Ambient Music With A Library Of Congress C1 Cassette Player

In his latest video, synthesist Hainbach takes a look at the Library Of Congress C1 Cassette Player, and using it for creating ambient music.

The C1 has some unique features, making it an interesting tool for experimenting with cassette tapes. It offers variable speed tape playback, half speed switching, and the ability to play both sides of a tape without flipping the tape

Here’s another performance featuring a C1 and other cassette players, playing tape loops, via Amulets (Randall Taylor).

Introduced in 1981, the C1 is pretty much unobtanium, since they’re designed for the blind, labeled ‘Property US Government’, possibly banned from being resold, and were made of plastic over three decades ago.

If you’ve used the C1, leave a comment and share your thoughts on it!

10 thoughts on “Ambient Music With A Library Of Congress C1 Cassette Player

  1. Hint: all old cassette players had a trimpot inside to adjust the tape speed. Just wire a poti to it and mount it somewhere to have a speed control up to +/- 50%…..

  2. I love the creative use of the Spaceship. The smooth cylinder for the smooth tape, and the jagged tail fin part for the crumbled tape.

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