Hi Mike:
There was at least one talking book format that certainly did - and still
does exist. Brilliance Corp. from Michigan records program material in mono
on all four tracks of a stereo cassette and sells a earphone adapter that
switches from L to R -- but both L and R were recorded in the same direction
so if you play it on a stereo cassette player you hear both tracks but in
the same direction. To be more specific; first you listen to the L track
then you flip the cassette and listen the L track going the opposite
direction then flip the cassette again but also switch the adapter so you
are listening to the R track in the original direction and then in the other
direction. They also use a Lexicon "Compander" to time compress the audio
about 10% ( I know, in audio terms a compander doesn't do time compression
but it was the name of the rack mounted computer Lexicon sold for around
$8,000). The result is you get the entire book, unedited on usually just
one more cassette than the other publishers use to give you a 50% edited
version. I designed the system for them back in the early 1980s and (after
reneging on their contract with me) they started doing everything in-house
in the late 1980s. They continue putting out around a dozen books a year.
Great idea and really excellent narration/acting - just be careful getting
into a business relationship with them ;-)
Brian

"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
news:znr1080691077k@trad...

In article
writes:

I seem to recall that early talking book recordings on
cassette were sometimes prepared for a special
cassette machine

machines had reverse play and head switching to play a
single coherent mono track continuously from track 1
through track 4.

The thought had crossed my mind. Westinghouse made a cassette recorder
that
allowed all four tracks to be recorded on independently. However,
Philips did
not like such machines, as they destroyed the mono/stereo compatibility
that
had
been consciously designed into the system.

I thought about a special talking book format too, but I suspect that
if it ever really existed, it was gone by the time cassette players
became common in cars.

TEAC had to get a special license from Philips to make the 4-track
cassette PortaStudio because it didn't conform to the cassette track
recording standard format.



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