[ I've had tapes get squealy, literally, when I've played them over [ and over and over and over (like YGSYTAE). They get wound too [ tight, supposedly you can kinda tap them on a table and shake them [ lose, but I've never had much luck. Lots of times tho, they will [ sound fine in some other tape player. You can use fast wind to loosen up a tightly-wound tape. You can also get a tape head demagnetizer. An old tape player will pick up lots of magnetism over time - one good way to magnetise a piece of metal is to rub a magnet against it, and cassette tapes are rubbing against the playback heads all the time. Demagnetising the tape head won't immediately make your problem tapes play perfectly, but regular maintenance will prevent this from happening (and don't loan your tapes out, either). [ That's when I left one at home and my mother found it and liked it! [ My mom can be pretty cool! (except she likes Yanni too, eewwwww) Hey, Yanni isn't 100% bad. His first couple of albums were genuinely impressive pieces. Electronic orchestral. But then he decided that he wanted to date John Derek's ex-wife, Linda Evans. (John Derek [rip] is the guy who married Bo Derek, she was his 4th wife and actually lasted until his death). Somehow, Yanni thought that by writing sappy songs for Linda, he could win her heart. Well, it actually worked, and they did date for about 9 years. But those of us who were fans of Yanni, enjoyed the first few good albums, and went to several very impressive live performances - we had to run screaming from the sappy stuff that came out later. For a performer using electronic instruments like synthesizers, who recorded in multi-track digital studios when they were brand new, Yanni managed to create a really powerful live show. He hired several musicians to learn all the parts of the music and play them live, instead of using sequencers. That way, the musicians could interact and keep the music in sync with each other, rather than to a computer clock. The first tour I saw had a live drummer and three keyboardists, including Yanni. The next tour had an even larger band, with electric violin, a horn section, vocals, keyboards, and drums. Groups like Tangerine Dream had more computers on stage than people - at least in that era. I imagine that Yello live (which I've never seen) would be best with a full band of percussion, ethnic instruments, and real drums instead of simply playing the Logic Audio files from their studio. Brian