Dear fellow musicians,

I play classical guitar but have not been satisfied with the cassette recorders I have seen within my price range (admittedly low). Have you tried, or do you have an opinion concerning the Marantz PMD-221 cassette recorder as a practice recorder? If the recorder is good, is the built in microphone adequate or do I need to purchase a separate mike? Homespun Tapes (www.homespuntapes.com) has them on sale for <$400.

I am not trying to produce masterpieces in my bedroom here, but I would like something that gives me a reaonable representation of the tone qualities of the guitar without breaking the bank. My experience with various cassette recorders so far leaves much to be desired.

Thanks in advance for you help.

John Stroman Mechanicsburg, OH

-- John D. Stroman (stroman@main-net.com), March 13, 2001

Answers

The pitch stability of the 221 is likely to be poor. It uses the same tape-moving mechanism ("transport") as the model 430, of which I evaluated three examples, all of them unacceptable.

The Sony TC-D5M remains the least expensive unit I can recommend. I'm also writing a review of a newer digital recorder at around $1300, which will appear pretty soon in the Updates at http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~boyk/update2.htm .

Apart from the equipment, please share your experiences with the musical aspect of the book!

jb

-- James Boyk (boyk@caltech.edu), March 13, 2001.