Tascam 202 MKV Dual Cassette Recorder Reminds Me Of When "Music Pirating" Meant "Taping"
The release of the newest version of the Tascam 202 MKV dual cassette recorder puts me in a storytelling mood. . . imagine, if you will, a device that allows you to make an audio record of the music you hear on broadcast radio, play it back whenever you want, and create an infinite a few copies of it for free distribution. You'd call that stealing, wouldn't you? The British Phonographic Industry though so back in the 1980s, and it's a good thing they sorted everything out legally back then, otherwise the advent of the worldwide internet might have been the death blow to the record industry as we know it!
Well Tascam doesn't care what the BPI thinks. They're gonna keep making their pirating machines, and you tape purists will be glad to know that the MKV offers some significant improvements over the MKIV. For starters, the MKV finally offers automatic zero return. Just set it and forget it!
Secondly, the 202 MKV has an A-B repeat function for automatically repeating a pre-selected portion of the tape. How convenient! Just think, on a modern "CD" player, you'd have to select a track, then press "PLAY MODE" at least once to set "TRACK REPEAT." What a hassle!
The Tascam 202 MKV retains the many cool features of its predecessors, including ±12% pitch control, power on play and record, regular, high-speed and sync-reverse dubbing. There's also a front-panel mic input for creating your own underground blackmarket mixtapes, which you can then sell at the corner dollar store. Sweet!
Cassettes
I have a friend who, as a profession, records depositions for court trials (witnesses giving testimony) in Atlanta. He tells me that everything has to be recorded on cassette, and the cassette must be archived, simply because cassettes have a much longer shelf life than MP3s or burned CDs or DVDs, and it is possible to recover audio from a damaged cassette, which is usually not possible with digital media. Hmm. I guess if the defendant appeals for a new trial at the end of the statute of limitations, those cassettes might be essential evidence for all parties.
Re: Cassettes
I'd actually argue that, since digital audio can be copied without generational degradation, that information actually has a longer shelf-life, albeit one that requires a little more upkeep. How many times can a magnetic cassette tape be duplicated before the deposition is no longer intelligible, and, once we have that answer, should we extend the statute of limitations to compensate? MWAH HA HA!
Yeah, cassettes are widely used in the legal industry, but I think that has to do more with the stubbornness of the individuals involved in said industry, a characteristic that often serves lawyers and their clients well. In fact, you might even say it's "common knowledge" that lawyers are slow to adopt technology. In further fact, I googled the phrase "lawyers slow to adopt technology" and came up with an amazing seven hits! I think I can rest my case.
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