History and development of cassette players

The cassette has gone through a lot to regain its place on record store shelves in modern times. It all started thanks to the Dutch engineer Lodewijk “Lou” Ottens and the Philips company – Philips EL3300. In the 1960s, he was the head of the company’s new product development department and spent several years secretly inventing the portable cassette recorder. For this, it was necessary to re-invent the audio cassette formats that were already available at that time, which were too bulky, which made it impossible to use them on the go, and this was precisely the main idea.

«Less than a pack of cigarettes!» – this was the advertising slogan of the new invention. In 1963, at the international radio exhibition in Berlin, a new device for storing information was presented – the compact cassette. At the same time, the first player-recorder was shown to the world. The original Philips EL3300 prototype, invented by Ottens’ team, was created so that journalists or simply lovers of the peaceful sounds of nature could make audio recordings outside the home.

Thus, for the first time, the average user had the opportunity not only to independently save an audio signal to a medium, but also to re-record it many times. Later, in the 1980s, because of this, a pathetic attempt would be made to stop piracy. «Home recording is killing music,» the propaganda slogan said, but this only added fuel to the fire.

Cover: Philips EL3300 cassette recorder, 1963

Another key moment in this history was the release of the Sony Walkman TPS-L2 player in 1979. Thanks to a Japanese company, the audio cassette has finally become a truly mass product. After 5 years, Sony was able to raise the level of its technology so much that its portable players were able to compete with some stationary cassette players in terms of sound and recording quality. Here it is worth noting the well-known Henry Rollins from the group Black Flag, who recorded his solo album «Sweatbox» on the Walkman Professional WM-D6C.

Already in the new millennium, the leader of the audio race was Steve Jobs, who always admitted that at the beginning of his journey he was guided by Sony. The first iPod was released in 2001, and in 2004 the latest cassette player model under the Walkman brand was released. This is roughly how the end of the compact cassette era happened, but we inherited an impressive legacy.

The anatomy of the cassette has evolved in such a way that both the casing and the tape itself have changed over time. All this was done to reduce the noise level they were producing. The general concept of the changes was that it was necessary to dampen vibrations inside the cassette. So, for example, we came to tape stabilizers and ceramic plastic housings.

Cover: Sony Walkman TPS-L2 cassette player, 1979

In the 1990s, the pinnacle of audio cassette development with all sorts of bells and whistles was the Sony Super Metal Master model. If you have one of these lying around on your mezzanine, it means you have saved yourself at least 10 thousand rubles. Apart from the ceramic composite body, another feature of this cassette is the metal band. Initially, cassettes contained tape of the first type (normal), which was made of iron oxide.

Afterwards, various components were added to it: chromium dioxide for the second type (chrome), iron oxide and chromium oxide for the third (ferrochrome) and metal for the fourth type (metal). For the latter, we even had to slightly change the design of the tape recorders – as a result, the metal tape made it possible to make loud recordings without unnecessary interference and with the widest range of reproducible frequencies. Therefore, it is important to understand that a lot depends on the cassette used.

Cover: sony super metal master 90

Self music production. In fact, this is the main and most useful point for musicians. The very fact of carrying the elements of the composition through the cassette makes the recording more alive. “Pass sounds through the tape” – this action must be repeated several times. Pass everything through the tape. Only with time will it be possible to understand at least something – but the sound of this moment will in any case become more interesting. And in order not to think that with this approach you will go into lo-fi rustling, you need to remember the most technical subtleties of the cassette, which were described above. By purchasing a cassette deck, you will irrevocably change methods of your musical production.

Cover: Pyle Dual Cassette Deck Stereo