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Member's Forum I like how this sounds, but then again, I probably wouldn't
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  • Replies 29 replies
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  • audio compression
  • cassette tape
  • mp3 to cassette tape
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I like how this sounds, but then again, I probably wouldn't

stanto
stanto 10 months ago

It's 3:30am and I've finished fighting with the Baldur's Gate 3 toolkit to edit a mod I'm working on, and a thought hits me.

Wouldn't it be funny to store music on a cassette?

No, not like that.

I'm talking about, digital music. Take say, an MP3 or equivalent, potentially lossy compression audio format - because it would be funnier. Then create an audio file at a low bitrate, depth and frequency. Then have write it to a cassette tape, like in the ZX Spectrum / Commodore 64 days.

Then play it back and decode it on the fly!

I believe it would be an interesting juxtaposition of technology while being a challenge to get the most out of the compression and data rates, and handling errors on the way. Resulting in a pretty hilarious audio file.

Consider it an art piece.

I wonder what the bill of materials would look like for that? I still have some as-new cassettes lying around...

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Top Replies

  • jc2048
    jc2048 10 months ago +7
    If you want an idea of the circuitry that was originally used in these kind of interfaces, this is a cassette tape interface I built around 1979. I think it might have been based on a Don Lancaster design…
  • jc2048
    jc2048 10 months ago in reply to jc2048 +4
    He included the 'Bit Boffer' in his TV Typewriter Cookbook. So that's where I came across it. Would it work if stanto simply took the analogue bits (with maybe an actual comparator on the input to the…
  • shabaz
    shabaz 10 months ago +2
    BoM could be as low as a sound card and a PC, or a Raspberry Pi (assuming a cassette recorder/player already exists). There are codecs like FreeDV which have a chance to be usable if you're looking for…
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  • dougw
    dougw 10 months ago

    Here is an example that indicates what hardware might work:

    https://zeninstruments.blogspot.com/2021/10/manchester-decoder-and-cassette.html

    As an aside: I always wondered if a modem signal that would be used on an old analog telephone line (POTS) could be recorded on tape. Those old modems used some pretty interesting schemes to increase the baud rate, even with bandwidth limited analog audio phone lines. 

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  • dougw
    dougw 10 months ago

    Here is an example that indicates what hardware might work:

    https://zeninstruments.blogspot.com/2021/10/manchester-decoder-and-cassette.html

    As an aside: I always wondered if a modem signal that would be used on an old analog telephone line (POTS) could be recorded on tape. Those old modems used some pretty interesting schemes to increase the baud rate, even with bandwidth limited analog audio phone lines. 

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