Portable Tape Recorder
Portable Tape Recorder
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 3 Manuals Vintage 1950 60s ELECTROHOME TUBE AM FM Radio phono Deilcraft Series  US $16.00
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 Vintage Shoebox Tape Recorder Player Earbud US $19.99
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 GE REEL TO REEL PORTABLE TAPE RECORDER model m 8100a US $25.00
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 Vintage Panasonic Cassette Tape Recorder KQ 414S Original Box US $35.00
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 VINTAGE LLOYDS PORTABLE CASSETTE TAPE RECORDER W BUILT IN MICROPHONE V126 US $9.99
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 vintage proto type san ei model rk 505 transistor tape recorder US $49.99
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 Chelco TR 400D Portable Cassette Tape Recorder US $19.99
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 Portable Cassette Tape Recorder w Earbud US $19.99
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 Vintage Portable Cassette Tape Player Voice Recorder US $19.99
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 RARE Vintage Ehrcorder Portable Reel to Reel Spy Tape Recorder TP 421 US $19.89
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 AMPEX Vintage Electronic Portable Recorder Model 1325 US $900.00
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 Vintage Sanyo Radio AM FM Cassette Tape Recorder Portable Boombox M7030 ForParts US $17.99
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 Huge Lot Assorted Vintage Electronic Catalogs Brochures Literature 1930s 1970s US $9.99
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 RADIO SHACK OPTIMUS CASSETTE TAPE RECORDER CTR 111 PORTABLE US $29.99
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 GE Service Manuals US $45.00
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 Uher 4000 Report L portable Reel to Reel recorder 5 reel AC digital tape count US $149.99
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 Japanese 8 track Player Amplifier Stereo Speakers and Headphone Out Perfect US $53.83
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 Vintage Red Panasonic Portable Cassette Tape Player Recorder Model RQ 44A US $15.99
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 REVERE CAMERA COMPANY T 100 REEL TO REEL TAPE PLAYER RECORDER US $34.99
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 SONY TC 560 Portable Reel To Reel Tape Player Recorder Speakers NOT WORKING US $79.95
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 Vintage 1977 ITT Schaub Lorenz TINY 108 portable radio fully working US $1.00
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 SD SOUNDESIGN 7638 Portable Mini Cassette Recorder 1979 Vintage In the box US $29.99
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 REEL TO REEL UNIVERSAL HUB CAPS MODEL R 7A BRAND NEW PRODUCT GODAR US $24.99
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 VINTAGE PANASONIC Reel to Reel TAPE RECORDER Player RQ 500 All Transistor 60s US $29.99
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 JVC RC M70W Stereo Boom Box in Wonderful Working Condition with BLUE LED UPGRADE US $305.00
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 CROWN SOLID STATE 10 TRANSISTOR Portable Radio Reel to Reel Tape Recorder US $99.95
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 1963 TELEFUNKEN Magnetophon 300 Reel to Reel tape recorder transformer US $49.00
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 Vintage Retro MIDLAND 12 110 Portable Cassette Tape Recorder Player for repair US $3.95
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 Vintage Sanyo Portable Cassette Tape Recorder Model No M1530A US $3.99
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 ULTRA RARE VINTAGE SONY TC 120 PORTABLE CASSETTE PLAYER WORKS GREAT US $19.99
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 Vintage 50s 60s Lloyds Royal 800 portable reel to reel tape recorder player US $19.99
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 Portable vintage Reel to reel tape recorder US $9.99
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 General Electric Vintage Portable Cassette Tape Recorder US $4.99
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 Vintage NEW General Electric GE cassette recorder 3 5003A US $9.99
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 WestClox Portable AC Battery Portable Cassette Recorder 80055 US $19.99
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 LOOK Vintage Concord F 20 portable reel to reel recorder handheld operation US $99.00
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 Vintage Panasonic Slim Line RQ 2104 Portable Tape Player Recorder US $14.99
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 Concertone Cosmopolitan 400 Reel to Reel Tape Recorder w Transistor AM Radio US $19.99
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 RDA 127 10 Band Shortwave Radio W CB WB Police AIR TV US $59.95
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 Vintage Soundesign Stereo 8 Track Player Component Model 4840c Made in Japan US $9.95
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 Vintage Portable Reel to Reel Tape recorder Columbia Sony with speaker US $20.00
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 Estate Find Vintage Mayfair Reel to Reel Portable Tape Recorder WORKING XXX RARE US $60.00
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 Vintage Panasonic Slim Line Portable Cassette Tape Recorder Player RQ 2102 US $14.99
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 VINTAGE PANASONIC SLIM LINE II PORTABLE CASSETTE TAPE PLAYER slimline 2 RQ2765 US $9.99
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 SANYO DOUBLE CASSETTE DOUBLE 8 TRACKKARAOKE MACHINESUPER RARELK US $.99
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 Uher 4200 Report Stereo portable Reel to Reel recorder 5 reel working but US $45.00
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 6 transistor reel reel rim drive tape deck North American Model 678 made Japan US $10.00
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 Vintage MODERN Claricon Reel To Reel 4 Transistor Portable TAPE RECORDER Japan US $12.99
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 MINT Craig 2106 Reel to Reel Tape Recorder Portable 5 WorksGreat w mic Pwr US $9.99
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 VINTAGE GE PORTABLE CASSETTE TAPE RECORDER PLAYER MODEL 3 5010B INSTRUCTIONS US $9.99
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 CASSETTE DECK PLAYER HEAD CLEANER MAXELL wet US $9.99
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 TELMAR 555 Reel to Reel Tape Recorder Excellent condition Fully operational US $60.00
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 VINTAGE RARE MIDGETAPE CHIEF 400 PORTABLE TAPE RECORDER US $450.00
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 2 New Transistor Radio Earphones 10 and 20 foot cords long cords for TV US $8.00
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 VINTAGE 1960’s CATALOG BROCHURE “A COMPLETE LINE FROM PANASONIC” US $12.00
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 3 SANYO PORTA RADIO SERV MANUALS M1660M1670M7000 258 US $8.98
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 TEAC 1981 cassette reel to reel deck full line brochure US $31.32
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 VTG STEREOPHONIC CONSOLE PORTABLE AM FM STEREO RECEIVER IN WOOD SPEAKER CASE EUC US $99.99
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 Vintage GE Video Camera Accessories US $129.99
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 Vintage Panasonic RQ 3100s portable cassette player US $19.99
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 Vintage JVC CX500US Portable TV Radio Tape Player US $44.99
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 Revere Reel Tape Recorder TR 200 Vintage SAMS Photofact US $4.99
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 JVC HR 2650 portable VHS VCR TU 26 TV tuner brochure US $28.87
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 Mint Vintage Sony TC 126 Stereo Cassette Recorder w 2 SpeakersMike Carry Case US $238.88
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 Chelco Portable Boombox AM FM Radio Cassette Recorder Player Brand New US $99.99
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 VINTAGE WEBCOR MICROCORDER REEL TO REEL IN ORG BOX US $99.50
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 Red Soundesign 4035 Stereo Super 8 AC DC Battery Portable 8 Track Player Refurb US $69.99
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Record Your Band's Live Show
Of course, if you don't want to do it all yourself, you can always find engineers and studios for hire, whether for mobile recording of your live show or in-studio construction of your demo.
But if you are playing live regularly, have already gotten your arrangements together, rehearsed the tunes a million times to get 'em tight, charted out the songs the way that you need them -- then you're ready. And the fact is, a good recording of a live show is an excellent way for new fans to hear what you really do, and for other music professionals (including, perhaps, someone who might want to invest in your efforts) to gauge your talent and marketability.
Plenty of challenges Recording a live show presents a unique set of challenges: The main drawbacks are that the sound is less controllable, it is next to impossible to fix any band errors or sound-equipment glitches, and if one of your selling points is your live show, you will also need a video of a live gig, so you will have two such recordings. The upside to recording a live show? It has an excitement level hard to achieve in the studio, it is faster and cheaper to make, and if done right it can cover all the bases, selling your songs and your show.
There are a ton of 8-track digital recorders on the market from Korg, Fostex, Yamaha, and other manufacturers, ranging in price from $300 to $3000 or more; you don't need the best, but the least expensive might not have all the options you need. To record a live show, you will need at least four microphone inputs and a couple of direct (line) inputs; the former will capture the drums (in a perfect world, two or three mics would be on the drums), vocals, and the guitar amps; the latter can take the keyboards (if any) and bass as direct inputs.
You may need direct-input ("DI") boxes or not, depending on the specs of the recorder you've chosen. You might also want to take the house PA and feed that to a line-in as well. This article can't be exhaustive on these options because there are so many, so do your homework before starting - the Internet, of course, is a great library, or talk to knowledgeable friends or acquaintances about your plan.
Set and setting count, too If the venue has a good mixer on-site, you could also take a stereo line out to your mobile recorder, or even (with the right number of inputs) take direct outs from each mixer channel - drums, vocals, etc. If the club has a good sound guy, use his expertise as well (and for crying out loud, at least find out what his favorite imported beer is and get him some, preferably after the recording's done, of course).
If your recorder has a hard drive, it will be plenty big enough in the current models of these digital 8-tracks to record your whole show, after which you can pull out the tunes you want for your finished demo. If the recorder uses flash memory of some kind - Compact Flash (CF), Sony "memory sticks" and Secure Digital (SD) are all popular formats - make sure to get enough to do the job. CF and SD modules are around $10-15 (as of the beginning of 2009) for the 2GB size, which will get you plenty of recording time, and the prices continue to fall. The recorder manuals will tell you how much time each size module is good for, based on the recording specs (a sample rate of 44.1 kHz at 16 bits, for example, is CD quality). Your recorder may offer higher sample rates (48 or 96 kHz) and more "bit depth" (24), and these higher specs can double or quadruple the size of your sound files.
Once you have your show recorded, you will need to do some "large scale" editing, meaning you will chop the good tunes out of the show. Make sure to take a good 15 seconds before and after each song, and save the rest anyway, since you may need some crowd noises (and more applause) to insert in the final mix. Ah, there's the word I've almost dreaded arriving at - "mix." Yep, it's time for The Mix!
Mix and master The better portable digital recorders have on-board effects like reverb and compression, but you won't want to go overboard on effects with a live recording; it already has its own natural reverberation going, thanks to the room that you recorded in. You may need some compression on some tracks, but the major challenge will be to adjust the levels of the various parts. This isn't easy, and you will be stuck with what you recorded, plus you will have tons of "bleed" across the tracks; the vocal microphone was picking up everything else, right? And the other mics did the same thing.
A final hurdle for mixing a live show on the portable recorder is the limited data display; you will not be looking at waveforms on the little display of an 8-track Korg recorder, so it's a tough job. You may need to beg, borrow or bribe some help for this step. Of course, you could also transfer ("dump") all your tracks into a computer DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and do the editing and mixing "in the box," as they say. This would allow for much greater control of the material, although you are still limited by what the recorder captured, with all that bleed and everything. But this would be a better way to work with the sound files, and if you have a bandmate who has any halfway-decent audio software on his computer (even Garageband on a Mac or Cakewalk Home Studio on a PC), then this is the route that you should take.
Got video? Well, there you go, the basics of making your demo from a live recording. You will need to study up on mixing if you don't have someone who knows how to do it (with the tools now available, even a talented amateur can get fairly good results). Never just slap something together; this is your career you are working with, remember? Now, if the live recording option seems a little loose and unpredictable to you, you might want to consider going the project-studio route, yours or someone else's, so read up on studio recording if that's what you think will work best for you.
Now, it really should be a separate project, since making a video is a whole different challenge, but you could also have someone videotape your performance while recording the audio. It is a tricky job to get the audio and video to stay synced, and if you intend to do an MTV-style video -- the kind that MTV really isn't showing much of anymore -- then it really does have to be planned out with at least the precision and care that this audio project requires. But if you just want a few clips to post on your website with a tune or two, you can probably pull that off without too much fuss.
You can do this The main thing to remember is that, if you want five or ten minutes of good video -- to post to YouTube, put on your band website or what-have-you -- then you will need at least 30-60 minutes of video. If you only have one camera operator, he or she should make sure to get a lot of different angles, from different distances, with different pans and close-ups and tracking shots. If you can get two cameras to record your show, all the better. Just make sure up front that you have extra battery packs, enough Mini-DV tape or flash memory or DVDs (whatever the cameras need), a tripod or two, etc.
It will be for another article to go into editing and constructing your video clips, but you can do it on either a PC or a Mac, and there is even low- and no-cost software available for editing and file conversion. It's not easy, but anything good takes time and effort. You may be surprised at how do-able it really is, as long as you are not overconfident or careless about how you proceed. Make a plan, set up a series of possible shots and angles, discuss the particulars with your bandmates and camera operators, and go for it.
There is no reason that you should feel anything but excitement at the prospect of making an audio recording of your live show and even capturing some of it on video. As long as you are not averse to hard work and long hours, you can do this. And since you've probably put a Herculean effort into your music for 25 hours a day and eight days a week, you can probably do this pretty well, as a matter of fact.
By Scott McQuarrie, representing the EZWatch Pro brand, a leading provider of computer based surveillance-cameras for business, commercial and government applications.
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