# 8-Track Mania



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

I struck gold today folks. Two friends, when they heard I had an 8-track tape deck in my 1980 Buick dropped off 117 tapes to me in total.

Where the heck were they when I bought my 1970 Monte Carlo with an 8-track five years ago?

If anyone has any 8-track tapes kicking around and would like to part with them, please let me know.

I have a Zenith stereo 8-track in my garage and play them while working on my old cars as well.

Cheers


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## mmp (Oct 20, 2001)

Sinc,
A buddy of mine has a tractor that was made the last year 8-Tracks were avaiable. I just donated a bunch to him...my source? The local public library. They have a twice a year sell off of old stuff. I snatched all t 8-Tracks that they were selling and passed them on to my friend. He promply made a cell phone call to me the next week playing both Kooky Kountry and Liberace for me while on the tractor. Quite a variety from what I remember! Good luck and happy hunting.


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## jrtech (Sep 24, 2002)

Sinc, reminds of the joke about the guy, with a car that still had an 8 track in it, seems he went out in th AM to find somone had broken in and left him a bunch of 8 track tapes.


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## iLabmAn (Jan 1, 2003)

What's an 8-track?


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

iLabmAn, an 8-track is the forerunner of the cassette tape. It was large, tough to store and about the size of four decks of playing cards stacked two high, side by side. 

It did however provide the very best in stereo taped music back in the seventies and eighties.

God, do I feel dated.

Cheers


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

8 tracks go for about 25 cents a piece at local thrift stores and garage sales.
I sure you will have no trouble getting all the Partridge Family, Cheap Trick, Kenny Rogers, Tony Orlando, and Starland Vocal Chorus tapes you can handle, and likely for free.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

Oddly enough, when I attended Pacific Radio Broadcasting school, in the early nineties (during a lull in the oilpatch...while I was working as an underpaid commercial artist)...

A commercial/industrial version of the notorious "8-Track" was the accepted medium for ALL commercials and was the ONLY format that was allowed for on-air broadcast of new bands. Cassette tapes were NOT considered good enough quality for airplay. (too slow and too crappy, soundwise).


CD's or a computer based HardDrive is the only system that they use on the radio these days. But, just a few short years ago, it was something that was based on the eight track. Cassette tapes were NEVER a part of the radio/ broadcast world. Ever.

The sound quality from a cassette tape was just not up to snuff. Not even close, really. Eight track, however... (and it's industrial equivalent) was more than up to the task.

Just thought you'd like to know.


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## Ohenri (Nov 7, 2002)

> What's an 8-track?


Wow. how old am I??   

Anyhow, lemme tell you that certain niche labels out there put out 8 tracks for the hell of it (more collector's pieces) but I know for a fact that some put them out as a promo piece (swag) as well. Cute!

I would love to have a player and find the product to play it. Some of the titles might even be out of print recordings... Sinc, that could be such a prized find! Nice! Any titles that you would care to share?? would love to hear about it.

Imagine the 8-track walkman?









H!


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

I still have my dad's collection of 78's. If you know what they are, along with the 45's that I have, you are a true boomer.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

OK Ohenri, here they are. The balance are out in the car and it's too darn cold to dig them out. Aplogies in advance for any typing errors.

Perry Como - It’s Impossible
Perry Como - Pure Gold
XTC - Drums And Wires
Bobby Goldsboro - A Butterfly For Bucky
Roger Whittaker - A Time For Peace
Roger Whittaker - All My Best
Roger Whittaker - Reflections Of Love
Boston - More Than A Feeling
Golden Earirng - Mad Love
Jefferson Airplane - Long John Silver
Golden Earring - Switch
Olivia Newton-John - Don’t Stop Believin’
Barbra Streisand - A Christmas Album (2 copies)
Engelbert Humperdinck - His Greatest Hits
Engelbert Humperdinck - Release Me
Engelbert - This Moment In Time
Engelbert - My Love
Wilf Carter - The Golden Years
Queen - Live Killers
Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees
Boz Scaggs - Hits
Dan Fogelberg - Phoenix
Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
Debby Boone - You Light Up My Life
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils - It’ll Shine When It Shines
Henry Mancini - The Sound Of Stereo For Chrysler
Various Artists - Love Songs
Various Artists - Top Hits Of 1980
Tom Jones - Green, Green Grass Of Home
Max Bygraves - The Wonderful World Of
Elvis Presley - Elvis
Elvis Presley - The Other Sides
Elvis Presley - Elvis’ Christmas
Anne Murray - Let’s Keep It That Way
Anne Murray - Love Songs
Anne Murray - This Way Is My Way
The Guess Who - Canned Wheat
Roy Orbison - Greatest Hits
Jack Hennig - Lady Highway
Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Best Of BTO
Alice Cooper - Greatest Hits
Various Artist - Honky Tonk Party
Johnny Rivers - “Johnny Rivers”
Johnny Rivers - Rocks The Folk
Kenny Rogers - Greatest Hits
Kenny Rogers - “Kenny”
Jim Croce - His Greatest Hits
Paul Anka - Feelings
Dolly Parton - Best Of Dolly
Jeannie C. Riley - Harper Valley PTA
Petula Clark - Color My World Who I Am
Petula Clark - Downtown
Country Super Stars - Famous Hits
Loretta Lynn’s - Greatest Hits
Little Richard’s - Greatest Hits
Jim Reeves - A Legendary Performer
The Platters - Greatest Hits
Neil Diamond - Collection
Mercey Brothers - Comin’ On Stronger
Burton Cummings - Dream Of A Child
Billy Vaughn - Golden Hits
Louis Armstrong - The Immortal Louie
The Emeralds - Bird Dance
Atlanta Rhythm Section - Underdog
Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass - Going Places
Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass - Herb Alpert’s Ninth
Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass - A Taste Of A & M
Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass - Whipped Cream And Other Delights
Herb Alpert Presents - Sergio Mendez & Brazil ‘66
Joan Baez - A Journey Through Our Time
James Last Band - Trumpet A Gogo
Journey - Look Into The Future
R. Harlan Smith - The Best Of
Harry Belafonte - A Legendary Performer
Harry Belafonte - Best Of
John Allan Cameron - Lord Of The Dance
Barbra Joan Streisand
Doug Kershaw - Spanish Moss
Glen Campbell - Gemtle On My Mind
Nancy Sinatra - How Does That Grab You?
John Denver - I Want To Live
The Embassy Chorale - Little Drummer Boy
Wings - Greatest
Loverboy - Loverboy
Nana Mouskouri - Songs Of The British Isles
The Safaris - Wipe Out
Various Artists - Variety Concert In Stereo
The Baja Marimba Band - Heads Up
Don Janse Chorale - Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Unknown - Christmas Carols Tijuana Style
Doctor Zhivago - Original Sound Track
Frank Sinatra - Greatest Hits
Ray Conniff - It Must Be Him
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Bobby Crush - Piano Party
The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man
Cher - Half Breed
Jesus Crrist Superstar - Original Sound Track
Mickey Finns - Music
Various Artists - Golden Instumentals

Cheers


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## Bolor (Sep 14, 2003)

Wow sinc ... what a collection! There are a lot of my old faves there. Treasure those tapes. Are you going to back them up on CD? There are a lot of those you can't get any more.


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

Macnutt
I thought they used DAT tapes for radio commercials.


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## gordguide (Jan 13, 2001)

The 8-track tape format is derived from Broadcast equipment; in the industry they're called "cart tapes". For about 40 years they were the format used by DJ's to play commercials on radio (right up until just recently).

If you ever watch reruns of the TV show WKRP in Cincinati, those are cart tapes Johnny Fever and Les Nessman pop into the equipment in the studio.

"Mad Man" Muntz adopted the cart machines & tapes to play music in the 60's. They became popular because the record companies accepted the medium for pre-recorded music; record players for cars existed in the 50's and 60's but were unpopular for obvious reasons (they barely worked, and only played 45 RPM singles) but were available as factory options on some cars (I know for sure Chrysler offered it), while the cart format had the one big thing record comapnies always love in a format: it was difficult to make your own recordings.

Somewhere around 1970 (I think late 60's) the stereo version, designed specifically for music, was introduced. This is the 8-track (earlier ones were mono "4-track's") many of us who grew up a bazillion years ago remember.

Again, acting just as they always have, record companies refused to accept the cassette format for many years because cassettes were recordable at home.

Market forces (read: people quit buying 8-track players for their cars beginning in the mid-70's) forced the music industry to reconsider after they figured out that cassette decks outsold 8-track players.

They hated the idea that only home-recorded music was available for cassette decks. Still, they had to be dragged screaming and kicking into it.

Sound familiar?

In any case, the cart/4-track/8-track tape is a continuous loop of 1/2" tape. The 4/8 track format refers to how the format stored music, essentially similar to how multitrack recording is done (and therefore tapes could be manufactured using equipment adapted from available technology).

A typical LP record album was up to 22 minutes per side; using 4 (mono) or 8 (4x 2 for stereo) tracks an album could be stored on what amounted to 11 minutes of tape.

Although 8-track tapes used a relatively short loop of tape, available technology at the time they were introduced mandated a 3.75" per second tape speed to maintain adequate fidelity.

Cassettes used 1/8" tape at half the 8-track speed (1 7/8" per second) so a given cassette had the same length of tape as an 8-track did, but was 1/4 as wide (resulting in a more compact form factor).

When introduced in the mid 60's by Phillips (who also gave us the CD) it was solely a dictation meidum for business use. With the introduction of the Advent cassette recorder (1971) technology had advanced sufficently to allow adequate quality for music on cassette tapes.

The Japanese firm Nakamichi then introduced a refined Advent cassette deck which began a steady improvement of cassette quality.

8-tracks failed in the marketplace because they were difficult to record with, but also because the mechanically shifted 2-track or 4 trach head introduced tape/head alignment problems; cassettes were able to maintain better head alignment to take advantage of newer technology and surpass the 8-track in sound quality by the late 70's.

Broadcast cart machines have pro-grade fixed heads that don't shift and therefore always maintain alighnment.

Broadcasters like the cart format because it was robust and the short (typically 30-seconds, but less or more as required) tapes are durable as is the equipment they were used with; sould quality isn't an issue with commercials and pro-grade equipment lasts as a long time.

Because they are continuous loops and are spliced with a special kind of tape which can be indexed by the heads, carts automatically start at exactly the same point every time you pop them in (they stop at the beginning of the loop after they play the message). This same special splicing tape tells an 8-track player to switch tracks.

The wide tape can be easily spliced in-house if necessary to repair the cart. The 1/2 tape is wide enough to make a splice that won't break, and timing (not sound quality, unfortunately) is critical in broadcast.

That's why they remained in broadcast for so long; random access digital (which can also be indexed to start at exactly the same point every time) displaced them. Cassettes didn't replace carts because the thin tape isn't as durable for this indexing process.

Although 8-track tapes are firmly in the "mid-fi" camp, modern radio stations destroy the signal to the point where they can and do sound better than AM or FM we're stuck with today.

[ January 02, 2004, 03:02 PM: Message edited by: gordguide ]


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## Ohenri (Nov 7, 2002)

> I still have my dad's collection of 78's. If you know what they are, along with the 45's that I have, you are a true boomer.


Dr... you know that in Jamaica, producers/DJs still press like nothing ever happened?? Still an extremely common format with Jamaican 'Sounds' (ie: DJs)

Sinc, that's a serious list. H. Alpert... N. Sinatra... H. Mancini, Queen. Hours of litening fun.

I don't think that I have even seen a standalone player. How would one transfer some of these to digital format???

H!


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Ohenri, I too have been trying to figure out how to do just that.

So far:

I have a Zenith combo set that is AM/FM stereo with 8-track player AND recorder. It has an input for outside audio, so I could erase old 8-tracks, like the Oldsmobile and Buick test tapes I have, and record new sound to the original 8-track cartridge from Say a cassette or maybe even a CD player on my boom box..

It also has an output jack, so I think I can play the 8-tracks into my boom box and record them on cassette. How I would get them digital or to CD is far beyond my technical expertise.

But what the heck, I will try to go as far as I can. Unless of course, others who read this have a suggestion?

Cheers


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## Peter Scharman (Jan 4, 2002)

Gordguide, this is a rare occurance for you......you incorrectly stated that 8 track tapes were 1/2 inch, when in fact , they were 1/4 inch. Open reel recorders were also 1/4 inch. Having sold and serviced 8 track units, the biggest consumer problem was the capstain drive post getting worn (polished) and causing the tape to slip (drag). Acid etching the capstain and cleaning the pinch roller would solve the problem for as while. Cheaper mechanisms were obviously more prone to this problem. Cheap tape case designs also compounded the problem. Obsolesence was a matter of time. No one likes their music warbling.
Cassette machines shouldn't be spoken of so negatively. The narrower tape did have it's fidelity challenges, and prerecorded 8 tracks did sound better than their cassette counterparts. But so much technology was dedicated to improving cassette sound quality that there were some truly good sounding units made. I sold a very good reel-to-reel recorder in favour of a high end casste deck. It sounded just as good, was MUCH more convenient (and cheaper tapes) and had lower signal to noise ratio thanks to Dolby. Players were also compact and portable after a while (Walkman). That technology ruled for many years until CD technology gradually took over the market. That technology has improved tremendously as well, but also be obslete one day.


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## Ohenri (Nov 7, 2002)

Sinc, if you have an output jack, you have just solved the prob. That will be the lone key in getting the sound out. Never thoutht than an older player would have outputs (RCA??).

So you can record to 8 Track? That is so hype. I would make a mix and create a new color sticker fot the cassette. Like a White Stripes.. something pretty gritty. 

Anyhow, you should just have to feed the RCAs out to the line jack on your Mac. You just the need the right rec app. 

H!


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## Bolor (Sep 14, 2003)

Hi Sinc
If you have right and left RCA outputs from your combo set, you will need a double ended male RCA cable with both the right and left (RED and White) plugs. Then you plug an adapter that plugs into your mic input that looks like This 
(The one you want is the third from the bottom)
The as Ohenri says, you get a recording program like Sound App. They usually have a copy on the MacAddict discs. It's shareware and works pretty well.

If you need more info or have any other questions, please ask.


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## LGBaker (Apr 15, 2002)

Sinc wrote:

"...Englebert Humperdinck - His Greatest Hits..."

gordguide wrote:

"...continuous loops..."

I did it! It is all my fault! I'll confess to anything!!!

Just make it stop......aaaaaiiiieeee......


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Thanks for the feedback guys. I do appreciate it!

Cheers


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## gordguide (Jan 13, 2001)

" ... gordguide, this is a rare occurance for you......you incorrectly stated that 8 track tapes were 1/2 inch, when in fact , they were 1/4 inch. ..."

Right you are. Probably because I never owned an 8-track player, I just remember being conned into fixing a few. Thanks for pointing out my error, Peter.

Thanks for reminding me of the other major problem, the capstan being part of the cartridge. I'd forgotten about that one as well.

On the plus side, and it's an area that LP users share, (and has been mentioned by others in this thread) is the great musical performances you can hear if you manage to collect a few 8-track tapes (or cassettes, which share most, but not all, of the catalog).

There's no way the vast majority of these albums will ever see the light of day on CD; if all you have is optical for audio, they're gone forever.


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## mmp (Oct 20, 2001)

I had ten copies of Peter Frampton: Frampton Comes Alive! Bought them when prices of 8-Tracks plummeted. It was a double album so twice the taping capability, recorded over all of them but one. Liked it because you could do some work or go to sleep and the foolish thing would just keep playing...I can still hear the volume go down...the clicking of the track changing...and then the volume coming back up. I remember on one KISS album the song She went through this process as it was long enough to be on two separate tracks. Good memories!


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## SOLID (Jan 4, 2002)

Boy this topic brings back some memories. When I was a kid I had an 8-Track player and an 8-Track component recorder. I would go down to the local Radio Shack and buy blank 8-Track tapes, make copies of my favorite tapes and sell them. Yes I admit I was a pirate. I even bought a splicing kit and I figured out how to splice the recorded tapes so they changed tracks at the same time as the originals. I remember 8-Tracks not working very well in vehicles when it was -30 degrees in the winter. Also the regular site of "eaten tapes" tossed out the car window into the ditch.

I remember the cassette becoming popular in the late 70's, early 80's. They were the best for recording your album collection on. I'll bet you there are some albums that over the years I've owned on 8-Track, cassette, LP and now CD.

oh, the memories.


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