Studio Brief 2 - Task 1

- Research the chosen object 

Figure 1

Figure 2

I did a lot of internet research on the cassette tape, sticking all of my findings into my sketchbook (Figure 1 and 2) so that I could summarise it and use it to influence my later developments.

• Started in 1962 as a children's toy 
• Originally called a compact cassette
• Brought to the United States by its maker, the Phillips Company in 1964
• Very popular among teenagers as it allowed them to make personalised music collections 
• William Lear introduced the eight-track as a competitor in 1965 with the support of Ford Motor Company
• Ray Dolby developed a hiss-reduction technology called Dolby noise reduction in 1968
• Cassette tapes sales overtook the eight track sales by the mid-1970s and album sales in the early 1980s
• Decline of sales in the 1980s as the digital audio began because the compact audio disc (CD) was launched
• The maximum recording time is 120 minutes 

Figure 3

An electric current in a coil of wire produces a magnetic field, as shown in Figure 3. The tape heads are made from rings of ferromagnetic material with a gap where the tape contacts it, allowing the magnetic field to magnetise the emulsion on the tape.