I FREAKING LOVE CASSETTES!!
Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2025 7:49 am
Alright, I'm gonna go MAXIMUM NERD here:
I (and I assume most who this forum) just fuckin' love the sound of cassette tapes, I like Type IIs the most for that stark treble. I noticed stereo audio sounds wider on them in general because the channels slightly bleed into each other from the magnetic energy leaving a slight aura between the left and right pickups on the head so it sounds like a forcefield of audio rather than two sterile digital channels, sure some detail's lost, but that also just glues all those tracks together.
Recording slightly too hot isn't always a bad thing as long as it's not unlistenable, it makes the sound kind of distorted and crunchy in a way that just has really satisfying frisson to listen to and that slight compression they have just makes everything pop out which goes really well with the spread-out stereo.
Guitars sound particularly good on tape and the flutter adds some unnatural but also organic vibrato to it I think is underrated in audio recording, it's good on any of them but especially on Type II cassettes where the treble really lets you hear the strings being picked as someone plays it.
Print-through is obviously a flaw that can be annoying if it's too noticeable, but I like it because one, it makes the audio sound like it's floating and echoing and gives the noise in between songs or quiet moments some dynamic, and two, it just reminds me of band demos where a lot of them either just to aging or being recorded too loud have the effect pretty noticably.
Dropouts and degradation are interesting because it's either a consistent wobbling to the EQ or just random cuts in the waveform and if you're listening on a stereo tape, this can either sound really dynamic with the saturation but on mono, I find it pretty annoying because it's sounds less like a subtle messup and it actually cuts out a lot of the audio with it.
Saturation's my favourite tape artefact. It can be headache-inducing if there's too much, but when it's in the perfect amount, it softens the audio in a way that makes it sound more like you're listening through a piece of paper with surprisingly high fidelity. It also oddly satisfying when the saturation drifts in the stereo field and it just feels like the sound signal is a breeze going through your headphones.
So in summary, they freaking rock!
I (and I assume most who this forum) just fuckin' love the sound of cassette tapes, I like Type IIs the most for that stark treble. I noticed stereo audio sounds wider on them in general because the channels slightly bleed into each other from the magnetic energy leaving a slight aura between the left and right pickups on the head so it sounds like a forcefield of audio rather than two sterile digital channels, sure some detail's lost, but that also just glues all those tracks together.
Recording slightly too hot isn't always a bad thing as long as it's not unlistenable, it makes the sound kind of distorted and crunchy in a way that just has really satisfying frisson to listen to and that slight compression they have just makes everything pop out which goes really well with the spread-out stereo.
Guitars sound particularly good on tape and the flutter adds some unnatural but also organic vibrato to it I think is underrated in audio recording, it's good on any of them but especially on Type II cassettes where the treble really lets you hear the strings being picked as someone plays it.
Print-through is obviously a flaw that can be annoying if it's too noticeable, but I like it because one, it makes the audio sound like it's floating and echoing and gives the noise in between songs or quiet moments some dynamic, and two, it just reminds me of band demos where a lot of them either just to aging or being recorded too loud have the effect pretty noticably.
Dropouts and degradation are interesting because it's either a consistent wobbling to the EQ or just random cuts in the waveform and if you're listening on a stereo tape, this can either sound really dynamic with the saturation but on mono, I find it pretty annoying because it's sounds less like a subtle messup and it actually cuts out a lot of the audio with it.
Saturation's my favourite tape artefact. It can be headache-inducing if there's too much, but when it's in the perfect amount, it softens the audio in a way that makes it sound more like you're listening through a piece of paper with surprisingly high fidelity. It also oddly satisfying when the saturation drifts in the stereo field and it just feels like the sound signal is a breeze going through your headphones.
So in summary, they freaking rock!
