I LOVE this idea! Brilliant work! I grew up in the 70's with 8-track tapes and players. When I was about 15 I managed to get a non-working recorder and fixed it. One of my strongest memories was a Ford Cortina estate (station wagon) that my dad had. The speakers were in the back of the car and were fixed with double sided tape and they were constantly falling down.
Well done sir. Unbelievable creativity to simulate the 8 track not in just the virtual mode but a bit of quasi quasi-mechanical feel as well. How far we have come since the 8 track days. The modern technology that enabled this project is a powerful microcontroller, a sound card (Creative Labs sound card in the 90s cost me $400), a QR code scanner, a 3D printer along with the CAD SW, and a bunch of various SWs like sound editor, Python, etc.
Next, build a cartridge that has a small square display on the side and a long display and two buttons on the back edge. Add two pogo pins in the tape transport area for power. When you plug in the cartridge, it powers up from the pogo pins, displays a cart name on the back edge display and the QR code for that cart on the side display. The two buttons can switch forward and back in the list of carts.
Fun project. I picked up a 8-Track play/record unit a few years back. Don't know what I am going to do with it but I could resist having the record function.
Fascinating. I had a quad setup back in the day, a Lafayette 4 channel receiver, Garrard tt with 2 carts for the various quad lp formats, an 8 track quad recorder/player and a casette deck. The casette deck was a Lafayette, I don't recall the brand of the 8 track. Everything went into a couple of RussSound switching boxes and the wiring in the back was an absolute nightmare!
My dad bought a "Quad in a box" Capehart system. I was a kid but urged him to buy the beautiful Marantz receivers at the time. I guess he liked the price and the convenience of the quad in a box. It sounded awful. The only real quad it could play was the Q8 tapes. Otherwise is matrixed the rear channels with no bass I remember the only Q8 tape we had was Ray Conniff doing cover songs. I bought that album on SACD recently and played it through a Sony Blu Ray and my Onkyo Surround Receiver. It sounds way better than the Capehart quad system ever was.
That is cool as hell. I actually have one of those Realistics (the ones on the bottom) among several others. I've never seen a quad 8'track, but I have always loved the Phase4 vinyl records.
That's a funny project! Well done. I think tried to keep the original looks as the close as possible to the maximum extend to reusing parts. For example the original metalic front of the Realistic's, combine them into one frontplate. Reusing cabinets and parts of old equipment instead of 3D printing is a good thing. Lately I made a 3 channel motor controller inside a HDMI player case, looks great! The nice thing of newer equipment is that they mostly work with a remote control and the front plate is free of knobs so it possible to add your own knobs and switches.
Awesome project! 8-Track had two major problems that I think kept from becoming an audiophile grade format. 1) Moving the head. To do this properly would require a precision machined device. You can't do that at a consumer price point, hence the imprecise stamped sheet metal assemblies that were used. 2) The use of plastic pinch rollers in the cartridge with plastic bearings. To get really low wow and flutter, you again need a tensioned rubber pinch roller on ball bearings. There was a two track broadcast cartridge continuous loop format that was similar to 8-Track. This was for advertising spots and 45 record length music recordings. But the head was stationary and the pinch roller was part of the transport assembly and swung up into the cartridge when one was inserted. I have no evidence of this but it would not surprise me if the 8-Track grew out of a broadcast audio cart machine.
It was a devolution of sorts... First came the Fidelipac carts for radio (by Eash, I think?), then "Madman" Earl Muntz made 4-track out of the same cart designs. Both those formats ran at 7½ips. Then Bill Lear came up with the more self-contained (but buggy due to cart design, slower tape travel, and inherent head misalignment issues) Learjet 8-track, running at 3¾ips.
Interesting build, my first though would be to put the music storage inside the tape shells, although I take it your keeping your tapes original. I'm kind of interested in the terminal/computer behind you, I looked on your channel but nothing there. Also amazed that there seems to be no negative comments about you stripping the two old players.
Good work, these projects are a lot fun, in a few moths I will have next next 8 Track record deck built, with adaptive record bias and the expanded noise reduction. As I just can not find any records from 1970's that any good, that started designing my own.
The video is now up, called "New 8 Track Technology", the video editing is very basic, but it shows what is possible, if this format was still been made today.
I had 8-tracks (and a recorder to make my own) back then, but the fatal flaw of 8-track tapes is the graphite backing material. Eventually it wears off and then the tape becomes harder to pull.
Incredibly clever! Just curious if you considered using the Pi's HDMI output for the multichannel audio. As a fellow quadraphonic fan, I've found that Kodi running on a Pi 4 works well for that purpose, though maybe it isn't customizable enough for your needs.
I did consider that! However for this project, I wanted the device to stand on its own and provide four analog audio outputs without any additional decoders. It would also be tough to drive the VU meters using the HDMI output. (Important feature!)
@@BorisDigital Yeah, it occurred to me that you'd still need to monitor the output for the sake of the meters. It's frustrating that multichannel analog inputs have become such a rare feature on audio hardware in recent years. Really limits the options for those of us running quad decoders.
Diabolical! And Brilliant! Fantastic work! 😎👍 This hits many of my own passions, both professional and avocational. I'm an electrical/computer engineer. Professionally, I write embedded software. My hobbies include vintage audio (particularly open reel tape decks), vintage computers, Unix/Linux, ham radio, etc. The Raspberry Pi is definitely a favorite. I still need to dive into 3D printing, though! Bravo! Congratulations on your totally cool project!
Great video always love it when projects mix modern computing technology with vintage audio gear. Btw did you ever consider just encoding time codes on the tape it self and use that to control the digital playback? I did that for a project with audio cassettes and it worked well.
Very clever! I love 8-track tapes, but I always wondered what it would be like if the format was upgraded and given more R&D. Imagine if you had 8-track tapes with Metal/chrome tape, or a head that was non-mechanical and could switch programs electronically (to help reduce alignment issues).
Outstanding work, BorisDigital ! Have you considered offering your plans as means for others to build their own? Would think this would be a fun project for many to honor your work!
Really an awesome bit of kit you got there. But where do you get an 8 track drive that doesn't stretch or damage the tape? All the drives back in day seemed to suffer from that fatefully flaw.
Genuinely excellent! I bet Mat over on the Techmoan channel would wet himself at the chance to play with something like this. I think I might try to contact him. All the best. PS: There would be both pro's and con's and you may be perfectly happy already - might an NFC detector be an alternate to using QR codes?
Ah, pretty cool. I was thinking you were going to reveal that the carts had a hidden SD card with the file, which in some ways I feel would be less of a cheat than the QR codes! You could also 3D-print a cradle to hold the tape rather than use an old machine -- after all, it doesn't have to have much precision.
one thing in the betacam decks the head drums wear out but the liner audio tracks are ok get this it is safe to use betamax in the betacam decks if the video heads are bad note i have not seen any bad video heads in any of the deck have picked up betacam are tanks
If I were able, I'd of done the same thing. I've dreamed of similar things. How about a program that automatically divides an album into 4 parts, and automatically fades out, clicks and fades back in four programs. I'd use it for making actual recodings on 8track carts.
Apologies for the unrelated question: That terminal in the background looks like a modern recreation. What is it? A DEC Mini..? Many thanks for any answers.
Nah, Ill just stick to my original tapes and player. Don't digitize, just enjoy. I enjoy fixing my tapes. I never had any just wear out.I let a dired out dragging tape play for a week and it only got better. No high end sound was lost, It glazed the tape and it also got quieter.
hi this is ace i have 100's of bodies have moved tape out of i just have not put them on ebay yet i have alot of 4 track tapes i am lucky i have a c cart recorder i made as well from a eu back ground player it's all older men doing this i talked to
If you're just using QR codes, you could custom build a "multi-album" cart for your device... A strip (or loop) of QR codes inside an empty cart, some kind of switch (or lever/button/etc) out front of the cart to identify and select which album you want to hear, and with a hole (or window) where the reader is. There's also an easy way to digitize SQ format quad records for the above idea/device, but would take too long to explain here. Imagine slipping in an 8-track and getting the full range from quad RECORDS?(!)
I noticed you are showing four programs while mentioning quad cartridges, Is this an editing mistake? I know for a fact that quad tapes have 2 programs only not 4 programs.
Python with Containers?? wow... what used to be super computer tech used in a DIY hobby... and the QR code reader for 7$... image recognition that alone would have cost 10Gs in the 90s.. nuts..
hi all this when i find a quad betacam sp deck will do e job i have a mate he's got 100's of quad 8 track i have seen the no lies i was getting up set fixing the tape for him you are very right about them get this a first i have a tascam 38 i done very like what you have here no need to make 3 d parts i had to put the main pcb in a solder bath to get all the parts of and start to re make the logic with relays and power ic's i put all the power ic's back where they were now the capstan motors work 5v dc tells the power ic's what todo note the deck has 2 speeds i lost my otari 5050 mk III to bad to fix i wonder how you did the deck ace is the word the tascam 38 has all the audio cards ready in side i have had to do alot of repair work on mate deck i bet be on my back about your video here 100%
beware there's alot out there that don't like us re working decks i have a mate tascam ninja yes that one i am one he all ways on mail to me way don't i have a channel like you RED TAPE IS IN THE WAY i sound bad i would have to have a voice changer to get around it jim browning he wears a mask
This "8 track" player is brilliant!
This has got to be one for Techmoan
I'm equal parts impressed and horrified that you made an adult version of those toy cd players from the 90s
What an incredible amount of dedication!.
Kool little project.
I tip my hat to you sir, GREAT JOB !
Ok, tell us the truth, the button you didn't touch on the demo is REVERSE! Great work, thanks for sharing.
I LOVE this idea! Brilliant work!
I grew up in the 70's with 8-track tapes and players. When I was about 15 I managed to get a non-working recorder and fixed it.
One of my strongest memories was a Ford Cortina estate (station wagon) that my dad had. The speakers were in the back of the car and were fixed with double sided tape and they were constantly falling down.
Well done sir. Unbelievable creativity to simulate the 8 track not in just the virtual mode but a bit of quasi quasi-mechanical feel as well. How far we have come since the 8 track days. The modern technology that enabled this project is a powerful microcontroller, a sound card (Creative Labs sound card in the 90s cost me $400), a QR code scanner, a 3D printer along with the CAD SW, and a bunch of various SWs like sound editor, Python, etc.
Absolutely AWESOME. I just built a car stereo that blends an 8 track player, mp3 player and equalizer with a subwoofer and it hits HARD!
That is awesome!
This is like a cartridge player, from 45 years ago, at which time I had the Ampex brand. Very few people know. Thank you so much!
Glad you like it!
Awesome build! I really like when people are trying to save old formats. Very clever design that surprised me greatly! 👍
It's very refreshing to not hear the normal RUclips montage music. Great selection!!
Next, build a cartridge that has a small square display on the side and a long display and two buttons on the back edge. Add two pogo pins in the tape transport area for power. When you plug in the cartridge, it powers up from the pogo pins, displays a cart name on the back edge display and the QR code for that cart on the side display. The two buttons can switch forward and back in the list of carts.
Fun project. I picked up a 8-Track play/record unit a few years back. Don't know what I am going to do with it but I could resist having the record function.
What a great video! I play Q8 tapes from time to time, and really got a kick out of watching this.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very cool, I am a big quad fan but i am adamantly all analog. BUT, I like that you are thinking outside of the "cartridge" .
That a nice unit. Very well explained. When Quad us set up right, it sounds great
Fascinating. I had a quad setup back in the day, a Lafayette 4 channel receiver, Garrard tt with 2 carts for the various quad lp formats, an 8 track quad recorder/player and a casette deck. The casette deck was a Lafayette, I don't recall the brand of the 8 track. Everything went into a couple of RussSound switching boxes and the wiring in the back was an absolute nightmare!
Nice setup! I used to go to the Lafayette store in Pennsauken, NJ when I was a kid.
My dad bought a "Quad in a box" Capehart system. I was a kid but urged him to buy the beautiful Marantz receivers at the time. I guess he liked the price and the convenience of the quad in a box. It sounded awful. The only real quad it could play was the Q8 tapes. Otherwise is matrixed the rear channels with no bass I remember the only Q8 tape we had was Ray Conniff doing cover songs. I bought that album on SACD recently and played it through a Sony Blu Ray and my Onkyo Surround Receiver. It sounds way better than the Capehart quad system ever was.
That is cool as hell. I actually have one of those Realistics (the ones on the bottom) among several others. I've never seen a quad 8'track, but I have always loved the Phase4 vinyl records.
That's a funny project! Well done. I think tried to keep the original looks as the close as possible to the maximum extend to reusing parts. For example the original metalic front of the Realistic's, combine them into one frontplate. Reusing cabinets and parts of old equipment instead of 3D printing is a good thing. Lately I made a 3 channel motor controller inside a HDMI player case, looks great! The nice thing of newer equipment is that they mostly work with a remote control and the front plate is free of knobs so it possible to add your own knobs and switches.
Did you spend 8 years since your last video? Your other video of a video player inside of a VHS cassette is at another level.
Awesome project! 8-Track had two major problems that I think kept from becoming an audiophile grade format.
1) Moving the head. To do this properly would require a precision machined device. You can't do that at a consumer price point, hence the imprecise stamped sheet metal assemblies that were used.
2) The use of plastic pinch rollers in the cartridge with plastic bearings. To get really low wow and flutter, you again need a tensioned rubber pinch roller on ball bearings.
There was a two track broadcast cartridge continuous loop format that was similar to 8-Track. This was for advertising spots and 45 record length music recordings. But the head was stationary and the pinch roller was part of the transport assembly and swung up into the cartridge when one was inserted. I have no evidence of this but it would not surprise me if the 8-Track grew out of a broadcast audio cart machine.
It was a devolution of sorts...
First came the Fidelipac carts for radio (by Eash, I think?), then "Madman" Earl Muntz made 4-track out of the same cart designs. Both those formats ran at 7½ips. Then Bill Lear came up with the more self-contained (but buggy due to cart design, slower tape travel, and inherent head misalignment issues) Learjet 8-track, running at 3¾ips.
So Very Cool -- accelerating from Wild to Outstanding
That is indeed the coolest !!!! Great idea too!!
YOU GOOO BRUH, excellent work on a deserving technology that society abandoned!
Interesting build, my first though would be to put the music storage inside the tape shells, although I take it your keeping your tapes original.
I'm kind of interested in the terminal/computer behind you, I looked on your channel but nothing there.
Also amazed that there seems to be no negative comments about you stripping the two old players.
The terminal in the background is Pi-powered, see decmini.com
@@BorisDigital Thanks
Good work, these projects are a lot fun, in a few moths I will have next next 8 Track record deck built, with adaptive record bias and the expanded noise reduction. As I just can not find any records from 1970's that any good, that started designing my own.
The video is now up, called "New 8 Track Technology", the video editing is very basic, but it shows what is possible, if this format was still been made today.
Awesome 8 track player!!! I would love to have that!!! Excellent job ❤
What an awesome device!
I had 8-tracks (and a recorder to make my own) back then, but the fatal flaw of 8-track tapes is the graphite backing material. Eventually it wears off and then the tape becomes harder to pull.
Nice video, very comfy, looking forward to more!
Incredibly clever! Just curious if you considered using the Pi's HDMI output for the multichannel audio. As a fellow quadraphonic fan, I've found that Kodi running on a Pi 4 works well for that purpose, though maybe it isn't customizable enough for your needs.
I did consider that! However for this project, I wanted the device to stand on its own and provide four analog audio outputs without any additional decoders. It would also be tough to drive the VU meters using the HDMI output. (Important feature!)
@@BorisDigital Yeah, it occurred to me that you'd still need to monitor the output for the sake of the meters.
It's frustrating that multichannel analog inputs have become such a rare feature on audio hardware in recent years. Really limits the options for those of us running quad decoders.
There are still many used “pre-hdmi” AVR’s out there that can accept the 4 analog inputs. This would bring those units back into relevance!
You are a genius. How much would it be to build some or mass produce and sell them?
Diabolical! And Brilliant! Fantastic work!
😎👍
This hits many of my own passions, both professional and avocational. I'm an electrical/computer engineer. Professionally, I write embedded software. My hobbies include vintage audio (particularly open reel tape decks), vintage computers, Unix/Linux, ham radio, etc. The Raspberry Pi is definitely a favorite. I still need to dive into 3D printing, though!
Bravo! Congratulations on your totally cool project!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! (similar hobbies here too!)
Great video always love it when projects mix modern computing technology with vintage audio gear. Btw did you ever consider just encoding time codes on the tape it self and use that to control the digital playback? I did that for a project with audio cassettes and it worked well.
That's a cool idea! Maybe in version 2!
Very clever! I love 8-track tapes, but I always wondered what it would be like if the format was upgraded and given more R&D. Imagine if you had 8-track tapes with Metal/chrome tape, or a head that was non-mechanical and could switch programs electronically (to help reduce alignment issues).
That would be great to see! Maybe a future project...
LOOKS SUUUUUPER COOL!
you can use an hdmi audio splitter with 7.1 (7.1 = 8 channels) audio output to.
Very cool. Well done.
Super genius ......love this concept
Very good job on this player I love 8 track tapes. I would like to see a Bluetooth 8 track tape made from a Bluetooth cassette tape.
Really cool project! I can't take my eyes off the Digital Terminal in the background, though. I hope you'll do a video on that!
That is bad ass!! Love it!!
Outstanding work, BorisDigital ! Have you considered offering your plans as means for others to build their own? Would think this would be a fun project for many to honor your work!
Thanks! For some projects I do provide a code repository, but this one is not quite polished enough to share yet!
Just genial and amazing!
Really an awesome bit of kit you got there. But where do you get an 8 track drive that doesn't stretch or damage the tape? All the drives back in day seemed to suffer from that fatefully flaw.
Thanks! My old drive probably does stretch the tapes a bit - that's why I digitize them!
I love my 8-track
Hi. Nice idea for the project and great execution. You mentioned also network streamer, where to find movie with that build?
The network streamer video is coming soon!
Genuinely excellent!
I bet Mat over on the Techmoan channel would wet himself at the chance to play with something like this. I think I might try to contact him.
All the best.
PS: There would be both pro's and con's and you may be perfectly happy already - might an NFC detector be an alternate to using QR codes?
NFC would also be a good choice, but the QR labels are cheaper!
So very cool. Well done.
Ah, pretty cool. I was thinking you were going to reveal that the carts had a hidden SD card with the file, which in some ways I feel would be less of a cheat than the QR codes! You could also 3D-print a cradle to hold the tape rather than use an old machine -- after all, it doesn't have to have much precision.
Loving your work!
Nice video. Waiting for more content
one thing in the betacam decks the head drums wear out but the liner audio tracks are ok
get this it is safe to use betamax in the betacam decks if the video heads are bad note i have not seen any bad video heads in any of the deck have picked up betacam are tanks
Lol that is soo cool!
Cool job :)
nice but i would have one tape ( bulky) and a different way to select the music.
If I were able, I'd of done the same thing. I've dreamed of similar things. How about a program that automatically divides an album into 4 parts, and automatically fades out, clicks and fades back in four programs. I'd use it for making actual recodings on 8track carts.
Great idea!
@@BorisDigital thanks. Are you one that could pull that off?
Apologies for the unrelated question:
That terminal in the background looks like a modern recreation. What is it? A DEC Mini..?
Many thanks for any answers.
Sure, that's a DEC Mini: decmini.com/
nice, great job.
Very nice.
very cool 😊
I want one!
What were those tapes you were playing? Were they from the actual tapes i.e. digitized.... it was cool instrumental music...?
I couldn't use the digitized audio from the pop music tapes in the video - music is from the You Tube Audio Library.
So cool!
Nah, Ill just stick to my original tapes and player. Don't digitize, just enjoy. I enjoy fixing my tapes. I never had any just wear out.I let a dired out dragging tape play for a week and it only got better. No high end sound was lost, It glazed the tape and it also got quieter.
hi this is ace i have 100's of bodies have moved tape out of i just have not put them on ebay yet i have alot of 4 track tapes i am lucky i have a c cart recorder i made
as well from a eu back ground player it's all older men doing this i talked to
IS QUAD GONNA COME BACK??? I direly need stuff to play on my sansui
Far out man !
If you're just using QR codes, you could custom build a "multi-album" cart for your device...
A strip (or loop) of QR codes inside an empty cart, some kind of switch (or lever/button/etc) out front of the cart to identify and select which album you want to hear, and with a hole (or window) where the reader is.
There's also an easy way to digitize SQ format quad records for the above idea/device, but would take too long to explain here. Imagine slipping in an 8-track and getting the full range from quad RECORDS?(!)
I noticed you are showing four programs while mentioning quad cartridges, Is this an editing mistake? I know for a fact that quad tapes have 2 programs only not 4 programs.
Not all of the cartridges shown are quad. For the quad carts, the software only allows cycling through two programs.
Python with Containers?? wow... what used to be super computer tech used in a DIY hobby... and the QR code reader for 7$... image recognition that alone would have cost 10Gs in the 90s.. nuts..
Are you selling these yet
How much? :-)
you know clipping your dac is ruining your audio quility ?
4:54 What isb he name of the song? It zure doesn't sound like The Doors
All the music is from the You Tube Audio Library. I believe that tune is "Warzone" by Anno Domini Beats.
That, was not the No Secrets album! L.
Very impressive and slightly pointless: the best kind of creation.
Thanks!
So… NOT a tape player…
NO SALE!
hi all this when i find a quad betacam sp deck will do e job i have a mate he's got 100's of quad 8 track i have seen the no lies
i was getting up set fixing the tape for him you are very right about them
get this a first i have a tascam 38 i done very like what you have here no need to make 3 d parts
i had to put the main pcb in a solder bath to get all the parts of and start to re make the logic with relays and power ic's
i put all the power ic's back where they were now the capstan motors work 5v dc tells the power ic's what todo
note the deck has 2 speeds i lost my otari 5050 mk III to bad to fix
i wonder how you did the deck ace is the word the tascam 38 has all the audio cards ready in side i have had to do alot of repair work on mate deck i bet
be on my back about your video here 100%
*Promo SM* 💕
beware there's alot out there that don't like us re working decks i have a mate tascam ninja yes that one i am one he all ways on mail to me
way don't i have a channel like you RED TAPE IS IN THE WAY i sound bad i would have to have a voice changer to get around it
jim browning
he wears a mask
Why bother building that rubbish in 2023...8 track just sounds so muddy!! Pointless format 🗑️👎