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Mediums to preserve:
Vinyl
78rpm
Cassette
8-Track
Reel to Reel
CD
Services offered:
Transfers to CD
Sound restoration
Video
Transfers to DVD
Dictionary:
Audio Terms Explained
Email us:
info71@presrec.com
Call us:
1-407-292-1151
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From a marketing point of view, thanks largely
to its promotion by the auto industry, the
8-track cartridge was by far the most successful
new audio format of the mid-1960s and early
1970s.
From a technical point of view, however,
the 8-track was inherently an unreliable
design, subject to frequent mechanical problems,
and missing the basic advantages of conventional
tape machines: namely, fast forward and reverse,
easy erasure, editing, and indexing.
Heat kills 8-tracks. Leaving cassette recordings
in a hot car will shorten the life of the
tape and cassette mechanism. The cassette
may warp and the tape may become brittle.
If the tape is old and has not been played
in a long time, do what we do: DO NOT
fast
forward. Just push "Play"and
be
happy that the deck did not "eat
the
tape".
If the tape still plays, but has a dark,
weak sound, the pads are probably shot. These
are the plastic foam parts that press the
tape against the tape head (see description
of the mechanism below). They must be changed.
8-track trivia: The tape is contained in
a plastic box. Instead of two spools
with
tape feeding from one to the other,
however,
in the 8-track cartridge system a continuous
loop of tape is wound on a single passive
spool, feeding out from the centre
and returning
to the periphery. To attempt to pull
the
tape the other way would cause it to
tighten
on the centre boss and bind, which
is why
cartridge machines do not provide rewind
facilities.
The plastic cartridge contains a continuous
length of 1/4 in lubricated tape wound
on
a passive spool, suitable guide pulleys
and
a built-in pinch roller. A plastic
sponge
pad forms a backing to the tape opposite
the slot into which the head penetrates
when
the cartridge is inserted into the
machine.
The tape is prerecorded using eight tracks
in stereo pairs. Counting the tracks as numbers
1 to 8 from top to bottom the pairs are:
1 and 5, 2 and 6, 3 and 7 and 4 and 8.
The head has two gaps which read these pairs
to produce a stereo output. The head is moved
vertically by a stepped ramp wheel so that,
when it reaches the end of one pair of tracks
tie the loop has gone full circle), it steps
on to the next pair, eventually stepping
from bottom to top to start the cycle again.
The stepping mechanism is operated by a solenoid
actuated by contacts which connect with a
strip of metal foil at the end of each track.
It can also be stepped by means of a push
button to select the required track.
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