Question about tape recorder...

[gamer1682]

Will the 410 tape recorder accept today's store bought cassettes? I plan on getting an 800 sometime around christmas and I would like to use a tape recorder due to the fact they still sell cassettes but im not for sure if new ones would work since the recorder will run two tracks at once.

[Artlover]

Can you elaborate on what exactly you're trying to accomplish. Recording over music tapes for data storage? Playing music tapes on the 410? You're intentions are a big vague.

 

Anywho, cassette tape is just a piece of mylar with a magnetic oxide coating on it. It doesn't have tracks. The issues of tracks are all about the record/playback hardware and how it layed the data/music out. The tape it self doesn't care if you're recording/playing 1 track, 2 tracks, 4 tracks or whatever.

[gamer1682]

Can you elaborate on what exactly you're trying to accomplish. Recording over music tapes for data storage? Playing music tapes on the 410? You're intentions are a big vague.

 

Anywho, cassette tape is just a piece of mylar with a magnetic oxide coating on it. It doesn't have tracks. The issues of tracks are all about the record/playback hardware and how it layed the data/music out. The tape it self doesn't care if you're recording/playing 1 track, 2 tracks, 4 tracks or whatever.

 

Recording over music tapes for storage.

[Artlover]

Recording over music tapes for storage.

Yes.

 

I'd be inclined to suggest you think about using a bulk eraser to erase them first. The built in whimpy erasers that come inside tape based hardware are generally pretty weak and don't always do a very good job at blanking the tape out before recording, and you can end up with residual magnetic interference sometimes. I wouldn't say it's a requirement however since more often then not, just reusing the tape as is will work just fine.

[Brian R.]

Will the 410 tape recorder accept today's store bought cassettes? I plan on getting an 800 sometime around christmas and I would like to use a tape recorder due to the fact they still sell cassettes but im not for sure if new ones would work since the recorder will run two tracks at once.

 

I don't see why blank cassettes sold today would be any different from those sold back then.

[gamer1682]

I was planning on getting new ones, but thanks for the advice anyways. It will be much more easy to get cassettes than 5 1/2 floppies.

[Rybags]

IIRC the Atari worked better with plain audio tapes anyway since the tone pairs aren't exactly very high frequency.

 

For something like a C-64 using Novaload, you would probably get some benefit using tapes specifically made for data.

[dinosaur]

Good luck to you! I used a 410,back in the day,and I hated it!

 

A root canal was more fun

[Ross PK]

I've used brand new blank tapes on my XE deck and they worked fine. Not sure what you mean about running two tracks at once though.

[Rybags]

Well, the recorder "runs" two tracks at once, but...

 

only one track is fed to the audio in line - the other one is devoted to data.

[mimo]

get a disk drive if you wan't to keep your sanity

[Brian R.]

Good luck to you! I used a 410,back in the day,and I hated it!

 

A root canal was more fun

 

Oh, I remember dealing with my 1010 back with my 600XL in the 80s. One little glitch and whatever you were trying to load wouldn't work! No fun at all.

 

But I think the OP has a point... can you get those big ol' floppies anymore? Can't say I've ever looked. I'd think blank cassettes would be more obtainable.

[deathtrappomegranate]

Regular audio cassettes will work just fine.

 

In fact, though, 5.25" floppies are not so hard to find.

[+Guitarman]

You can still find people on Ebay selling bulk 5.25 disks. Also, you can always find used 5.25 to use that should be fine. It is much more convenient than dealing with the load times of tapes.

[yorgle]

I agree, go with the disk drive. Inevitably, the glitch is always in the last 5 seconds of a 15 minute load. I found a bunch of 5.25 disks at the local hardware store (the owner used to have a radio shack franchise and still had piles of old inventory in a back room). He gave me two 10 packs of disks for free just to get rid of them. Lots of old Tandy computer peripherals (joysticks, etc) if anyone's into TRS80 stuff.

[Nukey Shay]

Oh, I remember dealing with my 1010 back with my 600XL in the 80s. One little glitch and whatever you were trying to load wouldn't work! No fun at all.

...unless you are using LIST/ENTER. Although ENTERing takes longer than LOADing since the file will be stored untokenized (possibly making it more likely a glitch will occur), a glitch will keep the program ENTERed thus far in memory. Not very useful regarding other people's work, tho...because you would probably be at a complete loss of how to reconstruct/rewrite the missing parts.

But as others have said, there's virtually no advantage of using cassettes over disk drives these days. Disk Drives are nowhere near as expensive as they were in the 80's.

 

 

But I think the OP has a point... can you get those big ol' floppies anymore? Can't say I've ever looked. I'd think blank cassettes would be more obtainable.

Both are becoming more scarce.

Exactly why the optimal storage solution is to avoid the use of either, and obtain an SIO2PC cable instead.