HiPac (stylized as HIPAC) (pronounced as high-pack), is an audio
tape cartridge
A tape cartridge, also known as a tape cart, is a storage medium used for audio recording, video recording, or data storage that includes a magnetic tape housed in a plastic unit that contains a single reel for the tape.
The format has become obso ...
format, introduced in August 1971 on the Japanese consumer market by
Pioneer and discontinued in 1973 due to lack of demand. In 1972 it only achieved a market share of 3% in equipping new cars. In the mid 1970s, the format was repurposed as a children's educational toy called and was used in the
analog tape delay "Melos Echo Chamber".
Cartridge
HiPac is a successor of the
PlayTape
PlayTape is a audiotape format and mono or stereo playback system introduced in 1966 by Frank Stanton (entrepreneur), Frank Stanton. It is a two-track system, and was launched to compete with existing 4-track cartridge technology. The tape cart ...
cartridge, which had been licensed by
Tokyo Shibaura Electric around 1970, and had similar dimensions of , which is closer to
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens and his team at the Dutch company ...
than other
cartridges containing an endless loop tape. Depending on tape length, the weight of each cartridge is about and used the wider four-track
magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic ...
of the compact cassette with The four audio tracks are separated into two stereo programs. The second program is recorded in the same direction as the first, unlike the Compact Cassette.
[Major Specifications of the "HIPAC" Cartridge, Billboard ]
There are two specified tape speeds: 60 minutes at
ips or ~4.8 cm/s, and 30 minutes at ips or ~9.5 cm/s.
The tape speed is detected automatically by a notch in the cartridge's case. The slower of these tape speeds is identical to the Compact Cassette.
HiPac Council
In addition to Pioneer, the following companies participated.
* Apollon Music Industry (Apron Ongaku Kōgyō, from 2010
Bandai
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered ...
Music Entertainment)
*
Clarion
Clarion may refer to:
Music
* Clarion (instrument), a type of trumpet used in the Middle Ages
* The Register (music), register of a clarinet that ranges from B4 to C6
* A Trumpet (organ stop), trumpet organ stop that usually plays an octave abov ...
*
Kodansha
is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...
*
Sharp Corporation
is a Japanese electronics company. It is headquartered in Sakai, Osaka, and was founded by Tokuji Hayakawa in 1912 in Honjo, Tokyo, and established as the Hayakawa Metal Works Institute in Abeno-ku, Osaka, in 1924. Since 2016, it is majority o ...
* Tokyo Shibaura Electric (
Toshiba
is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...
)
* Toshiba Music Industry (
EMI Music Japan
, formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. Wh ...
)
*
Nippon Columbia
, often pronounced ''Korombia'', operating internationally as , is a Japanese record label founded in 1910 as Nipponophone Co., Ltd. It affiliated itself with the Columbia Graphophone Company of the United Kingdom and adopted the standard UK C ...
*
Hitachi, Ltd.
() is a Japanese multinational conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable energy, railway systems, healthcare products, and f ...
*
Mitsui Bussan
is a Japanese general trading company ( ''sogo shosha'') and a core member of the Mitsui Group. For much of the post-war period, Mitsui & Co. has been among the largest of the five great ''sogo shosha'' (Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Itochu, Sumitomo, M ...
Home Appliance Sales
See also
*
PlayTape
PlayTape is a audiotape format and mono or stereo playback system introduced in 1966 by Frank Stanton (entrepreneur), Frank Stanton. It is a two-track system, and was launched to compete with existing 4-track cartridge technology. The tape cart ...
*
8-track cartridge
The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic-tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, ...
*
Stereo-Pak
The Muntz Stereo-Pak, commonly known as the 4- track cartridge, is a magnetic tape sound recording cartridge technology.
The Stereo-Pak cartridge was inspired by the Fidelipac 2-track monaural (audio & cue tracks, later 3-track for stereo) ...
*
Album era
The album era (sometimes, album-rock era) was a period in popular music, usually defined as the mid-1960s through the mid-2000s, in which the album—a collection of songs issued on physical media—was the dominant form of recorded music expr ...
*
Timeline of audio formats
An audio format is a medium for sound recording and reproduction. The term is applied to both the physical recording media and the recording formats of the audio frequency, audio content—in computer science it is often limited to the audio file ...
*
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, Mechanical system, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of ...
*
Birotron
References
External links
*
TechmoanHipac - The lost tape : Pioneer's forgotten 1970s cassette rival YouTube, 29 September 2017
{{Audio format
Audio storage
Tape recording
Discontinued media formats
History of sound recording
1971 in music
1971 in technology
Products introduced in 1971