Like cassette tapes and floppy disks, 8-track tapes are very prone to degradation as a result of information is saved on magnetized media. On high of that, 8-track tapes are sufficiently old that bodily injury is quite common. For instance, the froth pads on virtually all authentic 8-track tapes have lengthy since crumbled into mud. Alon Boris needed a option to hearken to his 8-track tapes with out inflicting additional injury, so he constructed this very distinctive Raspberry Pi-powered 8-track participant.
8-track is a bizarre format with quirks which might be essential to assist its options. An 8-track cassette accommodates a steady loop of magnetic tape, so it’s going to play endlessly. However that implies that customers can’t rewind the tapes—solely play and fast-forward. And essentially the most distinctive function is true there within the identify: the tape has eight parallel audio tracks. Cut up into two stereo channels every, that leads to 4 “packages” (songs, ebook chapters, and many others.) that play concurrently. The consumer merely selects this system that they wish to pipe via the amplifier at any given time.
One unusual impact of this setup is that switching packages doesn’t begin the observe over. In the event you’re at 01:26 of “Come Collectively” (Program 1 of the Abbey Street 8-track) and swap to Program 3, you’re going to drop proper into 01:26 of “I Need You (She’s So Heavy)”. If you wish to hear that music from the start, you’ll must fast-forward the tape till it begins again over.
Boris needed to digitize his 8-track tapes, but in addition to copy that have. He began by recording the complete size of each observe. He then wrote a Python script that performs again these tracks on the contact of buttons related to a Raspberry Pi 3 Mannequin B+. It performs the audio via a Robertsonics Tsunami 8-channel audio card—one channel for every observe. All 4 packages play concurrently, however solely the chosen program is audible. Analog VU meters point out the quantity of every program and a small LCD display exhibits the standing.
That’s all digital, as a result of the audio is coming from WAV information. However Boris nonetheless needed to the sensation of inserting an 8-track tape. So he added printed QR codes to every of his tapes. A Helpful Sensors Tiny Code Reader scans the QR code of the tape and tells the Raspberry Pi the ID so it may possibly begin taking part in the corresponding set of WAV information.
Now Boris can hearken to his 8-track tapes as a lot as he needs with out worry of inflicting injury. He will get the complete 8-track expertise purely from digital information.
