The Endless Loop of 8-Track Tapes: How It Really Works

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[zmoreira]

Nice explanation. The background noises are very cool :)

[garryn]

I always wanted to know the path of the tape in an 8 track. thx!

[bilbobaggins]

The 8 track players had a moving head (tape reader) that changed vertically to one of 4 positions on the tape. The listener could control which position or track is being listened to. Because the tape moved at 3 3/4 inches per second and because there was a limitation of about 80-90 minutes per cartridge then the length of the tape was limited to about 25 feet . The length of the tape varied depending upon the length of the music on the album. The downsides were that the tape could jam and tangle, because of friction issues "wow and flutter" of the sound was a big problem and songs were split between tracks using fade-out, loud click of mechanism and then fade back in. For most people, the real kicker was that the continuous loop was connected by a piece of splice tape that was similar to scotch tape in that if the tape splice came apart then the user had a real mess on their hands trying to repair it. Generally, they had to throw the whole thing away.

[daniellxnder]

Exactly what I'm looking to know for! Thank you

[markgraham]

Do you still have the player, tapes and record player

[minimalizman]

I never knew it could be so simple! Thanks for the explanation.

[DavidGP]

Awesome explanation! So is this a regular length tape, or will it play only a few seconds before repeating?

[bpabustan]

It's actually a pinch roller not ruler

[kirkklaus]

I bet it was nice that it could continously play.

[manuelapolinariosegura]

Destape uno por curiosidad se me salió la cinta no la pude envolver y dañe el cartucho 😢

[DaveBegotka]

As a kid in the 70's i spent many hours trying to fix are junk!

[balmpatchvideos]

The design is very bad. It is so OBVIOUSLY BAD the whole thing is a RIP OFF. The tape is chafed over and over as it is dragged diagonally against another section of tape as well as the spool in the area he said pops out.