Let's go to the tape: Extolling the virtues of the near-extinct cassette

Who needs cassette tapes anymore?

• From near-extinction to retro cool, cassettes make a comeback

The average smartphoneis about the same size as those miniature reel-to-reel recordings, and if it's music you're after, holds many times over the number of songs you can get on one cassette.

But St. John'smusician and music producer Jake Nicoll has a love of all things analog, and hasn't abandoned the lowly cassette just yet. He grew up in a digital age, but much of his music gear is analog.

Nostalgia factor

"There's definitely the nostalgia. There's the romance around it," he told CBC. "It's exciting, it looks cool, all of that kind of stuff."

Not that he avoids all modern technology. He also uses a laptop computer that can do anything all the bulky gear in his studio can theoretically, anyway.

"It can do, in theory, what all the other things can do, and more. But you actually can't do exactly the same thing," he said.

Nicoll says there's just something about"real things"that emulations just can't quite achieve.

"There's also something about the tactile nature of stuff having a synthesizer with knobs on it versus a synthesizer that you're clicking buttons on, on a computer."

Some music benefits from the older technology, he explains, rewinding a cassette before playing a track by a local musician.

"He's doing a folkier thing, and it imparts a sort of vintage sound on it, and I think it fits well with the music he's making," he said.

There's something nice about understanding the rarity of it, making something that's almost inaccessible.- Jake Nicoll

One drawback to cassettes, Nicoll acknowledges, is the fragility of the thin ribbon of tape itself, susceptible to stretching or breaking.

"Well, you just eventually have gotta get new tapes," he said, adding he buys cassettes in bulk from a Montreal company.

He still listens to music on cassettes, but is aware there's an impracticality to it. Even the music that he produces on cassettes is usually in very small batches: Thirty to a hundred cassettes for a very specific market.

'Slightly ridiculous'

"It's a funny thing," he said. "There's no part of me denying the ridiculousness of it all, especially as a medium for selling your music, because how many people have a cassette player? Not very many."

But that's almost what draws him to it, he says.

"In general, being a musician these days, it's a slightly ridiculous thing," he said. "There's something nice about understanding the rarity of it, making something that's almost inaccessible."

Not unlike the resurgence of vinyl records, there's a community of music lovers who are sticking with cassettes, he says.

"It's one of those hip things," he said. "People are using cassettes. It's a fun thing."