I have written many times about my friend Alan (the friend former known as Jeff, sorry no cool symbol) and how we have created letters back and forth since junior high in the form of cassette tapes. Talking about whatever was happening in our lives, keeping a conversation going for, as of this year, 44 years.
Alan made the first tape as he and his mother drove away from Ann Arbor to their new home in Denver.
“Jeff Byers On The Road”
These tapes became a staple of life. I carried around with little to no embarrassment a shoebox sized tape recorder in the early days. Recording trips on my bike, friends at school and anything that seemed interesting. We played music sometimes too. Each tape was both a time capsule and missive.
We amassed a collection of each other’s tapes and lorded over them like Golum and his precious.
Here is my collection of Alan tapes:
We used all manner of tape recorders. Back in the day I would carry around a tape recorder the size of a shoe box without a care in the world. I upgraded once in a while and eventually ended up using an Aiwa that also became my bootleg recorder during those years.
I also used recording directly into my stereo tape deck, used a Mr. Microphone and even tried to do a VHS tape and I think I even tried my hand at some micro-cassette letters.
Then came the days of CD’s.
Nothing was worse than running out of tape when you still had things to say and I thought CD’s were the answer we were missing! Damn near endless amount of time at our fingertips. I used my tape deck plugged directly into my computer to make digital audio files and then added MP3 songs along with my ramblings and I sent it out. I got Alan’s first:
“La Premier Disc”
This method did not take off.
The era of digital conversion of our earlier tapes was a side project around this time and Alan graciously sent me my tapes to convert and everything analog was preserved for generations to come and fits nicely on an external drive and a triple backup. Quadruple if you count Alan’s copies.
The importance of these tapes in my life is a little hard to express. Invaluable seems weak. It’s likely impossible to adequately explain their significance to anyone.
Anyway, at some point, I started using my phone and an app to do recordings. This worked pretty well sound quality wise and I have to say that over the years I leaned on these recordings as a bit of therapy and recorded A LOT.
However, I ended up keeping months worth of recordings and sending them via Dropbox (which didn’t work great for some reason, and then later collected them 6 months to a year’s worth at a time and sent them to Alan on a flashdrive. This was less than optimal too. “Here is what happened to me so many months ago that it isn’t really relevant anymore”.
While I was out in Seattle visiting Alan this year he gave me the files he had recently recorded (he’s using his phone now too), and I brought my latest. Then we devised a new method of delivery: Google Drive!
We did some tests to make sure we could both access the new folder and files there and away we went. After the trip and the Holidays I sent my December recordings and he sent his. It worked. In fact, now they are available to me on my phone AND my computer. Wherever I am, there they are. It was an added bonus that I hadn’t even thought of.
I have hoarded them like a heat miser hoards his flame and doled each recording out for special moments. It has been fantastic!
The downside that we both noted is that there is no longer a cover of a tape or CD to draw or craft since there is nothing physical anymore. There is very little in the way of the creativity that we used to put so much into. Alan did go to the trouble of naming his files.
Overachiever.
So, analog is now the tape unspooled on the side of the road, and digital is keeping us up to date… but stripped of its analog creativity.
Quite a change the years of process and product, with the only thing that has remained the same throughout is our friendship.
Thanks Alan!
The Aural Retentive 