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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2015 17:17:52 GMT -6
I don't understand the point of specifically restricting the format so that it's cassette-only. If you're releasing an album on cassette, I think that it is best 100% of the time to offer a digital download with it, as not many people actually own good cassette players anymore and from what I've read, digitizing them is a pain.
I wouldn't have bought the five Ankou Awaits on cassette if Thomas hadn't offered me a digital download with them.
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Post by drawnsword on Oct 21, 2015 19:20:06 GMT -6
The fact that the music is being released on a format which many find unacceptable only adds to the clandestine nature of these bands and the music they create, and in my mind a little of that mystique dies every time I hear about this stuff coming out on CD or even vinyl.
I guess in some cases where a cassette release comes with a download it's for a VERY rare emergency back up in case something happens to the tape and you can find the never used stored download and record yourself another tape 10 years later.
I have never had a tape crap out on me or sound bad, apart from a few second hand ones i was given or picked up that had been treated bad, the way people bag on tapes is because they were rough and lazy with them and didnt care for them in simple ways or use a good system to get a great sound.
If digital downloads keep coming out then the Christian scene will never go and buy/get a decent tape deck stereo set up and only cater to collectors who want to impress ?, mean while the majority of the bm underground carry on with cassettes two and a half decades of tape-trading and hungry underground activity. They reinforce the sense of belonging to that community when they're purchased or get passed around as it seems that the aesthetics and production quality of black metal really suits the cassette medium and gives a special atmospere to the music and it's essence. Like vinyl has come back strong in the mainstream, i dont think cassettes will in the mainstream but they are in those strong independent and underground music scenes.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2015 19:42:36 GMT -6
I care very little for metal culture, and thus I care very little about the fact that it apparently prefers what I find to be an impractical format. I'm not going to go out and buy a tape deck just so I can listen to an album on cassette. I typically listen to music on my computer or on my iPod while doing other things (though there are times where I am completely zoned in and focused on the music). I can't imagine actually sitting down next to a speaker for 45 minutes, hearing an album play out from a format that, according to most people, gives the worst sound quality.
I don't think I could have really even gotten into black metal without high-quality headphones and digital files available. I'm imagining listening to some of the lower-production CBM through crappy speakers or earbuds, and I think that everything would be too indecipherable to be enjoyable. That being said, it certainly takes a trained ear to decipher most black metal to begin with, but there's no reason to make it even more indecipherable than it already sometimes is.
I understand and share the desire for the mystique of physical releases (and thus I buy physical releases even if a paid digital download is cheaper), but I prefer CD most of the time (only time that I prefer cassette is when it's cheaper and comes with a download) as it is far easier to digitize and just way more practical. By all means, keep buying and enjoying cassettes, but suggesting that there should be no digital download just seems silly to me.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Oct 21, 2015 20:27:05 GMT -6
If downloads weren't so easy to steal/copy, I wouldn't even mess with physical mediums. Cassettes do have a mystique about them, but that's largely psychological. James, I think it's obvious that you've got a huge nostalgia with cassettes. CDs may not beat the nostalgia of a cassette or the portability of a download, but they can't be pirated and they don't take hours to make and many more households have the capability to play them. (Or rip the contents to make a personal digital copy)
Still, I do feel a little bit of mystique since I'm not pro-pressing Orationem CDs.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Oct 21, 2015 20:36:42 GMT -6
I have never had a tape crap out on me or sound bad Those little strips wear out with play though. I played my Disencumbrance The Betrayal tape so much for so long it started to sound like it was underwater. ...not to mention, I lost a Pale Horse tape because a cassette player disembowelled it.
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Post by drawnsword on Oct 21, 2015 21:17:34 GMT -6
Yeah i guess they do wear out after thrashing them plenty and some. Back in the 80's and early 90's most people who cared about there tapes would dub a back up copy on a c-90 which would fit 2 albums on each side of one tape. That tape would be what you played in the car deck, on the walkman and the one you lent to those careless metal heads. If i felt so precious about an album i could dub a copy for safe preserving, but i'v never had a tape wrecked or wear out from my stereo's. In fact i have 6 defunct CD players and 4 perfectly working tape deck systems going back to the early 90's including a walkman, plus my car tape deck that i have never stopped using so i'm just saying it's not at all nostalgia but a trust worthy format that i never stopped using.
The only differance i find is when playing a tape vs a CD is that i turn up the volume a few more notches for tapes, over time i think worn in tapes sound better, heh. Also if i need to pause an album on CD it eventually turns off if the pause goes on to long, but a tape stays and starts where you left it, which i find convenient working at the drawing table as much as i can, being the place where i listen to a lot of music. I have never felt the need to replace tapes that have been reissued on CD unless it was a great fave and it was remastered with bonus tracks or something extra. I know of crazy guys who digitalized there entire tape collections, totally un-necessary imo. Whatever works for you i say, i find no major differance with well looked after tapes vs cds. Apparently CD's are only supposed to last a decade, but thats crap my Groms and Horde CD's from 1994 still go fine.
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Post by drawnsword on Oct 21, 2015 21:25:33 GMT -6
By the way when Rad Rockers was going i brought and got as freebies a lot of those 50c and $1 sealed cassettes of favorite albums as back ups, so far i have only had to replace Seventh Angel - lament for the weary and Vengeance rising destruction comes so far. So yeah i'v worn out 2 from 25 years ago heh. ...even though they still go ok, i just replaced them cause i could.
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