Why is an 8-Track Tape Called an 8-Track Tape?

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Why is an 8-Track Tape Called an 8-Track Tape?

Рет қаралды 80,584

7 жыл бұрын

Audiomover transfers audio and video tapes to digital. Visit www.audiomover... to learn more.
Do you know why an 8 track tape is called an 8 track tape? Most people don't. In this video, Robert John Hadfield from Audiomover explains it. If you ever used 8-Track tapes or cassette tapes you will find this video pretty interesting.

Пікірлер: 324

@ibanez2010 Жыл бұрын

Excellent and simple. I've used tapes since the 80s yet never really bothered to understand why we flipped them over haha!

@Eatbeans6739 Жыл бұрын

I had played many 8-track tapes in the 70’s and had no idea why it was called that. And I learnt a lot about the cassette tape too. What an absorbing tuition. And your explanations are second to none. Thanks for the video.

@almightysyg861 5 жыл бұрын

There Spotify, now I know

@maxwelldiaz953 5 жыл бұрын

Came here for the exact same reason but honestly pretty interesting and kinda worth it

@jamesreagan8175 4 жыл бұрын

Tbf, if it weren't for Spotify, I wouldn't thought to investigate what an 8-Track Tape is

@tokovictor168 4 жыл бұрын

Spotify taught me also haha

@chadking6825 4 жыл бұрын

Not just here cuz of spotify but also Fresh Prince lmao

@coughingpenguin4346 3 жыл бұрын

lol

@brentonjjenkins Жыл бұрын

This is one of the best educational videos I've ever seen. Fantastically explained.

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much. :)

@jsimerly01 6 жыл бұрын

John, great video. As a child of the 70s, I remember well recording vinyl onto 8 tracks so we could listen in the car. All these years and I didn't know why they were called 8 tracks. Thanks.

@dalenjurgens6751 2 жыл бұрын

You could do that back then? :O awesome. I only knew about cassettes.

@charleswest6372 Жыл бұрын

Put my 8 tracks on cassettes.

@jessicaperkins4623 6 жыл бұрын

Wow. I never knew this. Very cool. I was born in 81 so I grew up with tapes. Still very interesting. Thank you 😊

@Ouchimoo 4 жыл бұрын

Wow, I've been cramming old tech videos for days and this video was super concise and by far the easiest to understand.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! :)

@skup3unda 3 жыл бұрын

Now I know, thank you. Never saw an 8-track in real life, so this is educational. spot on

@wh33lhousediecast 4 жыл бұрын

Spotify sent me here. Didn't even know that existed.

@darshenjason3164 4 жыл бұрын

hahahaha same

@sevensunbackintime1015 4 жыл бұрын

So true!

@007iceprince 4 жыл бұрын

same

@michaelma2816 4 жыл бұрын

@Wise Man What's up with you buddy? Not everything revolves around you. Nobody cares you didn't ask, since when was speech only allowed if somebody "asked".

@shrek5465 3 жыл бұрын

@Wise Man you're not funny

@rdbull5890 4 жыл бұрын

The most succinct and to-the-point explanation I've found. Thank you!

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! :)

@jasontraub7814 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent explanation, even for a complete layman such as myself. Very cool - thanks for taking the time to put together the digital imagery: that REALLY made it understandable.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

So glad you liked it! thanks for letting us know. :)

@jasonb9059 4 жыл бұрын

First this was a very informative video and I thank you for clearing up 40+ years of confusion! I still have a few 8-track tapes & even an old Radio Shack Realistic cassette tape adapter that my Dad used in the early 80s in his 1978 Datsun’s 8-track player.

@joshgellis3292 2 жыл бұрын

Wow. I'm glad I chose to watch this specific video during my KZfaq video search! The 8-Track tape ribbon looks similar to a VHS tape ribbon. VHS, when it was new was quite amazing. That puts 8-Track format in perspective for me. Fascinating.

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

Very cool!

@KarenMorganComedy 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you! As a child of the 70s, I had many 8 track tapes. This was super helpful for research for my podcast about growing up in the 70s

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

That's great! Let us know if we can be helpful on your podcast. We would love to join you sometime. :)

@marcusr.5549 5 жыл бұрын

Ohhhh myy god. THANK YOU. I have learned something today. My parents had 8-track tapes and players. I remember as a kid playing some of them. Most music came in the form of vinyls and compact cassettes. I never understood why they were called 8 tracks if there was only four programs LOL

@Eurodance90schick 4 жыл бұрын

In the 80's growing up my parents had an 8 track player and 8 tracks. I used to listen to them although i hated it once they'd get worn out and sounded distorted.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

They weren't very reliable.

@heymusiclovers8361 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much Sir for the explanation.... what a very amazing and helpful video!! 💖💖💖💖

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! :)

@askmzee 3 жыл бұрын

Well explained

@ACommenterOnYouTube 2 жыл бұрын

My uncle worked for a music store in the mid 80's and he explained this to me when i was like 10 yrs old. At the time i was like ... ok ... and moved on. I am 47 now and you just re-fresh my memory. When my brother asked him why do we have to remove the cassette and flip it to play the other side, he said its because the tape head is in a fixed position in the player and does not move so to play the other 2 tracks on the other side of the tape, you have to "flip" the cassette over so the head can now read the other side. You would be surprised how many have NO idea what the 8 track or 4 track cassette means ... Thanks for the reminder

@charleswest6372 Жыл бұрын

8 tracks were noisy, got out of alignment and were hard to fix. It was a myrical they even worked-! Hated it.

@digitalfootballer9032 5 жыл бұрын

So...standard compact cassette is a 4-track with 2 programmes (side A and side B) each with a left and right track. 8-track is 4 programmes each with a left and right track. Makes sense. Interesting how all 8 of the tracks go the same direction unlike a standard cassette tape. Great video, cheers!

@artistjoh 5 жыл бұрын

Steve They go in the same direction because the tape is on a continuous loop. With casette tapes you have to eject the tape and turn it upside down in order to hear side B. It is much like a 33rpm vinyl disc. An 8 track cartridge, on the other hand, goes in only one way and never needs to be turned over. If the tape is too long the looping will not work reliably, so it was designed so that the tape is shorter, but loops 4 times to play the entire recording. I loved my 8 track player. My first version of Hot August Night was on 8 track. But the tapes were more expensive than cassettes, the players were more expensive, and fewer artists were available on 8 track. I suspect that record stores with limited space didn’t want 3 formats, and casettes took way less room so they limited the available 8 track selections. However, 8 track sounded much better than casettes so I was not happy as they disappeared from stores. Mine was an Akai 82D. Sounded fantastic.

@isaacp140 Жыл бұрын

Excellent and crisp explanation! Kudos and Thank you.

@abrahamhernandez5719 4 жыл бұрын

Came to Learn what an 8 track is (or was) and learned a lot more!

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! :)

@vidasjakutis1028 4 жыл бұрын

Great explanation and outstanding video! Now i know about 8 - track tapes at last! Thank you very much!

@webgpu 7 ай бұрын

OLDER PERSONS GENERALLY ARE MUCH WISER, THEREFORE THE CONTENT OF THE VIDEO PRODUCED IS EQUALLY MUCH BETTER. I WANT TO CONGRATULATE YOU, SIR, BECAUSE THIS VIDEO IS SPECTACULARLY WELL EXPLAINED IN ALL DETAILS WE DON'T SEE IN OTHER VIDEOS.

@JohnDoe-lt3hi 4 күн бұрын

Thanks man, it was driving me nuts why I couldn’t understand the name 8 track. 😂

@timothykoch7923 3 жыл бұрын

Well informed now.

@ohtrueyeahnah 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for listening to Spotify! No really! You could've listened to the radio. You could've spun some vinyl. You could've listened to an 8-Track tape, if you knew what an 8-Track tape looked like. But you listen to Spotify. Thanks for that, and you still have hundreds more playlists to enjoy.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for posting this comment. Is that what Spotify says? Thousands of people have watched this video because of Spotify and we've never actually figured out what Spotify has been doing. Did they give you a direct link to to video?

@ohtrueyeahnah 2 жыл бұрын

@@audiomover It's an ad that Spotify used to play all the time in between songs. I always wondered what an 8 Track Tape looked like so I searched it up and this was the first video. Great video btw

@ralphreinhardt6020 5 жыл бұрын

Outstanding video,I appreciate the graphics and your verbal explanation. Great job!👍👍

@stevebarrow3042 4 жыл бұрын

Another Spotify searcher, this is a great explanation.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! We're so glad you liked this. :)

@LeGlode 9 ай бұрын

This is very interesting to know how it works. I k’ew the 8 track tapes since i was kid in the 70s but now i know more about it.

@multimood 3 жыл бұрын

Actually, the four top tracks are for left channel, program 1 on top then 2 below it, 3 below 2 and 4 below 3. The four bottom tracks are the right channels of programs 1, 2, 3, and 4

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for that. Those things get visually confusing. We've considered making separate videos on the actual track locations on different types of tape players.

@dane.dagreat 3 жыл бұрын

Great Video. Thanks for the explanation. Makes a lot of sense.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

So glad you liked it! :)

@LesterLaoagan 4 жыл бұрын

These kinds of videos are great very informative unlike the trending nonesene videos!

@ElricSowrd 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for explaining.

@josephsong7979 4 жыл бұрын

Now I understand 8 track. Thank you!

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! :)

@np1000 Жыл бұрын

I knew about the 4 track cassettes and DJ friend of mine had a 4 track recorder/player where he would record on all 4 tacks in one direction of a cassette similar to an 8 track however this device could record and play on all four tracks if remember correctly. Cicra 1990s lol. Thanks for the 8 track insight, now I know.

@nickhill8612 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you, that's very interesting.

@fernandoangulo1960 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent, Thanks for sharing 👍

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! :)

@xileflien 3 жыл бұрын

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant explanation.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

So glad you like it. :)

@sudhirsingh-sx8lo 5 жыл бұрын

in all my 30 years of loving tape i only learnt now

@Badassvidsz 4 жыл бұрын

The more we grow old my dude the more we learn and that's a very good thing though :-)

@michaeljames3694 5 жыл бұрын

I have never owned one but I had heard about an 8 track tape being talk about and didn't really know what it was. Great video and explanation. Thanks :)

@ZombieGamer80 3 жыл бұрын

Perfect explanation!

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for commenting! So glad you like it. :)

@johnkinard71 Жыл бұрын

Fabulous explanation and I thank you.

@godfatherNYC 5 жыл бұрын

Great explanation, thanks. I basically discovered how this works when I got my first (Tascam) 4-Track _cassette_ recording deck for recording song demos, and I realized that pre-recorded cassettes were playing Side 2 _backwards_ if played all 4 tracks at once. On 8 Track players, I think they usually only had Fast Forward controls, and NO Rewind controls, wasn't that the case?

@shrek5465 3 жыл бұрын

@Wise Man you're not funny

@REXXSEVEN 2 жыл бұрын

Yes. An 8 track cassette uses only one reel with a continuous loop of tape. I believe that if you were to try and run an 8-track cassette in the opposite direction to rewind it, it would unspool from the reel and it would be ruined.

@grantmacmillan2366 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this video! Very informative and clearly explained.

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

You're very welcome!

@azizaziz4416 4 жыл бұрын

I thought Spotify was saying an A track tape

@BronzeFury-SM 3 жыл бұрын

Me too

@idk-ds6cc 3 жыл бұрын

Same omf

@claytonbjork5687 3 жыл бұрын

Interesting stuff,good job explaining it too

@binkkytube 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you. I love learning random things. (I miss my Walkman, i was grafted to that thing like todays kids are to their phones. )

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for commenting! So glad you like it. :)

@codycantcommunicate6826 4 жыл бұрын

be honest, youre here because spotify told you you didnt know what this was

@kingraisin 3 жыл бұрын

thank you! this video is incredible!

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

So glad you like it. :)

@rebeccafarraway1397 29 күн бұрын

Super cool! Thank you!

@audiorepublik Жыл бұрын

Oh nice! Always wondered! Thanks

@gregdahlen4375 3 жыл бұрын

you asked near the end, did i figure it out yet? hell nah, still needed the final piece of explanation

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

We hope it was interesting for you. :)

@dalenjurgens6751 2 жыл бұрын

Brilliant explanation. I don't know what caused me to wonder about this recently, but I finally got around to looking for the answer. :) Thank you!

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

Glad it helped!

@zeroroguer 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent!

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

So glad you like it. :)

@giggetto64 4 жыл бұрын

Great explanation man, it couldn't be clearer!

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! :)

@Purplehippo45 4 жыл бұрын

I'm here because spotify bullied be that I didn't know what an 8 track tape looked like lol

@RicardoAriasFuentes 3 жыл бұрын

Great!! Thanks x your video

@thickandmysticmedia 3 жыл бұрын

Hey Ricardo! So glad you liked it. :)

@Vebinz 11 ай бұрын

Excellent explanaton! i honestly thought it was because they had just eight songs (or groups of songs) on them.

@ahmetkonukseven7140 Жыл бұрын

Amazing! Thanks much for priceless info. 🙏

@ybrix101 4 жыл бұрын

Great video. Another great idea for a video would be to show what happens when you place a large magnet next to an audio cassette. 😆

@mockduckcompanion 4 жыл бұрын

What a perfect explanation. Thank you!

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! :)

@juancarlosbuenaventura5782 5 жыл бұрын

Excellent explanation.

@hip-hoprapstorage4440 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks you so much

@michaelan2 2 жыл бұрын

Now this was informative!!! Thank you!!!

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@reactiontoaction 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this video. It helped me to explain this to youngsters. 🙂👍🏻

@predathor696 6 жыл бұрын

Sad that had no chance of using it. So stellar and orthodox!

@owlbme 6 жыл бұрын

I left a like, but to be honest I'm still confused. I may have to revisit this when I'm not stoned 😁

@USMC-Sniper-0137 4 жыл бұрын

Potheads usually do have comprehension issues. It's ok, we understand.

@starquestman1544 4 жыл бұрын

@@USMC-Sniper-0137 Hey the video is 4 minutes 20 seconds after all right ;)

@starquestman1544 4 жыл бұрын

I take that back it showed up on the list as 4:20 but now that it has loaded its 4:19

@USMC-Sniper-0137 4 жыл бұрын

@@starquestman1544 Hahahahahahaha, maybe I need to get stoned now........

@gregdahlen4375 3 жыл бұрын

maybe a person is like a one-track since they only have one stream of thoughts in their mind then again, if you can sing with your voice and drum with your hands, you might be a two-track

@davcar23 6 жыл бұрын

Very well explained and very informative graphics. Thx.

@hakank3841 Жыл бұрын

Great explanation. Thank you.

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@blktenor 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome explanation!

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

Thank you. :)

@valentinephasha1468 3 жыл бұрын

Succinctly well explained.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Glad you liked it! :)

@dennismbrown9026 4 жыл бұрын

I knew about 8 tracks but never knew why they were called that did not know some had diffent programs on them

@mjdorads 3 жыл бұрын

Oh, I thought Spotify told me A-Track.

@NicholasHerriman 2 жыл бұрын

Great explanation. Thank you!

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@abaricias 4 жыл бұрын

Very informative

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! :)

@kellanharringtonpham Жыл бұрын

Best teacher!! Thank you!!

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

Wow, thank you!

@0710ollie 5 жыл бұрын

really well explained,john!

@chicagolowe 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the lesson. I was amazed.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! We're so glad you liked this. :)

@scotthayes5933 4 жыл бұрын

8 track tapes were before my time. I was born in 1982, I only go as far back as compact cassettes.

@Badassvidsz 4 жыл бұрын

Nice explanation dude thx for the video and have Super Merry Christmas & the Happiest New Year :-)

@Badassvidsz 4 жыл бұрын

This was so easy to understand but surpriselly a lot of people here is comfused !

@hstdriver6616 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, excellent explanation! 👍

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@linsaypatterson1451 6 жыл бұрын

Great explanation John - thank you.

@heavenbound7 3 жыл бұрын

I still have some gospel 8 track tapes. I've had them for over 40 years now.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

That's awesome. :) The tape is pretty robust but the splice and pressure pad don't age very well. 40 years is a long time!

@bgimusic 5 жыл бұрын

great insight, thank-you!!

@omotta1418 5 жыл бұрын

Excellent explanatory video!!!!!!!!!Congratulations!!!!!!

@charleshyde3218 6 жыл бұрын

& don't forget the quadraphonic 8 track tape. it only had 2 programs instead of 4

@VideOH 6 жыл бұрын

Charles Hyde “Quaddddddddddaphonic soundddddddddddddd”

@k-leb4671 3 жыл бұрын

That would've been great for the car, or at least 5 seater cars which actually had 4 audio speakers.

@wallytjr256 2 ай бұрын

Thanks. I recall that sometimes an 8 track tape would split a song when the head moved from the end of program 1 to the start of 2. Or am I just imagining that?

@esideart 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the knowledge

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

My pleasure

@yaboimitch3481 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you this helped so much

@llaease 4 жыл бұрын

What a great instructor, thank you.

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! :)

@elsewho 5 жыл бұрын

Great video, very well explained. Thank you.

@coreyfellows9420 3 жыл бұрын

Cool content... Just got a new sub

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@scented-leafpelargonium3366 Жыл бұрын

Most interesting 🤗

@EvangeliumDiSilenti 2 жыл бұрын

90s kid here who grew up on cassette tapes then CDs. Heard of 8 track since I was little but never bothered looking it up till now. I feel educated 🤣

@Biblicalgiants 4 жыл бұрын

Great upload!

@audiomover 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! We're so glad you liked this. :)

@soniapena2582 5 жыл бұрын

very nice explanation. thank you

@adeebsyt 4 жыл бұрын

Awesome well done

@pappijoe1965 Жыл бұрын

Loved it. Thank you!

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

You are so welcome!

@garyedwards3269 Жыл бұрын

Great explanation of the 8-track format. I would love to see you do a documentary on the history of the 8-track and the resurgence of 8-track tape collecting. Contact 8-track Bob (over 61k tapes) or Troy Ohelo (over 30k tapes) for the best info. I myself have over 6k tapes in my collection...but I build the world's best 8-track tape display cases.

@audiomover Жыл бұрын

Great idea!

@charleswest6372 Жыл бұрын

I have a Sony 8 track record deck, 90s that works. I never use it as it is collection.