Cassette Recorder for Field Recordings – How to Choose?

Have you thought about field recording with a cassette recorder? Well, it’s actually possible. But, unlike those professional field recorders that you can easily get, a decent cassette field recorder is not that easy to find.

Fortunately, whether you’re looking for a cassette recorder for indoor or outdoor, we have some advice here. You will read what to look at when buying a cassette field recorder and some great cassette recorders for field recording available today.

How to Pick a Cassette Recorder for Field Recordings?

Portable Size

You should get a lightweight and portable cassette recorder for field recordings if you don’t want to carry a bulky one around. Usually, the simpler the cassette recorder structure is, the more portable it is going to be. The drawback is that you won’t have many built-in settings for recording audio, and the speaker of a mini-sized cassette recorder for field recordings is usually not as solid as professional decks.

Decent Battery Performance

If you’re going out for field recordings with a cassette recorder, you will not want to change the batteries frequently as it will pause the recordings. Thus, a good cassette recorder for field recordings should has qualified battery life. Most importantly, when recording with batteries, this recorder should not have continuous hiss and distortion.

External Mic Input

It is important for a cassette recorder to be able to connect an external microphone for field recordings. You may have seen some digital field recorders have built-in XY condenser mics, and they deliver great sound quality. But that is not going to work for a cassette recorder. You need a separated microphone such as dynamic mics, contact mics, hydrophones, and more for different environments to achieve satisfying results.

Cassette Field Recorders For Sale 2022

Budget-Friendly Cassette Field Recorders

ByronStatics Portable Cassette Player/Recorder

The ByronStatics is one of the most popular mini cassette recorders on Amazon and it is not going to empty your wallet. It’s a fairly simple cassette recorder and it comes with an external stand mic, which means you can replace the mic with your own microphone with a 3.5mm (1/8″) Aux cord for field recordings.

The cassette recorder is easy to use and you only have to deal with a few buttons on top of the product for playing back and recording. Besides, it packs a retractable for portable use, which is also a plus for outdoor field recordings.

Jensen Portable Cassette Player and Recorder

The Jensen cassette recorder is another inexpensive product with a built-in condenser microphone and an external microphone that connects to the recorder with a 3.5mm auxiliary cable.

It comes with automatic level control that balances your recording level and the 1-touch recording allows you to capture sounds for field recordings. Besides, the auxiliary jack also allows you to record cassette tapes from external digital audio sources. To use this cassette recorder for field recordings, you need 4C batteries. And you can use a power adapter as well if you use this recorder at home.

Second-Handed Professional Vintage Cassette Field Recorders

Sony TC-D5M Stereo Cassette-Corder

Sony TC-D5M stereo cassette deck

If you’re looking for a real 80s professional cassette recorder for field recordings instead of a cheap alternative, you’ll want to consider the Sony TC-D5M, a high-end model back in the day.

It comes with a metal-texture surface and the whole product is kind of heavy compared to the recording devices today. It has two old-school analog needle VU reading meters along with a limiter on the front panel.

It may not have the best audio quality if you judge the product today, but it was the best cassette recorder for field recording in the past with excellent performance. This vintage cassette recorder even features Dolby B noise reduction. It has two microphone inputs for left and right on the back, and the line in/out jacks are connected by RCA cables. Apart from a power adapter, the recorder will also work with 2 D batteries.

Unfortunately, this classic cassette tape recorder is no longer being manufactured since 2005. And to find a good-conditioned second-handed unit on the market, you probably need to do some research to see if it’s well-maintained (at least it should be in “serviceable” condition.)

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