Recording & Duplication > Cassette Recording
Cassette Recording
Professional Cassette Recorder Features:
Quick Auto - Reverse
Many tape decks have Auto - Reverse. This is a feature which automatically reverses the tape direction during recording or playback. On consumer machines, the tape keeps turning until it reaches the end of the leader. When it can't pull any more, it reverses direction. During the recording process, you will loose the sound during this leader portion of the tape. This is usually about 15-20 seconds of the message.
Many Professional tape decks have Quick Auto - Reverse . These machines have optical sensors which see the leader and reverse directions immediately. Therefore you don't lose any recording time.
Automatic Level Control
A major problem with recording church services is maintaining a high recording level without distortion. The main job of the sound operator is to provide good sound for the people in the room. It is not possible to constantly monitor the room sound and the tape level at the same time. When loud sound is being recorded, such as music or someone speaking close to a microphone, the tape recording level can reach peaks which cause distortion. When someone quiet speaks, the recording level can be too low making it very difficult to hear what is being said. This is a very significant problem if you are using a high speed duplicator to copy tapes, since the problem is accentuated.
Many Professional tape decks have a feature called Automatic Level Control (ALC). When enabled, this helps to maintain a fairly constant recording level regardless of changes in the input level.
Pitch Control
Sometimes when using a sound track to play or sing with, the key is wrong for the singer, or it needs to be tuned to an instrument. Consumer tape decks have no way of adjusting this. Many Professional tape and CD players have Pitch Control which allows you to tune the tape or CD to the instruments or singer's key.
Headphone Jack
Very few consumer tape decks have a Headphone Jack. Most Professional machines do. This can be very useful to monitor the "mix" of sound which is being recorded on tape. It is also very useful to cueing tapes.
Professional Cassette Decks
Denon DN780R Professional Dual Independent Cassette Deck
The
Denon DN780R is a professional independent dual bay cassette deck.
It has optical Quick Auto - Reverse on both decks to automatically
reverse tape direction without going through the leader. It will
relay record on both decks at the same time, or serially. The DN780R
has a headphone jack, digital counters, pitch control, quick music
search , standard and high speed dubbing and automatic tape selection.
Noise reduction includes Dolby B and C and Dolby HX pro. Each well
has independent inputs and outputs. This allows fully independent
operation of each side.
Consistent Recording Volume
Sometimes it can be difficult to get enough volume from your mixer to your recorder. Even if you can, the level is often inconsistent, becoming too quiet at times and too loud at other times.
The solution to both these problems is the SL33 Stereo Line Level Limiter. This device connects between your mixer and recorder to boost the level, if needed and also compress the signal to help you maintain consistent levels automatically.