what the hell is an 8-track ?
An 8 track was unlike a cassett tape or a reel to reel tape,im no expert but i was heavily into 8 tracks when they were a new medium so i'll try to explain what made them different from other tapes.
The tape inside a cassett tape (and reel tape) contain a single program of music on a given length of tape meaning that from the start of the tape there is only one song then another song begins at the end of the first song,and so on & so on until the end of the tape.
With 8 track tape the tape inside contains 4 programs of music running side by side on the tape at the same time & all 4 programs of music were active at the same time.
The material on a cassett tape would look like a straight line,kinda like this.
Side A____________________________________________________.
Side B____________________________________________________.
The material on a 8 track would look like 4 lines side by side,kinda like this.
__________________________________________________________.
__________________________________________________________.
__________________________________________________________.
__________________________________________________________.
A cassett tape player works with rollers that turn the tape & move the tape across the tape head which is in a fixed non moving position,the straight line i used for a demo above is rolled along the head,in order to hear a different song the tape needs to be forwarded or taken out of the player & flipped to the other side like a record.
A 8 track player works by grabbing hold of the tape itself with pinch rollers & dragging it across the tape head,the tape head in an 8 track player is not stationary,the tape head moves up & down to make contact with 1 of the 4 lines of information at a time,to hear a different song you could select a different channel on the player & the head would move up or down to a different line of information but the tape remained stationary.
The tape used in 8 tracks was different from the tape used for cassett & reel tape,there was some kind of chemical lubricant used on the back side of 8 track tape where on cassett there is none.
Cassett tape has a start & an end,if you took the tape out of a cassett & stretched it out the tape would be in a straight line.
An 8 track tape was run on a continuous cycle where there was no start or end to the tape,if you took the tape out of an 8 track you would see a splice in the tape connecting both ends together to form a circle.
The whole method of 8 track was flawed right from the start,the way the pinch rollers drug the tape over the tape head caused the tape to stretch & snap,the technology inside the 8 track players was also flawed,due to having a moving head after repeated use the players head movement would stick or not move properly,when this happened one of two things would happen,one being that no sound would come from the tape or that 2 lines in the tape would be played at the same time meaning that you could hear two songs being played at the same time.
BTW,the match book trick that majorlooser described above was used to correct problems caused by the head not moving properly.
I know its a long post but im home nursing a back injury
& i cant sleep or even lay down unless i dope myself up with the pain killers the doc gave me so i figured why not give a decent explaination for the younger guys.
