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Michael Beacom[_4_] Michael Beacom[_4_] is offline
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Default Small Recorder Recommendation

Hi All,

A musician friend of mine wants to replace her cassette recorder, and
digitize her cassettes.
She asked for a recommendation of a small recorder to do the job.

It needs to be simple to operate, or at least set up once and left
alone, and gracefully accept a consumer line level source. An onboard
speaker would be a real asset.

My first thought would be Zoom H4n Pro, or H5.
Second thought is Tascam DR-40 or DR-44WL.

How well do the new Zoom and Tascam recorders accept unbalanced -10db inputs?

Budget tops out at about $200.

Any recommendations for other units?

Cheers
Mike

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[email protected] makolber@yahoo.com is offline
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On Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 3:43:07 PM UTC-4, Michael Beacom wrote:
Hi All,

A musician friend of mine wants to replace her cassette recorder, and
digitize her cassettes.
She asked for a recommendation of a small recorder to do the job.

It needs to be simple to operate, or at least set up once and left
alone, and gracefully accept a consumer line level source. An onboard
speaker would be a real asset.

My first thought would be Zoom H4n Pro, or H5.
Second thought is Tascam DR-40 or DR-44WL.

How well do the new Zoom and Tascam recorders accept unbalanced -10db inputs?

Budget tops out at about $200.

Any recommendations for other units?

Cheers
Mike


usually once audio is digitized, most folks want to edit it or make adjustments in a computer based DAW. (Digital audio Work Station) i.e. a PC based editor like Audacity.

So you may want to consider an audio interface via USB and record the audio directly into the PC.

After editing you can convert it to MP3 or whatever you wish.


This works well unless you need to do field recording as well. Then a portable recorder is the way to go.

m
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Michael Beacom[_4_] Michael Beacom[_4_] is offline
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Default Small Recorder Recommendation

On 2017-04-04 20:52:51 +0000, said:

On Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 3:43:07 PM UTC-4, Michael Beacom wrote:
Hi All,

A musician friend of mine wants to replace her cassette recorder, and
digitize her cassettes.
She asked for a recommendation of a small recorder to do the job.

It needs to be simple to operate, or at least set up once and left
alone, and gracefully accept a consumer line level source. An onboard
speaker would be a real asset.

My first thought would be Zoom H4n Pro, or H5.
Second thought is Tascam DR-40 or DR-44WL.

How well do the new Zoom and Tascam recorders accept unbalanced -10db inputs?

Budget tops out at about $200.

Any recommendations for other units?

Cheers
Mike


usually once audio is digitized, most folks want to edit it or make
adjustments in a computer based DAW. (Digital audio Work Station) i.e.
a PC based editor like Audacity.

So you may want to consider an audio interface via USB and record the
audio directly into the PC.

After editing you can convert it to MP3 or whatever you wish.


This works well unless you need to do field recording as well. Then a
portable recorder is the way to go.

m



I'll bring that up when I talk to her, but my impression was that she
isn't interested in doing any production. She may not want to buy both
the recorder and an interface. So, I was going for simple. Not even
sure what kind of computer she owns.

Cheers
Mike


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Mike Rivers[_2_] Mike Rivers[_2_] is offline
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Default Small Recorder Recommendation

On 4/4/2017 3:42 PM, Michael Beacom wrote:

A musician friend of mine wants to replace her cassette recorder, and
digitize her cassettes.
She asked for a recommendation of a small recorder to do the job.


Does she have any idea of what she's in for, assuming she has a pretty
good collection of cassettes?

Does she have a decent cassette deck to play them from? Or is she
planning to use the cassette recorder she wants to replace to do that job?

What will she be doing with the digitized recordings?

What format will she want them in? MP3 (what bit rate?), WAV? Some
lossless compressed format like FLAC? And what will her final product
be? All the handheld recorders record to an SD or SDHC card, and she
probably won't want to deal with a collection of those. Will she want to
transfer them to a computer? To a phone or other media player? Or play
them from the recorder?

Does she care about fidelity or just want to "get that job done"? A
digital copy will never be better than the original cassette unless she
thoroughly works over each one with a computer and some tools, something
that it sounds like she may not be inclined to do.

It needs to be simple to operate, or at least set up once and left
alone, and gracefully accept a consumer line level source. An onboard
speaker would be a real asset.


She should set the record level, or at least check it at several places
in the tape, before starting each transfer. Most of the handhelds are
pretty much one-button to start recording, but some are more difficult
to adjust the record level than others.

My first thought would be Zoom H4n Pro, or H5.
Second thought is Tascam DR-40 or DR-44WL.


Those are probably more advanced than what she needs. A Zoom H1 would
probably do the job just fine and it has very few controls. Record level
setting is done with a pair of up/down buttons, same as the H4n (I
think) The Zoom H2 has a knob to adjust the record level, which might be
more intuitive. The TASCAM DR-40 has up/down buttons for record level,
and the DR-44 has a knob but in order to use it you first have to push a
button, then push the button again in order to get rid of the record
level "knob position" indicators. But the DR-44WL has the advantage of
being able to be remote-controlled from a phone app, which makes
everything easier. The TASCAM DR-22WL is a simpler version with a knob
that sets it up for different recording situations, something like the
"sun, shadow, backlit, indoor" exposure presets on some digital cameras.

The speaker on all of these things is really cheezy and serves only to
check that something is recorded. But most have perfectly decent
headphone outputs.

How well do the new Zoom and Tascam recorders accept unbalanced -10db
inputs?


I just checked my TASCAM DR-40 (I have a DR-40 and DR-44WL), and with
-10 dBV going in with the input gain switch set to Line level, you get a
record level of -16 dBFS with the record level cranked all the way up.
Switch the input gain to Mic level, and with the record level turned all
the way down, -10 dBV gives a record level of about -5 dBFS.

-16 dBFS is a good level for live recording because you have a
reasonable amount of headroom, but given that the source is a cassette,
you don't really need that much headroom, so she might find the level of
her digital recordings to be kind of low. But if her playback recorder
has an output level control, either way should work fine.

Y'know, a mobile phone would probably be just fine, too, and who doesn't
have at least one of those these days, even a retired one that no longer
has a phone account associated with it.


--

For a good time, call http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com
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geoff geoff is offline
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Default Small Recorder Recommendation

On 5/04/2017 10:31 a.m., Mike Rivers wrote:
On 4/4/2017 3:42 PM, Michael Beacom wrote:

A musician friend of mine wants to replace her cassette recorder, and
digitize her cassettes.
She asked for a recommendation of a small recorder to do the job.


Does she have any idea of what she's in for, assuming she has a pretty
good collection of cassettes?


If she doesn't know now, she will shortly after commencing the exercise.

I suggest (if her computer doesn't already have a Line In socket/s) a
cheap-but-good USB interface such as M-Audio Transit USB or a zillion
others.

Also some basic editing freeware (available for all computer platforms)
that can at extract individual tracks from the whole cassette side, fade
in and out the hiss-laden individual tracks, and normalise (or what
Jack-ass calls 'maximize) or otherwise adjust the levels. Then save in
whatever format she desires.

If she saves a WAV or Apple equivalent as well as MP3 etc, she can later
get more sophisticated with trying to resurrect the music without tape hiss.

Maybe able to purchase a bundle that includes everything, and maybe even
some basic noise-reduction (although that will likely remove some of the
programme as well ...).

geoff


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[email protected] jjaj1998@netscape.net is offline
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Default Small Recorder Recommendation

On Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 6:53:06 PM UTC-4, geoff wrote:
On 5/04/2017 10:31 a.m., Mike Rivers wrote:
On 4/4/2017 3:42 PM, Michael Beacom wrote:

A musician friend of mine wants to replace her cassette recorder, and
digitize her cassettes.
She asked for a recommendation of a small recorder to do the job.


Does she have any idea of what she's in for, assuming she has a pretty
good collection of cassettes?


If she doesn't know now, she will shortly after commencing the exercise.

I suggest (if her computer doesn't already have a Line In socket/s) a
cheap-but-good USB interface such as M-Audio Transit USB or a zillion
others.

Also some basic editing freeware (available for all computer platforms)
that can at extract individual tracks from the whole cassette side, fade
in and out the hiss-laden individual tracks, and normalise (or what
Jack-ass calls 'maximize) or otherwise adjust the levels. Then save in
whatever format she desires.

If she saves a WAV or Apple equivalent as well as MP3 etc, she can later
get more sophisticated with trying to resurrect the music without tape hiss.


-- But tape hiss is "normal"!
-- Just toss the tapes out and buy MP3s.

Jack

Maybe able to purchase a bundle that includes everything, and maybe even
some basic noise-reduction (although that will likely remove some of the
programme as well ...).

geoff


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John Williamson John Williamson is offline
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On 04/04/2017 22:13, Michael Beacom wrote:
I'll bring that up when I talk to her, but my impression was that she
isn't interested in doing any production. She may not want to buy both
the recorder and an interface. So, I was going for simple. Not even sure
what kind of computer she owns.

Depending on how fussy she is about quality, there are portable cassette
units with a built in ADC, working over USB on both Mac and Windows
platforms. There are also one or two full size units which have better
tape handling for when the cassettes are not in prime condition.

Most of them have Dolby, which will save having to use a software
decoder. The ones I've seen come with Audacity, which is more than
powerful enough to record, top and tail the tracks direct to HD, and
maybe even enhance them a bit. If using the H4 or even the H2, which are
also good choices at this price level, the tracks will then have to be
imported into a DAW to tidy them up and split the cassette sides into
tracks or chapters for easier playback. Some specialist free software
and plugins for Audacity or other DAW programs can even be used to
automatically split tracks by detecting the silence in the gaps.


--
Tciao for Now!

John.
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PStamler PStamler is offline
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Does she know about head azimuth? With cassettes that's always an issue. Especially with Dolby.

Peace,
Paul
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Scott Dorsey Scott Dorsey is offline
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John Williamson wrote:
Depending on how fussy she is about quality, there are portable cassette
units with a built in ADC, working over USB on both Mac and Windows
platforms. There are also one or two full size units which have better
tape handling for when the cassettes are not in prime condition.


How easy is it to set azimuth? If you have to ride it, can you? That is
really the key to getting acceptable cassette transcriptions.

Most of them have Dolby, which will save having to use a software
decoder.


It's academic since the internal Dolby decoder won't track properly anyway
because the original tape levels won't be right, because they never are.

You can use an external decoder or a machine that allows you to adjust the
decode levels for minimum pumping. It's a pain in the neck but it's a lot
better than listening to the constant whooshing in and out.

None of the software decoders are Dolby-licensed and I don't know how accurate
any of them really are, but given how bletcherous the rest of the chain is,
that may not be an issue. It's likely they are better than the hardware
decoder with fixed levels.

The ones I've seen come with Audacity, which is more than
powerful enough to record, top and tail the tracks direct to HD, and
maybe even enhance them a bit. If using the H4 or even the H2, which are
also good choices at this price level, the tracks will then have to be
imported into a DAW to tidy them up and split the cassette sides into
tracks or chapters for easier playback. Some specialist free software
and plugins for Audacity or other DAW programs can even be used to
automatically split tracks by detecting the silence in the gaps.


This is true, but it would seem a better choice just to use a good quality
USB audio interface for the job. This would also allow you to see the phase
meter on the software as you're playing back which may make riding azimuth
easier.

Of course, once you get the azimuth issues and the Dolby tracking issues
dealt with, you still have the flutter issues. But that's just the nature
of the format.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."


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John Williamson John Williamson is offline
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On 05/04/2017 03:06, Scott Dorsey wrote:
John Williamson wrote:
Depending on how fussy she is about quality, there are portable cassette
units with a built in ADC, working over USB on both Mac and Windows
platforms. There are also one or two full size units which have better
tape handling for when the cassettes are not in prime condition.


How easy is it to set azimuth? If you have to ride it, can you? That is
really the key to getting acceptable cassette transcriptions.

On the unit I have, drill a small hole and use a jeweller's screwdriver
to twiddle the adjustment screw.

Reading the original post, it's not likely that the user will want to
bother riding azimuth, and to do it automatically is likely to cost a
lot more than she is willing to spend. The reason I suggest them is
because they are a single unit with one lead to connect and so are very
easy to use once plugged into a computer.

While the gold standard is a Nakamichi Dragon plugged into a 24 bit
converter, and a computer running Capstan to get rid of the wow and
flutter, it is a lot of hard work and expense to set up to save a few
home recordings which will likely only ever be listened to a couple of
times each.

Most of them have Dolby, which will save having to use a software
decoder.


It's academic since the internal Dolby decoder won't track properly anyway
because the original tape levels won't be right, because they never are.

You can use an external decoder or a machine that allows you to adjust the
decode levels for minimum pumping. It's a pain in the neck but it's a lot
better than listening to the constant whooshing in and out.

All true, but if the intended audience are listening on cheap earbuds on
a phone, then the built in unit may be good enough.

None of the software decoders are Dolby-licensed and I don't know how accurate
any of them really are, but given how bletcherous the rest of the chain is,
that may not be an issue. It's likely they are better than the hardware
decoder with fixed levels.

Assuming the OP is willing and able to set the levels correctly, bearing
in mind they will be different for every tape. The program I use is
free, and will let me adjust levels and relative phases between the
channels. It also works as a plugin for earlier versions of Winamp,
which was discontinued a while ago.

The ones I've seen come with Audacity, which is more than
powerful enough to record, top and tail the tracks direct to HD, and
maybe even enhance them a bit. If using the H4 or even the H2, which are
also good choices at this price level, the tracks will then have to be
imported into a DAW to tidy them up and split the cassette sides into
tracks or chapters for easier playback. Some specialist free software
and plugins for Audacity or other DAW programs can even be used to
automatically split tracks by detecting the silence in the gaps.


This is true, but it would seem a better choice just to use a good quality
USB audio interface for the job. This would also allow you to see the phase
meter on the software as you're playing back which may make riding azimuth
easier.

Of course, once you get the azimuth issues and the Dolby tracking issues
dealt with, you still have the flutter issues. But that's just the nature
of the format.

Apart from the issues with the mechanics of the transport, the sound
quality will be as good as the original ever sounded on a portable deck
when recorded using Audacity and a track splitter. After that, the sky
is the limit on cost and inconvenience. This isn't a job recreating the
best possible sound to commercially release the result, it's just a way
of keeping a reasonable quality copy for listening to in future, once
the tape deck or the cassette wears out.

Of course, if these are commercial recordings, there is a very good
chance there is already a decent copy available online or on CD, which
saves all the faff.


--
Tciao for Now!

John.
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John Williamson wrote:
On 05/04/2017 03:06, Scott Dorsey wrote:

How easy is it to set azimuth? If you have to ride it, can you? That is
really the key to getting acceptable cassette transcriptions.

On the unit I have, drill a small hole and use a jeweller's screwdriver
to twiddle the adjustment screw.


That's probably enough. A lot of cheaper cassette decks have screws that are
not designed for constant adjustment and wear out pretty quickly with that
kind of use, but considering what they cost, that's fine.

Reading the original post, it's not likely that the user will want to
bother riding azimuth, and to do it automatically is likely to cost a
lot more than she is willing to spend. The reason I suggest them is
because they are a single unit with one lead to connect and so are very
easy to use once plugged into a computer.


At least getting the azimuth set once for the tape is critical, because the
azimuth is so far off and the top end suffers badly. And once the frequency
response changes, the dolby tracking does wrong.

While the gold standard is a Nakamichi Dragon plugged into a 24 bit
converter, and a computer running Capstan to get rid of the wow and
flutter, it is a lot of hard work and expense to set up to save a few
home recordings which will likely only ever be listened to a couple of
times each.


Actually, Capstan often does more harm than good on old cassettes. The
flutter problems, for the most part, just have to be lived with. A lot of
the issue here is knowing what to try and correct and what to leave alone.

I hear too many old recordings that have been NoNoised to death to the point
where the noise reduction artifacts are far more annoying than the noise
would have been. Some of the flutter reduction stuff today is like that too.

Apart from the issues with the mechanics of the transport, the sound
quality will be as good as the original ever sounded on a portable deck
when recorded using Audacity and a track splitter. After that, the sky
is the limit on cost and inconvenience. This isn't a job recreating the
best possible sound to commercially release the result, it's just a way
of keeping a reasonable quality copy for listening to in future, once
the tape deck or the cassette wears out.


The issues with the mechanics of the transport are 90% of the problem (and
the cassette shell is part of the transport). Everything else is gravy.

Of course, if these are commercial recordings, there is a very good
chance there is already a decent copy available online or on CD, which
saves all the faff.


Indeed.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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On 05/04/2017 13:45, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Actually, Capstan often does more harm than good on old cassettes. The
flutter problems, for the most part, just have to be lived with. A lot of
the issue here is knowing what to try and correct and what to leave alone.

I hear too many old recordings that have been NoNoised to death to the point
where the noise reduction artifacts are far more annoying than the noise
would have been. Some of the flutter reduction stuff today is like that too.

Going slightly off topic, a friend of mine has a player and a number of
cylinders in generally excellent condition that will need cleaning up
and pitch correcting when I find time and tuits.

The first one he's recorded onto the computer has a sliding pitch
profile as the spring runs down, which is going to be fun...


--
Tciao for Now!

John.
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Scott Dorsey Scott Dorsey is offline
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John Williamson wrote:
On 05/04/2017 13:45, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Actually, Capstan often does more harm than good on old cassettes. The
flutter problems, for the most part, just have to be lived with. A lot of
the issue here is knowing what to try and correct and what to leave alone.

I hear too many old recordings that have been NoNoised to death to the point
where the noise reduction artifacts are far more annoying than the noise
would have been. Some of the flutter reduction stuff today is like that too.

Going slightly off topic, a friend of mine has a player and a number of
cylinders in generally excellent condition that will need cleaning up
and pitch correcting when I find time and tuits.

The first one he's recorded onto the computer has a sliding pitch
profile as the spring runs down, which is going to be fun...


You _do_ know that there are modern cylinder transcription machines out there
designed to do clean transcriptions at constant speed with much lower flutter
and distortion than an Edison machine, right?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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On 05/04/2017 15:56, Scott Dorsey wrote:
John Williamson wrote:
The first one he's recorded onto the computer has a sliding pitch
profile as the spring runs down, which is going to be fun...


You _do_ know that there are modern cylinder transcription machines out there
designed to do clean transcriptions at constant speed with much lower flutter
and distortion than an Edison machine, right?
--scott

Yes, but he doesn't own one, and for a hobby project, it's not worth
asking him to buy or build one. There is at least one good copy of the
cylinder he's recorded available on the web, but it's not *his*
cylinder. ;-)

In other words, we are playing, and, with any luck, learning.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.


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On 4/5/2017 11:07 AM, John Williamson wrote:
On 05/04/2017 15:56, Scott Dorsey wrote:
John Williamson wrote:
The first one he's recorded onto the computer has a sliding pitch
profile as the spring runs down, which is going to be fun...


You _do_ know that there are modern cylinder transcription machines
out there
designed to do clean transcriptions at constant speed with much lower
flutter
and distortion than an Edison machine, right?
--scott

Yes, but he doesn't own one, and for a hobby project, it's not worth
asking him to buy or build one. There is at least one good copy of the
cylinder he's recorded available on the web, but it's not *his*
cylinder. ;-)

In other words, we are playing, and, with any luck, learning.

Good luck in finding one of those tuits.
Seems the round ones are quite scarce. :-)
==
Later...
Ron Capik
--


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This was sparked by a 90 sec. chat. She pointed to my recorder, and
asked if it could dub cassette tapes. I said 'Sure, just plug the
cassette deck into the line in jacks.' Then she was out the door.

Must have The Talk with her, and get a little clarity on her
requirements and expectations. (Requirements and expectations are
hardly ever the same thing, and she may assume that all she needs to do
is push record and play.)

Thanks- I got what I needed, and quite a bit more.

Cheers
Mike

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On 05/04/2017 17:22, Michael Beacom wrote:
I think she wants to dub her original recordings, so these guys guessed
correctly.
If I'm lucky, she recorded the cassettes on her Marantz (PMD 221?)
reporter's cassette deck. She had it with here, and it apparantly still
works. Which brings up another issue- The playback machine should be
serviced.

When it does get serviced, don't touch the azimuth, as if it was
incorrect when recording, it will need to have the same error when
playing back. If it is altered, then the playback will lose HF. If it is
felt necessary to do anything other than cleaning and demagnetising to
the head, then the self recorded cassettes should be used when checking
the alignment after adjustment. Also, make a test recording using the
same type of tape, and use that to calibrate the Dolby playback settings
in the DAW plugin if used.


--
Tciao for Now!

John.


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On Wednesday, April 5, 2017 at 12:22:34 PM UTC-4, Michael Beacom wrote:
On 2017-04-05 15:31:11 +0000, said:

On Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 8:41:57 PM UTC-4, geoff wrote:
On 5/04/2017 11:58 a.m.,
wrote:
et more sophisticated with trying to resurrect the music without tape hiss.
-- But tape hiss is "normal"!
-- Just toss the tapes out and buy MP3s.

Jack

Maybe these cassettes are not of commercial or otherwise-available
releases ?


Really?

Mike tells his female friend, I asked the question, and these guys want
to know the following:

A.) Have you ever adjusted tape head azimuth, and what equipment do you
plan to use to calibrate at 1.0 and 10.0 kHz!!??
B.) Can you operate a DAW, either free or fancy, what actual experience
do you have?
C.) Do you plan on using Dolby noise reduction, A, B, C etc or DBX?!

Jack :-)

geoff


I think she wants to dub her original recordings, so these guys guessed
correctly.
If I'm lucky, she recorded the cassettes on her Marantz (PMD 221?)
reporter's cassette deck. She had it with here, and it apparantly still
works. Which brings up another issue- The playback machine should be
serviced.

So, who in the WDC Metro area works on cassette machines?

Thanks again for your help,
Mike


Marantz? I haven't heard that name brand since the '70's!!
But, really, at the diner I eat, paper place-mat has best prices for digital transfers from anything, movies, audio, whatever. Is it really worth the pain to do it yourself/herself?

Jack
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Michael Beacom wrote:

I think she wants to dub her original recordings, so these guys guessed
correctly.
If I'm lucky, she recorded the cassettes on her Marantz (PMD 221?)
reporter's cassette deck. She had it with here, and it apparantly still
works. Which brings up another issue- The playback machine should be
serviced.

So, who in the WDC Metro area works on cassette machines?


Washington Professional Systems in Wheaton.

When you take it to them, include one of the original cassettes and have
them set the azimuth up to match it rather than setting it up off the
alignment tape.

Since the azimuth drift is constant and severe it still won't be right,
but it'll be a good start.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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[email protected] jjaj1998@netscape.net is offline
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Default Small Recorder Recommendation

On Wednesday, April 5, 2017 at 12:47:36 PM UTC-4, John Williamson wrote:
On 05/04/2017 17:22, Michael Beacom wrote:
I think she wants to dub her original recordings, so these guys guessed
correctly.
If I'm lucky, she recorded the cassettes on her Marantz (PMD 221?)
reporter's cassette deck. She had it with here, and it apparantly still
works. Which brings up another issue- The playback machine should be
serviced.

When it does get serviced, don't touch the azimuth, as if it was
incorrect when recording, it will need to have the same error when
playing back. If it is altered, then the playback will lose HF. If it is
felt necessary to do anything other than cleaning and demagnetising to
the head, then the self recorded cassettes should be used when checking
the alignment after adjustment. Also, make a test recording using the
same type of tape, and use that to calibrate the Dolby playback settings
in the DAW plugin if used.


--
Tciao for Now!

John.


If Mike is correct, it looks like this recorder is for Dictation (maybe the D in PMD). So, I wouldn't even think about screwing with head adjustment. $349 USD in its day!

Jack
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Michael Beacom[_4_] Michael Beacom[_4_] is offline
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Default Small Recorder Recommendation

On 2017-04-05 17:14:37 +0000, Scott Dorsey said:

Michael Beacom wrote:

I think she wants to dub her original recordings, so these guys guessed
correctly.
If I'm lucky, she recorded the cassettes on her Marantz (PMD 221?)
reporter's cassette deck. She had it with here, and it apparantly still
works. Which brings up another issue- The playback machine should be
serviced.

So, who in the WDC Metro area works on cassette machines?


Washington Professional Systems in Wheaton.

When you take it to them, include one of the original cassettes and have
them set the azimuth up to match it rather than setting it up off the
alignment tape.

Since the azimuth drift is constant and severe it still won't be right,
but it'll be a good start.
--scott


Thanks Scott- the answer I was looking for again.

A good average azimuth is about all we can hope for...

Cheers
Mike

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Default Small Recorder Recommendation

On 4/5/2017 12:22 PM, Michael Beacom wrote:
So, who in the WDC Metro area works on cassette machines?


Oh, now I know who you are. Yeah, I guess WPS is about the only place
that still has a service shop.

--

For a good time, call http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com


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Adrian Tuddenham[_2_] Adrian Tuddenham[_2_] is offline
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Scott Dorsey wrote:


You _do_ know that there are modern cylinder transcription machines out there
designed to do clean transcriptions at constant speed with much lower flutter
and distortion than an Edison machine, right?
--scott


One of my designs at:

http://www.poppyrecords.co.uk/ADM001/S05a.htm

If he wants to try building one, all the circuits are available from the
links on that webpage free of charge. The surface speed is kept
constant by varying the rotational speed of the mandrel, so that oval
and eccentric cylinders don't wow.

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
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On Wednesday, April 5, 2017 at 11:07:55 AM UTC-4, John Williamson wrote:
On 05/04/2017 15:56, Scott Dorsey wrote:
John Williamson wrote:
The first one he's recorded onto the computer has a sliding pitch
profile as the spring runs down, which is going to be fun...


You _do_ know that there are modern cylinder transcription machines out there
designed to do clean transcriptions at constant speed with much lower flutter
and distortion than an Edison machine, right?
--scott

Yes, but he doesn't own one, and for a hobby project, it's not worth
asking him to buy or build one. There is at least one good copy of the
cylinder he's recorded available on the web, but it's not *his*
cylinder. ;-)

In other words, we are playing, and, with any luck, learning.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.


Maybe you would benefit by buying a new set of ears?

Jack
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