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My father in law has requested a reel to reel tape recorder for Christmas.
He wants to record tracks on his piano and accompany himself on guitar. Also, he is partially sighted so can't operate anything that has a screen or tiny buttons and he won't consider a cassette tape recorder (the ideal solution!!!) because "the tapes always used to stretch".
The unit has to have inbuilt speakers and microphone. It can't cost the Earth and I have to be able to buy tapes for it.
There are some on eBay, but I have no clue about them.
Any ideas?
If he's strughling with sight is he really going to be able to thread the bloody thing?
If he's worried about tape stretch he'll be wanting to buy brand new reels not '70's originals that are deteriorating - have you seen the price of the media?
Maybe something like this (but cheaper - there's lots about)
https://www.gak.co.uk/en/roland-r-07-high-resolution-portable-audio-recorder-red
It's got buttons but they're no more complex than a tv remote and logically laid out - you could learn which one was what by feel?
Would be a lot more convenient and no worries about tapes getting spooled or dropped.
he won’t consider a cassette tape recorder (the ideal solution!!!) because “the tapes always used to stretch”.
C120s used to stretch because the tape was too thin. I've never experienced tape stretch with C90s / C60s and I've got about 200 here, some dating back to the mid-80s.
I think a digital solution would be much better than a reel to reel tape machine!
Something like a TASCAM portastudio in digital form:
https://tascam.com/us/product/dp-006/top
You can probably use it without even looking at the screen, as it has tape style transport controls and physical faders.
Good grief. I love R2R but it's a novelty item, not a real tool these days!
As above, some sort of digital recorder. Zoom.also make good ones for reasonable money.
How partially sighted? Could you wire up the controls of an old Tape recorder to something digital without him noticing?
😛
When I saw the thread title I thought "blimey this is artisan".
Revox is the way to go LOL in all seriousness I have no idea about alternatives but I'd echo the above, C60 or C90 and a tape player is Shirley teh way to go
What about the voice recording feature on most mobile phones?
How about a guitar looper pedal? Controls are really simple as they typically have footswitches
Our local secondhand hifi emporium have a secondhand Revox 812 in......for £7999. 😶
What about the voice recording feature on most mobile phones?
Or is there some sort of skill that Alexa (or similar) can offer to record stuff, or control a digital recorder?