Is there a way I can play an 8 track on my Realistic Deck and have the 8 track recorded on to a cassette tape with my Onkyo Cassette Deck?
I'm sorry, but you are leaving most of us shaking our heads in disbelief!
I can understand having an 8-track as a curio. However using it to for serious archive work is quite another matter.
The fact is that 8-tracks are a mechanical abortion, that should never have seen the light of day, and are not even capable of mediocre performance.
I have a collection of reel to reel recorders. These are capable of true high fidelity performance and can give all current digital media a run for its money.
I use them to archive my own masters, and play historic media as a part of the museum aspect of this studio.
However do I archive to 1/4 inch tape? No, of course not.
The tapes are costly, bulky and expensive. All tape machines of whatever stripe need constant maintenance to keep them operating correctly. That entails use of extensive test gear and keeping of laboratory alignment tapes, for azimuth alignment and adjusting equalization.
It is far easier, and cheaper to archive and record radio broadcasts with a DAC computer and hard drives. I can tell you this, you spend a lot less time on the bench to get recordings indistinguishable from the originals.
Yes, you can can and could record from your 8-track to cassette, however your speed errors, wow and flutter, will be additive. If you find the end result pleasurable listening then you need a hearing test and much else besides.
Now people can collect almost anything, and that's fine. Collecting media to at least demonstrate the capabilities of a well set up example is fine and laudable. However to use a severely compromised format in the manor you intend leaves me in an extreme state of puzzlement.
If you are interested in historic tape preservation, then I would strongly encourage you to look at good reel to reel machines. Then if you learn your craft you will have something to truly astonish your visitors.
As an example of what can be achieved, you can download a CD of a concert I recorded live with two of these machines in 1984.
The first half was recorded on the silver colored and now very rare Brenell Mk 6. The second half on the Revox A 700 in the second picture.
You can download it here.
All instructions for making the CD are in the zip file. You can also play the Flac file in winamp and other players, that support Flac.
