8-track cartridge
Encyclopedia
Stereo 8, commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or simply eight-track, is a magnetic tape sound recording
technology. It was popular in the United States from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s, but was relatively unknown in many European countries. Stereo 8 was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear
of Lear Jet
Corporation, along with Ampex
, Ford Motor Company, General Motors
, Motorola
, and RCA Victor Records (RCA). It was a further development of the similar Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge created by Earl "Madman" Muntz
. A later quadraphonic version of the format was announced by RCA in April 1970 and first known as Quad-8, then later changed to just Q8.
sound reproduction was reel-to-reel audio tape recording
, first made widely available in the late 1940s. However, threading tape into the recorders was more difficult than simply putting a disc onto a phonograph player. Manufacturers introduced a succession of cartridges which held the tape inside a metal or plastic housing to eliminate handling. The first was RCA, which in 1958 introduced a cartridge system
called Sound Tape or Magazine Cartridge Loading, but until the introduction of the Compact Cassette
in 1963 and Stereo 8 in 1965, none was very successful.
Inventor George Eash, also from Toledo, invented a cartridge design in 1954, called the Fidelipac
. The Eash cartridge was later licensed by manufacturers, notably the Collins Radio Corporation, which first introduced a cartridge system for broadcasting at the National Association of Broadcasters 1959 annual show. Fidelipac cartridges (nicknamed "carts" by DJs and radio engineers) were used by many radio stations for commercials, jingles, and other short items right up until the late 1990s when digital media took over. Eash later formed Fidelipac Corporation to manufacture and market tapes and recorders, as did several others, including Audio-Pak (Audio Devices Corp.).
There were several attempts to sell music systems for cars, beginning with the Chrysler "Hiway hi-fi" of the late 1950s (which used discs). Entrepreneur Earl "Madman" Muntz of Los Angeles, California, however, saw a potential in these "broadcast carts" for an automobile music system. In 1962 he introduced his Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge stereo system (two programs, each consisting of two tracks) and tapes, mostly in California and Florida. He licensed popular music albums from the major record companies and duplicated them on these four-track cartridges, or "CARtridges", as they were first advertised.
With a reel turning at a constant rate, the tape around the hub has a lower linear velocity
than the tape at the outside of the reel, so the tape layers must slip past each other as they approach the center. The tape was coated with a slippery backing material, usually graphite
and patented by Bernard Cousino, to ease the continuous slip between the tape layers. While the design allowed simple, cheap, and mobile players, unlike a two-reel system, it did not permit rewinding of the tape. Some players offered fast-forward by speeding up the motor while cutting off the audio; but rewinding was never offered, because it was technically impossible.
Muntz's cartridge had used two pairs of stereo tracks in the same configuration as then-current "quarter track" reel-to-reel tapes. This format was intended to parallel his source material, which was usually a single LP (long playing) record with two sides. Program switching was achieved by physically moving the head up and down mechanically by a lever. The Stereo 8 version doubled the amount of programming on the tape by providing eight total tracks, usually comprising four programs of two tracks each. Lear touted this as a great improvement, because much more music could be held inside a standard cartridge housing, but in practice this resulted in a slight loss of sound quality and an increase in background noise from the narrower tape tracks. Unlike the Stereo-Pak, the Stereo 8 could switch between tracks automatically, with the use of a small length of conductive foil at the splice joint on the tape, which would cause the player to change tracks as it passed the head assembly.
The Stereo 8 also introduced the problem of dividing up the programming intended for a two-sided LP record into four programs. Often this resulted in songs being split into two parts, song orders being reshuffled, shorter songs being repeated, and songs separated by long passages of silence. Some eight-tracks included extra musical content to fill in time such as a piano solo on Lou Reed's Berlin
and a guitar solo in Pink Floyd's Animals.
In rare instances, an eight-track was able to be arranged exactly like the record album version, without any song breaks. Examples of this are Quadrophenia
by The Who, and some versions of Days of Future Passed
by The Moody Blues. Other examples of this rarity are Freeways
by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Live Bullet
by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Caught Live + 5
by The Moody Blues, The Concert in Central Park
by Simon & Garfunkel, and Octave
by The Moody Blues.
In 1964, Lear's aircraft company constructed 100 demonstration Stereo 8 players for distribution to executives at RCA and the auto companies.
Despite its problems, the format gained steady popularity because of its convenience and portability. Home players were introduced in 1966 that allowed consumers to share tapes between their homes and portable systems. "Boombox" type players were also popular. With the availability of cartridge systems for the home, consumers started thinking of eight-tracks as a viable alternative to vinyl records, not only as a convenience for the car. Within a year, prerecorded releases on eight-track began to arrive within a month of the vinyl release. Eight-track recorders had gained popularity by the early 1970s.
Quadraphonic eight-track cartridges (announced by RCA in April 1970) were also produced, with the major auto manufacturers being particularly eager to promote in-car quadraphonic players as a pricey option. The format enjoyed a moderate amount of success for a time but faded in the mid-1970s. These cartridges are prized by collectors since they provide four channels of discrete sound, unlike matrixed
formats such as SQ. Most quadraphonic albums were specially mixed for the quad format.
offered features that the eight-track lacked, such as smaller size and rewinding capability, it also had disadvantages: 1) Its tape speed was half that of Stereo 8, producing theoretically lower sound quality, and 2) It required greater mechanical complexity of the player. However, constant development of the cassette turned it into a widespread high-fidelity medium and also lowered the cost and complexity. That, combined with the inherent deficiencies of the Stereo 8 format, contributed to its decline.
Some of the inherent deficiencies of the format were: 1) high wow
and flutter due to the constantly changing load presented by the sliding tape pack, 2) tendency to jam as the tape got dirty, the lubricant wore away, and the tape was exposed to heat, 3) flattening of the pinch roller, over time, when a cartridge was left plugged in, causing increased wow and flutter, 4) inability to attain and maintain head alignment due to the movable head design. As time went on, these issues were compounded as later cartridges started using cheaper, lower quality materials, such as plastic pinch rollers. Another contributing factor was an effort by record companies to reduce the number of formats offered. In the late 1970s, when sales of eight-tracks slipped, they were quick to abandon the format.
The professional broadcast cart format survived for more than another decade at most radio stations. It was used to play and switch jingles, advertisements, station identifications, and music content until it was replaced by various computer-based methods in the 1990s. This format survived longer because it was used for relatively short sound loops, where starting from the beginning was more important than other criteria. The endless loop tape concept continues to be used in modern movie projector
s, although in that application the spool is actively rotated and not drawn by tension on the film. That too, however, is being supplanted by digital cinema
technologies.
Eight-track players became less common in homes and vehicles in the late 1970s. By the time the compact disc
arrived in 1982–1983, the eight-track cartridges had greatly diminished in popularity. In some Latin American countries as well as European, the format was abandoned in the mid-70s in favor of the cassette.
It was a popular and highly portable music format, suitable for use in the home, recreation, and vehicles. It reached a wide market and perpetuated the recordings of a majority of music genres. The eight-track format maintains a cult following with avid collectors even after its demise on the open market.
and RCA
(BMG) Music Service Record Clubs until late 1988. Many of these late-period releases are highly collectible because of the low numbers that were produced and the few customers who ever purchased them. Among the most rare is Stevie Ray Vaughan
's Texas Flood
. Another is Bruce Springsteen
and the E Street Band's Live/1975-85
, which was one of the very few boxed sets to be released on vinyl, cassette, compact disc, and eight-track tape.
There is a debate among collectors about the last commercial eight-track released by a major label, but many agree it was Fleetwood Mac
's Greatest Hits
in November 1988. It is noted that Cheap Trick
's "The Latest
" was released on June 23, 2009 on eight-track. The last eight-track tapes by major recording companies were from record and tape clubs in 1988 like RCA (BMG Music) and Columbia House
(CRC). All of the known final pre-recorded 8-tracks released commercially are documented at the "Reel To Reel / 8 Track Index" Website with complete list and scanned photos of all products. Demographics had country and western 8-tracks selling possibly the strongest at that time. Readers Digest also had exclusive releases at least as late as 1989 aimed at fans of older classic recording and easy listening and country. Rock and pop 8-tracks from the late 1980's are quite rare and in high demand and can sell on ebay as high as $200.00 each depending on the popularity of the music group.
There are reports of bootleg
eight-track tapes being made in Mexico as late as 1995. Some independent artists still release eight-track tapes. Also, bands sometimes release eight-tracks as special releases; for example, The Melvins
released a limited-time, live eight-track album and Cheap Trick
issued a limited edition version of their 2009 album The Latest
on the format. In the book Journals
, Kurt Cobain
wrote about wanting to release Nirvana
's last studio album, In Utero
, as an 8-track tape, but this never happened. Apart from a selected group of highly collectible artists, the record club issues, and the quadraphonic releases, many eight-track tapes seem to have limited value to most collectors, especially if the tapes have been misused or appear to be worn.
Most players produced a mechanical click when switching programs, although early Lear players switched silently. Because of the expense of producing tape heads capable of reading eight tracks, most eight-track players have heads that read just two tracks. Switching from program to program is accomplished by moving the head itself. Since the alignment of the head to the tape is crucial to any tape system, and because eight-track systems were generally designed to be cheap, this configuration further degraded the sound of the eight-track tape.
The Stereo 8 system was fairly simple, mechanically, but presented difficulties in two primary areas:
1) Capstan wear and buildup. As tape residue, dirt and lubricant built up on the capstan, the tape speed would increase and, since the buildup was uneven, the tape speed would become correspondingly uneven. Similarly, some units were subject to the capstan wear, causing a decrease in tape speed.
2) Head alignment. This was an issue for two reasons: a) Azimuth misalignment results in reduced high frequencies, and b) Head height misalignment allows sounds from adjacent tracks to bleed over, an effect sometimes known as "double-tracking". This format, unlike other tape formats, features a movable head with four positions. Among audio service technicians, there used to be a joke that "the eight-track is the only audio device which knocks itself out of alignment four times during each album."
Another issue with azimuth misalignment is a loss of stereophonic-image accuracy. This is due to the resultant time delay between the left and right channels resulting in a degradation of phase correlation. This effect is enhanced in an 8-track system, as compared to either reel-to-reel or cassette, due to the larger physical distance, on the tape, between the left and right channel tracks.
This effect could often be cured (or induced) by insertion of a match book in the player opening alongside the cartridge, shifting the alignment slightly.
Stereo 8 tapes and players developed a reputation for unreliability, mostly because of the phenomenon of having the player "eat" the tape as well as occasional failures of splicing tape. The automobile environment, with its temperature extremes, vibration, dust and so on, contributed to many failures.
The "melted" rubber pinch rollers that can be found in many early 8-Track cartridges were the result of the rubber not being fully cured
. After discovering this cause, later cartridges used only fully cured (hard) rubber pinch rollers that did not deteriorate, as much, over time.
Tape tension was another cause of unreliability. Prerecorded eight-track tapes tended to hold only a single album, about 46 minutes of content, or 11.5 minutes per track. Consumers wanted the ability to record more music on a single cartridge, so manufacturers came out with units of greater capacity. With the corresponding increase in tape length, there was a greater velocity differential between the tape being drawn from the center of the reel and the tape being fed back to the outer edge of the reel as it passed the capstan/pinch-roller assembly (loop length). Over time, this would cause the tape pack to tighten, making it more difficult to feed, and to maintain a constant playback speed.
When the sliding tape pack would pull itself tight, for whatever reason, a jammed 8-track cartridge was the result. A quick solution was to hold the cartridge in one hand, facing down, while pulling out a section of, about 4-6' in length from the outer winding side. A quick tug on the tape would cause it to immediately wind in and the result was a loosened up tape pack that would play correctly.
Failing that, another solution was to open the cartridge, cut the tape at the splice, and relieve the excess tension by manually unwinding one or two sections from the outer edge of tape (loop length) while keeping the reel stationary, then re-splicing the tape, with a fresh piece of foil (since the old foil was usually caked with built-up graphite reducing conductivity and making it difficult to change tracks). Another, simpler fix was to shake the cassette in the plane of the tape reel with a rotary motion, sometimes this would cause the windings inside to rotate and loosen.
A decrease in the quality of the parts used in the eight-track cartridge, that is, plastic pinch rollers, lubricant quality and quantity, etc., was another blow to the faltering format. As problems further reduced the reliability, the sound quality, and the smoothness of the tape speed. As a result, the eight-track eventually developed a reputation for being finicky and unreliable.
Magnetic tape sound recording
The use of magnetic tape for sound recording originated around 1930. Magnetizable tape revolutionized both the radio broadcast and music recording industries. It did this by giving artists and producers the power to record and re-record audio with minimal loss in quality as well as edit and...
technology. It was popular in the United States from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s, but was relatively unknown in many European countries. Stereo 8 was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear
Bill Lear
William Powell Lear was an American inventor and businessman. He is best known for founding the Lear Jet Corporation, a manufacturer of business jets...
of Lear Jet
Lear Jet
Learjet is a manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use. It was founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation. Learjet is now a subsidiary of Bombardier and marketed as the "Bombardier Learjet Family".-History:The Learjet started life as an...
Corporation, along with Ampex
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...
, Ford Motor Company, General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
, Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
, and RCA Victor Records (RCA). It was a further development of the similar Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge created by Earl "Madman" Muntz
Madman Muntz
Earl William "Madman" Muntz was an American businessman and engineer who sold and promoted cars and consumer electronics in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1987. He was a pioneer in television commercials with his oddball "Madman" persona – an alter ego who generated publicity...
. A later quadraphonic version of the format was announced by RCA in April 1970 and first known as Quad-8, then later changed to just Q8.
History
The original format for magnetic tapeMagnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...
sound reproduction was reel-to-reel audio tape recording
Reel-to-reel audio tape recording
Reel-to-reel, open reel tape recording is the form of magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording medium is held on a reel, rather than being securely contained within a cassette....
, first made widely available in the late 1940s. However, threading tape into the recorders was more difficult than simply putting a disc onto a phonograph player. Manufacturers introduced a succession of cartridges which held the tape inside a metal or plastic housing to eliminate handling. The first was RCA, which in 1958 introduced a cartridge system
RCA tape cartridge
The RCA Victor tape cartridge was a magnetic tape format designed to offer stereo quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape in a more convenient format for the home market...
called Sound Tape or Magazine Cartridge Loading, but until the introduction of the Compact Cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
in 1963 and Stereo 8 in 1965, none was very successful.
Development of tape cartridges
The endless loop tape cartridge was first designed in 1952 by Bernard Cousino around a single reel carrying a continuous loop of standard 1/4-inch, plastic, oxide-coated recording tape running at 3.75 in.(9.5 cm) per second. Program starts and stops were signaled by a one-inch-long metal foil that activates the track-change sensor. (Bill Lear had tried to create an endless-loop wire recorder in the 1940s, but gave up in 1946, even though endless-loop 8 mm film cartridges were already in use for him to copy from. He would be inspired by Earl Muntz's four-track design in the early 1960s.)Inventor George Eash, also from Toledo, invented a cartridge design in 1954, called the Fidelipac
Fidelipac
The Fidelipac, commonly known as an NAB cartridge or simply cart, is a magnetic tape sound recording format, used for radio broadcasting for playback of material over the air such as radio commercials, jingles, station identifications, and music. Fidelipac is the official name of this industry...
. The Eash cartridge was later licensed by manufacturers, notably the Collins Radio Corporation, which first introduced a cartridge system for broadcasting at the National Association of Broadcasters 1959 annual show. Fidelipac cartridges (nicknamed "carts" by DJs and radio engineers) were used by many radio stations for commercials, jingles, and other short items right up until the late 1990s when digital media took over. Eash later formed Fidelipac Corporation to manufacture and market tapes and recorders, as did several others, including Audio-Pak (Audio Devices Corp.).
There were several attempts to sell music systems for cars, beginning with the Chrysler "Hiway hi-fi" of the late 1950s (which used discs). Entrepreneur Earl "Madman" Muntz of Los Angeles, California, however, saw a potential in these "broadcast carts" for an automobile music system. In 1962 he introduced his Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge stereo system (two programs, each consisting of two tracks) and tapes, mostly in California and Florida. He licensed popular music albums from the major record companies and duplicated them on these four-track cartridges, or "CARtridges", as they were first advertised.
Introduction of Stereo 8
The Lear Jet Stereo 8 track cartridge was designed by Richard Kraus while working under Bill Lear and for his Lear Jet Corporation in 1963. The major change was to incorporate a neoprene rubber and nylon pinch roller into the cartridge itself, rather than to make the pinch roller a part of the tape player, reducing mechanical complexity. Lear also eliminated some of the internal parts of the Eash cartridge, such as the tape-tensioning mechanism and an interlock that prevented tape spillage. In the Cousino, Eash, Muntz, and Lear cartridges, tape was pulled from the center of the reel, passed across the opening at one end of the cartridge and wound back onto the outside of the same reel. The spool itself was freewheeling and the tape was driven only by tension from the capstan and pinch roller.With a reel turning at a constant rate, the tape around the hub has a lower linear velocity
Constant linear velocity
In optical storage, constant linear velocity is a qualifier for the rated speed of an optical disc drive, and may also be applied to the writing speed of recordable discs. CLV implies that the angular velocity varies during an operation, as contrasted with CAV modes...
than the tape at the outside of the reel, so the tape layers must slip past each other as they approach the center. The tape was coated with a slippery backing material, usually graphite
Graphite
The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...
and patented by Bernard Cousino, to ease the continuous slip between the tape layers. While the design allowed simple, cheap, and mobile players, unlike a two-reel system, it did not permit rewinding of the tape. Some players offered fast-forward by speeding up the motor while cutting off the audio; but rewinding was never offered, because it was technically impossible.
Muntz's cartridge had used two pairs of stereo tracks in the same configuration as then-current "quarter track" reel-to-reel tapes. This format was intended to parallel his source material, which was usually a single LP (long playing) record with two sides. Program switching was achieved by physically moving the head up and down mechanically by a lever. The Stereo 8 version doubled the amount of programming on the tape by providing eight total tracks, usually comprising four programs of two tracks each. Lear touted this as a great improvement, because much more music could be held inside a standard cartridge housing, but in practice this resulted in a slight loss of sound quality and an increase in background noise from the narrower tape tracks. Unlike the Stereo-Pak, the Stereo 8 could switch between tracks automatically, with the use of a small length of conductive foil at the splice joint on the tape, which would cause the player to change tracks as it passed the head assembly.
The Stereo 8 also introduced the problem of dividing up the programming intended for a two-sided LP record into four programs. Often this resulted in songs being split into two parts, song orders being reshuffled, shorter songs being repeated, and songs separated by long passages of silence. Some eight-tracks included extra musical content to fill in time such as a piano solo on Lou Reed's Berlin
Berlin (album)
Berlin is a 1973 album by Lou Reed, his third solo album and the follow-up to Transformer. In 2003, the album was ranked number 344 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, though the publication had called the album a "disaster" 30 years prior.-Background and...
and a guitar solo in Pink Floyd's Animals.
In rare instances, an eight-track was able to be arranged exactly like the record album version, without any song breaks. Examples of this are Quadrophenia
Quadrophenia
Quadrophenia is the sixth studio album by English rock band The Who. Released on 19 October 1973 by Track and Polydor in the UK, and Track and MCA in the US, it is a double album, and the group's second rock opera...
by The Who, and some versions of Days of Future Passed
Days of Future Passed
Days of Future Passed is the second album and first concept album by The Moody Blues, released in 1967. It was also their first album to feature Justin Hayward and John Lodge, who would play a very strong role in directing the band's sound in the decades to come...
by The Moody Blues. Other examples of this rarity are Freeways
Freeways (album)
Freeways is an album by Canadian rock band Bachman–Turner Overdrive, released in 1977. It was the last album that Randy Bachman would be a part of with BTO until the "reunion" in 1983. This is also the last studio album to be made with the classic and successful "Not Fragile" line up...
by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Live Bullet
Live Bullet
‘Live’ Bullet is a live album by American rock band Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, released in April 1976. It was recorded at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan, during the heyday of that arena's time as an important rock concert venue.-History:...
by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Caught Live + 5
Caught Live + 5
Caught Live + 5 is a 1977 Moody Blues double album consisting of a 12 December 1969 live show at the Royal Albert Hall and five previously unreleased studio recordings from the same time period...
by The Moody Blues, The Concert in Central Park
The Concert in Central Park
The Concert in Central Park is a live album by Simon & Garfunkel. On September 19, 1981 the folk-rock duo reunited for a free concert on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park, attended by more than 500,000 people. They released a live album from the concert the following March...
by Simon & Garfunkel, and Octave
Octave (album)
Octave is the ninth album by The Moody Blues, and their first release after a substantial hiatus following the success of the best-selling Seventh Sojourn in 1972. The album proved to be the last for the group with keyboardist Mike Pinder, who departed during the album's sessions, and declined an...
by The Moody Blues.
In 1964, Lear's aircraft company constructed 100 demonstration Stereo 8 players for distribution to executives at RCA and the auto companies.
Commercial success
The popularity of both four-track and eight-track cartridges grew from the booming automobile industry. In September 1965, Ford Motor Company introduced factory-installed and dealer-installed eight-track tape players as an option on three of its 1966 models (Mustang, Thunderbird and Lincoln), and RCA Victor introduced 175 Stereo-8 Cartridges from its RCA Victor & RCA Camden artist's catalogs. By the 1967 model year, all of Ford's vehicles offered this tape player upgrade option. Thanks to Ford's backing, the eight-track format quickly won out over the four-track format, with Muntz abandoning it completely by late 1970.Despite its problems, the format gained steady popularity because of its convenience and portability. Home players were introduced in 1966 that allowed consumers to share tapes between their homes and portable systems. "Boombox" type players were also popular. With the availability of cartridge systems for the home, consumers started thinking of eight-tracks as a viable alternative to vinyl records, not only as a convenience for the car. Within a year, prerecorded releases on eight-track began to arrive within a month of the vinyl release. Eight-track recorders had gained popularity by the early 1970s.
Quadraphonic eight-track cartridges (announced by RCA in April 1970) were also produced, with the major auto manufacturers being particularly eager to promote in-car quadraphonic players as a pricey option. The format enjoyed a moderate amount of success for a time but faded in the mid-1970s. These cartridges are prized by collectors since they provide four channels of discrete sound, unlike matrixed
Matrix decoder
Matrix decoder is an audio technology where a finite number of discrete audio channels are decoded into a larger number of channels on play back...
formats such as SQ. Most quadraphonic albums were specially mixed for the quad format.
Decline and demise
There are numerous reasons for the format's decline. While the cassetteCompact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
offered features that the eight-track lacked, such as smaller size and rewinding capability, it also had disadvantages: 1) Its tape speed was half that of Stereo 8, producing theoretically lower sound quality, and 2) It required greater mechanical complexity of the player. However, constant development of the cassette turned it into a widespread high-fidelity medium and also lowered the cost and complexity. That, combined with the inherent deficiencies of the Stereo 8 format, contributed to its decline.
Some of the inherent deficiencies of the format were: 1) high wow
Wow (recording)
Wow is a relatively slow form of flutter which can affect both gramophone records and tape recorders. In the latter, the collective expression wow and flutter is commonly used.-Gramophone records:...
and flutter due to the constantly changing load presented by the sliding tape pack, 2) tendency to jam as the tape got dirty, the lubricant wore away, and the tape was exposed to heat, 3) flattening of the pinch roller, over time, when a cartridge was left plugged in, causing increased wow and flutter, 4) inability to attain and maintain head alignment due to the movable head design. As time went on, these issues were compounded as later cartridges started using cheaper, lower quality materials, such as plastic pinch rollers. Another contributing factor was an effort by record companies to reduce the number of formats offered. In the late 1970s, when sales of eight-tracks slipped, they were quick to abandon the format.
The professional broadcast cart format survived for more than another decade at most radio stations. It was used to play and switch jingles, advertisements, station identifications, and music content until it was replaced by various computer-based methods in the 1990s. This format survived longer because it was used for relatively short sound loops, where starting from the beginning was more important than other criteria. The endless loop tape concept continues to be used in modern movie projector
Movie projector
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
s, although in that application the spool is actively rotated and not drawn by tension on the film. That too, however, is being supplanted by digital cinema
Digital cinema
Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to distribute and project motion pictures. A movie can be distributed via hard drives, optical disks or satellite and projected using a digital projector instead of a conventional film projector...
technologies.
Eight-track players became less common in homes and vehicles in the late 1970s. By the time the compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
arrived in 1982–1983, the eight-track cartridges had greatly diminished in popularity. In some Latin American countries as well as European, the format was abandoned in the mid-70s in favor of the cassette.
It was a popular and highly portable music format, suitable for use in the home, recreation, and vehicles. It reached a wide market and perpetuated the recordings of a majority of music genres. The eight-track format maintains a cult following with avid collectors even after its demise on the open market.
Last cartridges
In the U.S., eight-track cartridges were phased out of retail stores by late 1982. Some titles were still available as eight-track tapes through Columbia HouseColumbia House
The Columbia House brand was introduced in the early 1970s by the Columbia Records division of CBS, Inc. as an umbrella for its mail-order music clubs, the primary incarnation of which was the Columbia Record Club, established in 1955. It had a significant market presence in the 1980s and early...
and RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
(BMG) Music Service Record Clubs until late 1988. Many of these late-period releases are highly collectible because of the low numbers that were produced and the few customers who ever purchased them. Among the most rare is Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
's Texas Flood
Texas Flood
Texas Flood was released on June 13, 1983, with two singles released from the album—"Pride and Joy" and "Love Struck Baby". "Pride and Joy" peaked at #20 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. "Texas Flood" was nominated for Best Traditional Blues Performance and "Rude Mood" was nominated for Best...
. Another is Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
and the E Street Band's Live/1975-85
Live/1975-85
Live/1975–85 is a live album by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. It consists of 40 tracks recorded at various concerts between 1975 and 1985. It was released as a box set with either five vinyl records, three cassettes, or three CDs...
, which was one of the very few boxed sets to be released on vinyl, cassette, compact disc, and eight-track tape.
There is a debate among collectors about the last commercial eight-track released by a major label, but many agree it was Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
's Greatest Hits
Greatest Hits (1988 Fleetwood Mac album)
Greatest Hits is a 1988 compilation album by British-American band Fleetwood Mac. It covers the period of the band's greatest commercial success, from the mid 1970s to the late 1980s....
in November 1988. It is noted that Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973. The band consists of members Robin Zander , Rick Nielsen , Tom Petersson , and Bun E...
's "The Latest
The Latest
The Latest is the sixteenth studio album by the American power pop band Cheap Trick. The album was produced by Cheap Trick, Julian Raymond and Howard Willing and was released on June 23, 2009. The album was issued on standard CD as well as limited pressings of vinyl and 8-Track tapes. The album was...
" was released on June 23, 2009 on eight-track. The last eight-track tapes by major recording companies were from record and tape clubs in 1988 like RCA (BMG Music) and Columbia House
Columbia House
The Columbia House brand was introduced in the early 1970s by the Columbia Records division of CBS, Inc. as an umbrella for its mail-order music clubs, the primary incarnation of which was the Columbia Record Club, established in 1955. It had a significant market presence in the 1980s and early...
(CRC). All of the known final pre-recorded 8-tracks released commercially are documented at the "Reel To Reel / 8 Track Index" Website with complete list and scanned photos of all products. Demographics had country and western 8-tracks selling possibly the strongest at that time. Readers Digest also had exclusive releases at least as late as 1989 aimed at fans of older classic recording and easy listening and country. Rock and pop 8-tracks from the late 1980's are quite rare and in high demand and can sell on ebay as high as $200.00 each depending on the popularity of the music group.
There are reports of bootleg
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...
eight-track tapes being made in Mexico as late as 1995. Some independent artists still release eight-track tapes. Also, bands sometimes release eight-tracks as special releases; for example, The Melvins
The Melvins
The Melvins are an American band that formed in 1983. They usually perform as a trio, but in recent years have performed as a four piece with two drummers. Since 1984, singer and guitarist Buzz Osborne and drummer Dale Crover have been the band's constant members...
released a limited-time, live eight-track album and Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973. The band consists of members Robin Zander , Rick Nielsen , Tom Petersson , and Bun E...
issued a limited edition version of their 2009 album The Latest
The Latest
The Latest is the sixteenth studio album by the American power pop band Cheap Trick. The album was produced by Cheap Trick, Julian Raymond and Howard Willing and was released on June 23, 2009. The album was issued on standard CD as well as limited pressings of vinyl and 8-Track tapes. The album was...
on the format. In the book Journals
Journals (Cobain)
Journals is a collection of writings and drawings by Kurt Cobain, lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana. Though the content is undated, it is arranged in an approximation of chronological order, starting with a letter Cobain wrote to Dale Crover in 1988, and ending with a rant about...
, Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
wrote about wanting to release Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
's last studio album, In Utero
In Utero
In Utero is the third and final studio album by the American grunge band Nirvana, released on September 13, 1993, on DGC Records. Nirvana intended the record to diverge significantly from the polished production of its previous album, Nevermind...
, as an 8-track tape, but this never happened. Apart from a selected group of highly collectible artists, the record club issues, and the quadraphonic releases, many eight-track tapes seem to have limited value to most collectors, especially if the tapes have been misused or appear to be worn.
Reliability and usability
The cartridges have an audible pause due to the presence of a length of metallic foil, which a sensor detects and signals the end of the tape and acts as a splice for the loop. The foil passes across a pair of electrical contacts which are in the tape path. Contact of the foil closes an electrical circuit that engages a solenoid which mechanically shifts the tape head to the level of the next track.Most players produced a mechanical click when switching programs, although early Lear players switched silently. Because of the expense of producing tape heads capable of reading eight tracks, most eight-track players have heads that read just two tracks. Switching from program to program is accomplished by moving the head itself. Since the alignment of the head to the tape is crucial to any tape system, and because eight-track systems were generally designed to be cheap, this configuration further degraded the sound of the eight-track tape.
The Stereo 8 system was fairly simple, mechanically, but presented difficulties in two primary areas:
1) Capstan wear and buildup. As tape residue, dirt and lubricant built up on the capstan, the tape speed would increase and, since the buildup was uneven, the tape speed would become correspondingly uneven. Similarly, some units were subject to the capstan wear, causing a decrease in tape speed.
2) Head alignment. This was an issue for two reasons: a) Azimuth misalignment results in reduced high frequencies, and b) Head height misalignment allows sounds from adjacent tracks to bleed over, an effect sometimes known as "double-tracking". This format, unlike other tape formats, features a movable head with four positions. Among audio service technicians, there used to be a joke that "the eight-track is the only audio device which knocks itself out of alignment four times during each album."
Another issue with azimuth misalignment is a loss of stereophonic-image accuracy. This is due to the resultant time delay between the left and right channels resulting in a degradation of phase correlation. This effect is enhanced in an 8-track system, as compared to either reel-to-reel or cassette, due to the larger physical distance, on the tape, between the left and right channel tracks.
This effect could often be cured (or induced) by insertion of a match book in the player opening alongside the cartridge, shifting the alignment slightly.
Stereo 8 tapes and players developed a reputation for unreliability, mostly because of the phenomenon of having the player "eat" the tape as well as occasional failures of splicing tape. The automobile environment, with its temperature extremes, vibration, dust and so on, contributed to many failures.
The "melted" rubber pinch rollers that can be found in many early 8-Track cartridges were the result of the rubber not being fully cured
Vulcanization
Vulcanization or vulcanisation is a chemical process for converting rubber or related polymers into more durable materials via the addition of sulfur or other equivalent "curatives." These additives modify the polymer by forming crosslinks between individual polymer chains. Vulcanized material is...
. After discovering this cause, later cartridges used only fully cured (hard) rubber pinch rollers that did not deteriorate, as much, over time.
Tape tension was another cause of unreliability. Prerecorded eight-track tapes tended to hold only a single album, about 46 minutes of content, or 11.5 minutes per track. Consumers wanted the ability to record more music on a single cartridge, so manufacturers came out with units of greater capacity. With the corresponding increase in tape length, there was a greater velocity differential between the tape being drawn from the center of the reel and the tape being fed back to the outer edge of the reel as it passed the capstan/pinch-roller assembly (loop length). Over time, this would cause the tape pack to tighten, making it more difficult to feed, and to maintain a constant playback speed.
When the sliding tape pack would pull itself tight, for whatever reason, a jammed 8-track cartridge was the result. A quick solution was to hold the cartridge in one hand, facing down, while pulling out a section of, about 4-6' in length from the outer winding side. A quick tug on the tape would cause it to immediately wind in and the result was a loosened up tape pack that would play correctly.
Failing that, another solution was to open the cartridge, cut the tape at the splice, and relieve the excess tension by manually unwinding one or two sections from the outer edge of tape (loop length) while keeping the reel stationary, then re-splicing the tape, with a fresh piece of foil (since the old foil was usually caked with built-up graphite reducing conductivity and making it difficult to change tracks). Another, simpler fix was to shake the cassette in the plane of the tape reel with a rotary motion, sometimes this would cause the windings inside to rotate and loosen.
A decrease in the quality of the parts used in the eight-track cartridge, that is, plastic pinch rollers, lubricant quality and quantity, etc., was another blow to the faltering format. As problems further reduced the reliability, the sound quality, and the smoothness of the tape speed. As a result, the eight-track eventually developed a reputation for being finicky and unreliable.
External links
- Reel To Reel and 8-Track Index - the last releases made during the 1980s with pictures
- "A Survey of Recordable Magnetic Media" by Andrew D. Crews, December, 2003, University of Texas, accessed August 8, 2006
- So Wrong They're Right - A 1995 documentaryDocumentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
about 8-track enthusiasts - 8-Track Heaven Modern website discussing 8-Tracks
- 8-Track Moments Listen to the sound of the 8-Track click.
- A History of Audio Recording
- http://www.quarterinchers.com/howtorepair8tracktapes.php 8 track repair
- Used 8-track player comparison test, Home Theater magazine, February 1997