I have some old 1960s pre-recorded cassettes that came in the same kind of plastic shipping box you show, with the album cover being a sticker pasted onto it. And in the 1990s, Sony sold their blank "CD-IT" cassettes in a one-piece plastic "Slide Case". Also "cassingles" (cassette singles) were usually sold in just a cardboard sleeve instead of in a plastic case. And the very cheapest no-name blank tapes were just put into a plastic bag with no cases at all!
Very interesting video.👍....I see you transfer your stuff into FLAC files. That's probably a good idea, but I still prefer the old physical cassettes (as opposed to anything digital). I just couldn't 'get by' without my Maxell XLII NOS cassettes which I store in cassette drawers.
The great advantage is, all these FLAC files still play exactly as they did when I recorded them. Many of the cassettes I recorded over the years just didn't sound right anymore only a few years later. Some of them were so bad, there was no point transferring them to digital anymore...
Another great video. Thank you from an old guy who still owns and enjoys cassettes and open reel tapes. Some recordings I have date to the mid 1960's, and still play and sound great. Long live magnetic tape!
I really enjoyed this video. I used to run a company called Teletape in London. We specialised in Hi Fi and Tape formats. Great seeing all the old brands of tape. Someone came to me the other day and asked me to transfer some BASF tapes onto CD and it was fun bring out my reel to reel recorder. I saw one of your previous videos about what is commonly called CD rot. I have transferred most of my recordings by item digitising them with a PCM recorder, or ripping the CD's to a dedicated music computer that has a lot of hard drives in it.
That's what I do these days, any media gets transfered into lossless FLAC files which are then much easier to back up than any physical recording media.
@@GabrielMartinez-pe6ln For regular CD I just use iTunes. If I am recording something of a higher resolution I connect the output of my SACD player to my Olympus PCM recorder.
The oldest audio cassette I've ever seen was a Sony C90 from the early 70s which my father brought home from Portugal. It even had the old Compact Cassette logo on it...it was the only cassette I've ever seen with that logo on it.
Very nice display. I've got somewhere stashed away a two piece cassette slip cover, like a dust cover for a book. It was some Japanese pop music. The drawback to the design was, if you lost the smaller end piece, you're out of luck. Also, after awhile, the soft plastic deformed and it wasn't easy to get the cassette in or out.
And then there were the super-cheap, all-purpose cassettes that were housed in a thin, opaque, soft plastic box. You could actually squeeze the case slightly and it would return to its original form. It wasn't a hard plastic like most cassette cases. They were mostly for tapes used to make pre-recorded announcements over PA systems or storybook tapes that were used in conjunction with toys, like that talking teddy bear Teddy Ruxpin.
Oh I just remembered another type of case which I think were made by Memoex. There was a hinged part on the edges where the top edge and one of the side edges were like an L shaped lid that opened around the edges. Now that I think of it, I should make a video about the cassette cases I have :-). There have been many cool designs, and it's something most people might take for granted.
I used to have a Sony professional cassette recorder with the Auto-Sensor feature. The interesting thing was, when a cassette was rewound or advanced, it would automatically stop when the foil contacted the sensor, instead of winding it all the way to the end.
Love the mini doco on cassette cases. The Lime Spiders released Headcleaner LP on cassette and the packaging is fun . Push the long side and the spring loaded cassette pops out. The music inside dissolves heads, an Oz gem.
I have 2 BASF chrome cassettes with the grey side-open boxes like the one you showed which could double as a small reel box. They came from thr factory with a red plastic bar which snapped into the hub openings which served to hold the reels in place while stored. The tapes were never used, and the locking bars are still on them.
I am not sure if the C-Boxes were sold separate from the cassettes. For some reason in Canada Scotch 3M had the C-Box - exactly the same concept for stacking - exactly the same look w black case and red button and sliding groove to link the stack.
+discomatador3D The C-Boxes were sold seperately, at least over here in Germany. It was not an original BASF design. I recently found a brochure by the company that invented the C-Box, advertising the U-Box for storing records.
Only if Memorex put as much effort into their tapes as they did their boxes. That mailer box, is an Ampex box. Very early Ampex pre-records and blank tapes (late 60's) had that sort of black box. Later examples used a box that was open on one end and they slid and locked in.
That was a fascinating video about the cassette cases. I was into reel to reel in the 60's and used to buy BASF in those grey plastic cases. They were expensive. When I bought my first cassette recorder in 1971, I naturally bought a BASF blank cassette that came in one of those grey plastic cases. It was expensive too but I just assumed that it was the best quality. In hindsight, it probably was the best because I still have it (:->
I have one of the fold out memorex cases with if memory serves me correctly a 46 minute cassette, also with it there are two small plastic studs that sit in the centres of the spools.
Just wondering a few things If Cassette is stored in right conditions how long will it last for? If left out side in garden? If you drop cassette in water would it play after and dry out?
Nice video and it seems you have nice collection of cases. i remember in the 70's some mfg. of prerecorded cassettes used that "mailer" type of case you have. Also in the late 80's or early 90's TDK made a unique case for their SA chrome cassettes. It was a clam shell design with rounded edges. It was unique but not functional when it came to stacking and storing them. Also Sony made a ceramic shell cassette that was unique. Very heavy. I have a few of them. They were pricy.
This is an extremely interesting and intriguing video. The coolest cases I've ever had for cassettes were for some Type II high bias tapes I had that were made by FUJI. The cases themselves were really slim, and the cassette actually fit into the case upside down with the tape side facing downward. They were cool cases and the cassettes really were FUJI high bias. I still have some of those cassettes to this day but I lost the cases I think.
Very educational your videos are. Sorry, it´s my spanish appearing. Some of your cassettes and your cases are in my vintage collection too -like SONY, BASF, PHILLIPS, SCOTCH and others- and it´s very useful discover the time they were concepted. Congratulations, I'm an early follower and thanks a lot for shareing. Greetings from CHILE
I have a faint memory of those "slim" cassette cases from late 80's that also had very rounded edges on top, and they were darkish colour, something like lightly coloured sunglasses. Can't remember brand, but some well known name. I only bought TDK, Maxell, Sony and couple of That's tapes back then.
+AlmightyMaria PvB Der Einfachheit halber auf Deutsch: Es gibt einen Plastikwinkel, in den die C-Boxen eingeschoben werden können. In diesem Winkel sind dann zwei Schraubenlöcher :)
Nice share on the cassette cases. Please let me know if you ever did a video with the legendary Nakamichi for the budget concious BX1. I had one loved it the record playback was ruler flat and stood up to my Akai DDS 400s ( hope I have the model right You showed on in pristine condition). I love my Nak, but had trouble with the FG caption motor that I replaced. Superb recordings NO tape intermod. Incredibly accurate frequency response on that BX1. Let me know if you taped one of those
The tape in the C120s is extremely thin, so it easily causes problems. C120s generally are very unreliable and they don't sound very good either. Better don't use them.
Maxell rocks! Whatever that Epitaxial coating they use is, I think it could survive a nuclear blast and that guy would still be blown away in that chair !! Maxell actually started out as the MAXimum life dry cELL Co.
Never heard of that Grundig Format before but youtube has an example, BASF tapes were the best back in the 1980s though we had lots of american scotch tapes that smelt really strange!
I remember seeing those Sony CD-IT cases at my gandmother's years ago. I have a cassingle by the Pet Shop Boys somewhere, but the sound quality is absolutely horrible.
@@DrCassette UA-cam jacks things like that up too much. And yeah, I’m on the iOS app. Haven’t done UA-cam on a PC in years. BTW... This is kind of an old video. Did you ever get one of those ‘70s Memorex cases with the L-shaped part that flips open from the side? I have some, and also a similar case they made for a 5” reel.
UA-cam tells me you have been subscribed to my channel for 6 years, but it seems you have not watched any of my videos for a long time. I do mostly use tripods and camera mounts for stable videos now ;)
They may have been ok back in the day. But most tapes that I have owned have deteriorated with age, losing the sound quality. I'll stick to cd's now, they are moredurable, and if handled properly will last a lot longer. Just don't scratch them.
I have some old 1960s pre-recorded cassettes that came in the same kind of plastic shipping box you show, with the album cover being a sticker pasted onto it. And in the 1990s, Sony sold their blank "CD-IT" cassettes in a one-piece plastic "Slide Case". Also "cassingles" (cassette singles) were usually sold in just a cardboard sleeve instead of in a plastic case. And the very cheapest no-name blank tapes were just put into a plastic bag with no cases at all!
Very interesting video.👍....I see you transfer your stuff into FLAC files. That's probably a good idea, but I still prefer the old physical cassettes (as opposed to anything digital). I just couldn't 'get by' without my Maxell XLII NOS cassettes which I store in cassette drawers.
The great advantage is, all these FLAC files still play exactly as they did when I recorded them. Many of the cassettes I recorded over the years just didn't sound right anymore only a few years later. Some of them were so bad, there was no point transferring them to digital anymore...
@@DrCassette Okay....whatever works best for you.
Another great video. Thank you from an old guy who still owns and enjoys cassettes and open reel tapes. Some recordings I have date to the mid 1960's, and still play and sound great. Long live magnetic tape!
My sister still has the Memorex that slide open sideways & the one you have that opens then stops. Good memories, thanks for uploading.
I really enjoyed this video. I used to run a company called Teletape in London. We specialised in Hi Fi and Tape formats. Great seeing all the old brands of tape. Someone came to me the other day and asked me to transfer some BASF tapes onto CD and it was fun bring out my reel to reel recorder. I saw one of your previous videos about what is commonly called CD rot.
I have transferred most of my recordings by item digitising them with a PCM recorder, or ripping the CD's to a dedicated music computer that has a lot of hard drives in it.
That's what I do these days, any media gets transfered into lossless FLAC files which are then much easier to back up than any physical recording media.
DrCassette what software do you use to transfer audio to flac files?
@@GabrielMartinez-pe6ln Audacity.
@@GabrielMartinez-pe6ln For regular CD I just use iTunes.
If I am recording something of a higher resolution I connect the output of my SACD player to my Olympus PCM recorder.
I had a couple of those slim Fuji cases - they were really neat! - but they did bounce around a little more in my cassette storage cases.
That was the disadvantage. All these slim cases didn't fit the storage systems properly.
Rememeber back in 94 46 min Fuji slim cases... I think that was not succesful on sales.
In the 90s I used the little 13 tape Napa Valley crates, and they would hold 14 of those Fuji cases.
Fuji also uses really cheap, flimsy "Extraslim" Hi8 videotape cases, which I complained about in one of my videos.
The oldest audio cassette I've ever seen was a Sony C90 from the early 70s which my father brought home from Portugal. It even had the old Compact Cassette logo on it...it was the only cassette I've ever seen with that logo on it.
Very nice display. I've got somewhere stashed away a two piece cassette slip cover, like a dust cover for a book. It was some Japanese pop music. The drawback to the design was, if you lost the smaller end piece, you're out of luck. Also, after awhile, the soft plastic deformed and it wasn't easy to get the cassette in or out.
Sony for a while made audio cassettes with a single-piece high-impact plastic slide-out case.
And then there were the super-cheap, all-purpose cassettes that were housed in a thin, opaque, soft plastic box. You could actually squeeze the case slightly and it would return to its original form. It wasn't a hard plastic like most cassette cases. They were mostly for tapes used to make pre-recorded announcements over PA systems or storybook tapes that were used in conjunction with toys, like that talking teddy bear Teddy Ruxpin.
I also had some cool cases where the lids just snapped closed. They were made by AMPEX.
I still have a bunch of those
Oh I just remembered another type of case which I think were made by Memoex. There was a hinged part on the edges where the top edge and one of the side edges were like an L shaped lid that opened around the edges. Now that I think of it, I should make a video about the cassette cases I have :-). There have been many cool designs, and it's something most people might take for granted.
I used to have a Sony professional cassette recorder with the Auto-Sensor feature. The interesting thing was, when a cassette was rewound or advanced, it would automatically stop when the foil contacted the sensor, instead of winding it all the way to the end.
Love the mini doco on cassette cases. The Lime Spiders released Headcleaner LP on cassette and the packaging is fun . Push the long side and the spring loaded cassette pops out. The music inside dissolves heads, an Oz gem.
I have 2 BASF chrome cassettes with the grey side-open boxes like the one you showed which could double as a small reel box. They came from thr factory with a red plastic bar which snapped into the hub openings which served to hold the reels in place while stored. The tapes were never used, and the locking bars are still on them.
Cassettes are awesome!!! Great video
I am not sure if the C-Boxes were sold separate from the cassettes. For some reason in Canada Scotch 3M had the C-Box - exactly the same concept for stacking - exactly the same look w black case and red button and sliding groove to link the stack.
+discomatador3D
The C-Boxes were sold seperately, at least over here in Germany. It was not an original BASF design. I recently found a brochure by the company that invented the C-Box, advertising the U-Box for storing records.
@@DrCassette Fischer. They came in the dash of some BMW, Audi & VWs
Only if Memorex put as much effort into their tapes as they did their boxes. That mailer box, is an Ampex box. Very early Ampex pre-records and blank tapes (late 60's) had that sort of black box. Later examples used a box that was open on one end and they slid and locked in.
That was a fascinating video about the cassette cases. I was into reel to reel in the 60's and used to buy BASF in those grey plastic cases. They were expensive. When I bought my first cassette recorder in 1971, I naturally bought a BASF blank cassette that came in one of those grey plastic cases. It was expensive too but I just assumed that it was the best quality. In hindsight, it probably was the best because I still have it (:->
I have some early 80s memorex tapes in nice smoked (tinted) cases & didn"t crack like standard ones
I have one of the fold out memorex cases with if memory serves me correctly a 46 minute cassette, also with it there are two small plastic studs that sit in the centres of the spools.
I think I've bought Fuji tapes that came in those slimmed down cases which have the tape sitting with the open side pointing upwards.
Just wondering a few things
If Cassette is stored in right conditions how long will it last for?
If left out side in garden?
If you drop cassette in water would it play after and dry out?
Nice video and it seems you have nice collection of cases. i remember in the 70's some mfg. of prerecorded cassettes used that "mailer" type of case you have. Also in the late 80's or early 90's TDK made a unique case for their SA chrome cassettes. It was a clam shell design with rounded edges. It was unique but not functional when it came to stacking and storing them. Also Sony made a ceramic shell cassette that was unique. Very heavy. I have a few of them. They were pricy.
This is an extremely interesting and intriguing video. The coolest cases I've ever had for cassettes were for some Type II high bias tapes I had that were made by FUJI. The cases themselves were really slim, and the cassette actually fit into the case upside down with the tape side facing downward. They were cool cases and the cassettes really were FUJI high bias. I still have some of those cassettes to this day but I lost the cases I think.
Very educational your videos are. Sorry, it´s my spanish appearing.
Some of your cassettes and your cases are in my vintage collection too -like SONY, BASF, PHILLIPS, SCOTCH and others- and it´s very useful discover the time they were concepted.
Congratulations, I'm an early follower and thanks a lot for shareing.
Greetings from CHILE
... ........ ........
I have a faint memory of those "slim" cassette cases from late 80's that also had very rounded edges on top, and they were darkish colour, something like lightly coloured sunglasses. Can't remember brand, but some well known name. I only bought TDK, Maxell, Sony and couple of That's tapes back then.
These numbers look like a social security number, some people marked their properties this way back in the days.
Operation Identification. This is before people stole Social Security numbers for identity theft.
Where do you get those big cassette storage boxes that you can put on the wall ?
Philips also used the case for their VCR video cassettes from the mid 1970's.
Very informative video, didn't know this much about cassette cases...., didn't care less, but this was a very interesting video!!
I have one of those BASF grey cases with an original BASF Type II C90 still blank inside it. I'm not sure whether to use it or not. :D
Is every BASF C-Box wallmountable or do they need a special frame around them?
Please explain me that principle if you have the time.
+AlmightyMaria PvB
Der Einfachheit halber auf Deutsch: Es gibt einen Plastikwinkel, in den die C-Boxen eingeschoben werden können. In diesem Winkel sind dann zwei Schraubenlöcher :)
Alles klar, besten Dank
Sind die Dinger einfach zu finden?
Ich kriege demnächst eine massive Menge C-Boxen und würde die gerne neben die anderen Regale hängen
Ich habe keine Ahnung. Wahrscheinlich werden diese Winkel relativ selten sein...
Cassettes are cool. I still love them!
me too! :-)
Nice share on the cassette cases. Please let me know if you ever did a video with the legendary Nakamichi for the budget concious BX1. I had one loved it the record playback was ruler flat and stood up to my Akai DDS 400s ( hope I have the model right You showed on in pristine condition). I love my Nak, but had trouble with the FG caption motor that I replaced. Superb recordings NO tape intermod. Incredibly accurate frequency response on that BX1. Let me know if you taped one of those
The tape in the C120s is extremely thin, so it easily causes problems. C120s generally are very unreliable and they don't sound very good either. Better don't use them.
VWestlife just did a video debunking that.
Cool, you have some of the cases I do.
Dr. Cassette looking cassettes!!! Cassettesception.
That's exactly what I was trying to describe in the video :)
I love the those XLII's
+gam1380
Yes, the mid 80s Maxell cassettes were nice. The XLII-S looks even better.
+dctechnica i have a few of those as well...maxell is my favorite brand!!!!
Maxell rocks! Whatever that Epitaxial coating they use is, I think it could survive a nuclear blast and that guy would still be blown away in that chair !! Maxell actually started out as the MAXimum life dry cELL Co.
Gam yes and they last forever!
Gam THAT’s tapes were the best :-)
I recently bought a sealed Scotch cassette from 1969.
Nice to see Michael Cretu on cassette! 5:44
Great... He was "hidden" until Enigma 1990.
Never heard of that Grundig Format before but youtube has an example, BASF tapes were the best back in the 1980s though we had lots of american scotch tapes that smelt really strange!
I remember seeing those Sony CD-IT cases at my gandmother's years ago. I have a cassingle by the Pet Shop Boys somewhere, but the sound quality is absolutely horrible.
There are some the weird memorex foldouts on ebay right now, search "3 BRAND NEW (new-oth) Memorex 120 minute L SHAPE CASE! blank cassette tapes 80s"
No, I have never done anything with a Nakamichi BX-1.
VHS wäre kein Problem, aber Video2000 habe ich nur ein paar, und Betamax habe ich gar nicht :(
I have reel to reel tapes, to ,compact tapes.
Oh you have one exactly the same there
I always found that Memorex cassettes were really crap compared to TDK BASF or MAXELL
❤
Flea markets, thrift stores...
man U rock!!
Do you know where to buy the cases now?
I don't think cassette cases are still available new. You might be able to find some in second hand stores....
Nice video. Tnx
Aren't the cardboard cases called o cards
Always heard them called slipcases
What the hell happened to the aspect ratio here?
The aspect ratio may be incorrect on mobile devices. This is UA-cam's fault.
@@DrCassette UA-cam jacks things like that up too much. And yeah, I’m on the iOS app. Haven’t done UA-cam on a PC in years. BTW... This is kind of an old video. Did you ever get one of those ‘70s Memorex cases with the L-shaped part that flips open from the side? I have some, and also a similar case they made for a 5” reel.
I have had such Memorex cases with the L shaped door in the past, but not anymore.
Hello Perfect
You shoud invest in a tripod it would make it easier on you and your videos.
Cheers
UA-cam tells me you have been subscribed to my channel for 6 years, but it seems you have not watched any of my videos for a long time. I do mostly use tripods and camera mounts for stable videos now ;)
Mit Betamax Kassetten könnte ich aushelfen :-)
They may have been ok back in the day. But most tapes that I have owned have deteriorated with age, losing the sound quality. I'll stick to cd's now, they are moredurable, and if handled properly will last a lot longer. Just don't scratch them.
Gary Dunn not sure I totally agree lol
You haven't used Maxell, have you? I've got Maxell UDXL-II's from the late '70s that still sound perfect.