Quote:
Originally Posted by s_k
The tape is in the cassette in one continuous loop. There's a little piece of metal foil at the end of the loop that tells the machine to switch to the next pair of tracks Rewind would make an awful mess  .
You can't skip an actual musical track, you can just choose a different pair of tracks. There's 8 tracks on the 8-track. They're in pairs. One for the lefst channel, one for the right channel.
8-tracks have just one side. They can carry up to 88 minutes of music and they sound... Well... pretty afwul. When my player gets back from repair I can make a sample for you 
As far as the recording technology goes, it works just the same as an open reel deck or a cassette recorder. It's just a tape, exactly the same with as an home-tapedeck (1/4"). The back is extra slippery as the tape is actually pulled out of the middle of the reel (I can't believe it works either ;D). The tape that has been played is added to the outside of the reel. It's the strangest system ever.
The tape contains little parts of iron that are arranged by a magnetic head. depending on how these parts are arranged, you hear the music.
The same thing still happens on harddisks, only a lot faster and divided into sectors. |
cool! thanks for setting me straight on this, i was just trying to remember being 3 hahaha don't think i need a sample of the quality (unless you've got a Sesame Street tape or something - Rubber Ducky / C is for Cookie would be awesome haha)
i DO know that this is the exact model i used to drag around the living room back in the day. i'd have it standing on one speaker so the handle was about waist height and made moving the whole thing easier (was almost as tall as i was haha)
