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RCA Sound Tape Cartridge

History

The RCA Sound Tape Cartridge was an early example of a stereo music cassette format that offered both prerecorded selections and home taping. Cartridges contained quarter inch tape that was used to record four audio tracks, two in each direction, and ran at 3 and 3/4 inches per second, with standard blanks offering 60 minutes of recording in stereo or 120 minutes of mono audio. Some recorders could also record and play back at 1 and 7/8 inches per second, sufficient for voice recording.

RCA demonstrated the system in New York in February 1958 (Billboard, February 17, 1958) with two machines planned for release later that year as well as free licensing and specifications for other manufacturers (Billboard, May 12, 1958), alongside a catalog of prerecorded cartridges that would be made available in the summer of 1958 (Billboard, May 4, 1959). At the time, the reception of the announcement was generally positive, as the industry was aware that magnetic tape would eventually need to come in a handheld, easy to use format to have widespread public adoption. Interest was paid to the auto stop and auto reverse features of the machine, and remained skeptic of the performance of its 3 and 3/4 inch recording speed. Some 32 prerecorded titles went on sale before the machines themselves in the summer of 1958 (Billboard, June 2, 1958), with RCA offering complete cartridge production to outside tape producers later that year (Billboard, June 16, 1958) and tapes reaching dealers by October (Tape Recording, January 1959). The first quarter track stereo open reel recorders became available around the same time, and there was some discussion of cracking open the tapes and listening to them on the open reel machines, as there was no prerecorded quarter track stereo reels until late 1958, with limited selection available through 1959 (Billboard, February 23, 1959).

The "Carta-Matic" shown off in the Summer of 1958 (Billboard, June 9, 1958)

In many ways, the Sound Tape Cartridges were similar to the later compact cassette, with two spools driven by a reel table, a capstan and head assembly that locates inside cutouts in the end of the cartridge, and a pinch roller that swings into place against the capstan to drive the tape. The cartridges featured record protect notches, something that very early compact cassettes actually didn't include, and a large peg in the machines released a large internal reel brake, as the spool design would have been somewhat hard to brake externally, especially in the cardboard boxes that tapes came in. The auto-reverse feature was activated by tensioned arms in the tape path which would swing inwards as the tape reached the end of one spool, triggering the machine to reverse. Some open reel machines used a similar tension-based mechanism, while some others used a metal sensing foil placed on the tape.

By late 1958 a few other cartridge based tape recorders for home use were being developed, including a system by 3M and another by Motorola as well as a system from ARF that was compatible with open reel machines, and RCA was drawing some criticism for announcing the system prematurely. RCA ensured that demonstration units would be in dealer's hands by December, with a playback-only deck in production for Christmas with the automatic recorder due out after. The RCA Sound Tape had already attracted some interest from industrial markets and the Magnetic Recording Industry Association and Ampex, who saw the need for a standardized tape cartridge as well as Victor's large back catalog and new releases of prerecorded music (Billboard, November 17, 1958). Motorola and Pentron both showed off RCA format machines in late 1958.

Pentron's 1958 Sound Tape machine, which was planned to also record and play at 7 and 1/2 inches per second as well as play back two-track stereo tapes.

Christmas 1958 came and went and by mid February 1959 a machine from RCA was still yet to hit stores. An Ampex dealer letter revealed that Ampex would not be introducing a Sound Tape machine that year, despite having a functional machine ready since July 1958, apparently having up to that point been waiting for RCA's machine to enter the market first (Billboard, February 16, 1959). Penton delayed the release of their machine for similar reasons. RCA Victor announced a further 12 titles in January 1959. In June of 1959, RCA "re-introduced" their cartridge machine with models promised to be on sale by the middle of June with 60 and later 120 prerecorded titles available by Christmas 1959. Shortly after, the first releases from Bel-Canto and Mercury on cartridge began to appear. By the end of the year, RCA had released just over 60 titles on cartridge.

RCA's SCP-2 began to reach distributors by late summer 1959, while Bell Sound released a complete six-model lineup, ranging from an attachment player transport with no tape head preamplifiers up to a fully-featured recorder with built in amplifiers (Billboard, June 8, 1959). Machines were advertised on the merits of the ease at which cartridges could be loaded (sometimes being referred to as "snap-load cartridges"), recorded, and played back. The aim of the Sound Tape Cartridge was to provide a simpler user experience than open reel audio recorders, with the main market being consumers who would not go to the trouble of learning, much less repeatedly performing, normal tape recorder threading. Reviews of the system were generally mixed, praising the ease of the built-in auto-reverse and auto stop as well as the ease of loading and operating the controls. Sound quality was similar to other 3 and 3/4 inch per second quarter track recorders (Audio, November 1959). Direct comparison with 15 and 7 and 1/2 inch per second tapes at the National Association of Music Merchants in June 1959 revealed that the sound tape lacked some of the top and bottom end of other tapes, with additional tape hiss. Frequency response of the system was stated as 50 to 15,000 Hz with a head gap of 90 millionths of an inch.

RCA's initial launch and early support for the Sound Tape system was somewhat lacking, in part because of its drawn-out and delayed launch and in part due to the focus around the release of stereo long-play records in the late 1950s as well as generally lower adoption of tape than disc. Records were continuing to outsell open reel tapes and represented a larger possible market, with many upgrade stereo styluses available. In March of 1960 it was reported that the Victor and Bell machines were both generally low sellers, with open reel recorders generally seller better. To drive sales, Bell began offering a deal on demonstration units to dealers.

(High Fidelity, May 1960)

Sales were also somewhat hampered by the price of the cartridges. Blank cartridges cost $4.50 in 1960, a dollar more than a length of open reel tape allowing for the same recording time at double the speed (or double the length at the same speed as the cartridge), or the difference between about 30 and 40 dollars today. Prerecorded music cartridges cost as much as $9.95 in 1960, somewhere between a dollar more than and half the price of some prerecorded open reel tapes depending on the speed and popularity of the recordings. One tape manufacturer noted that roll-film cameras generally sold better than cartridge film type cameras, and that roll-film cameras were harder to load than most reel to reel decks were to thread. A stereo cartridge recorder cost around 300 dollars, for which a similarly priced open reel deck offered either the higher quality 7 and 1/2 inches per second recording speed or double the recording length at the same 3 and 3/4 inches per second. At the time, the quality of quarter track 3 and 3/4 inches per second recordings was considered to be less than that of period stereo records, themselves lower quality than 7 and 1/2 inch per second tape recordings (Popular Mechanics, September 1960).

In early 1960 there were already rumors as well as a dealer memo circulating that said RCA was poised to abandon the format, with some interest remaining in the still-in-development 3M cartridge system. In the summer of 1960 a poll of hifi dealers in Billboard found that only 30% of dealers had interest in carrying either format if they became widely available that year (Billboard, July 11, 1960). Interest in all tape cartridge systems was also low at the Summer 1960 NAMM show. By August 1960 Bel Canto had a catalog of over 60 tapes available, and a change in management at RCA led to renewed commitment to the format, with a new line of machines planned. Sears advertised a combination machine that played and recorded both seven inch reels and cartridges for Christmas.

In May of 1961, Bell Sound announced a second generation of their sound tape machines, more portable (at 18 pounds) and capable of operating at both 3 and 3/4 inches per second and 1 and 7/8 inches per second. RCA announced around the same time that they would also offer a new line of machines later that year that could also run at two speeds and weighed around 15 pounds, and some interest in tape cartridges grew. The tape cartridge up to this point had found some use in industrial and business applications (Billboard, May 15, 1961), being used in training employees, language learning centers, and synchronizing slide projectors up to audio. This generation of recorders were sold with more of an emphasis on recording than playing back prerecorded tapes.

Bel Canto announced twelve new cartridges a month for the first third of 1962, with RCA's cartridge catalog reaching 120 titles (Billboard, April 28, 1962). RCA offered a 10% discount to distributors on their entire catalog of reel and cartridge tapes in Spring 1962 (Cash Box, April 28, 1962). Cartridge Tape sales in 1962 were up 90% from 1921, with May 1962 sales up 131% over May 1961 (Billboard, July 28, 1962), with sales continuing to grow into 1963. RCA continued to advertise the system in print as well as on television, with the cheapest 99 dollar monophonic portable machines typically advertised more heavily by individual dealers.

	Sound Tape machines at a trade fair in Poland in 1963 (Cash Box, September 7, 1963)

In early 1964 Bell Sound announced they would no longer be manufacturing Sound Tape machines, noting that although there was some interest in the idea of cartridge music, the public interest just did not seem to be there. The same reason would eventually lead to the discontinuation of the 3M-Revere M-2 cartridge. Consumer tape cartridges would not gain significant traction until endless loop cartridges became popular in cars in the mid 1960s. In March of 1965, RCA announced they would enter the automobile cartridge market, backing the then-new Leer eight track system over the more established Muntz four track. At the time, consumer recorders for endless loop tapes were nonexistent, and the automobile tape market was seen as somewhat separate from the home cartridge market. RCA planned on starting to release music on the eight track format in September of 1965 (Billboard, March 27, 1965). Although RCA never made one themselves, Automatic Radio did market one model of Sound Tape cartridge for use in cars.

In addition to RCA Victor's catalog, Bel Canto released prerecorded tapes under or for Mercury, Dot, Liberty, Philips, Disneyland, and other labels. The Stereophonic Music Society released some cartridges through Bell Sound's distribution channels, with some other tape manufacturers like 3M also producing blank cartridges. In the end, RCA released about XXXX titles on the format, about XXXX% of the total Sound Tape releases.

The price of early machines as well as the relative niche of prerecorded audio cassettes at the time led to low adoption in most areas. The release of stereo long playing records in 1958 hampered sales of prerecorded audio tape for both cartridge formats and open-reel audio tape. Home tapers generally continued to buy open reel machines, where similar priced machines offered similar if not better performance. The system saw some adoption in schools, where the large cassettes could be used and abused more than open reel tapes, particularly by students. RCA continued to support the format into the XXXXs. Many machines aimed at school were monophonic machines, capable of recording to the individual tracks on the tape with a switch, and stereo machines could be set to play back from only one track of a mono recording. The format was withdrawn from consumer sales by late 1965, with some continued support in the educational market. RCA went on to support the then-new eight track cartridge.

Although the RCA Sound Tape Cartridge never really took off as RCA had intended, it was clear even at the time that at some point, if magnetic audio tape was to see widespread success, it needed to become smaller and easier to use than open reel audio tape at an acceptable quality. Indeed, while open reel audio tape was already fairly mature by the 1960s, many turntable owners had never seen or operated a tape recorder. If you were satisfied with the sound quality of the records of the era or had no need to record or play back arbitrarily audio there was a decent chance you had no reason to use one, and the first tape formats to attain pop culture status were all cassette based, in particular the stereo 8 track tape cartridge in the 1970s and the compact cassette in the 1980s.

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RCA Sound Tape oddities

Respooling tapes

Despite the lesser sound quality of 3 and 3/4 inch per second recordings, RCA Sound Tape Cartridges were the first quarter track stereo recordings to become available, and four track tape recorder owners could dissassemble a prerecorded cartridge and spool it onto an open reel to play them back. A guide to do so was published in the December 1959 issue of Tape Recording.

Three inch open reel adapter

Because the Sound Tape machines essentially recorded the same as a 3 and 3/4 inch quarter track mono or stereo open reel recorder, an adapter was devised and released in 1961 that allowed for loading of two small three inch open reels into a standard Sound Tape machine.

Ludwig Von Drake

As part of a cross-promotion with Disney, with ads for the Sound Tape system airing during Disney's Wonderful World of Color, in 1963 a large plush Ludwig Von Drake with a speaker inside with a small external amplifier and a prerecorded tape cartridge of Paul Frees reading some Disney stories was included as a promotion with some RCA cartridge recorders. A recording of the tape can be found here.

	photo source

Roberts tape cartridge adapter

An adapter mechanism allowing for playback of a Sound Tape cartridge on a Roberts tape recorder was planned and allegedly released depending on the source - Tape Recording implies it was, Billboard says it wasn't and was eventually replaced by a normal cartridge machine because the adapter would have cost as much as a normal deck anyways.

SDS Magpak

Circa 1964 Scientific Data Systems released a magnetic tape drive system for their 900 series of minicomputers which had the capacity of four of their existing magnetic tape drives. The Magpak drive incorporated two "dual track" tape recorders that used rebadged Sound Tape cartridges and transports. Data was recorded across four tracks in a similar manner to mono Sound Tape recordings. An advertising leaflet for the system can be found here. More information about the tapes from Herb Johnson, who found one of these Magpaks, can be found here.

Ritter Audiac

In the early 1960s, a new method of dentistry anesthetic was developed that involved playing a mix of music and white noise that proved to be effective on about two thirds of patients. Several of these systems existed, and the Ritter Audiac (a portmanteau of Audio Analgesiac) system used a Bell Sound Tape recorder to play stereo audio. (Popular Electronics, January 1961)