Andrew Mace wrote:
>
> On Mon, 13 Jul 1998, Gernot Vonhoegen wrote:
>
> > can sombody enlighten me on what an 8-track is and if this is of any
> > use? I believe its some form of old fashioned cassette thingy.
>
> This was the brainchild of Bill Lear (of Lear Jet fame), and was a sort of
> "cassette tape", circa 1965. The cartridges were about the size of a
> "Walkman" type radio. They were more or less a "continuous-loop" tape,
> with four "programs" on each tape (and, being stereo, two channels, so
> 4x2=8 -- the 8-track). The "format" was pretty rigid in terms of length;
> some prerecorded music on 8-track was arranged in a different order than
> one would be used to finding on the vinyl album or cassette tape to fit
> the time constraints. Either that, or a song might be interrupted by
> clicks and such while the player changed from one program to the next. One
> could easily move through programs 1,2,3,4, but rewinding was not
> possible. Recording your own 8-track was possible, but nowhere near as
> commonplace as with cassettes.
>
> It was interesting, and it was quite popular for some time, until cassette
> tapes really came into their own. 8-track format pretty much disappeared
> in the 1980s. It's primarily a novelty artifact now, IMHO, although it's
> undoubtedly considered collectible by some.
>
> --Andy
>
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> * Andrew Mace, President and *
> * 10/Herald/Vitesse (Sports 6) Consultant *
> * Vintage Triumph Register <www.vtr.org> *
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I have about 200 8 tracks, by every artist you can think of, inc. lots of
country, X-Mas, and so own, I also have two 8 tracks players in my garage
and a adapter that will fit into a cassette and play 8 tracks that i use
quite a bit. There is no market of any value for these, just memories.
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