This is not a neutral act. Choosing a cassette means choosing material autonomy over digital enclosure, finitude over endless capitalist streaming loops. There are four different types of cassettes, and like everything under capitalism, they reflect uneven development and class hierarchy.
Type I tapes are standard ferric oxide magnetic tapes, also called normal bias or ferric tapes. They are the proletariat of magnetic media: affordable, widely available, often dismissed, yet perfectly capable of carrying revolutionary sound.
Type II tapes are made of chromium dioxide, known as high bias or chrome tapes. They reproduce higher frequencies better and generally sound clearer, representing a modest technological advance that remains accessible to the many.
Type III tapes are FeCr formulations, a historical attempt to combine the bass response of Type I with the highs of Type II. This compromise experiment failed, was unpopular, and is now rare.
Type IV tapes, known as metal tapes, use pure metal particles instead of oxide. They offer the highest sound quality but are expensive and scarce, proof that even in analogue culture, material privilege exists.
Your tape deck may automatically recognise which type you insert, or you may have to select it manually. Do not blindly trust automation. Know your tools and assert control over them.

No production without means of production. To dub tapes outside capitalist platforms, you will need: a tape deck, a receiver with speakers to collectively monitor what is being produced, a source to record from, such as a record player, MP3 player or CD player, all of which can be repurposed against their intended market logic, audio cables and power!

Make sure power is supplied to everything you have assembled: the tape deck, the receiver, and all other components that need external energy. Take the audio cables and connect the “out” ports of the tape deck to one of the “in” ports on the receiver. This allows you to hear, in real time, what is being inscribed onto magnetic tape. Connect the speakers to the designated ports on the receiver so sound can become a shared, physical presence. Test this setup with a CD or MP3 player if necessary. Then connect your chosen playback device to the “in” or “record” ports of the tape deck. Some receivers provide a dedicated “out” jack for tape recording; if yours does, route this signal to the tape deck and connect your playback device to the receiver instead.

Before recording, ensure that the rewrite-protect tabs are present or that the holes are covered. These tabs are nothing but a primitive form of property enforcement; covering them with tape is a small but meaningful act of sabotage against restrictions on reuse. Make sure the tape is fast-forwarded. The brown magnetic ribbon is the site of inscription, where sound becomes matter. Use a pencil to rewind the cassette by hand. Insert it into the spool with less visible tape and turn until the brown section is centered.

Before you begin dubbing, ensure the incoming signal is not too loud, or the entire tape will distort into unintended saturation. Distortion can be beautiful, feel free to experiment with it. Insert the tape, press the record button, but do not press play yet. Start playing music on your source device. Observe the gain meters on the tape deck. When the signal reaches red, you approach overload. Keep the loudest sections hovering between green and red, at the threshold between clarity and rupture.

When everything is prepared, rewind or reset your source material to the beginning. Confirm that the record light on the tape deck is on, then press play on the tape deck and, almost simultaneously, press play on your source device. Production has begun. Listen while recording; presence is part of the process. Do not touch buttons unless you intend to interrupt the flow. If you are recording individual tracks manually, press pause on the tape deck once a song ends. Select the next track on your source device, adjust levels if necessary, then resume recording. Leaving one or two seconds of silence between songs enables fast-forward search functions during playback, allowing the machine to locate tracks autonomously. Recording without pauses, however, creates a continuous sonic sequence, a collective flow without individual separation. When one side of the cassette is finished, remove it, turn it over, fast-forward again with your pencil, and reinsert it. Now continue recording Side B.

Listen to the tape from start to finish. Notice imperfections, accidents, unexpected artefacts. These are not failures but traces of material reality. If nothing demands correction, congratulations, you have produced a mixtape outside capitalist distribution channels. Place it in a freshly designed slipcase and gift it to a comrade. Circulation replaces ownership.

To multiply without platforms, acquire a second tape deck and use it as the source device. Place the finished tape into the sending deck and a blank or old cassette into the receiving deck. Begin the recording process again. This is duplication without corporations, reproduction without surveillance, scale without CEOs. This is how tapes spread.