I had tapes growing up (though CDs were already a thing and much more popular), but aside from doing mixed CDs and burning MP3s on CD-R and CD-RWs, I was a total MiniDisc geek. I got into its second wave in the US circa 2000 or so, but for the 18-24 months before I got my first iPod (the 10G second gen model in summer 2002), it was not just the best MP3 player I ever had (you could output from your sound card to the MiniDisc, complete with meta-data applying to title info and then later iterations allowed more direct digital file writes), but paired with a good microphone or plugged into a soundboard, it was an excellent DAC for concerts or in my case, the best way for an aspiring high school filmmaker to record audio separately while making her mini-DV masterpieces.
Anyway, this is a cool project. I mostly used tape as a little kid until the price of DiscMans became cheap enough my mom would let me have one in the car for road trips, but it’s cool to see how many options there were.
Anyway, this is a cool project. I mostly used tape as a little kid until the price of DiscMans became cheap enough my mom would let me have one in the car for road trips, but it’s cool to see how many options there were.