Lou Ottens (1926-2021)

[Piet De Ridder]

A few days ago, on March 6th, Lou Ottens passed away. The name probably won’t mean much to most people, but Ottens is the man who, in 1963, as an engineer working for Philips, invented the audio cassette , a compact audio carrier which revolutionized the way people all over the world consumed music from the mid-60’s onwards right through the 70’s and 80’s until it was replaced by the compact disc which was … ALSO developed under Ottens’ supervision.

If you’re still in your teens, twenties or thirties, the importance of Ottens’ work might elude you, but the fact is: the man changed the lives of millions of people (and that change went far beyond the realm of music, see below). I know he changed mine. I’ve spent I-don’t-know-how-much time of my life listening to cassettes and compiling my own. And my very first recording device was a Tascam Portastudio which made it possible to do 4-track recordings on an audio cassette. In other words: I probably wouldn’t be here, and a very different sort of musician, if it weren’t for Ottens.)

And the cassette is more than just an audio storage medium. It’s a sound. (Rap, hip-hop, dub, the early years of EDM, acid jazz, leftfield lo-fi and trip-hop, etc. would all be unthinkable without it.) And it's a sound which is still treasured by many musicians. You wouldn’t wanna have to feed all the musicians and producers who still have a cassette-deck hooked up in their studio to bounce audio onto and then import it back in their DAW, just to get that characteristic flavour of the audio cassette in their mixes.
Not forgetting the fact that a handful of plug-in developers have tried to capture the singular magic of the audio cassette into a plug-in. Thus far, none have quite succeeded.

Cassettes also served as catalysts for important social change. From Wikipedia: “Their small size, durability and ease of copying helped bring underground rock and punk music behind the Iron Curtain, creating a foothold for Western culture among the younger generations. For similar reasons, cassettes became popular in developing nations.
One of the most famous political uses of cassette tapes was the dissemination of sermons by the Ayatollah Khomeini throughout Iran before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, in which Khomeini urged the overthrow of the regime of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. During the military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990) a "cassette culture" emerged where blacklisted music or music that was by other reasons not available as records was shared. Some pirate cassette producers created brands such as Cumbre y Cuatro that have in retrospect received praise for their contributions to popular music. Armed anti-dictatorship groups such as Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) made use of cassettes to propagandize their struggle.
In 1970s India, cassettes were blamed for bringing unwanted Christian and Islamic influences into traditionally Sikh and Hindu areas. Cassette technology was a booming market for pop music in India, drawing criticism from conservatives.”

Anyway, if the above leaves you more or less indifferent, you don't have to join me of course, but I want to expres my biggest, deepest, sincerest and profoundest thanks to Lou Ottens and his team.



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[wst3]

I loved cassettes, and I've hung on to several that still work, and I'm searching for one concert that I had on cassette that, sadly was eaten by a friends brand new car stereo. He returned it the next day!

My "studio" began with the Fostex X-15, and well, here I am now. You do the math.

Thank you Piet - I did not see the announcement, but I was certainly aware of Herr Otten's accomplishments - and from the videos I just watched I imagine he was a lot of fun to be around.

[Lawrence]

Fascinating history lesson. I knew nothing about him and owe him quite a debt...R.I.P.

I was a recording musician by the mid 70s, but my first personal studio was a Foster 4 track cassette recorder, and it was a major step for me.

[ComposerGuy]

RIP Lou. Your contribution to our lives cannot even be imagined.

[Guy Rowland]

The first time I heard a Walkman - probably not the genuine article but still - it felt like entering a new universe. I bought one and music became the soundtrack to my adolescence, walking to and from the local town with this incredible sound in my head, getting lost in sonic worlds. I could never quite believe it was possible.

Thank you Lou.

[Mikeybabes]

I’ll be forever grateful for the mix-tape.

[The Saxer]

Big influence! My sister got a Phillips Cassette Recorder in the early 70s and I remember the whole family talking about "that little thing" where all the music fits on!
When I got my own one a few years later the journey started: I recorded all main themes from TV films and series holding the little microphone in front of the TV speaker in the living room. Themes from Pink Panther, Kojak, Get Smart, Magnum, Rockford, Columbo, Miss Marple, UFO... all with massive humming from the TV tube and my mother talking in the background.

[Guy Rowland]

When I got my own one a few years later the journey started: I recorded all main themes from TV films and series holding the little microphone in front of the TV speaker in the living room. Themes from Pink Panther, Kojak, Get Smart, Magnum, Rockford, Columbo, Miss Marple, UFO... all with massive humming from the TV tube and my mother talking in the background.

I did this!

When we got a tiny portable black and white 2nd set, I set it up in my bedroom with the cassette recorder. I recorded Fawlty Towers, and replayed it endlessly until become one of those bores that could quote verbatim. Still can. It was so weird to then watch the next rerun on TV and then get all the visual jokes I heard the audience laughing at but couldn't remember.

Another cassette phenomenon - like half people my age, I recorded the songs I liked from the weekly Top 40 countdown. By that time I'd migrated to the cassette deck, so the quality was good, and I could adjust the levels manually (auto-gain used to drive me insane). Several times I recorded a song I ended up not liking, but I'd just catch the first few seconds of a different song I faded out that I ended up loving. I can never hear the first few glorious notes of Orange Juice's Rip It Up and not think of my terrible artistic blunder in not recording it back then.

My first cassette deck was a Sharp with piano key transport. After a while the transport keys got very unreliable, and would just stop playing or recording. I used to wedge a marker pen between the down and up keys to keep it going... went on like that for years.

[wst3]

My dad bought one a Norelco cassette recorder in the early 70s. It was supposed to replace his Wolensak open reel recorder. It never did because his kids kind of took it over. Our Top 40 AM station did a countdown of the top 100 songs every New Years Eve, and I recorded several of them using the microphone technique. I found one of those tapes, made in 1972, a couple years ago. It was awful, or rather it sounded awful, and yet it brought a smile to my face.

Not sure exactly when, but sometime in high school, I finally figured out how to tap off the speakers in the tabletop radio to feed the cassette recorder input. And it worked. Haven't found any of those tapes yet.

Funny tale - during the countdown in 1972 one of the boss jocks made a comment after playing a Carly Simon tune that from the album cover it was clear she had no secrets. Pretty tame stuff today, but when the next song ended there was a new DJ at the helm. I don't remember if he was fired or just suspended, but I remember that nonetheless.