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New old tapes! Vol. 1

23/04/2020

Those who deal with cassette tapes and other old junk can count on it that sooner or later people will want to dump their old tapes with you, sometimes with all the good intentions, sometimes just to get rid of them, but usually a combination of the two.

Of course I can easily reject a bag full of old tapes, but you never know what pearls are hidden in this, to take out the good ones and return the old ones is of course not nice, although I would like to do it sometimes. So there is again a bag full of old junk in my room...

I got it a few months ago, but due to circumstances I only now get around to sorting it out. Let's go through this bag together for a change and see what kind of details we're going to find.

So we start with these four good tapes, I already had some of the two BASF CSII, I can strengthen that collection nicely, the Maxell and TDK are certainly not bad either, they are all chrome (type II) tapes , we are going to encounter more of these kinds of tapes, some contain recordings others are unused!

Here are the first four pre-recorded tapes. It is far from my taste, although I do want to give the Country and Western a chance. Just remember James Last's face I'll get to it in a moment.

The advantage of this bag of tapes is that you learn to distinguish the good from the bad, here are four tapes that are not worth it to me, they may contain interesting recordings, note that these tapes may be in bad condition, check them good before you play them.

The tape at the top left is not in the original case, again a good tip is to open each box to take a look at the tape, it prevents unpleasant surprises but sometimes also provides nice surprises.

Just a big selection from the bag, on the left six commercial tapes with everything, on the right a number of pretty good tapes. Again no interesting albums worth keeping.
(Find the James Last).

I am used to it by now, the region where I live has a rich history when it comes to religion. Due to the loss of popularity of the cassette and the 'de-church' I now come across many tapes that are addressed to God, also many homemade recordings with psalms, sermons or readings from the Bible. However, they still seem to be in demand in the local thrift shops, I don't benefit from keeping these tapes.

I almost fell for it! A Philips C120! (120 minutes of playing time) but it contains a 3M cassette with only an hour of recording time. I'm not a Wim Sonneveld fan, I don't have many 3M tapes, I don't know if they are of good quality either.

The same 3M cassette is in the right box. The title sounds interesting, but the cassette doesn't look as good. If you look at the tape you can see that it is full of mould, probably kept in a damp place, I won't bother to save it, the box will come in handy for the other tape :)

Wow! A Super Ferro C90! Does it sound like I take this tape out of the bag, then drop the sarcasm and put it on the pile of tapes to be discarded....

The tape probably isn't that bad (maybe it is), but I I currently have enough tapes to last a lifetime, why keep this mediocre one?

Organ recordings, I come across a lot of these cassettes. Fair music is no exception either, I personally have never understood what is beautiful about fair music, I can still understand organ music. It must be my age and generation, I do not benefit from this music, the Hema tapes (left) are worth keeping, they look neat and they are not that bad, the tape with the barrel organ goes on the 'other' stack.

Another two sets with commercial recordings, mostly in German, but also Dutch artists and compilations. They go on the other pile...

It could have been such a nice collection, if cassette one would now also be included....

Hop! On the pile, get rid of it!

A set of cheap junk, on the pile with it!

Anyone interested in an English listening course?

Me neither...

A set with fairly good tapes, they go on the stack for tapes to keep. The TDK tape at the top left is a doubt. The BASF LH extra I tape (bottom left) reminds me of a tape from a popular movie, it doesn't quite look like it but the colors match well.

Even more interesting tapes, these remain. The Philips at the top right is nevertheless a doubtful case.

More special tapes with recordings. It amazes me how often I see James Last, together with Wim Sonneveld and Tol Hansse these artists really make up the top three most common commercial cassettes I've seen come and go. I'm not a fan of their songs, although I can secretly laugh at the unusual lyrics by Tol Hansse...

Also some compilations and Deutsche Muzik.

"Smalstads Mannenkoor" Even with Dolby!

One of the many cassettes with recordings of a choir, many special professions used to have their own men's choir or cassette. A good example of this can be seen in the previous photo.

The interesting thing about this tape is that the photo was taken in front of the former town hall in the village where I grew up! I don't recognize any of the men in suits. The tape is also not worth keeping and goes on the other pile, nostalgia is nice but storage space is more important.

The bag is now almost empty, we see here again a collection of tapes with religion as the subject. The middle tape has had a big blow and is even torn, I don't see that soon. The box to the right of Martha Reyes is empty.

The tape at the top right is worth keeping, I now have a small collection of this. The little fish (an Ichthus sign) is a reference to religion, the symbol has a long history. The interesting thing for me is the quality of the tapes, they are quite good and since the edition is very limited and only traded locally, I always keep these tapes on hand. Not for the money, I think the tapes have a special look and background so I save them for possible reuse.

The bag also contained a suitcase, the print already betrays the target group, the content says the rest.
The tapes still look pretty good optically. The audio fairy tale of Snow White is even still in the foil!

I myself used to have fairy tales before going to sleep, they were red tapes with similar fairy tales. The nostalgic feeling of the past comes back for a moment. As soon as it has blown over again I put the tapes back in the box, I can't do anything with them.
If you look closely you will find our favorite James Last one last time (bland joke), even the 'children's box' is not spared!

The bag is empty, but I still have a small set with the pearls I talked about earlier.

Madonna has never really interested me, otherwise the cassette is special. It is one of the last generations. The paper cover is actually a small booklet with photos from the movie as well as song titles. The tape is from 1987.

The print on the cassette itself is weathered, the previous owner must have been a fan of this tape. It goes in a separate pile with me.

The Miami Vice binding is also interesting, the same kind as Madonna's but with a normal cover (no booklet), the binding does look better. The recording is from 1986. This one also goes on a separate pile.

If I've started collecting anything, it's these kinds of tapes, you use these to clean your head. Because the housing is transparent, you can clearly see how the mechanism works. This goes with the other 'cleaning cassettes'.

Maybe not as special as the previous tapes, but quite rare, a 100 minute tape. It also looks pretty neat, is still unused and of excellent quality.

Tapes like this go on yet another pile, they are often the first tapes I reach for my recordings.

If I still want to keep a commercial tape, this is it. Almost everyone knows Day O (better known as Banana Boat) by Harry Belafonte (link to Youtube ). I don't know a lot of songs on this cassette by name and I'm curious what other nice songs are on this cassette, the tape also still looks good so there's a good chance it still sounds pretty good.

To conclude, let me show you this one more time. It wouldn't be much for someone who doesn't understand it, but whoever knows more about it may be watching with an open mouth, otherwise I would when I pulled this out of the bag!

Type IV (metal) cassettes are of the best quality and very popular with collectors and users. You rarely find them and are bound to web shops to get these tapes.

As icing on the cake, this is also one of 110 minutes, which is almost 2 full hours of recording time! 

I had no tapes of this type until now, but with all valid reasons.
The tapes are often pricey and it doesn't have to say anything about the condition. Because I have managed to score so many good tapes in recent years, I have never been interested in buying a Type IV tape.

To confess right away, none of my tape decks can play this type of tape the way it should. The only advantage I can get now is to supplement information on this website with pictures of this cassette type :)

Immediately a nice moment to practice with a white background, because transparent plastic reflects a lot, it is sometimes difficult to take a good photo without seeing that I am hanging above it with my device or the fluorescent lamp of the reading lamp is visible.

I talk about piles all the time, but wanted to wait until I had sorted them all out. On the left the pile of tapes that I definitely keep, in the middle commercial releases, albums and compilations. On the far right is a pile of really worthless, broken, mouldy or just plain cheap and dirty tapes.

Now comes the question, what am I going to do with the tapes I don't keep? From this I make a selection of tapes that are still good enough and take them to the local thrift store.
They only accept official recordings or unused good tapes these days. They refuse amateur recordings. What remains unfortunately has to be disposed of, I still check if there are good boxes in between, but have to throw the rest away.

There is a waste indicator in the house with an alphabet of junk, here you can read where you have to get rid of something.

The Cassette is even mentioned twice! This can therefore simply be disposed of with the residual waste. The boxes are not mentioned, not even with plastic. To make it completely clear, I consult the internet, on the official website: link I am told that this should also be disposed of with normal waste, because this would be part of the product. It goes into the incinerator, which doesn't seem so nice to me, but reusable materials are sometimes still being set aside before incineration. Energy is extracted from burning the trash and the remains are used in road construction, so in a while there is a chance that you or I will drive over it again with the car ;)

So far this adventure, maybe I'll make more of it in the future If I would come across a large collection of tapes.

I immediately put on Harry Belafonte's tape after writing this blog...

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