Just been offered a load of 8 track cassettes (told it includes stones + pink floyd) + machine to play it on. Worth bothering with?

The 8 track of some girls have alternate versions of it.
I don't remeber in detail what changes compared to the available CD versions, but I know there are some differences

If you decide to take 'em, I'd love to have a CD with the alternate versions




[doctorstonesblog.blogspot.com]

8 track to cd!!!! Bloomin 'ell. How the hell do you manage that on a mac? (and don't say I need to buy a pc!....)

If you have an 8 track player, you have it plugged into your amplifier, right ?
Can't you plug your amplifier into your Mac's sound card ????

I'm sure you'll find a Mac users forum telling you how to import tapes, LPs, 8tracks or anything else into your computer and make CDs out of it.

My advice is don't compress the files into MP3, just keep the WAV files, which are better quality and can be reworked easily (denoised, dehissed etc.)


[doctorstonesblog.blogspot.com]

Are 8 tracks worth anything though?

Sure, even if just as an oddity or antique. I grew up listening to those pieces of crap.

Nobody laugh - I have every Stones album on 8 track up to 'Tattoo You' -true. I collect 8 tracks, I think they sound fine. I don't have many cd's, always prefered tape for some reason. The music is the same, sometimes the running order is different or they fade out and fade back in again half way through a track, which is novel. They are not worth much, I pay around £5-6 a pop.

Changing the subject slightly - 'Let it Bleed' in vynyl - mono version - sold recently on ebay for nearly a £1000 - I call that madness.....


[cgi.ebay.co.uk]

You would be surprised at how good a correctly preserved studio 8-track tape can sound. The problems lay with the mechanical aspects of the playback system and how it kills the tape in the long run. But they DO sound great (I am talking Beatles Stones, and other big names here) and deserve to be transfered if you can.

Yes. I just hooked up my 8 track. No Stones tapes. Also, if you get a turn table hold on to that cause of the 45rpm's.

In my very humble opinion, 8-track is one of the best media for that warm analog sound. Especially the fatness by the full bodied bass is excellent. I transfered Some Girls from 8-track to CD, and this version blows any other real Stones CD away. But the mechanics eat the tape, so that's the end of 8-track.

Mathijs

Mathijs: 8 track is the best media. Folks in radio swear by it.

Mathijs - In my 'humble' opnion I think you are right.

The trouble you probably had with your machine eating the tape, is due to either, the foam pressure pad going guey and sticky with age or the foil splice becoming detached from the tape. Either way, the tape unwinds and jams in the machine. All 8 track carts can be dismantled and repaired if you are patient. If not, send it to me and I will repair it for you.

The Some Girl 8-track had Miss You with the extra verse in the middle of it>
"Girls will come & go just like street cars"

And the Beast Of Burden version ended different with Jagger singing in his high voice..... :"pretty, petty girls"

I still have mine...

A lot of old 8 tracks don't play well, are worn out,
also the sound had a bad tendency to bleed -you can
hear other tracks between songs etc. Warm perhaps
but had their limits.

For what it's worth I've got a refurbished player
and some of the old seventies stuff with the boomy
bass, mostly the funk, sounds good, but is more of
a novelty thing for me.

A couple years back I bought this prehistoric Plymouth Duster piece of crap for $300 because I neede some quick wheels. The car came with an 8-track player in the dash. Plus the owner had left a couple of tapes in the frontseat for the nexy owner (=me). Ian Hunter and lo and behold "Some Girls". I was ecstatic. It still is one of my coolest Stonesfinds. The Miss You version I'd of course heard on many other discs. But the BOB cut is just about impossible to fund elsewhere. Mathijs is right about the warm phat sound.

The "Miss You" version from the 8 track tape is not available on any other (official) disc!

There are 4 versions:

3:31 7" single
4:48 album version
5:37 8 track only
8:34 12" single version





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-04-17 10:42 by midnrambler.

The 8 track versions of Miss You & Beast Of Burden ( but in poorer sound quality) are available on:

Laid In The Shade Vol2 - Porky Productions

ROCKMAN

someone once said that 8tracks were the best for them because of sound quality and when you popped them in they would literally play forever...no flipping over like albums or casettes...they refered to them as the infinite loop...i recall owning a pink 8 track of sticky fingers with the fade out and in during sister
morphine...aahh the seventies...good times....

I'm an old bugger who very much digs vinyl, and has a vacuum tube amp in my main stereo (uses EL34s, any of you guitar players have fav tube brands?; I like Svetlana and Sovteks), but...despite a nice warm bass, 8-tracks were pretty much the pits. Lots of tape hiss, mis-tracking/bleedover problems (maybe more of a hardware problem) and the VERY annoying split-up of songs between channels.

Karl

'Don’t forget, if you’re on your bike, wear white'

Hey! 8 track boys, look at these two.

[cgi.ebay.com]

ROCKMAN

I also happen to own a pretty decent Stones collection on 8track, but thats something I keep on the shelf. Honestly, I swear by vinyl. If you're gonna talk sound quality, get this. Vinyl grooves dig out the COMPLETE sound wave physically into the disc. Thus when you put a needle on it, you can hear music coming off of it, even if you dont have speaks plugged in. 8track and any other tape format, also contain the full sound arc, but at reduced quality due to the tape format and then there's the age factor. CD is a mixed combination of both... It DOES NOT contain the complete sound wave as on vinyl, but due to the digital format and incredible quality, it is not noticed.

If well kept, vinyl is the way to go. I'll take the crackles and pops any day over tape hiss. Or worse yet, compressed mp3s and piss poor cds.

Drake

I got a refurbished 8 track player, and started
collecting tapes but many were worn out,
didn't play well, isn't really worth
it unless you can get them, for
the most part, real cheap.
Sometimes I've seen sealed
8 tracks for sale, quite
reasonably priced at some
used shops/ shows, but the
selection is quite limited.
IMHO 70's funk/ dance sounds best,
were possibly made with this medium
in mind, kinda boomy, in your face.....

Some Girl 8 track versions are already
available on Laid in the Shade boot, tho
suppose the original 8 track would be
the rosetta stone of Stones 8 tracks
for what that's worth. Differences
are minimal but not without interest
if you have most everything else.

I recently noticed on my 'Black and Blue' 8 track cart, the songs are credited to Richard/Jagger. Is this an 8 track anomaly or did they take a break from the Jagger/Richard(s) tradition on the other formats too?