Easiest/cheapest way to record to casette?

nuttynutskin

nuttynutskin

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Easiest/cheapest way to record to casette (or cd)?

Basically what the title says. I want to record a practice tape of sorts with guitar, drums, keyboard and possibly vocals. What's the cheapest most ghetto way I could go about this? I've done it before basically layering tape over tape but my stereo quit working. I was wondering does anyone else have any ideas? I don't care much about sound quality, in fact for what I'm doing I actually want a raw lo-fi sound.
 
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Not sure how to do it on cassette, but it's very easy on computer. You could just use your phone's camera or microphone on your PC to record the different tracks and use a simple program like Virtual DJ (free online, actually pretty good too) and you can play and record several tracks at once. It even matches the tempos of the different tracks automatically.

I know it's not the same as the old school methods, but it is easy and a bit of fun.
 
I just downloaded the Virtual DJ but I can't figure out how to record tracks to it. I'll mess around with it more. I wish I still had the pirated version of Acid someone gave me. I can't remember what happened but I either lost the password or something. Maybe there's some more free recording software out there. Still there's a logistics problem, because for me to be able to record drums I would need some decent headphones to cancel out a lot of the noise and hear the tracks being played on computer. It could be done but it would require some finessing.

I've actually been thinking of possibly getting this. I'm just worried if my computer could handle the software because it's just an old laptop...

http://www.guitarcenter.com/PreSonus/AudioBox-96-Studio.gc
 
Well, I bit the bullet and spent 380 on recording gear lol. For some reason I'm not getting any sound to my computer tho. :X I think I may need a new sound card.


*NM it's working now. :D
 
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Back in the day we did it with multiple tape recorders or just one with 2 tracks if you could live with mono. My Roberts 1725 8L had an 8 track slot so you effectively had 4 tracks but you find out pretty fast that quality starts going to hell as you rerecord so lay down your base line and background first and put the instrument solos and vocals on last. Of course with digital, you have none of those worries. Embrace the 21st century and go digital.
 
I think it's very sad that production of 4/8-track cassette recorders has ceased.


Recording on cassettes was cool, and had that analogue sound you can't get elsewhere. I'm a fan of the "wow and flutter" you get with tapes.

I lost all my recording gear in a fire, including a Nikko cassette deck for mastering. :/

So nowadays I'm... like... f*ck everything. I'll search for some cheap cassette recording device to record on, I don't like the hassle with PC's, screeens and digital stuff.
 
The cheapest way I can think of is to buy a used 4 track mixer and a cassette deck for a stereo system that hopefully has a LR in. Buy some cheap used mics.

I suppose if you only wanted to record mono you would just need a mic preamp (a DI box I guess) and a tape deck.

I found this:

Hamilton Buhl Classroom Cassette Player, 2 Station, 1 Watt (D132) (HA802) : Amazon.ca: Everything Else

Hamilton Buhl Classroom Cassette Player, 2 Station, 1 Watt (D132) (HA802) : Amazon.ca: Everything Else
www.amazon.ca

So maybe they have these used just the analog version floating around.

Digital now basically you could buy a cheap offbrand mixer and it at least has a USB out. Get a shure SM57 with an XLR cable and you basically have a studio with Reaper or whatever else DAW you want to use.
 
It's all good, I'm digital now. :D

Really liking Presonus so far, although I currently am using probably about 20% of the features. lol
 
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