Walkman

#1117: I Admit It: I Miss My Cassettes

RECORD STORE TALES #1117: I Admit It: I Miss My Cassettes

Hey, it’s me, the guy who has talked about how much he hates cassettes, again and again ad nauseum.  I don’t know why, but I’m feeling a lot of nostalgia for tapes these days.  While CD remains my go-to format, with vinyl in second, I am now on the lookout for old 80s metal cassettes that still play well.  What the hell happened to me?

It’s true that I have a lot of bad memories about cassettes, to go with the good.  I have my own system and language when it comes to my collection, but I abandoned cassette back in 1995 because the sound quality wasn’t there and got noticeably worse the more you played the tape.  I considered cassette to be a “soft copy”, with the longer-lasting CD and vinyl being “hard copies”.  You simply have more control in keeping those two formats in good shape.  Cassettes are another story.  It’s just magnetic particles stuck to a ribbon, and every time you play it, those particles wear off bit by bit.  In effect, you wreck your favourite tapes fastest because you simply love listening to them!  There were other complications.  Different decks played at different speeds, with my “ghetto blaster” playing the slowest and most warbly.  I had two Sanyos and then a Sony, and the Sanyos were by far the worst.  Only my Sony Walkman was able to play almost every tape in my collection at something close to the right speed.  Once I learned to drive, I found that the car deck could play pretty much anything, but it did eat a few tapes too.  It was like every time you wanted to listen to music, you had to pick the right equipment and cross your fingers.  I remember wrecking a copy of Black Sabbath Tyr by accidentally pushing two buttons at once on my Sanyo.  This created a loud squeal right during the start of “Anno Mundi” that was impossible to ignore.  Playing tapes was like walking a minefield sometimes!  I always prayed that nothing would go wrong.

CD solved most of the problems I had with cassettes.  Heck, even the artwork was back to being a square!  Cassette cover art was either cropped or “pan-and-scanned” (to coin a phrase) to make a square fit into a rectangle.  Everything about CD was better.  Bonus tracks, better sound, longer life, larger (and square!) artwork…even the ability to skip through songs in an instant.  What wasn’t there to prefer?  And why the hell do I miss cassettes right now?

It’s all nostalgia.  There was something about buying a new album on cassette, and being basically forced to listen to the whole thing.  There was a certain appreciation for the album, with an actual side break, that connected us to the vinyl age in a way that CD did not.  Or, maybe it was just the glory time of our youths that made it feel that way.  The act of closing the door, pressing “play” on a new tape, and laying on your bed to listen with intent.  How often is music just background noise in our modern lives now?  How frequently do we sit and spend time just listening to the music while staring at the packaging today?  Are we listening, or are we multitasking?  I’m multitasking right now, listening to Trilogy by Yngwie J. Malmsteen on my speakers.

I picked that recording for a reason.  I got on cassette from my grandma in 1987.  It was on Capitol Records and it played for shit out of the box.  Many Capitol tapes did around 1986-87.  my W.A.S.P. and Iron Maiden all had similar problems, which them priorities to upgrade on CD when the time came.  I know not everybody likes Yngwie.  Some find him grating.  He does take some adjustment, but imagine listening to your first Yngwie on a slow, warbly cassette.

I do miss some things though.

I miss opening up a new tape and seeing what colour or design the shell was.  Usually they were black, but as the 90s progressed they were frequently clear.  Some were white, and my Helix was glow-in-the dark!  With CD there was the occasional thrill when we got a picture disc, but soon that became the standard.  The clunky cassette, with its little wheels and windows, was physically just cooler than a CD and you didn’t have to be as careful.

The lyric sheets were easier to read.  All you had to do was unfold the J-card and lay it out.  CDs often had pages stapled into a little booklet that you had to hold open.  Cassettes may have had smaller print, but the paradox was that the format made it physically easier to read!

Cassettes were perfect for the pocket.  You could easily slide a couple (maybe even three) into a jacket pocket.  CDs never fit right and if you got one in your pocket, it was a tight fit.  And jewel cases were easy to crack and break.

That’s another thing!  Cassette cases had their weaknesses too.  They could crack like a CD case, and the little arms could snap off.  However this is far more common on the CD case, which also have those annoyingly fragile teeth that hold the disc in place.  Cassette cases were just slightly more sturdy than their CD counterparts.

Finally, cassette spines were wider and easier to read.  Period!

I do miss cassettes.  I have better equipment today, and though not an audiophile setup, I get by.  There are some releases I’d like to have on cassette again, or for the first time.  I guess I’m a changed man.  I’m not the format snob I used to be.  However, if they start jacking up the prices of cassettes the way vinyl is today, we’ll have to talk again.

 

#926: The Things We Took For Granted

RECORD STORE TALES #926 The Things We Took For Granted

The regular car trip to the lake was either tremendous fun or terrible torture.  It all depended on what kind of mood I was in, I guess.  I’d pester my sister and my dad would threaten to pull over.  Or, I’d be occupied reading a novel or comic.

If we were lucky, the trip would start at McDonalds.  I would always get two cheeseburgers.  Those slippery little burgers were always so good.  I could eat about 10 in a row right about now.

Keeping two kids entertained on a two hour drive isn’t easy but my parents did a good job.  First there was the radio. When Mom wasn’t listening to the ball game, my dad would put on something more entertaining.  In the 70s, it was the Star Wars radio drama.  Later on it was CBC and the pre-TV Royal Canadian Air Farce, or the science show Quirks & Quarks hosted first by David Suzuki, and later by Jay Ingram.

My dad took advantage of my early fascination with maps to keep me occupied.  He would pull out the road map, show our route, and have me track our progress.  He helped me memorize the way to the lake:  Dorking, Listowel, Molesworth, left turn at Bluevale, then Wingham, Whitechurch, Lucknow, a right at Amberley and finally Kincardine.  Thirst would kick in mid-way (probably from all that McDonalds) so a regular stop was made at this lonely pop machine in the middle of Lucknow.  Lucknow used to be the deadest of towns, not that it is very happening now, but it used to be you’d never see a soul there.  But they had this one pop machine in the middle of town.  Just as it was starting to get dark, Dad would pull over in Lucknow and get me a pop to tide me over.  Eventually that road map became too tattered and torn, but that’s how I learned to get to the lake from home.

Upon the advent of the Walkman, my sister and I were better able to entertain ourselves.  Two and a half tapes were what it took to get you from home to the lake.  We had to remember fresh batteries.  Remember those awful Walkman earphones?  It seemed all you could get were those terrible foam-padded rinky-dink things that came free with every player.  The wires were always shorting out to mono and you couldn’t keep those things secure on your head.  Not to mention the quality of the tapes and players could afford.  But it kept us entertained.  We didn’t know any better.

Those crap kind of earphones!

Every time we went to the lake as kids, I felt a certain pang for home.  When we were there for any significant time, there were things I hated about being away.  I missed my friends, my Atari games, my GI Joes, my comics.  I missed well-kept green city grass to lie down on, not the stony sandy lawns at the lake.  I missed cable TV and the good stores with all the cool stuff you couldn’t get in the country.  We didn’t appreciate what we did have in the country.  So it was no surprise, when I got old enough, that I stayed home more and more often.  There was a trial run in grade 10 when they left me home one Sunday, while they went up for a day and back in the evening.  I think I spent it working on my cardboard air guitar.

In August of 1991 my parents let me stay home for two weeks alone while they went to the lake.   And it was actually pretty awesome.

I had all kinds of plans.  Movie nights every night, with snacks.  I went to my friend Peter’s house, who had a massive VHS collection from working at Steve’s TV, and I borrowed at least a dozen films.  I remember two impactful flicks: Tremors and The Abyss.  Tremors was an enjoyable popcorn movie, but I was blown away by The Abyss.  I couldn’t wait to tell my sister about this cool science fiction movie I discovered.  It had a reputation as a flop.  It defied expectations  A surprisingly excellent movie.

I had enough food to eat like a king for a week, plus pop and chips.  I checked out late night television.  I discovered the Metal Mike show.  I listened to music in the living room, not just my bedroom.  My dad usually monopolised entertainment in the house.  The TV remote was his.  The VCR was under his jurisdiction.  To have all this time to myself, and have movie nights and watch TV shows I’d never seen before, was exciting.  Plus I’d get to tape stuff from Pepsi Power Hour that week while it was still on the air.

I did have one ulterior motive.  There was a girl I like named Tracey.  I was introduced to Tracey by a school friend.  I had a limited amount of summer left to try and hang out with her.  She was playing hard to get.  I was determined to get some time with her while I was home.  Finally she committed to a date.  We met up at Stanley Park Mall and walked from there to my place to watch music videos.  And that was about it.  I remember she liked the looks of Mike Howe from Metal Church.  That was the most memorable thing about that day with Tracey.  Watching the Pepsi Power Hour, and her liking Mike Howe.  I distinctly remember they were covering the Operation Rock & Roll tour with Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Metal Church and Dangerous Toys.  That would have made it the week of August 19, 1991.  Toronto was the final date on the tour, and infamously the last Judas Priest show before Rob Halford quit to go solo.  MuchMusic had an interview by Michael Williams with Rob, pre-accident.  Yes, pre-accident:  Rob hit his head on a lighting truss, riding his motorcycle out on stage during the opening number “Hell Bent For Leather”.

Mike Howe

The chance to hang out with Tracey was the main reason I stayed home that August, but regardless of the obsession with Mike Howe, not Ladano, I had an amazing time.  School was starting soon, and I’d be entering a new world at Wilfrid Laurier University, where I knew nobody and had no idea what to expect.  The remaining days of summer were a cherished time.  Every last moment was savoured.

I spent the balance of my time alone walking to the mall, checking out music, and just enjoying having the house.  I relished being able to play my music as loudly as I wanted, and stay up late every night, checking out whatever happened on TV after that hour.  The barbecue made many, many hot dogs.  I’m sure they made me do stuff like mow the lawn while they were gone.  I did all the dishes by hand because I didn’t know how to use the dishwasher!  I might even have done laundry.  I wasn’t bored!  But I missed them and was glad when they got home.

After all I had to tell them all about The Abyss!

REVIEW: Sony Walkman NWZ-E353

This is an old review, but I thought it relevant to post, because of the way that the Sony Walkman changed my music listening habits.

IMG_20140615_080150SONY Walkman NWZ-E353

For years, I had avoided going digital. I had an old iPod. The little one with no screen. It was awful. Syncing with iTunes? Why can’t it be simpler? When I listen to a CD, I drop it in and push “play”. No syncing, no trying to understand iTunes. That kind of simplicity is what I’m looking for. Then I had another iPod, a Mini, which was even worse; the battery was useless and it couldn’t power up. Plus iTunes is just awful, I don’t care what the Apple fanatics say. It’s not an intuitive program in the least. Why can’t it be easier?

I decided to pick this Sony Walkman up and I’m glad I did. It has revolutionized the way I listen to music. Before I had gotten to the point where I was only listening to music on CD in the car and occasionally at home when Mrs. LeBrain was out shopping. Now, I can have music going almost anytime I want, morning noon and night.

And it’s easy! Drag and drop! How much simpler can you get? Because I’m a bit OCD, when I rip a CD I edit my ID3 tags to get the cover art going and make sure the tracks are in the right order and so on. But it’s so easy, and I’d do anything to avoid having to use iTunes.

I don’t even care about the 4 meg size on this model. When the player gets full, I just delete some albums that I’ve played enough, and add some more from my computer.  Drag and drop. Easy! I rip my CDs to the highest quality MP3 possible, so I really only get about 25 albums on here at a time. But that’s plenty — when am I going to be away from my computer long enough to listen to 25 albums? It’s never happened. I’d have to charge it first anyway. Maybe I’ll upgrade one day to a player with bigger storage, but I don’t see the point right now.

IMG_20140615_080220The only modification I did was to buy some better, more comfortable ear buds. I’ve been through a few different pairs. With that combination, I have the best quality portable music that I need. I also bought some portable speakers but they go largely unused. I prefer to plug my player into the AUX IN jack of a stereo, and I’m off to the races.

The Walkman has some customization available, such as wallpaper, photo galleries, etc. It has this thing called “SensMe”…it’s supposed to pick music based on moods. I could care less, I don’t listen to random songs, I listen to albums. I prefer to listen to songs in the context in which they were meant to be listened to. There’s a fine sounding FM radio as well. There’s a video player but it seems to be quite finicky as to what type of files it will play, so I don’t use that feature. I had no desire to, anyway.

Battery life is excellent. It has battery saving software as well. I can listen to music all week, as often as I can squeeze it in, and only charge it once a week. It is charged with the included USB cable. Easy, easy, easy.

Whether I am listening to heavy rock, classical music, country, or jazz, I have had no issues at all with the sound quality. For example right now I am listening to Ryan Adams’ Demolition album. The bass frequencies are strong but the clarity of the acoustic guitar is stunning! The only music that suffers is live music. As you know with a live album you have the continual backdrop of crowd noise. An MP3 player places a split-second pause between every song, which goes unnoticed on studio albums. On live albums, it breaks up the crowd noise slightly and can be distracting. Not a huge deal, but I aim to be complete in my reviews.

So, enjoy this awesome MP3 player. Here are my 5 basic tips to the best listening experiences!

1. Rip your CDs to the highest possible quality. Don’t download.
2. Grab a free ID3 tag editor for maximum enjoyment — add cover art, correct spelling mistakes or track order.
3. Buy a good pair of comfortable earbuds to maximize the sound quality.
4. Use the battery saving software.
5. Throw out your iPod.

Enjoy!

5/5 stars