I had played many 8-track tapes in the 70’s and had no idea why it was called that. And I learnt a lot about the cassette tape too. What an absorbing tuition. And your explanations are second to none. Thanks for the video.
John, great video. As a child of the 70s, I remember well recording vinyl onto 8 tracks so we could listen in the car. All these years and I didn't know why they were called 8 tracks. Thanks.
@Wise Man What's up with you buddy? Not everything revolves around you. Nobody cares you didn't ask, since when was speech only allowed if somebody "asked".
Ohhhh myy god. THANK YOU. I have learned something today. My parents had 8-track tapes and players. I remember as a kid playing some of them. Most music came in the form of vinyls and compact cassettes. I never understood why they were called 8 tracks if there was only four programs LOL
Excellent explanation, even for a complete layman such as myself. Very cool - thanks for taking the time to put together the digital imagery: that REALLY made it understandable.
Wow. I'm glad I chose to watch this specific video during my UA-cam video search! The 8-Track tape ribbon looks similar to a VHS tape ribbon. VHS, when it was new was quite amazing. That puts 8-Track format in perspective for me. Fascinating.
First this was a very informative video and I thank you for clearing up 40+ years of confusion! I still have a few 8-track tapes & even an old Radio Shack Realistic cassette tape adapter that my Dad used in the early 80s in his 1978 Datsun’s 8-track player.
In the 80's growing up my parents had an 8 track player and 8 tracks. I used to listen to them although i hated it once they'd get worn out and sounded distorted.
Thanks for listening to Spotify! No really! You could've listened to the radio. You could've spun some vinyl. You could've listened to an 8-Track tape, if you knew what an 8-Track tape looked like. But you listen to Spotify. Thanks for that, and you still have hundreds more playlists to enjoy.
Thanks for posting this comment. Is that what Spotify says? Thousands of people have watched this video because of Spotify and we've never actually figured out what Spotify has been doing. Did they give you a direct link to to video?
@@audiomover It's an ad that Spotify used to play all the time in between songs. I always wondered what an 8 Track Tape looked like so I searched it up and this was the first video. Great video btw
My uncle worked for a music store in the mid 80's and he explained this to me when i was like 10 yrs old. At the time i was like ... ok ... and moved on. I am 47 now and you just re-fresh my memory. When my brother asked him why do we have to remove the cassette and flip it to play the other side, he said its because the tape head is in a fixed position in the player and does not move so to play the other 2 tracks on the other side of the tape, you have to "flip" the cassette over so the head can now read the other side. You would be surprised how many have NO idea what the 8 track or 4 track cassette means ... Thanks for the reminder
So...standard compact cassette is a 4-track with 2 programmes (side A and side B) each with a left and right track. 8-track is 4 programmes each with a left and right track. Makes sense. Interesting how all 8 of the tracks go the same direction unlike a standard cassette tape. Great video, cheers!
Steve They go in the same direction because the tape is on a continuous loop. With casette tapes you have to eject the tape and turn it upside down in order to hear side B. It is much like a 33rpm vinyl disc. An 8 track cartridge, on the other hand, goes in only one way and never needs to be turned over. If the tape is too long the looping will not work reliably, so it was designed so that the tape is shorter, but loops 4 times to play the entire recording. I loved my 8 track player. My first version of Hot August Night was on 8 track. But the tapes were more expensive than cassettes, the players were more expensive, and fewer artists were available on 8 track. I suspect that record stores with limited space didn’t want 3 formats, and casettes took way less room so they limited the available 8 track selections. However, 8 track sounded much better than casettes so I was not happy as they disappeared from stores. Mine was an Akai 82D. Sounded fantastic.
Great explanation, thanks. I basically discovered how this works when I got my first (Tascam) 4-Track _cassette_ recording deck for recording song demos, and I realized that pre-recorded cassettes were playing Side 2 _backwards_ if played all 4 tracks at once. On 8 Track players, I think they usually only had Fast Forward controls, and NO Rewind controls, wasn't that the case?
Yes. An 8 track cassette uses only one reel with a continuous loop of tape. I believe that if you were to try and run an 8-track cassette in the opposite direction to rewind it, it would unspool from the reel and it would be ruined.
maybe a person is like a one-track since they only have one stream of thoughts in their mind then again, if you can sing with your voice and drum with your hands, you might be a two-track
I have never owned one but I had heard about an 8 track tape being talk about and didn't really know what it was. Great video and explanation. Thanks :)
OLDER PERSONS GENERALLY ARE MUCH WISER, THEREFORE THE CONTENT OF THE VIDEO PRODUCED IS EQUALLY MUCH BETTER. I WANT TO CONGRATULATE YOU, SIR, BECAUSE THIS VIDEO IS SPECTACULARLY WELL EXPLAINED IN ALL DETAILS WE DON'T SEE IN OTHER VIDEOS.
I knew about the 4 track cassettes and DJ friend of mine had a 4 track recorder/player where he would record on all 4 tacks in one direction of a cassette similar to an 8 track however this device could record and play on all four tracks if remember correctly. Cicra 1990s lol. Thanks for the 8 track insight, now I know.
Actually, the four top tracks are for left channel, program 1 on top then 2 below it, 3 below 2 and 4 below 3. The four bottom tracks are the right channels of programs 1, 2, 3, and 4
Thank you for that. Those things get visually confusing. We've considered making separate videos on the actual track locations on different types of tape players.
Thanks. I recall that sometimes an 8 track tape would split a song when the head moved from the end of program 1 to the start of 2. Or am I just imagining that?
Thank you for explaining that. I own an 8 track player that does not play too well sometimes. I can wiggle the 8 track cartridge and it will play loud and clear or it will play poorly. Why is that happening?
Although before my teen years, I did use 8 track tapes (my dad had an 8 track car stereo and 8 track deck on his Hi-Fi system), I did not understand how they worked. Great video! Interesting though, I've never seen an 8 track deck swallow the tape! Why is that, or was I just lucky?
hello did you ever see the orrtronics 8 track tape which was invented by robert orr. i have or had don't where it is a single orrtronics tape and player. the orr units were claimed to have a better sound than the lear version as was more commercially accepted. the orr version coming out before 1964 and looks different and has an internal lock when not in player to keep spool from moving like a vhs tape. you can google and should find pictures of it . i collect 8 tracks and play them regular on a pioneer hr-99 which out of all players cheap and expensive has by far the best sound. oh your arrows on the 8 track was running backwards lol.. meaning of an 8 track player is a machine that gradually gets out out of adjustment every time it changes tracks. enjoyed the video
Had this on my 77 cadillac seville in 1981, pissed me off every time it changed track in the middle of a song with a loud clacking noise😂😂, and no way you can pick any song from the beginning, only the beginning of each track. Good ol days😂😂
Great explanation of the 8-track format. I would love to see you do a documentary on the history of the 8-track and the resurgence of 8-track tape collecting. Contact 8-track Bob (over 61k tapes) or Troy Ohelo (over 30k tapes) for the best info. I myself have over 6k tapes in my collection...but I build the world's best 8-track tape display cases.
There Spotify, now I know
Came here for the exact same reason but honestly pretty interesting and kinda worth it
Tbf, if it weren't for Spotify, I wouldn't thought to investigate what an 8-Track Tape is
Spotify taught me also haha
Not just here cuz of spotify but also Fresh Prince lmao
lol
I had played many 8-track tapes in the 70’s and had no idea why it was called that. And I learnt a lot about the cassette tape too. What an absorbing tuition. And your explanations are second to none. Thanks for the video.
Excellent and simple. I've used tapes since the 80s yet never really bothered to understand why we flipped them over haha!
John, great video. As a child of the 70s, I remember well recording vinyl onto 8 tracks so we could listen in the car. All these years and I didn't know why they were called 8 tracks. Thanks.
You could do that back then? :O awesome. I only knew about cassettes.
Put my 8 tracks on cassettes.
Spotify sent me here. Didn't even know that existed.
hahahaha same
So true!
same
@Wise Man What's up with you buddy? Not everything revolves around you. Nobody cares you didn't ask, since when was speech only allowed if somebody "asked".
@Wise Man you're not funny
Wow. I never knew this. Very cool. I was born in 81 so I grew up with tapes. Still very interesting. Thank you 😊
This is one of the best educational videos I've ever seen. Fantastically explained.
Thank you very much. :)
Now I know, thank you. Never saw an 8-track in real life, so this is educational. spot on
Wow, I've been cramming old tech videos for days and this video was super concise and by far the easiest to understand.
Glad you liked it! :)
The most succinct and to-the-point explanation I've found. Thank you!
Glad you liked it! :)
Ohhhh myy god. THANK YOU. I have learned something today. My parents had 8-track tapes and players. I remember as a kid playing some of them. Most music came in the form of vinyls and compact cassettes. I never understood why they were called 8 tracks if there was only four programs LOL
Excellent explanation, even for a complete layman such as myself. Very cool - thanks for taking the time to put together the digital imagery: that REALLY made it understandable.
So glad you liked it! thanks for letting us know. :)
Wow. I'm glad I chose to watch this specific video during my UA-cam video search! The 8-Track tape ribbon looks similar to a VHS tape ribbon. VHS, when it was new was quite amazing. That puts 8-Track format in perspective for me. Fascinating.
Very cool!
First this was a very informative video and I thank you for clearing up 40+ years of confusion!
I still have a few 8-track tapes & even an old Radio Shack Realistic cassette tape adapter that my Dad used in the early 80s in his 1978 Datsun’s 8-track player.
Thank you! As a child of the 70s, I had many 8 track tapes. This was super helpful for research for my podcast about growing up in the 70s
That's great! Let us know if we can be helpful on your podcast. We would love to join you sometime. :)
In the 80's growing up my parents had an 8 track player and 8 tracks. I used to listen to them although i hated it once they'd get worn out and sounded distorted.
They weren't very reliable.
Thanks for listening to Spotify!
No really!
You could've listened to the radio.
You could've spun some vinyl.
You could've listened to an 8-Track tape,
if you knew what an 8-Track tape looked like.
But you listen to Spotify.
Thanks for that,
and you still have hundreds more playlists to enjoy.
Thanks for posting this comment. Is that what Spotify says? Thousands of people have watched this video because of Spotify and we've never actually figured out what Spotify has been doing. Did they give you a direct link to to video?
@@audiomover It's an ad that Spotify used to play all the time in between songs. I always wondered what an 8 Track Tape looked like so I searched it up and this was the first video. Great video btw
My uncle worked for a music store in the mid 80's and he explained this to me when i was like 10 yrs old. At the time i was like ... ok ... and moved on. I am 47 now and you just re-fresh my memory.
When my brother asked him why do we have to remove the cassette and flip it to play the other side, he said its because the tape head is in a fixed position in the player and does not move so to play the other 2 tracks on the other side of the tape, you have to "flip" the cassette over so the head can now read the other side.
You would be surprised how many have NO idea what the 8 track or 4 track cassette means ...
Thanks for the reminder
8 tracks were noisy, got out of alignment and were hard to fix. It was a myrical they even worked-! Hated it.
Great explanation and outstanding video! Now i know about 8 - track tapes at last! Thank you very much!
So...standard compact cassette is a 4-track with 2 programmes (side A and side B) each with a left and right track. 8-track is 4 programmes each with a left and right track. Makes sense. Interesting how all 8 of the tracks go the same direction unlike a standard cassette tape. Great video, cheers!
Steve They go in the same direction because the tape is on a continuous loop. With casette tapes you have to eject the tape and turn it upside down in order to hear side B. It is much like a 33rpm vinyl disc. An 8 track cartridge, on the other hand, goes in only one way and never needs to be turned over. If the tape is too long the looping will not work reliably, so it was designed so that the tape is shorter, but loops 4 times to play the entire recording. I loved my 8 track player. My first version of Hot August Night was on 8 track. But the tapes were more expensive than cassettes, the players were more expensive, and fewer artists were available on 8 track. I suspect that record stores with limited space didn’t want 3 formats, and casettes took way less room so they limited the available 8 track selections. However, 8 track sounded much better than casettes so I was not happy as they disappeared from stores. Mine was an Akai 82D. Sounded fantastic.
Outstanding video,I appreciate the graphics and your verbal explanation. Great job!👍👍
Thank you very much Sir for the explanation.... what a very amazing and helpful video!! 💖💖💖💖
Glad you liked it! :)
Well explained
Great explanation, thanks. I basically discovered how this works when I got my first (Tascam) 4-Track _cassette_ recording deck for recording song demos, and I realized that pre-recorded cassettes were playing Side 2 _backwards_ if played all 4 tracks at once. On 8 Track players, I think they usually only had Fast Forward controls, and NO Rewind controls, wasn't that the case?
@Wise Man you're not funny
Yes. An 8 track cassette uses only one reel with a continuous loop of tape. I believe that if you were to try and run an 8-track cassette in the opposite direction to rewind it, it would unspool from the reel and it would be ruined.
Excellent and crisp explanation! Kudos and Thank you.
Thanks man, it was driving me nuts why I couldn’t understand the name 8 track. 😂
I'm glad it helped!
I left a like, but to be honest I'm still confused. I may have to revisit this when I'm not stoned 😁
Potheads usually do have comprehension issues. It's ok, we understand.
@@USMC-Sniper-0137 Hey the video is 4 minutes 20 seconds after all right ;)
I take that back it showed up on the list as 4:20 but now that it has loaded its 4:19
@@starquestman1544 Hahahahahahaha, maybe I need to get stoned now........
maybe a person is like a one-track since they only have one stream of thoughts in their mind
then again, if you can sing with your voice and drum with your hands, you might be a two-track
Another Spotify searcher, this is a great explanation.
Thank you! We're so glad you liked this. :)
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant explanation.
So glad you like it. :)
Came to Learn what an 8 track is (or was) and learned a lot more!
Glad you liked it! :)
in all my 30 years of loving tape i only learnt now
The more we grow old my dude the more we learn and that's a very good thing though :-)
I have never owned one but I had heard about an 8 track tape being talk about and didn't really know what it was. Great video and explanation. Thanks :)
Thank you, that's very interesting.
& don't forget the quadraphonic 8 track tape. it only had 2 programs instead of 4
Charles Hyde “Quaddddddddddaphonic soundddddddddddddd”
That would've been great for the car, or at least 5 seater cars which actually had 4 audio speakers.
OLDER PERSONS GENERALLY ARE MUCH WISER, THEREFORE THE CONTENT OF THE VIDEO PRODUCED IS EQUALLY MUCH BETTER. I WANT TO CONGRATULATE YOU, SIR, BECAUSE THIS VIDEO IS SPECTACULARLY WELL EXPLAINED IN ALL DETAILS WE DON'T SEE IN OTHER VIDEOS.
sorry for the uppercase - almost 1y ago I still had the "80's-all-uppercase-characterset" mindset 😁
I knew about the 4 track cassettes and DJ friend of mine had a 4 track recorder/player where he would record on all 4 tacks in one direction of a cassette similar to an 8 track however this device could record and play on all four tracks if remember correctly. Cicra 1990s lol. Thanks for the 8 track insight, now I know.
This is very interesting to know how it works. I k’ew the 8 track tapes since i was kid in the 70s but now i know more about it.
Great explanation man, it couldn't be clearer!
Glad you liked it! :)
Actually, the four top tracks are for left channel, program 1 on top then 2 below it, 3 below 2 and 4 below 3. The four bottom tracks are the right channels of programs 1, 2, 3, and 4
Thank you for that. Those things get visually confusing. We've considered making separate videos on the actual track locations on different types of tape players.
Great video. Another great idea for a video would be to show what happens when you place a large magnet next to an audio cassette. 😆
Great Video. Thanks for the explanation. Makes a lot of sense.
So glad you liked it! :)
Brilliant explanation. I don't know what caused me to wonder about this recently, but I finally got around to looking for the answer. :) Thank you!
Glad it helped!
Thank you. I love learning random things. (I miss my Walkman, i was grafted to that thing like todays kids are to their phones. )
Thanks for commenting! So glad you like it. :)
These kinds of videos are great very informative unlike the trending nonesene videos!
Very well explained and very informative graphics. Thx.
Well informed now.
Now I understand 8 track. Thank you!
Glad you liked it! :)
Thanks for explaining.
Very good video. Always wondered this but whenever i went to research it there was nothing definitive
Glad you liked it!
What a perfect explanation. Thank you!
Glad you liked it! :)
Sad that had no chance of using it. So stellar and orthodox!
Super cool! Thank you!
8 track tapes were before my time. I was born in 1982, I only go as far back as compact cassettes.
Excellent, Thanks for sharing 👍
Glad you liked it! :)
Thanks for this video. It helped me to explain this to youngsters. 🙂👍🏻
Thanks for this video! Very informative and clearly explained.
You're very welcome!
Thanks for the lesson. I was amazed.
Thank you! We're so glad you liked this. :)
Excellent explanation.
Fabulous explanation and I thank you.
Interesting stuff,good job explaining it too
really well explained,john!
Thanks. I recall that sometimes an 8 track tape would split a song when the head moved from the end of program 1 to the start of 2. Or am I just imagining that?
Yep, songs would fade out and then fade back in. I had several 8 tracks that did that.
I'm here because spotify bullied be that I didn't know what an 8 track tape looked like lol
Perfect explanation!
Thanks for commenting! So glad you like it. :)
Great explanation John - thank you.
Oh, I thought Spotify told me A-Track.
Excellent explanatory video!!!!!!!!!Congratulations!!!!!!
I thought Spotify was saying an A track tape
Me too
Same omf
can I pull samples from these - w individual, isolated stems (drums, vocals, guitar, bass)??
No. Just like a cassette tape, an LP, a CD, etc. The two tracks (left and right) on each program are just stereo signals.
Great video, very well explained. Thank you.
thank you! this video is incredible!
So glad you like it. :)
Thanks for posting.
Do you have any of the magnetic tape? 🙂
Nice explanation dude thx for the video and have Super Merry Christmas & the Happiest New Year :-)
This was so easy to understand but surpriselly a lot of people here is comfused !
Excellent explanaton!
i honestly thought it was because they had just eight songs (or groups of songs) on them.
You learn something everyday. Like the video. Thanks!
Thank you for explaining that. I own an 8 track player that does not play too well sometimes. I can wiggle the 8 track cartridge and it will play loud and clear or it will play poorly. Why is that happening?
I've always wondered this ever since I heard I Want My Mullet Back by Billy Ray. Thank you for this video.
Thank you! We're so glad you liked this. :)
Although before my teen years, I did use 8 track tapes (my dad had an 8 track car stereo and 8 track deck on his Hi-Fi system), I did not understand how they worked. Great video! Interesting though, I've never seen an 8 track deck swallow the tape! Why is that, or was I just lucky?
Thank you! We're so glad you liked this. :)
Oh nice! Always wondered! Thanks
you asked near the end, did i figure it out yet? hell nah, still needed the final piece of explanation
We hope it was interesting for you. :)
Now this was informative!!! Thank you!!!
Glad it was helpful!
Amazing! Thanks much for priceless info. 🙏
I knew about 8 tracks but never knew why they were called that did not know some had diffent programs on them
hello did you ever see the orrtronics 8 track tape which was invented by robert orr. i have or had don't where it is a single orrtronics tape and player. the orr units were claimed to have a better sound than the lear version as was more commercially accepted. the orr version coming out before 1964 and looks different and has an internal lock when not in player to keep spool from moving like a vhs tape. you can google and should find pictures of it . i collect 8 tracks and play them regular on a pioneer hr-99 which out of all players cheap and expensive has by far the best sound. oh your arrows on the 8 track was running backwards lol.. meaning of an 8 track player is a machine that gradually gets out out of adjustment every time it changes tracks. enjoyed the video
great insight, thank-you!!
*remembers spotify ad*
Great!! Thanks x your video
Hey Ricardo! So glad you liked it. :)
Thank you this helped so much
Awesome explanation!
Thank you. :)
Had this on my 77 cadillac seville in 1981, pissed me off every time it changed track in the middle of a song with a loud clacking noise😂😂, and no way you can pick any song from the beginning, only the beginning of each track. Good ol days😂😂
Yeah, it was such a strange format.
90s kid here who grew up on cassette tapes then CDs. Heard of 8 track since I was little but never bothered looking it up till now. I feel educated 🤣
Great explanation of the 8-track format. I would love to see you do a documentary on the history of the 8-track and the resurgence of 8-track tape collecting. Contact 8-track Bob (over 61k tapes) or Troy Ohelo (over 30k tapes) for the best info.
I myself have over 6k tapes in my collection...but I build the world's best 8-track tape display cases.
Great idea!
I have a Sony 8 track record deck, 90s that works. I never use it as it is collection.
Great explanation. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent!
So glad you like it. :)
Great upload!
Thank you! We're so glad you liked this. :)
So you don´t rewind these tapes? Are they constantly playing in a loop?
very nice explanation. thank you
I still have some gospel 8 track tapes. I've had them for over 40 years now.
That's awesome. :) The tape is pretty robust but the splice and pressure pad don't age very well. 40 years is a long time!
I did not know that. Thanks. Just what I was looking for.
Best teacher!! Thank you!!
Wow, thank you!
Succinctly well explained.
Thank you! Glad you liked it! :)