8-Tracks?

Abyss · Post by **Abyss** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:10 pm

[Split from "How do you collect?"/Idi Admin]

Andreas wrote:
Shiremen wrote:
Help! What shall I choose?
Vinyl of course, and invest in a good stereo. Vinyl conserves much longer than cd too.

The choice is clear

I'm joking of course.

Post by **DaN** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:32 pm

Wow.. Those are so-called "8-tracks" right? I never even understood how those things worked. Don't think that format ever made it out of the US. Heck, they look like video game cartrigdes

Shiremen · Post by **Shiremen** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:50 pm

8-tracks were meant to be played in American car stereos. And maybe you didn't know this, but there are mobil vinyl players to be found. Also meant to be played while you were driving your car. Imagine how scratchy a record would be then. Brr....

MEXDefenderOfSteel · Post by **MEXDefenderOfSteel** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:54 pm

my mom told me she used to have one of those, n my reaction was like "wtf mom! poor baby vynils!

"

Abyss · Post by **Abyss** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:14 pm

DaN wrote:Wow.. Those are so-called "8-tracks" right? I never even understood how those things worked. Don't think that format ever made it out of the US. Heck, they look like video game cartrigdes

Yeah you don't rewind them,they play on a loop so they don't really need rewinding,you can switch tracks by pressing a button or let the album play all the way through at which point it will start again if you wish, but obviously its a flawed format skipping through tracks on messed up cartridges will sometimes bring you to the middle of a song or some other equally weird stuff.

Shiremen wrote:8-tracks were meant to be played in American car stereos. And maybe you didn't know this, but there are mobil vinyl players to be found. Also meant to be played while you were driving your car. Imagine how scratchy a record would be then. Brr....

My parents used to own a truck with an 8 track player it was pretty funny, but it was a shitty ford so we had to get rid of it fairly quickly as it had more problems than it was worth.

Post by **DaN** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:16 pm

Shiremen wrote:8-tracks were meant to be played in American car stereos.

Yeah, that's what I've associated them with as well. But where does the name "8-track" come from? 8 songs crammed onto 1 thick reel for easy track-flippin' or wot?

Abyss · Post by **Abyss** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:20 pm

It was originally 4 programs with 2 tracks on each but sometimes they cram more in but the more songs the lower the quality in some cases, I have a lot more but those were the best albums for the most part.

The Knell · Post by **The Knell** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:28 pm

Wow, they really look like Atari 2600 cardridges.

I still want a Bathory s/t for my SNES

Post by **DaN** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:38 pm

The wiki-article on 8-tracks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_8

So they were phased out in late 1982 as I understand it. Any Legends like Priest, Maiden etc make any of these? Or even some more obscure bands? Me pay mucho dineros for CIRITH UNGOL and HYKSOS 8-tracks!

Shiremen · Post by **Shiremen** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:42 pm

"Some titles were still available as eight-track tapes through record clubs until late 1988"

Shiremen · Post by **Shiremen** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:50 pm

Number of the beast:
http://www.8trackheaven.com/images/RCO/maiden.JPG

Cochino · Post by **Cochino** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:38 pm

I've met a guy who had one of those here in Argentina. All he had was a couple of Creedence albums though.

Avenger · Post by **Avenger** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 12:08 pm

My father probably has at least a thousand of these fucking things in his basement from when he was a teenager. 8-tracks were "popular" towards the middle of the 70's here in Canada as well, although that might of already been a given granted our proximity to the US...

It's too bad that I haven't spoken to the asshole in about 6-7 years, because it would be kind of cool to go through them to see what is there, however, if my memory serves me right, it was all "classic rock" stuff anyways, as that's what he listens to.

jman · Post by **jman** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 6:47 pm

8 tracks are coming back!!!! haha.
No really though. I know a few antique/classic car collectors that have started buying 8 tracks because they were originally part of car stereos in some of the 70's muscle cars. Pretty cool IMO. I would love to see a list of all the heavy metal records that were released on 8 tracks.

gauze · Post by **gauze** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 1:35 pm

Hi
1st post here, I had to chime in on 8 tracks as my first albums as a kid were on 8 track (Deep Purple) and I got into buying them when they were at the absolutely cheapest in the late 80s-early 90s when you could get them for a dime pretty commonly.

As stated they were created for use in North American cars in 1965-66 and the format is pretty lo-fi because of this, due to cars generally being rather loud riding at the time. I think the top frequencies it could reproduce were in the 8k hertz range vs CD (20kz) or LP (I think up to 50khz can theoretically be reproduced from an LP if everything in your stereo could as well (speakers, amp))

They also released some 8 tracks in the UK, the original UK Harvest quadraphonic issues of Dark Side of the Moon fetch top dollar on the 8 track collecting market (I know of a still sealed copy that fetched US$750) and I have heard rumors of Motorhead stuff seeing the light of day in the UK but I have never seen one ...

Anything considered metal at the time in the 70s in the US was certainly produced on 8 track. They are pretty hard to find though and get OK money on Ebay, in my years of searching flea markets and thrift stores I have only turned up a few Priest and Sabbath (more of these and almost always Paranoid and Master of Reality) 8 tracks as well as proto-metal stuff like Sir Lord Baltimore (Deep Purple, etc).

Also as stated post82 stuff was record club only and are exceedingly rare, probably the only metal record I have of this era is Quiet Riot-Condition Critical. I saw Def Leppard-Pyromania once but I always hated them ...