the 8 track tape came out in formally stereo 8.
the 8 track tape came out in formally stereo 8.
when did the 8 track tape come out?
formally stereo 8
the ibm system/360, released in 1964, introduced what is now generally known as 9 track tape. the ½ inch (12.7 mm) wide magnetic tape media and reels are the same size as the earlier ibm 7 track format it replaced, but the new format has eight data tracks and one parity track for a total of nine parallel tracks. data is stored as 8-bit characters, spanning the full width of the tape (including the parity bit). various recording methods were employed during its lifetime as tape speed and data density increased, including pe (phase encoding), gcr (group coded recording) and nrzi (non-return-to-zero, inverted, sometimes pronounced "nur-zee"). tapes came in various sizes up to in length.
9 track tape
homemade mix tapes became common in the 1980s. although the compact audio cassette by philips appeared at the 1963 berlin radio show, the sound quality of cassettes was not good enough to be seriously considered for music recording until further advances in tape formulations, including the advent of chrome and metal tape. before the introduction of the audio cassette, the creation of a pop music compilation required specialized or cumbersome equipment, such as a reel-to-reel or 8 track recorder, that was often inaccessible to the casual music fan. as cassette tapes and recorders grew in popularity and portability, these technological hurdles were lowered to the point where the only resources required to create a mix were a handful of cassettes and a cassette recorder connected to a source of pre-recorded music, such as a radio or lp player. the 8-track tape cartridge was more popular for music recording during much of the 1960s, as the cassette was originally only mono and intended for vocal recordings only, such as in office dictation machines. but improvements in fidelity finally allowed the cassette to become a major player. the ready availability of the cassette and higher quality home recording decks to serve the casual home user allowed the cassette to become the dominant tape format, to the point that the 8 track tape nearly disappeared shortly after the turn of the 1980s. the growth of the mixtape was also encouraged by improved quality and increased popularity of audio cassette players in car entertainment systems, and by the introduction of the sony walkman in 1979.
mixtape