new product from the Korean company BTO promises to help cassette fans resurrect their 80's glory days.

The $150 PlusDeck2, available from online gadget stores listed at plusdeck.com, is a cassette deck the size of an internal CD-ROM drive that pops into any desktop PC's 5.25-inch drive bay. It can turn your beloved tapes into MP3's - or, for true retro music fans, record MP3's onto blank cassettes (which, by the way, remain cheap, light, slim and droppable).

<img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/06/08/technology/09tape.xl.jpg" alt=" - " />

The deck includes installation and music software on CD-ROM, as well as cables and a connection card. You can use simple manual buttons on the device's face, or operate it with the software, which mimics the look of a tape player.

The deck also allows you to play tapes through your computer. But its most important feature may be validation: pack rats who saved hundreds of tapes, to the annoyance of their significant others, will suddenly seem to be masters of foresight. ADAM BAER

Oh my. I may have to look into that.

wow this is a great idea and a very reasonable price… would dig trying it out! hmmm birthday coming up….

Now if only the gods would bless us with a similar invention for 8-tracks…

kinda wish it used USB connector for an external drive… the lack of Mac support doesn't bother me as i'm thinking about a windoze laptop these days…

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
The deck includes installation and music software on CD-ROM…

Love that bit of irony.

Funny, I originally went to college in the early 80s as a computer science major who was interested in applying computer technology to stereo equipment. Here we are twenty years later and the mergence gets closer to complete every day. Oh, why did I drop out… :(

Wow, that would be perfect for me, especially as I'm about to move and have to consider whether I take along the 400 cassettes I have (many can be trashed as I have the CDs by now or just don't care, but those mixes and hard to find albums from the mid to late 80s….).

So is this not compatible with Mac? :(

How is this different than running an RCA cable from your tape deck to your sound card? You can still download software that will splice up tracks based on silences. This just seems to take up a drive bay and cost more with no real advantages, unless I'm missing something.

the company doesn't have Mac or Linux software yet, although they are "working" on it…

maybe i should start a home business coverting mixtapes…

and kosmette is in the process of trying to convert her mixtapes to iPod playlists… but shes got wish lists setup with Djangos and the Kosmo CD buying service

while this can be done with a good soundcard, stream ripping sw and a cassette deck it's nice to be able to control the cassette directly via the pc. the other method requires editing sound files which gets tedious…

Originally posted by bellenseb:
How is this different than running an RCA cable from your tape deck to your sound card? You can still download software that will splice up tracks based on silences. This just seems to take up a drive bay and cost more with no real advantages, unless I'm missing something.

i think the advantage is being able to control the cassette with the computer…

<DROOL> I have a lot of old bootlegs on tape that would be great to turn into MP3s. I say goddamn!

I know someone who has a baziillion tapes she would go nuts for this..

the problem with cassette playback is the azimuth of the head. you probably will not the optimum performance out of this unit.

when i've converted analog stuff i've run it from a pretty good tape deck into an analog>digital converter and then into my digital sound card and did editing myself and such. i'm not sure i would ever use a device such as that.

Originally posted by brennser:
http://www.hammacher.com/publish/71860.asp

Now I really like this idea. You don't have all of the geeky connecting and other hooking up and software issues or even have to worry about actually having a working turntable anymore. I'm hoping that this idea takes off and some quality company makes a much more affordable version with very high quality duplicating. All I want to do is to be able to listen to my vinyl again and don't have the works to do so at this stage. I'd also like to be able to listen to some of it in my car or include in some compilations. The other advantage is that you can duplicate rare collectors' items for frequent listening without having to wear out your vinyl.

i need something to listen to all these dead people on tape with. you know, evps? are there programs out there that help with the sound quality of tapes played to the computer, say if you are trying to copy what is on the tape to cd-r. dead people are cool to listen to on tape, but the hissing really pisses me off. sometimes they talk about their cats too much, though . . . and no, i will not get you a diet coke!

I know you have to use completely clean, unused tapes. I may be able to find you some other details on that later but need some time to check out a few peoples' sites first.

Personally, EVPs bore me because they never, ever say anything the slightest bit interesting. Generally just stupid shit like, "Evie, here" or "It's cold".

Oh man… I can finally do something to save the music off my demos of 9353, Crippled Pilgrims, Troubled Gardens, Mourning Glories, and a few others before the last specks of ferric oxide are nothing more than dust in the wind…

Originally posted by Doctor Doom:
Oh man… I can finally do something to save the music off my demos of 9353, Crippled Pilgrims, Troubled Gardens, Mourning Glories, and a few others before the last specks of ferric oxide are nothing more than dust in the wind…

<drool>