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I'm in my mid twenties now, so eight track tapes were a little before my time. I was wondering how they worked - were they basically giant versions of cassette tapes? I also recently learned that there was a such thing as four track tapes; how did they work?
I'm not sure about four track tapes, but I did manage to find a page about how eight track tapes work. It's from the 8 Track Heaven website and you can read it here.
Hi, Four track tapes were normally for reel to reel recorders and had two going in each direction. Numbered from one edge (1-4) in one direction it would use 1,3 and 2,4 in the opposite. Many recorders required you to swap the reels at the end of the tape and run it in the opposite direction. Some of the best ones had auto reverse and eliminated this issue. Cassette tapes BTW are a variation of the 4 track system. There were some other variations. One such used all 4 tracks in one direction, not very common and performance was often compromised. A more common one in Pro audio was a three track. All three were in the same direction. Often used with a central mic for the performer and two wing side mics for either instruments, other performers or room ambiance. When finally mastered to stereo the center channel was mixed into the side ones.
8 Track tapes bring back memories for me. Back when I was a teenager we had a truck with an 8 track player in it. At home it was records, on the road it was 8 tracks.