The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. It was developed by Philips in Hasselt, Belgium, and introduced in September 1963. Compact Cassettes come in two forms, either already containing content as a pre recorded cassette (Musicassette), or as a fully recordable "blank" cassette. Both forms are reversible by the user.
The cassette is probably the one single thing that opened the door for musicians to jump into the home studio game. Live to 2 track, 4, and even 8 track, these were all formats under the portastudio umbrella. For the first time you could set up and record a demo at home without spending high dollars on a professional grade reel to reel deck; you could record straight to a lost cost format plug, play and get straight to the jam. Now, if you didn’t mind a little tape hiss. all pro, semi-pro and amatuer had the same access.
I had a Tascam 488 MK1 and I used it in my home studio for quite a few years. I also had the 424 four track machine and they were work horses. The 488 productions were always pretty noise free contrary to what one might think. I mixed down (and also used for external bounces) to a Tascam DA-30 DAT machine so transfers were pretty noise free to the common listener and it also gave that analog glue that most people search for in plug-ins in these modern times.
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