3-6 hours depending on the type of recorder and tape length and quality of the tape. Might be a fun substack for you to write. I understand it’s making a comeback, like LP’s. Have lots of those too.
I have way more LPs than tapes left! I don't think I actually ever threw any records away, but who knows for sure.
I think the longest tapes I had were 2 hours. The 90 minute Maxells were great, but you could find 120 minute tapes, and I was always on a budget. The 60 minute tapes offered slightly higher quality, but I really didn't care.
What a fantastic memory. I made mix tapes for friends, for parties and special occasions. I have a tape case full of mix tapes that never get used. It was open on the front seat of my car whenever I drove anywhere.
Thanks for reminding me. I still to records all the through.
1) yes to the first song concept. Just like with an album or a tv show. The first three minutes need to draw you in and excite you so you stick around for the entire journey. The art of album sequencing (track order) has been lost to the advent of streaming. People just go straight to what they want and miss the deep cuts. Not terrible in concept, but kinda sad still.
2) I actually watched a really boring documentary on the history of the VCR so naturally audio tapes came up. The first magnetic tape was made of steel. Yes, steel. Very thin but also very heavy. That was solved with making the tape from paper. This also allowed the entire mechanism to shrink in size massively. But it was super fragile. So then entered various plastics and such. You’re welcome. 🤣
At some point, I remember being able to pick up albums on tape for like 99 cents. This was after CDs came out, and you could only find a few like this in a bargain bin, but I definitely owned some pretty awful music. Good thing the tape trick worked on new tapes, too!
I know, right? So many customisation options. And you needed to break the tabs off the ones you MUST NOT RECORD OVER. I don’t really get the cassette renaissance (it’s fundamentally a poor format), but this article has at least reminded me why they were so liberating at the time!
I remember making them as love notes to a woman I was chasing around. I also remember using a #2 pencil to wind the stupid tape back on the reel after scotch-taping the tear. ☺️
I loved making mixtapes for roadtrips. It was cool to make some for a specific vibe or ones that were whatever new music I was listening to. There was also something cool about swapping them and downloading to your iTunes.
It was hard for me to find a new car that still had a tape player in it when I bought my first new car in the year 2000. I'm guessing you rode in some pretty old cars on those trips!
Yes, I still remember the days of having to fix a chewed-up cassette tape by carefully and manually winding it with a pencil inserted into one of the holes. Good times.
Fun fact: I still have an old CD-radio-cassette player in the basement to this day. It can even record from the radio or CD onto a blank tape.
Actually, yes. A few years ago I got a TV tuner for my PC to convert a bunch of old family VHS tapes into digital format. So for only....ONE BILLION DOLLARS...I shall be happy to convert those tapes. That's only $10 Million per tape. I'm pretty sure you won't get a better deal anywhere.
Mixtapes weren't a thing while I was a teen, when I definitely would have made many for the boys I was starry-eyed over. As a fitness instructor in my thirties, though, I had eclectic mixtapes for step aerobics sessions that likely baffled the students who had never heard of The English Beat or Taj Mahal.
English Beat has some great songs! I teach martial arts, and music is central to what I do when I'm on the mat out there. Super duper important! I'm pretty sure for the first decade or so, it was all tapes and CDs.
I loved making mixtapes! I took a lot of time curating the compilation to flow like an album. To this day, I do the same with my Spotify playlists. I even have a set of arbitrary rules that I always adhered to with mixtapes that I still do with my playlists. Of course, rules 1 & 3 get lost with the digital "shuffle" feature.
1. Don't treat your playlist as a song dump. choose songs wisely & edit.
2. Include only one song per artist and think carefully about the opening and closing tracks on the playlist. Choose wisely.
3. Listen to how the songs flow and organize the order of tracks so there is nothing overly jarring (don't follow something chill & slow with a full-tilt boogie headbanger!). Choose wisely!
4. Think of a clever title for your playlist and create fun, interesting cover art.
I love it. I always like to consider the flow with a playlist, and it really, really has to start strong.
On the other hand, randomizing is fun and I'll do that a lot too, but generally only when I haven't finished the playlist yet (very tough with new music discovery and reminding myself of old stuff all the time!).
Mixtapes (then mix cds) were my absolute jam. I loves making them, especially for other people. Nowadays I try to make a playlist on Spotify every week. And once a month I do an Earworms Challenge, where I keep track of every single song that gets stuck in my head for an entire day, then make a playlist of them. Then I share it here on my husband's Substack The Producer along with explanations and commentary.
Some of the songs are also sort of stuck there through no fault of my own, so there is a ton of unexpected variety (for me, anyway!). I saw Offspring on your list; pretty sure there's one song from them on mine as well (and if not, I'll have no choice but to add the insanely catchy "Come Out and Play."
I certainly did, Andrew. For myself and for other people (usually girlfriends). And for every person I intended it to be, a different mood. Money was a bit scarce, so reusing tapes happened all the time. There were the regular ones and the chrome ones. Chrome ones were reserved for special tapes, those I did not have the intention on reusing. Then came the writable CDs and finally, the digital playlists. In any case, I do prefer to listen to music randomly, whenever choosing a playlist. Playing records randomly is still something I don't do very often (but should). Cheers from Brazil.
By the way, if anyone is interested in a Brazilian music playlist, here's a link to a link:
I do. I moved here back in 1993, joined the Foreign Service in 1994. Spent ten years abroad and have been living here since returning, back in 2008. It is a lovely place, spacious, very green and one can find people from all corners of the country around these parts. Where are you from?
You had me at ‘Memorex, BASF and Maxell’ in this piece, Andrew. So many great memories of making mixtapes, including handmade covers for them of course. Discovered loads of new music this way! I’ve definitely replaced them with Spotify playlists, especially when planning a road trip… it’s still fun thinking about the flow, and at least it’s possible to move the tracks around later! Great article
Oh wow, you bring up a great point about the art. Not only did I occasionally make a cover, I'd also paint directly onto the cassettes themselves. This was art!
Yep. Been there, done that. 🎶 And then there was recording people performing on TV. I’m a Carol Burnett fan. I used to shush my mom when she was giggling in the background while I was trying to record the comedy sketches and music medleys. That just made her laugh harder. I’d listen to the tapes in the car. This was way before VHS. Good memories!
In 1978 my (older!) high school boyfriend made me an entire set of Beatles tapes including bootlegs…needless to say he was a huge Beatles fan, and I became one too at that time. Later, in college, it was popping tapes into my precious Walkman as I walked across Michigan State University enormous campus on my way to class. I never made mix tapes because I didn’t have a record collection but I had many given to me made by others. Fun times!
So, so many. I was always working on one for somebody. I still miss some of them from time to time, like the one of obscure death metal I curated from recordings of a weekly college (?) radio show.
Nice. I was always hunting for industrial and techno/electronica/ish then, but my musical interests were all over the place. Still are!
I had friends then who also had diverse music tastes, different from mine, so our collective music awareness grew through the mixes we exchanged. It was a lot of fun.
We used reel to reel computer tape. The sound was richer.
To make copies from the radio, or to make mixtapes? Or both?
Both. Also your mixtapes would be longer (in time) than a cassette or 4mm.
Neat. How long?
3-6 hours depending on the type of recorder and tape length and quality of the tape. Might be a fun substack for you to write. I understand it’s making a comeback, like LP’s. Have lots of those too.
I have way more LPs than tapes left! I don't think I actually ever threw any records away, but who knows for sure.
I think the longest tapes I had were 2 hours. The 90 minute Maxells were great, but you could find 120 minute tapes, and I was always on a budget. The 60 minute tapes offered slightly higher quality, but I really didn't care.
90-minute, metal tapes for me with a three-head cassette deck to playback what was being recorded. What?!.
We used discarded computer tape. I don’t think I ever paid for tape! Have many autographed LPs, I worked a Peaches Records and tape for a bit.
What a fantastic memory. I made mix tapes for friends, for parties and special occasions. I have a tape case full of mix tapes that never get used. It was open on the front seat of my car whenever I drove anywhere.
Thanks for reminding me. I still to records all the through.
I used to record on BetaMax video tapes! Great sound and tons of space. :-)
Beta was superior to VHS, but they lost the marketing war.
Two things come to mind.
1) yes to the first song concept. Just like with an album or a tv show. The first three minutes need to draw you in and excite you so you stick around for the entire journey. The art of album sequencing (track order) has been lost to the advent of streaming. People just go straight to what they want and miss the deep cuts. Not terrible in concept, but kinda sad still.
2) I actually watched a really boring documentary on the history of the VCR so naturally audio tapes came up. The first magnetic tape was made of steel. Yes, steel. Very thin but also very heavy. That was solved with making the tape from paper. This also allowed the entire mechanism to shrink in size massively. But it was super fragile. So then entered various plastics and such. You’re welcome. 🤣
I legit love this history. Media has made a lot of changes in our lifetimes!
Yeah, only on my brother’s 😂
At some point, I remember being able to pick up albums on tape for like 99 cents. This was after CDs came out, and you could only find a few like this in a bargain bin, but I definitely owned some pretty awful music. Good thing the tape trick worked on new tapes, too!
Haha, true! Recycling though - all good
I know, right? So many customisation options. And you needed to break the tabs off the ones you MUST NOT RECORD OVER. I don’t really get the cassette renaissance (it’s fundamentally a poor format), but this article has at least reminded me why they were so liberating at the time!
Remember taping over the missing tab spot so you could record over something anyway?
I remember making them as love notes to a woman I was chasing around. I also remember using a #2 pencil to wind the stupid tape back on the reel after scotch-taping the tear. ☺️
People who never got to play with their media just won't understand this!
I loved making mixtapes for roadtrips. It was cool to make some for a specific vibe or ones that were whatever new music I was listening to. There was also something cool about swapping them and downloading to your iTunes.
It was hard for me to find a new car that still had a tape player in it when I bought my first new car in the year 2000. I'm guessing you rode in some pretty old cars on those trips!
Optional CD and cassette players!
I'm saying, I had to hunt like crazy for an optional tape player in 2000. The option was: no, you're not getting one of those you crazy fn boomer!
Yes, I still remember the days of having to fix a chewed-up cassette tape by carefully and manually winding it with a pencil inserted into one of the holes. Good times.
Fun fact: I still have an old CD-radio-cassette player in the basement to this day. It can even record from the radio or CD onto a blank tape.
My car that died about 12 years ago had my last working tape player in it. :-/
Send me your tapes, I'll be happy to dust off my 3-in-1 player (only to find out it stopped working while in the basement).
Can I send you like 100 VHS tapes and have you burn them to digital for me?
Actually, yes. A few years ago I got a TV tuner for my PC to convert a bunch of old family VHS tapes into digital format. So for only....ONE BILLION DOLLARS...I shall be happy to convert those tapes. That's only $10 Million per tape. I'm pretty sure you won't get a better deal anywhere.
BRB, just trying to get up to 100 million paid subscribers.
Mixtapes weren't a thing while I was a teen, when I definitely would have made many for the boys I was starry-eyed over. As a fitness instructor in my thirties, though, I had eclectic mixtapes for step aerobics sessions that likely baffled the students who had never heard of The English Beat or Taj Mahal.
English Beat has some great songs! I teach martial arts, and music is central to what I do when I'm on the mat out there. Super duper important! I'm pretty sure for the first decade or so, it was all tapes and CDs.
I loved making mixtapes! I took a lot of time curating the compilation to flow like an album. To this day, I do the same with my Spotify playlists. I even have a set of arbitrary rules that I always adhered to with mixtapes that I still do with my playlists. Of course, rules 1 & 3 get lost with the digital "shuffle" feature.
1. Don't treat your playlist as a song dump. choose songs wisely & edit.
2. Include only one song per artist and think carefully about the opening and closing tracks on the playlist. Choose wisely.
3. Listen to how the songs flow and organize the order of tracks so there is nothing overly jarring (don't follow something chill & slow with a full-tilt boogie headbanger!). Choose wisely!
4. Think of a clever title for your playlist and create fun, interesting cover art.
I love it. I always like to consider the flow with a playlist, and it really, really has to start strong.
On the other hand, randomizing is fun and I'll do that a lot too, but generally only when I haven't finished the playlist yet (very tough with new music discovery and reminding myself of old stuff all the time!).
Mixtapes (then mix cds) were my absolute jam. I loves making them, especially for other people. Nowadays I try to make a playlist on Spotify every week. And once a month I do an Earworms Challenge, where I keep track of every single song that gets stuck in my head for an entire day, then make a playlist of them. Then I share it here on my husband's Substack The Producer along with explanations and commentary.
I love the monthly earworm idea! I kind of do the same thing, but over a longer time horizon. Here are mine: https://www.pandora.com/playlist/PL:176241820475326972:74638688
Awesome, I'll give it a listen!
Some of the songs are also sort of stuck there through no fault of my own, so there is a ton of unexpected variety (for me, anyway!). I saw Offspring on your list; pretty sure there's one song from them on mine as well (and if not, I'll have no choice but to add the insanely catchy "Come Out and Play."
Here's a link to the first one I did, just in case you wanna check it out 😊 https://open.substack.com/pub/theproducer/p/todays-earworms-challenge?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1hutj6
I certainly did, Andrew. For myself and for other people (usually girlfriends). And for every person I intended it to be, a different mood. Money was a bit scarce, so reusing tapes happened all the time. There were the regular ones and the chrome ones. Chrome ones were reserved for special tapes, those I did not have the intention on reusing. Then came the writable CDs and finally, the digital playlists. In any case, I do prefer to listen to music randomly, whenever choosing a playlist. Playing records randomly is still something I don't do very often (but should). Cheers from Brazil.
By the way, if anyone is interested in a Brazilian music playlist, here's a link to a link:
https://substack.com/@toncassiano/note/c-52923122
Thanks, Ton!
Whereabouts in Brazil? I've been twice and would love to visit again some day.
Really? Cool. I live in Brasília.
I've only been to Rio (spent about five weeks total) and São Paulo (about one week). I had a great time visiting back in 2004 and 2005!
Brasilia was famously built in an art-deco style, right??
Well, more "modernist" actually. Art-déco I guess is what you'll find around Miami, for instance.
Ah, you're right! It's unique, to be sure. Do you like living there?
I do. I moved here back in 1993, joined the Foreign Service in 1994. Spent ten years abroad and have been living here since returning, back in 2008. It is a lovely place, spacious, very green and one can find people from all corners of the country around these parts. Where are you from?
Old millennial here. Still remember and cherish mixed tapes.
I believe "Elder Millennial" is the preferred nomenclature.
Too old to remember. All I remember is being inside of Liquid Television as my online friends send me mixed tapes in 2002.
Aeon Flux!
The only character that understood me! ❤️
You had me at ‘Memorex, BASF and Maxell’ in this piece, Andrew. So many great memories of making mixtapes, including handmade covers for them of course. Discovered loads of new music this way! I’ve definitely replaced them with Spotify playlists, especially when planning a road trip… it’s still fun thinking about the flow, and at least it’s possible to move the tracks around later! Great article
Oh wow, you bring up a great point about the art. Not only did I occasionally make a cover, I'd also paint directly onto the cassettes themselves. This was art!
Yep. Been there, done that. 🎶 And then there was recording people performing on TV. I’m a Carol Burnett fan. I used to shush my mom when she was giggling in the background while I was trying to record the comedy sketches and music medleys. That just made her laugh harder. I’d listen to the tapes in the car. This was way before VHS. Good memories!
I remember recording audio off of the TV, too! That brought me right back there.
The scarcity of available tech everywhere really helped us stay creative and experimental.
In 1978 my (older!) high school boyfriend made me an entire set of Beatles tapes including bootlegs…needless to say he was a huge Beatles fan, and I became one too at that time. Later, in college, it was popping tapes into my precious Walkman as I walked across Michigan State University enormous campus on my way to class. I never made mix tapes because I didn’t have a record collection but I had many given to me made by others. Fun times!
The Beatles collection is awesome, and it would have been just impossible to get any other way.
Mixtapes were so personal!
Definitely fond memories! Thanks for stirring them up!
So, so many. I was always working on one for somebody. I still miss some of them from time to time, like the one of obscure death metal I curated from recordings of a weekly college (?) radio show.
What year(s) was the obscure death metal stuff? I made a playlist: https://www.pandora.com/playlist/PL:128553802155432333:74638688
Thanks! I will check it out. I want to say the tape was made around 1995 or so.
I was listening to a lot of metal around that time, and that definitely included death metal!
Nice. I was always hunting for industrial and techno/electronica/ish then, but my musical interests were all over the place. Still are!
I had friends then who also had diverse music tastes, different from mine, so our collective music awareness grew through the mixes we exchanged. It was a lot of fun.
I've been really getting back into a lot of the synth-metal stuff. You might really enjoy this playlist, although who knows if it will play for you: https://www.pandora.com/playlist/PL:197210606728644204:74638688