Cassette Player/Recorder recommendations...

[JimBob83]

I'm the guy in my band that likes to record everything, as we tend to come up with some quite interesting stuff on the spot but none of us can ever remember what the hell we were doing.  I occasionally bring my Mac to rehearsals and use the built in mic but to be honest it sounds awful.

I really want to just record onto cassette because when I used to record my bands in my teens it was on tape and it seemed to handle the drums and bass a lot better than the digital stuff I've used more recently.

Plus you hear all these early demos made by bands on boomboxes and they are great sounding, you just have to find the sweet spot in the room and you're laughing.

So, my question is are there any classic models of old tape recorder or boomboxes that I should look out for on ebay as there's so much shite on there. and it keeps putting me off looking.

Cheers.

[Hemisaurus]

So, my question is are there any classic models of old tape recorder or boomboxes that I should look out for on ebay as there's so much shite on there. and it keeps putting me off looking.

Cheers.

No.

[Ranbat]

I have always favored Panasonic desktop tape recorder/players. I've tried using standard tape decks with mic inputs with different degrees of success. I think the thing is, most of those old desktops have a built in condenser mic. Really, old 4-track tape machines can be had for very little and have phantom power to run a condenser mic. So, you could go that way. I tried an old Akai M-9 reel-to-reel and was pretty disappointed in the results. I'd try an MXL 990 Shockmount condenser mic with an old 4-track. Record the band and then put the vox on later.

[spookstrickland]

I would look for a Marantz hand-held field recorder.  These were the standard in remote recording for Radio Broadcasting for years. They are built to very high standards and are usually well taken care off.  They also have auxiliary inputs and outputs that gives you lots of options.

[liquidsmoke]

I can't help you with a specific model but if they are cheap enough I'd try one or two and see how they are. The trick is to use something that doesn't clip if it's digital(my Tascam DR-03 does even when the input volume is as low as it goes so I have to hook a mic up to it) or doesn't distort too much if it's analog. I still use a small one speaker cassette boom box unit to record riffs when I'm writing songs by myself but I'm usually not playing super loud so I don't know how well it handles band practice sound levels. I could check for you next practice but the mic is pretty shitty on it so I don't think you'd want to get one. It's clear enough that I can at least make out my riffs at lower volumes. Cassette is very convenient in that sense for sure.

I've starting uploading band practices from my Tascam onto dropbox.com for the new drummer so he can review his ideas. Sounds like you guys would really benefit from doing something like this.