They may have claimed that home taping would be the death of
music, but mix master Lee Dunkley really appreciated the importance of a good
mix tape
Some music formats simply refuse to die. The Hi-FI world has
seen vinyl flat line and go from a forgotten format stashed away in the lofts
of many households, to its surprise resurgence, thanks to interest from
audiences discovering the format for the first time as well as original vinyl
fans keen to relive the magic and dust off their old turntables and record
collections. This has resulted in a healthy increase in vinyl sales and the
return of a handful of independent record stores on our streets (check out our
special record store feature in next month’s issue).
Lee cut his teeth
as a mix master on a cassette recorder much like this one
I’ll be honest, cassette tape is one format that I really
didn’t see making a comeback, but we’ve just had the first International
Cassette Store Day (see Audio file Comment on page 7) celebrating an
underground passion for the format and a hint at a revival with numerous
tape-only album releases. Despite my reservations about this triggering an
avalanche of new interest in the format, I was actually a massive fan of
cassettes back in the day. In fact, in many respects I had a greater fondness
for tape than for vinyl, such was its flexibility that opened up new ways of
listening and obtaining music for playback on multiple devices.
The humble cassette pretty much revolutionized my
relationship with the music I listened to. Its versatility opened up new ways
to enjoy music – on the move on a single speaker portable cassette recorder or
on a Sony Walkman (the world’s first personal stereo), changing the way I
listened forever. The eighties was the boom time for cassette, and no longer
did waiting at the bus stop have to be a dull experience – everyday was
wonderful thanks to the tunes I could now feed my ears with and simply walking
down the street became an exhilarating feeling.
Anyone that has
ever compiled a mix tape will agree that it is an art form
Introduced by Philips in Europe in 1963, the compact
cassette opened up a whole new world with greater access to music than ever
before. Although plenty of pre-recorded albums were available on cassette tape,
the thing that made it so attractive to me, and many others, was its ability to
record and re-record. If you owned a cassette recorder with a built-in radio
this was the perfect way to obtain new music for your collection and simply
edit out any of the talkie bits by hovering over the pause button ready to
strike it with a hawk-like speed and precision. This was a great way to expand
my music collection and many Sunday evenings were spent listening to the BBC’s
top 40 countdown show on the radio, recording my favorite tracks and editing
out any of the show host.
I developed quite a technique in editing out the talkie
bits, even if I do say so myself. It gave an intimate knowledge of the workings
of my recorder to the extent that I knew exactly by how much to rewind the
cassette to make sure I erased every last bit of talking, but didn’t end the
track too abruptly. It was a skill that became so honed that I was even able to
utilize the small gap between the playbacks and erase heads so that there was
the tiniest crossfade between the end of one track and the start of another. I
kid you not!
It was these ‘skills’ and ability to consider what tracks
worked well together – sometimes waiting until the next week’s countdown for a
track to be played again so that it would fit better with the last track I
recorded – that naturally lead on to making my own mix tapes.
Mix and match
Long before the concept of the iTunes playlist had even been
thought of, there was the mix tape. Anyone that has ever compiled a mix tape
will agree that it is indeed an art form – spending hours arranging tracks in a
particular order to create a pace that moves effortlessly from one track to
another. They are a personal soundtrack to whatever particular mood or message
I felt at the time. Many were often a work in progress, with a mix tape born
out of several tracks that worked well together and then shelved until the
right next track came along to continue with the compilation.
Some music formats
simply refuse to die
There was often something romantic about the process of
compiling a mix tape that transcended the poor sound quality of the cassette
tape recordings themselves, although I do recall choosing costly chrome type
cassettes over the more affordable ferric versions, so sound quality was
clearly always a bit of any issue for me. In the nineties I even owned a
cassette deck featuring the less popular, but superior Dolby S noise reduction
circuitry that is now gathering dust in my loft. Could it be time to dust it
off and fall in love with the format all over again? I really do hope so!
