Hi there, Been poring over the site for close to a year now, finally wanted to post a thread and saw that an introduction was in order before I could do so - hi everyone! I started getting into cassette decks - specifically portable recorders - through making music and loving the idea of doing my field recordings using higher-end cassette recorders/pro Walkmans. Pretty quickly I found that if I was going to continue using these things I was going to need to learn how to repair them - how come when sellers on eBay say "working" it tends to mean the opposite? Anyway, thanks to everyone here for all of the knowledge sharing! John
Welcome! I love field recorders, some of the most beautiful, yet complicated recorders made. If you haven't seen the Walkman Archeaology Thread, there's a review of some of the heavyweights from the 70's. I've also tried to add reviews of the 80's Sony & Marantz's and UHER's, they seemed to be the last ones standing. Are your field recordings music or ambient sounds?
Awesome thread! Agreed that these portable recording decks are beautiful, and given the various mechanical designs over the years have so far been super interesting to take apart and attempt to repair... My recordings are typically used as a component during group improvisation. I also like to do live recordings while playing and then feeding those back into the mix in various ways. For whatever reason I’ve found these portable recording decks to be the most satisfying to use in that context.
When I recorded ambient nature sounds, a field mouse chewed through the cord to the microphone (tasty for a mouse?) and the cord could not be replaced, ruining that particular microphone.
Yikes! You must have really been quiet, motionless, and in the zone for that mouse to have hung around long enough to chew through a cable. So far the mice have left me alone, but you never know...
