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Modern digital field recorders vs. old school pro cassette recorders

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drewski1972:
Hi, I was wondering how modern digital recorders(,in the $300 range,)[like tascam dr70, or zoom F3] compair to good cassette recorders used in the 1980s ? I have heard some very good recordings of concerts done with cassettes and I was wondering if the semi cheap ($300) digital recorders could make a  comparable recording, using decent microphones.

fotoralf.be:
Modern digital recorders run circles even around professional open-reel tape recorders formerly used in broadcasting and recording studios.

My MOTU traveler audio interface hooked up to my Mac computer has more and better functions and much higher audio quality than the big outside broadcast van I used to work in in the late 1970s.

Ralf

Gutbucket:
What Ralf said.  For the most part, in terms of sound quality, a modern digital recorder will faithfully reproduce whatever you feed into it.  It's all about the stuff you feed into it that really counts.

fireonshakedwnstreet:
There are tape machine plugins and preamp plugins that you can use on your digital recordings if you are looking for some of that analog vibe.

Gutbucket:
Or, if really enamored by analog cassette mystique, record the show with far less hassle to a digital recorder, then once home, dub the output from it to cassette.  Instant hipster retro!

Extra credit for recording the cassette output back to the same digital recorder again, transferring both files to the computer, aligning, playing back both mixed together with polarity flipped on one of them and level adjusted so as to achieve as deep a cancellation between the two as possible.. and grooving out to the difference signal, which will be the distilled essence of what the cassette tape is doing to the sound.

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