Tape Decks

The audio cassette tape was invented by the Dutch company Philips in 1963. Because it made audio technology portable, it was an invention that revolutionized the way people listened to music. The...

A lot of analog media is still floating around that does not have digital versions available. Ripping these to digital format can be a huge convenience and can relive you of bulky stereo equipment...

Converting audio cassette tapes onto a computer involves transforming the analog audio signal from the tape into a digital signal that can be played and saved on your computer, or burned to a CD...

After many hours of using a cassette deck, the magnetic particles on the tape heads slowly change their alignment and begin to face the same direction. When this happens, the audio quality of the...

The old days of popping in those cassette tapes into your walkman player are over, and you spent good money on those tapes but you can't really use them anywhere? Well I have just the solution for...

Learning how to record a tape onto a CD is a rather easy enterprise, requiring almost no special hardware. Still, there are quite a few steps in the process if you'd like to get it done for free....

Converting cassette music to a CD-ROM requires an analog-to-digital converter built into the sound cards of modern computers to process the signal from a tape deck into the computer, where the...

If you listened to music before the invention of the CD player, chances are your music collection consisted of tapes. These cassettes became quickly obsolete, however, as did their respective tape...

An easy way to convert any Magnetic Tape cassettes to a digital file. This article describes an easy way to preserve your old tapes and convert them into soft copies on your computer.

The cassette, invented by Philips in 1963, had an incredible run as a popular medium for music listening from the 1970s through the 1990s. Its use in the 60s was mainly for dictation. When audio...

Although cassette tape players have been considered "old tech" since the advent of the digital music format in the early 1990s, if you are into retro music formats, you might still have one or two...

There are many ways of demagnetizing magnets and magnetic equipment with uses in many industries. Some are more technical than others which, simply require brute force.

In 2009, you can still get a new cassette deck, and open-reel tape decks sell in a flourishing used market. People continue to use them professionally and at home, preferring the sound of tape...

If you have a collection of tape recordings, you may be concerned about their long-term prospects. While heat and humidity will affect their viability, you should also be aware of the effects...

Compact discs and other means of playing digital audio have become standard. Converting cassettes to CDs is a great way to preserve your music collection or other important audio. You can have the...

While cassette decks and recorders have dwindled in popularity, many people still have old models that may be starting to see some problems, either with the sound or with parts, such as the rubber...

Tape decks are getting harder to come by now that audio cassettes are essentially an obsolete technology. So, if you still use a tape cassette player, knowing how to troubleshoot your equipment is...

For many decades, magnetic tape has been an important medium for recording and retrieving audio, video and computer data. With technological advances in recording and storage, new types of storage...

Problems with open-reel tape decks fall into two main areas: mechanical and electronic. If the tape deck has trouble playing, stopping, fast-forwarding or rewinding, mechanical parts need...

Cassette tapes are made with a long strip of flexible plastic covered with a magnetic material. The strip is wound between two spools, so that when one spool winds the tape, it causes the other...

The first cassettes appeared in Dutch music stores in 1963. They were instantly popular for their portability and durability, compared to the bulky and fragile record album. Cassettes remained a...

A data tape cartridge is sealed and self contained. You do not want to get water or any solvent type of cleaner near it. But, if it so happens that there is dust or a little dirt on the cartridge,...

There are two types of demagnetizers: one uses electricity, and the other is an actual magnet. Electrical demagnetizers consist of two basic types: a hand-held pencil point and a tabletop model....

Mini cassettes are exactly like their big brothers, the standard cassette, except that everything on both the cassette and the recorder/player that goes with it has been downsized. That means it's...

Reel-to-reel or "open reel" magnetic-tape recorders were the first audiotape machines available to the public. This was before CDs and iPods, before cassettes and eight-tracks. The reel-to-reel...

There are two basic ways to connect a tape deck, depending on its intended use. The first way is to add a tape deck to a stereo component system for listening to cassettes and, less commonly,...

The cassette deck seems poised to join the reel-to-reel tape deck and the turntable as a medium that is nearly obsolete. The hiss produced by cassette decks was never fully eliminated, and digital...

Immortalize your favorite cassettes in digital form. When you convert you old cassette tapes into digital audio, you'll have a secure electronic archive that won't deteriorate like cassettes....

Replacing the drive belt in a cassette deck is moderately easy, but requires a delicate touch to avoid damaging the electronic components inside. Order a replacement belt for your tape deck using...

One of the reasons CDs replaced audio cassettes was because CDs have no moving parts, thus making them more difficult to break. With audio cassettes gone the way of the dinosaur, fixing damaged...

Created to record audio or video signals, or to store computer information, magnetic tape is a memory device consisting of a long thin plastic strip coated with iron oxide and housed in plastic or...

The cassette tape was invented by a number of individuals over a long period of time. The basic idea behind a cassette is to use magnetic tape to record analog signals for playback. The tape is...

A long series of inventions made the audio cassettes possible. A cassette uses magnetic tape that is recorded with analog information for use in playback on a tape deck. "Cassette" comes from a...

All cassette tapes are based on a polymer material that is strung through two miniaturized reels. On this polymer, a coating of a metallic-based substance allows analog signals to be magnetized...

The heart of a subliminal tape is the message that is to be delivered to the listener. Virtually silent and indistinguishable amid the music on the tape, the message--which may actually be...

Do you want to make a compilation of songs without risking your CD's getting scratched? A mix tape is the perfect way to ensure your media will last longer and give more of a retro feel. Make a...

Cassette tapes have a long, plastic tape wound between two spools. This tape has a magnetic coating on it, which stores audio signals. The magnetic coating will align facing in different...

Like all pieces of electronics, cassette players need proper maintenance from time to time to work properly and achieve the correct sound that is intended during cassette recording. A number of...

Recording analog signals on tape was never a perfect process, largely due to limitations of the tape itself. It did, however, fill an important gap between earlier recording mediums and the...

Audio cassettes are a format for recording and playing back music. They became the preferred method for listening to recorded music during the 1960s as the popularity of their predecessor, LP...

Tape recorders are devices used to record and play back audio signals stored on tape inside of plastic cassettes. Sound vibration causes movement of the diaphragm in the microphone, which creates...

The hard plastic shell of the cassette tape protects the magnetic tape and two spools inside. As the magnetic tape is passed from one spool to another, the audio track plays uninterrupted....

Cassette is an audio format that uses magnetic plastic tape to record and play back sound. Stereo compact cassette tapes are based on older reel-to-reel audio technology and were marketed along...

Even though VHS has gone the way of the dinosaurs, we still have them piled up in our cabinets, partly our of nostalgia and partly because we all have a pack rat deep within us. Preserving that...

Two track reel-to-reel tape machines have songs on both sides of the tape so you have to flip the reels over in order to listen to the other side. Although flipping the reels over is simple, you...

If you still have music cassettes laying around, chances are that your player is older than the cassettes. Rejuvenate a cassette tape player to get better quality sound and to keep the player from...

If you have an ADAT tape deck with a recording that you want to put on a CD it's not as difficult as it may seem. All you need is your ADAT tape deck, a computer with WaveCenter and Cool Edit Pro...

Real repair work on a cassette deck is beyond most of us, but some simple maintenance techniques are within grasp to fix common cassette-deck problems. If you're unsure about a symptom or...

With tape decks, convenience features, such as high-speed dubbing and auto-reverse, can also degrade sound quality. It's important to decide which trade-offs you're willing to make before you buy,...

Although you will rarely be able to repair your own cassette deck, you may be able to diagnose problems and solve those that don't require parts or adjustments.