is that necessary: Ion’s USB tape deck
Engadget reported a couple days ago that Ion Audio is set to announce Tape2PC, a USB tape deck.
(Digital Lifestyle has more info and is the source of this first look photo:)
Like their USB Turntable, it’s meant to transfer all those things that you only have, and only can get, on vinyl to mp3. Unlike the USB Turntable, it is not useful whatsoever.
I mean, when’s the last time you touched a cassette tape? I think there is a very small minority of people who use cassette tapes at all, even if they have access to tape decks, etc. On the other hand, I’ve bought vinyl and CDs in the last month. People have kept their record collections. Cassettes are not collectible like vinyl and aren’t convenient like CDs. Tapes have been phased out for a reason.
August 6th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
The USB tape to MP3 encoder might not appeal to everyone (and I don’t think I would spring for one), but for anyone who did home audio recordings in the pre-DAT era (or who couldn’t afford a DAT deck), the medium of choice was cassette (fostex & tascam 4trk cassette recorders) - think of all those boxes of demos, and home-studio recorded masterpieces sitting on cassettes in closets just waiting to be transferred to MP3…
August 6th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Actually, I have been considering doing an audio blog soley devoted to music I have on cassettes. Demo tapes, live tapes, cassette-only releases… there is a lot of good stuff out there. Maybe you have never heard “Archer Come Sparrow” by the Go Team (the original one with Calvin Johnson, Tobi Vail, and Billy Karren, not the clueless Brits.) Also there was Sound Choice zine and other publications devoted to cassette culture.
There was an article about declining cassette sales in the newspaper this week that noted they’re still widely used for books for the blind because braile markings mess up slot-loading CD players.
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:02 pm
[…] This sort of falls into the not very useful USB devices category. […]