The Personics System

FROM: Robert
DATE: Sunday October 15, 2000 -- 1:39:52AM

That definitely falls short of a real mix tape since selection is limited and you make it for yourself. Then again, nothing in a mall record store really makes much sense.

On a semi-related note...on Thursday night at the CDepot in Fairfax, VA one of the employees played a snippet of a David Faustino rap. I nearlly soiled myself.

Oh, and a belated happy birthday, Ryan.

FROM: Tom Sharples
DATE: Friday February 9, 2001 -- 3:27:29PM

Hi, I was one of the co-founders of Personics and the Engineering VP. It was really fun and exciting while it lasted, bleeding edge technology at the time, and I'm glad to see we are not forgotten!

FROM: Robert
DATE: Friday February 9, 2001 -- 3:28:51PM

I'm glad one of the founders could follow my blasting of his product. That gives me cred, right?

FROM: Ryan
DATE: Friday February 9, 2001 -- 7:44:39PM

Tom -- Hi! Thanks for stopping by... despite Robert's disapproval, I dug the whole idea behind the Personics system, especially as a young teenager without much money. What are you up to these days?

FROM: Mary
DATE: Thursday April 12, 2001 -- 11:06:12AM

Yesterday I went to Sam Goody to see if they still have this service. I have three tapes which I love and was hoping to make a new one for an upcoming party. Too Bad!

FROM:
DATE: Saturday April 28, 2001 -- 7:19:39AM

Thank you for putting this Personics recap on the web. I woulda thought by now this system wouldve been revived by the internet.. it was great!

FROM: Tom Sharples
DATE: Tuesday June 12, 2001 -- 2:22:04PM

For an interesting write-up on the entire history of Personics, have a look at the current (June 26, 2001) issue of Business 2.0. Later on this month, it should also be viewable on their website,
http://www.business2.com/magazine/index.htm

Cheers!

FROM: Amber
DATE: Monday June 25, 2001 -- 8:14:59PM

How cool to find this site! I was recently going through my tapes in preparation of a yard sale and came upon my Personics tape. Or rather, tapes. I had ordered one through the mail, and I named it "Hot Hitz Mixx One" (as I anticipated making more tapes). However, the aggregate time for the songs (20 of them) was too long, so I received TWO tapes--both named "Hot Hitz Mixx ONE"! Well, I did a lot of explaining over the years, but it wasn't until last weekend that I whited out the second title and wrote in "Two."
(Now I'm looking to make a custom CD so I can get rid of some of my CDs that have only one or two good songs!)

FROM: Ryan
DATE: Monday June 25, 2001 -- 11:12:06PM

I heard someone talking behind me in line yesterday about a Personics-like CD compilation machine at Best Buy. Since I never foot in the Store of Satan, I can't verify it. Can any of the unholy among you validate this claim?

FROM: carol burnell
DATE: Monday August 19, 2002 -- 9:08:02 am

would like a copy,both cd andtape of rhapsody in blue---complete recording of this piece only---please advise---thanks

FROM: Paul [E-Mail]
DATE: Monday August 19, 2002 -- 9:09:50 am

That's a popular item here at Ping Heavy Industries. The average cost per media (available on album, 8-track, CD, and cassette) is $1,940.63.

FROM: david sutherland
DATE: Friday January 17, 2003 -- 8:42:33 am

I picked up one of the *internal* personics CD discs in the early/mid 90's in Rancho Cucamonga at an outdoor computer swap meet. This is a computer CD, not a music CD and contains the compressed music without any index.

The guy had a huge stack - I think they were all the same disc number-!

I always wanted to see if there was a way to actually decode what was on the disc.

Anybody want to tell how they were encoded?

FROM: Bob [E-Mail]
DATE: Wednesday March 19, 2003 -- 11:57:46 pm

I had one of those Personics tapes done for music Dad & I could listen to - especially on trips to car racing events.

More than likely, I'll post the line-up for it on my site very soon after posting this msg.

Having done a little disk jockeying while in college, I have gathered a huge collection of assorted music. (I managed the inventory for the Penn State University Altoona campus radio station WARC in the late 1980's.)

I would be interested in finding partnerships w/ either the recording industry, local artists or commercial companies in developing a new version of Personics. Columbia House tried their own version of it, but I'm not certain whether they currently still offer that.

I'm posting my personal collection on my site. I wouln't mind getting paid to manage music inventories for retailers.

Having over 10 years fixing computers and using various software, I have hand-coded web pages and wrote programs that generate HTML code.

Since Personics was such aa good idea, I'd like to be a part in reviving that idea.

Feel free to contact me through my website.

FROM: Bob [E-Mail]
DATE: Thursday March 20, 2003 -- 12:10:07 am

In regards to the CD of music (David Sutherland posting), it may have been an early MPEG format, perhaps even in MP3 format. Try importing the music w/ MP3 player software. Music Match seems to dominate the MP3 player market from what I've heard.

Most music now exists as either WAVE or MP3 formats, although guys I went to college w/ used Amiga & ATARI computers to tinker w/ music. Tandy computers even had a program that allowed users to use MIDI instruments (like synthesizers/keyboards use) to compose music by showing how it would look as sheet music. I would imagine that if the files aren't WAVE or MP3 format, they are probably related to those programs that use MIDI software.

FROM: Mark
DATE: Thursday April 17, 2003 -- 8:43:13 pm

Hi Tom!

To Dave:
I was a Firmware Engineer at Personics.
Personics CDs used a proprietary compression scheme and the disks ran at 2.5x speed. Even if you decompress it, its not normal audio. It was recorded at 8x speed before being put on the CD.
The cassette deck also ran at 8x. This was done so the customer wouldn't have long to wait.

Mark

FROM: kathy
DATE: Wednesday May 21, 2003 -- 5:28:20 pm

Really enjoyed finding and reading this article about Personics, I only have one, but thought they were an excellent idea, 2 of the songs I had put on it were California Dreaming and Society's Child. Wish they would bring them back!

FROM: Tom Kennedy
DATE: Wednesday May 21, 2003 -- 8:05:01 pm

Visited America in the'80s ( my fiancee was working there) and was wowed by the Personics booth in a Povidence record store. Made anumvber of tapes but was so short of creativity that I gave them names like "Now that's What I call Unrelated Music"(a spoof on an English series of compilation records) and so on. It introduced me to soul music which I'd never got really into in Britain and I was impresssed immensely by the whole thing. Came back to blighty and found no-onn e had ever herard of it and thought I'd made it up or dreamt it. Why in the world did it ever die out?

FROM: Lisa
DATE: Thursday August 7, 2003 -- 7:23:16 pm

Wow! And I thought I was having a BAD DAY BEFORE!!!! I have THREE of said Personics tapes that I had made - one from the 60's, the 70's and the 80's.

I came home and was attempting to make one for my eldest daughter's birthday...imagine my surprise! And everyone always made fun of me for being a "goody-two-shoes"!

Peace out dawgs!!

FROM: Kirsten
DATE: Friday August 29, 2003 -- 10:36:16 am

I loved Personics and still have my two tapes. Where else could I still hear "Lets Go All the Way" or "Break My Stride?" These are the tapes that hold the gems NOT played on the 80's revival weekends.

I recently stumbled upon Eastern Recordings, though, an online service that customizes CD's. They have a decent selection of songs and even some Karaoke, if you're into that. I have a slammin' 19 song CD on the way right now, around $30, but worth every penny, considering I haven't heard "Come Dancing" by the Kinks in years and years its worth it.

Check out Eastern Recordings and you might find that long lost song!

Enjoy,
Kirsten

FROM: ML Starkey
DATE: Friday March 12, 2004 -- 11:27:07 am

the "orphaned puppy"link above has been changed:

http://myspot.neteze.com/~space/tapes/orphaned.htm

I have 2 personics tapes from 1990 and I cherish them! Wonder how much it would cost to replace the tunes on them on CD, if they are even available. Personics was a concept way ahead of it's time.

FROM: Joseph
DATE: Friday March 12, 2004 -- 4:25:51 pm

Personics may have been cheap, but we didn't even have money for that. My brother would sit by the radio for hours waiting for a song to come on and then he would record it on a cassette to make mixed tapes--usually on TDK D-90's--cheap voice tapes. Sometimes he would catch an ad. Now it's more entertaining to listen to the old ads for Faygo, Oreos, and Like Cola than to listen to the songs.

FROM: Ty
DATE: Thursday March 25, 2004 -- 12:28:24 pm

The data compression system that Personics used was Dolby AC-1, which was an Adaptive Delta Modulation system. It was a data reduction system but not a perceptual coder as such - it simply transmitted the "difference" between each 16-bit word. Personics was VERY cool - I made a Howard Jones Personics tape at the Sam Goody record store at the DelAmo mall in Torrance, CA, circa 1989.

FROM: Terry
DATE: Friday April 2, 2004 -- 8:12:30 pm

I have one wonderful Personics tape going back to 1992 or so. Would have loved to do more - in fact I have a coupon dated 9/22/92 for 5 free songs! I believe there still is a huge market for a pay per song service that lets a user go through a list and pick singles to record in whatever format works for the user.

FROM: SHARON
DATE: Monday April 12, 2004 -- 4:49:47 pm

i BOUGHT A TAPE, i PLAY IT ALL THE TIME, TRYING TO FIND A TAPE ON POOL AROBICS, ANY IDEA WHERE?

FROM: Ryan [E-Mail]
DATE: Monday April 12, 2004 -- 6:37:37 pm

I'm going to guess in the poolhouse. Am I right?

FROM: Fizz
DATE: Monday November 22, 2004 -- 7:49:34 pm

My personics tape song list:

Ana Ng They Might Be Giants
It's My Life Talk Talk
Down In It Nine Inch Nails
Sweet Jane Velvet Underground
Kids In America Kim Wilde
Ahead Wire
Private Idaho B52s
The Lovecats The Cure
Whip it Devo
Destination Unknown Missing Persons
I'm An Adult Now The Pursuit of Happiness
Saved by Zero The Fixx

(Hope it formats OK) I seem to recall that the songs were in the order that I checked them off from the list. I got mine at a Newbury Comics in the Boston area, not quite a typical "mall" store...

FROM:
DATE: Saturday January 1, 2005 -- 2:51:59 pm

FROM: Zak
DATE: Sunday March 13, 2005 -- 10:37:22 pm

I used iTunes to re-create my Peronics tape. I still have it and listen to the original. I just felt it was time to update it and have it on CD.

Only one song was not available via iTunes: The Smith's "Ask".

Here's my original:

I Don't Like Mondays The Boomtown Rats
It's My Life Talk Talk
I Left My Heart In San Francisco , Tony Bennett
I Melt with You Modern English
Joey Concrete Blonde

Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) Squeeze
Mack the Knife Bobby Darin
Everyday I Write Book Elvis Costello Eyes Without a Face Billy Idol
Me and Bobby McGee Janis Joplin
Ask Minibar
I Say A Little Prayer Warwick, Dionne Walk On the Wild Side Lou Reed
(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls Warwick, Dionne
iTunes Rocks, but it' really just Personics for the 21st century

FROM: Ontario Emperor [E-Mail]
DATE: Sunday May 1, 2005 -- 1:00:36 am

I just read the article "Wal-Mart Unveils Customized Music CDs," and it reminded me of the old Personics system. I trashed my Personics cassettes when I trashed all my other cassettes several years ago, but it was a truly great system for its time.

FROM: Gary Hobish [E-Mail]
DATE: Wednesday December 21, 2005 -- 3:49:20 am

Along with Tom (above) I was at Personics- I was one of the mastering engineers who did the encoding. It was a great ride while it lasted, and one of the best groups of people I've ever had the pleasure to work with. Too bad that "industry standard" territorialism got in the way.

I still have a few of my personal favorite tapes hanging around- a great Christmas music tape, and a collection of One Hit Wonder bands.

FROM: Rich
DATE: Thursday May 4, 2006 -- 3:57:00 pm

I remember the Personics system with great fondness, and still have two tapes I made on it. To be honest, I found this thread from a Google search trying to find if a CD version of the system was still around. One of it's great features was the availability of low-priced or free tracks that were available to pad out what you were buying. That made a great method of hearing new things.