well, the reason your splice broke is because the glue has disintegrated at some point in the 40 to 60 years since it was new. the first thing to do with 8-tracks is play program 4 with auto stop enabled, pull out the cartridge at the end and inspect the splice - and reglue it if needed. after that it won't tear off. of course it also didn't come loose when the tapes were new. the other thing that disintegrates is most foam pads, so they'll need replacing, too. you also may need to clean your 8-track player's head with alcohol and grease some of it's mechanical parts. I can't agree on the sound quality either: most of my cartridges actually sound great despite being around 50 years old. they have a good treble response and they have a much better sound dynamic than compact cassettes due to the higher tape speed.

8-tracks were the worst. Several things plagued the format. The graphite backing got on the front of the tape and made the head dirty and made the sound bad. They were notorious for slipping on the capstan. For those of us that ran them always had some cardboard to stuff under the cartridge to put more pressure on the pressure roller. A lot of time the pressure roller (built into the cartridge) was plastic and made it worse. It was common to hear 2 songs playing at the same time because of head alignment. You could not rewind, and fast forward was not very fast. It was terrible in the middle of a song it would fade out, you would hear clunk clunk as it went to the next track and the song would fade back in. It was a horrible format. Cassette with Chrome or metal tape and Dolby blows an 8-track away. Also you called the 8-track a cassette several times. It was never called a cassette. It was called a cartridge. In fact it was a modification of the "Cart" used in radio stations.

Eight track 4-channel quadraphonic was excellent. I had two big quadraphonic systems with an a track connected and turntable and reel to reel, and the 8-track sounded just as good as the reel to reel.

I have repaired several despooled 8-tracks. Detangle the tape that has been pulled from the cartridge. Mark the free end of the tape on one side with an arrow to help with orienting later. Wind free tape onto take up reel on an open reel tape deck. Allow the deck to spool the remainder of the tape via the capstan and pinch roller. Open the cartridge, remove the reel and attach it to your turntable with some doubled masking tape. Turn the turntable by hand as you reel the tape back onto it. Make sure you leave about an inch of tape sticking up from the center to pull on for splicing later. Once the tape is holding onto the real by friction, turn on the turntable and let it do the work for you, pulling the tape from the open reel that you’re holding with a screwdriver through the center so it can spin freely. Splice, then reassemble the cartridge.

Eight track suffered from low quality decks and lack of hx room, and dolby C, as new head and early tape, it just explode the cassette quality with cassettes decks components with just today ferric tape, can"t imagine what could be achieved with chrome and metal one, the dream analog portable format (3.75ips)! It's a shame we ll never see such deck! His reputation is founded on misinformation, and lack of proper gears! any comparison is unfair till you have the proper gears, or use an 8 tracks reel to reel for that! Anyway as you can see in my video, last decks refurbished, sound quite good, just better than ferric tape with dolby b! Not bad! for this poor support without any good gear!

The compact cassette had better quality than the 8-Track tape. I noticed the sound quality of the compact cassette was much better than the 8-track, which didn’t sound as good, despite recording at twice the speed.

I don't think that eight-track recording decks ever had Dolby-C capability. Cassette decks did.

It's tricky, because it's understandable how someone who isn't immersed in 8 tracks but audio in general could assemble the components like you did and arrive at this conclusion. But you innocently missed the mark on a few points, and are making 8 track enthusiasts cringe. In the 80s, things became more standardized so chrome tapes by different brands aren't going to have that much variation in quality. Not the case with 8 track tape. Brand quality was noticeably different. Also, a "sealed blank" by no means guantees a good quality starting point. I record onto 8 tracks as my business and BASF blanks have a bit more dull edge. However, the Scotch blanks are excellent quality. On that note, is is well known and practiced in 8 track communities that after 50 years, you should never trust that the adhesive on the sensing foil is still holding. Again. No standardized adhesive between manufacturers, so you do see some that have stood the test of time. Sealed or not has no bearing on this, the adhesive used is going to do what it does either way. Ine other thing, you mentioned that the tape is ruined if it comes unspooled. Not so at all. Very easy to respool and get going again without issue. Also, splitting songs between programs is not the rule or a must-do for the format, but rather a choice that the manufacturer made. Some record companies insisted on this not happening, by either leaving some silence at the endbofna program or repeating a song later on the tape to make thenptograms even. There are several videos like this out there where someome who is into audio decides to feature 8 track and not being immersed in it, treats it like any other format. Again, understandable, but it accidentally misleads people without them realizing it.

I actually really like your video, the comparison is very well presented, and you bring up a lot of good points for why the format died out. Though for me personally, I feel like the format gets a lot of flack that's not really deserved. My 8-track tapes actually don't sound that bad, in fact many of mine sound almost like CD quality. For one thing, 8-track came out in 1966 and lasted until early 1983-- that's a whopping 17 years. Not at all a bad run for any physical media format in my opinion. Secondly, when you look at the actual practicality of the 8-track, it was actually a very handy thing for the late 60's-mid-70's. You didn't need to thread any tape-- you just pop the cartridge in your player and it was immediately playing the music. The tapes could also be stacked on-top of each other easily and had nice end labels. Because of the fact that the cartridge protrudes out from the player (like a video game cartridge), you could tell what music was playing immediately just by looking at the player itself. 8-track tapes also came in a variety of different colors and styles, and they had really nice large label artwork on the front and back, so there was a lot of potential there for some really neat-looking tapes. The main issue (and really, the reason why the format died) is that 8-track tapes are very delicate mechanical devices. So they need a bit more TLC than other formats, but you _can_ get them to sound really nice. In this scenario I would double-check the foam pads in that blank 8-track tape and make sure they're actually good-- that makes a HUGE difference for me in terms of getting the tapes to sound clear. I would also suggest checking that the head in the machine itself is clean, but I have a feeling you already take good care of it. Whenever I buy a new 8-track tape today, I am very careful about making sure the splice and foam pads are good. Unfortunately the only way to check the splice is to figure out where you are on the tape, and when you reach the end you have to immediately pull it out and check it before the solenoid reaches the splice. On blank 8-track tapes that haven't been used, they're always positioned so the splice is right there, which makes it helpful (but still always check them). Replacing the splice is super easy-- you can make your own with regular tin-foil and double-sided scotch tape. That will feed perfectly through the player and change tracks automatically without a hitch. Sometimes when my tapes would bind up in the player like that, I'll hear soft crinkling noises of the tape in the player, and I'm able to catch it before it gets too tangled inside.

I remember THAT 70s SHOW. Eric asked for ONE thing for his birthday. A cassette player for his car. And he pleaded: "A cassette player. Not an 8 TRACK." And of course Red got him an 8 TRACK player. "It's the only way to listen to music son!" Poor Eric!

Eight tracks actually came out in the early 60s. Not 1970’s. 1964 in factuality.

Had you played the 8-track to the beginning/end and replaced the old splice tape with a new one your player would not have eaten the tape, that is usually the number one cause of an 8-track player eating a tape. Also to me at times the 8- track at first sounded better than the cassette but then later in the video the cassette sounded better than the 8-track.

Cassettes get eat up too.. in fact i remember i had more luck with 8 tracks than cassettes. i had an 8 track get eat up but more time cassettes.

If the pads and splice are replaced and you throw a treble boost on the master file for the 8 track recording I actually got amazing results that sounded as good as a ferric cassette tape

The 8 Track Machine needs head alignment for sure! Was the head adjusted at all? The Tascam sounded great, Bias needed adjusting but non the less the Tascam was King

8 tracks generally have weaker highs. You really have to compare it to a blank cassette made the same year with a player made around the same time as the cassette you use. The problem with 8 track is they didn't do much improvement to the quality of the tape. Virtually all the ones I have seen have that light brown color where as cassettes got to be a darker color going into the 80s. The reason for this is they used better quality materials that reproduced the sound better. Early cassettes used that same light brown tape and that was why they didn't sound that good. The faster speed of the 8 track made them sound better at first.

What you should have done is to go into the cartridge and replace the splice and foam and that should fix you up.

Before I watch this... to he fair, my gear was trash back in the late 70s and early 80s. 8 tracks were cool to have in old cars. Usually, it was a Billy Joel 8 track on Long Island. But they sounded horrible! And they sometimes split the songs between chapters. That's my memory of 8 track, but I still loved them when I was 6,7,8,9 years old. Maybe we didn't store them the best. I just remember a lot of dropouts in the sound but we were in Amityville at a house on the water... actually out water front property on Riverside Avenue was across the street, and the 8 track was often in the garage where my brothers worked on outboard boat motors. You definitely have a beautiful player there. Mine was one of those Emerson combo units. And one portable one my friend Kevin and I found on someone's beach blanket at Ceder Beach ⛱️

Not sure about the excitement level but I own the very 1st Panasonic 8 track player for a car. Serial No #001. Got it from an estate sale of one of the Panasonic CEOs here in america. Its in mint condition. I would think it belongs in some sort of a museum instead of my basement.

Thank you showing me how to record off onto a blank 8 track tape or a blank cassette tape

That's a CRAIG 8 track player though. It's coloring the tone somewhere I think. :/

8 tracks can be re-spooled if you care to possess the knowledge and they do have better sound quality. I think you're biased to compact cassettes !

Although I agree 8's were worse, the gap in qualities you presented is unfair: --Newer cassette and machine vs. vintage 8 and recorder...? Makes for a more than a slightly unbalanced comparison right off the bat. --Inserted an untested/unrepaired (even if NOS) blank 8 and you were surprised it mulched in your deck...? Even many of my own repairs from 30 years ago need redoing. It's just a maintenance fact of life with 8's that any novice should know. --Pads shown on your other 8-tracks were old and weak; they won't push the tape to the head properly. Pads in NOS carts can often be good, but some will collapse when pushed in because the foam became toast with age. --Development of 8-tracks and its equipment stopped in the early-mid 70s, but cassette development continued with varied success throughout the 80s. Imagine if 8-tracks had Dolby HX Pro?? --Dolby B WAS used on 8-tracks, especially in Canada in the later 70s (LOTS of late 70s Warner/Elektra/Atlantic carts have the DD symbol on their labels too). 8-track machines with Dolby are rare as hen's teeth now, but they definitely exist. --How well aligned was the recording 8-track head? Did you know most decks had a hole in the bottom with a screw inside for adjusting azimuth? If the recorder wasn't aligned right, all your recordings will play back muffled (at best) or (at worst) suffer crosstalk. It's one of those things that's good to check often. --(helpful tip) Listen to a cart that's about to end its loop...just before the switch, if you hear a "flap" sound inside it--similar to a photocopy machine grabbing paper--the splice may have come apart on you. Pull it as fast as possible. --You have a REALLY NICE Craig deck!!!! Most Craig players were strong tanks that could pull any tape effortlessly. --Extra maintenances for 8-track machines and tapes can be daunting if one is not used to them, but every effort pays back in some way.

8-tracks are hit or miss for me. They either sound too loud/compressed or they dont have enough highs. Rarely have I seen any that carry good sound quality, but I DO indeed believe it's possible 👍👍

Later high-end record-capable decks had Dolby noise-reduction, which improved the audio quality, but at no time did the 8-track exceed the cassette in either sound quality or performance. The cassette, originally not a hi-fi medium, went through great refinements, until its audio quality approached that of the open-reel format. The tape-transport functioning, allowing complete rewinding and fast-forwarding of the entire tape at once, was always preferable to that of the eight-track cartridge.

I started with 8 Tracks in high school and was happy to move on. Sound quality was average at best; most were poor. Jamming was a problem. Build quality was inconsistent from one record label to another. Tracking mis-matches were a common problem (remember the matchbook trick?), and there was no way to rewind. Tape wore out quickly because the tape passed through 4x for a complete play cycle vs. 2x for cassettes.

How do you record over a prerecorded 8-Track?

I have a few blank Columbia Magnetics(Columbia Records CBS inc.)Convertaquad(Quadraphonic)8-track tapes myself-But you’re right-8-track wasn’t really that big a deal with the tapes coming apart and all that and I don’t ever see it making a comeback like vinyl records and or cassette tapes-Also, did you know that Some Major Record Labels Like Capitol Records, Columbia Records, RCA Records & Pickwick Records made blank recording tapes(8-track, reel to reel and cassette)?

They were good for their time these came out in in the 60s

I never liked tape in general because of jamming problem and the dinky size. I was an LP man. For one thing I really liked the way records were packaged. Of course LPs didn't have portability, so I had a simple approach. Buy the album on LP, then copy it on cassette. Would also record the radio on cassette. The blank tapes were dirt cheap, and they were expendable because I had a "master." I guess I could have used 8 track in the same manner, but I never did.

8 tracks are cool when they work but they jam a lot

Really? My Sears clock 8 track radio must be an SCP because the one 8 track I have sounds pretty great on it.

Have to disagree with you. I have a huge collection of both cassettes and 8 track tapes. When played through a high end system with a high end 8 track player the 8 track can sound amazing. Sensing splice should have been replaced before you tried recording on it. I thought the 8 track recording actually sounded better than the cassette. Also the cassette deck was a much higher deck than the 8 track machine. Should have used a pioneer or akai. Proper head and capstan cleaning is a must with 8 tracks. There's a high demand tor quality 8 track machines with the high price to go with it. 8 tracks will live on despite critics saying they are a bad.

For the time, the 8 track was a good system.

Nice video. I loved 8tracks in the 70s. I had a really nice pioneer tape deck in my car which is where I did most of my 8track listening. (Note: I did not have reel to reel and never knew anyone who did. They were not as common as you imply. Mostly audiophiles) The 8tracks new and recorded sounded great in my cars, but cars were not as quiet as they are now. I also had a very nice recorder (don’t remember the brand). It made great recordings. When recording there was no fade out between tracks and I preferred that a ton. I hated the track fade out in store bought tapes. Finally the convenience of replacing tapes while driving was so much better than cassette. All that said, I migrated to cassette because as you pointed out the industry did not improve the technology of the 8track. The compactness of cassettes won me over also for the compact players that were introduced (Walkman). And the cassette recorders (like my Nakamichi) made phenomenal tapes with the new metal type tapes that came along.

I remember the 8 track being better than the 4 track that preceded it.

Nah like I get that cassettes were better but like there's a lot of other stuff you're ignoring here. FIrst off your example is unfair because the quality of electronics in "average" stuff, much alone shit quality gear like craig, got way better in the 1980s after 8 track went out of vogue. You gotta try a better recorder/player than that craig thing, your cassette deck is *clearly* a step or two better than that craig, and a bit newer with it's dolby support. Once dolby noise cancellation comes into play it's no contest anyways, that's basically CD quality, but I digress.. there *were* decent sounding 8 track players, a lot of your favorite albums were recorded on the format if you listen to 70s-80s punk

Great video! Thank you, keep it up!

The change in the middle of a song was the WORST!!!!

Fantastic 👌. You are missing out - P R O M O S M !!

This video is bad news . You should always change the splice and pad before using a old cart. And you absolutely can re spool this 8 track it’s no big deal it takes 5 min. I have to say a rookie video here by someone who does not really understand what they are doing. Reach out to the community and learn how this stuff is safely used before educating others please. Some false info here for sure.

8 tracks were excellent. The early ones did have more hiss and the fade out and in of songs. The later ones they improved the hiss and avoided songs fading in and out. The better the player also helped the sound. I still have 8 tracks and a Pioneer HR-100. If you clean the player often and changed the pad and sensor tape before it breaks the sound is excellent. Way better than cassette. How did you not know the 40 year old splice at the sensor tape wouldn't break. Duh.