Topic: What was your first recording device?

[bluenote2005]

Around 1979 or 1980 Sony had a portable cassette recorder with two built in mics. The unit was all black. It was just slight larger than the first Sony Walkman who's image is posted below. Anyone recall what model that was by Sony? It was a great unit. I used it up till 1993 when it just stopped working. I then moved on to mini discs until the digitial age took root.



I'm curious what others started out using.

[mfrench]

Kind of like this:


I had it as a new recorder when Don McLeans American Pie was on constant Number-1 hit radio play. I think i got it for my 10th B-Day, around 1969.  I set the mic up next to my 8-Ball AM radio (pool table ball style), and started rtying to capture a recording of American Pie from radio play on 93 KHJ am radio.
I went on to annoy Larry Carlton and Robben Ford with it at a club called Dantes around '76/'77, where I set it up on a table at stagelip-center. I also took a bunch of pictures with my rotating flash cube kodak camera that made LC blind everytime I took a picture.

[darby]

you're probably thinking about the Sony 300 or 310
I had a couple friends who used those in the late 70s and early 80s

I started out on a Panasonic mono deck (don't recall model #)... a couple of those tapes survived
then on to a cheap stereo recorder and mics a friend and I tried to use in 1981 (Aiwa?)... none of those tapes survived

in 1983 I bought my first one of these

after continued bad luck with those I went on to one of these in 1984


EDIT:
after reading moke's post I remembered dragging my parent's console stereo into the bedroom
and setting up their Montgomery Wards tape deck next to it in order to record Led Zeppelin on King Biscuit back in 1973
I also used to put the mic inside a pair of Koss headphones and record my albums that way because I had no jacks on my stereo

[Church-Audio]

My first recorder was a grundig I got at a flea market.. I set up my "recording studio" in the cold cellar in the basement. It was pretty cool I had a ceramic mic as well and some radio shack tape.. I thought it was the shit... I was about 9 years old. This is not the exact model I had but its pretty close. It had a magic eye vu meter

[mfrench]

My grandma had an old Wollensack (sp?) R2R deck, somewhat similar to that one, Chris. It was a "suitcase" style recorder. She used it to record herself singing in church, and as choir leader.  That is probably where I got the urge to record, most likely. She also used it to record family members, etc.

[Chuck]

Mine was a Panasonic 8-Track recorder* my father won in a sales promotion.
I used it to record insect noises and thunderstorms from our screened in porch in upstate New York in the 1970's.


* I can't find the exact one, but it was like this...

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

First show I recorded on something similar to this. Depeche Mode @ Giants Stadium 1990 ... I wasn't even aware of taping at that time, ie "Grateful Dead Style." I just figured it would be interesting to record it. I think I was recording things off the radio with this at the time, but putting it next to the speaker of my boombox.



In 1992 I upgraded to this:



I patched into other tapers rigs and the SBD with the PMD201 for about 5 years, and rarely ran the internal mic if no other tapers were around.

[rastasean]

When I was very little and growing up, I remember pretending I had some kind of recording device because I would interview my mom but we didn't get a tape recorder until years later. We finally got some sony microcassette one  and used it to record my great grandmother before she passed away.

[Church-Audio]

My grandma had an old Wollensack (sp?) R2R deck, somewhat similar to that one, Chris. It was a "suitcase" style recorder. She used it to record herself singing in church, and as choir leader.  That is probably where I got the urge to record, most likely. She also used it to record family members, etc.

I have 100's of reel to reel tapes from my grandfather he would record everything one of these days I will have to transfer everything over to cd or to a file onto a hard drive.There was something about the old reel to reel machines.

[runonce]

The first time I tried to record anything at a concert was Stevie Ray Vaughn at DAR Constitution Hall in DC - 1985.

I used a Sony Walkman with a built in Stereo mic...very similar to the model posted upthread.

I recorded for 30 seconds before I dropped the damn thing and scatted its batteries all over the balcony floor.

Next I moved on to a Panasonic Jambox that had 2 1/8 in mic inputs - perfect for my new realistic stereo mic.

[Gutbucket]

Used my dad's R2R Teac (similar to the above) for recording LPs and radio stuff at home, as well as simulcast concerts off the radio in the 70's and early 80's.  I remember recording a couple 'final' Who concerts that way.  At some point I figured out how to hook a couple cheap dynamic microphones into it and record my own homemade 'radio shows' with local neighborhood talent, in stereo!  We even hauled the next door neighbor's ping pong table over to my house and put a mic at either end of the table to replicate the classic stereo demo recording thing.   We then put the speakers at each end of the table and listend with our eyes closed from the other side of the room to check how real it sounded.  We had big plans for making soundtracks for our stop action super-8 movies but never got that far.

Before that I lusted for what seems like a year for a battery powered portable mono cassette deck that sat on a shelf in my granparent's closet.  They eventually gave it to me for my birthday sometime in the early 70's.  Pretty much the same as M0ke.  Can't remember the make, but it was wide with a built-in handle and had plastic wood grain side pannels.  The cheap microphone made the most fantastic massive explosion noise when blown into and had a switch on it that simply turned the tape transport motor on and off while recording.  The intertia of the trasport would take a half second or so to slow to a stop or get back up to speed, making what I thought was a super cool pitch sweep effect if you got the timing just right.

[SnowRide]

[Gutbucket]

I remember a friend had one of these in highschool, which I never used but thought it was the coolest-

..in 1983 I bought my first one of these

And remember lusting over this in college, which is what I really wanted, but was out of my grasp at the time-

after continued bad luck with those I went on to one of these in 1984

Instead, I had a cheap recording Walkman type deck with FM radio (not Sony, but can't remember the make) that I'd carry around and use as my car radio/tape player.  I got a second one and soldered up a cable that let me go off to the park with my guitar and record a track, then play it back while overdubbing another part to the other Walkman.  Horrible tape noise and sonics, especially after a couple bounces, but doing that out of a book bag in the park was pretty sweet.

..I also used to put the mic inside a pair of Koss headphones and record my albums that way because I had no jacks on my stereo

  Before I got a hold of the cheap dynamic mics to use with my dad's R2R I'd use an old pair of Koss or Sony headphones as microphones.

In 1986 I bought a used Yamaha MT44D four track cassette / mixer which I still have in a closet with a valise full of old college era 4-track project tapes-


and mixied them down to a Yamaha K720 cassette deck which I bought new while working at a stereo shop and dearly loved.  Great machine.  Many, many hours of refining perfect mix-tape song order transitions were spent with that one. 

[Since85]

That device picture in the first message is a sony TCS-350 I believe, as I used one in 1985, until I had the $ to get a PMD-420.

[page]

First recorder was an Aiwa AMF70 or similar model from them around 2000 or 2001. When that started to have problems, I "upgraded" to a Sony MZ-R500 which did sound and work better. That lasted until 2003 or 4 when it died shortly after a BBKing concert. I used to loan out my stealth gear to some of the locals so they could tape stuff at the county fair or demos of their garage hobby.