Description:
The Cassette Recorder, also referred to as the Tape Recorder, is a somewhat-rare object that can be found most commonly in The Atelier. It can also be handed out by Entity 137 if he becomes particularly fond of someone or if he sees they are struggling to get through the Backrooms.
Visually, it appears almost completely identical to an Onn. cassette recorder that can be found in the Frontrooms, but with a heightened level of durability. In addition to this, the “RECORD” and “STOP/EJECT” buttons do not work. It is presumed to help prevent the cassette tape inside from getting removed or overridden. As of now, the only known way to remove the tape is by completely destroying the recorder.
There are currently 4 known variants of music that can be played from them, all of which are identical to the ones that have been heard being played by Entity 137. To find audio recordings of these songs, view the Audio Logs section of this page.
Effects
When in an active state, the music has a sort of “area effect” within 10 feet (3.048 meters) on all sides of it. Much like how Entity 137’s music works, the majority of aggressive entities will become docile or passive when inside of the area effect’s boundaries. Some entities have been observed to even avoid the boundary altogether. However, it doesn’t work on as many entities as Entity 137’s music does, so it’s not a 100% foolproof solution against aggressive entities.
The cassette inside will never break, regardless of what happens to the recorder itself. If the cassette is removed and placed inside of a separate tape recorder, it plays the same tunes, but it loses its entity-repellent abilities. It is recommended that wanderers and personnel do not try to remove the cassette tape due to this reason.
Discovery
The first known sighting of Object 34 was on August 6th, 2001, when Backforums user “@yourmomisgay” posted on the site saying: [sic] “Bro, some weird ass tall dude playing music just came up to me, offered me some water, and gave me some tape recorder thing?? Wtf????” They then followed up with a separate post: [sic] “The music sounds nice at least IG lol,” which was accompanied by a video of them pressing the “PLAY” button and letting the song play.
Function
To use the Cassette Recorder, simply press the “PLAY” button to begin the recording.1 The rest of the buttons are quite self-explanatory: “REWIND” quickly reverses the tape to any point that the recording has already passed. “FAST FWD” quickly speeds forwards in the tape. “PAUSE” stops the recording temporarily until you press “PLAY” again. The length of the audio recording varies between cassettes, but they’re generally no shorter than 2 minutes and no longer than 5 minutes.
Theories
Research into why the music has the effect it does is currently ongoing, as well as how the tapes are formed and why they only work inside of their original recorders. As of writing, not much information has been found, but there have been many theories. These theories are as follows:
1. The music has the ability to affect the chemical components of the brain that impact aggression or negative emotions, thus “calming” the majority of entities within it.
This theory has been partially proven. Experiments have found that most living creatures that are under some form of distress or experiencing any sort of negative emotion calm down at a quicker pace than if they were to calm down on their own. However, whether this is simply a natural result of hearing pleasant music or if it actually has any effect on brain chemicals is currently unknown.
2. Entities with an extreme level of aggression or that are particularly prone to violence aren’t affected by the music because the music doesn’t change chemical activity within the brain enough to lessen it.
This goes hand-in-hand with the first theory, and many agree it is very likely. However, there is no proof of this as of yet, so it’s still just a theory.
3. Some entities avoid the cassette recorder because they simply don’t like the music it plays or the way it makes them feel.
This is a much less agreed-on theory, but many still keep it in mind as a possibility for the sake of research.
4. The cassette recorders have a special mechanism inside of them that activates the anomalous effect of the cassette.
Again, many researchers agree that this is very likely, but there is no proof or evidence to back it up since there is no known way to open the cassette recorders without destroying them almost completely.
There have been several other theories over time, but all of them either were not significant enough to take into account or were completely disregarded as a whole.
Audio Logs
As of right now, no clear audio recordings have been acquired. This page will be updated as soon as any are gathered.