Tech Legacy - Cassette Tape Recorders (Part 7)

If you ever had the pleasure of working with one of these wonders of modern technology you would remember the time spent in fast forward or rewind trying to get to that part of tape you wanted to record on. Beyond that personal devices like the walkman were great for entertainment as you made your way through the world.

There is no doubt that the 8-track tape standard, promoted by Bill Lear in the early 1960s, popularized consumer audio playback in automobiles. Eventually, this standard was replaced by the smaller and more reliable Compact Cassette.

Philips' development of the Compact Cassette in 1963 and Sony's development of the Walkman in 1979[20] led to widespread consumer use of magnetic audio tape. In 1990, the Compact Cassette was the dominant format in mass-market recorded music.[21] The development of Dolby noise reduction technology in the 1960s brought audiophile quality recording to the Compact Cassette also contributing to its popularity.

The technology advanced incredibly as new features were introduced into devices...

Two-track and, later, multi-track heads permitted discrete recording and playback of individual sound sources, such as two channels for stereophonic recordings, or different microphones during live recording. The more versatile machines could be switched to record on some tracks while playing back others, permitting additional tracks to be "laid down" in synchronisation with previously recorded material such as a rhythm track.

Use of separate heads for recording vs. playback (three heads total, counting the erase head) enabled monitoring of the recorded signal a fraction of a second after recording. Mixing the playback signal back into the record input also created a primitive echo generator.

With all these developments we were finally able to enjoy the world of personal portable audio recording and monitoring devices. Yes, like the Sony Walkman!

Walkman is a Sony brand tradename, originally used for portable audio cassette players from the late 1970s onwards. In more recent years, it has been used by Sony to market digital portable audio/video MP3 players, as well as a line of Sony Ericsson mobile phones introduced in 2005. The Sony Walkman was blue and silver which contained bulky buttons. It also included an extra audio jack so two people could listen at a time.

These things weren't cheap when they were first released. To many they were probably seen as huge leaps in utility and technology. Music lovers were thrilled to get their hands on one!

This technology paved the way for the types of audio recording / playback devices that we enjoy today.

Thanks for reading!

Source:

Wikipedia