Hi, I am a newbie around here, so please forgive what may be very
dumb questions.

Does anybody manufacture digital (audio) cassette recorders for home
use? If so, do any of these units have dual decks? (I need a dual
deck so I can record portions of one tape onto another.) If such
units do exists, what are their approximate costs?

Since I have cerebral palsy, which prevents me from shopping in
stores and obtaining this information that way, any information
which you may provide me with in this Newsgroup will be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you very much,
Bill Geluso

Hi, I am a newbie around here, so please forgive what may be very
dumb questions.

No such thing as a dumb question. But there are a lot of inquisitive
idiots... : )

Does anybody manufacture digital (audio) cassette recorders for home
use? If so, do any of these units have dual decks? (I need a dual
deck so I can record portions of one tape onto another.) If such
units do exists, what are their approximate costs?

You need a dual-deck digital audio cassette recorder? Maybe I'm a little
confused, but this would seem to imply that you already have some sort of
digital cassettes you need to copy (?).

Companies such as Philips, Technics, Marantz, and Radio Shack dabbled briefly
in a format known as DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) in the early '90s, before
the availabity of CD burners. It was a format that failed rather quickly (but
sounded quite good), never having gained widespread acceptance by the public.
I personally own 3 of these decks, and if I recall correctly, no dual-well
decks were ever manufactured.

The closest thing to a "digital audio cassette recorder" manufactured these
days would be a DAT (Digital Audio Tape)deck. Sony, among others, still
manufactures these. Mostly used by professional recordists.

Wouldn't an MD (MiniDisc) recorder suffice? Relatively cheap, and fairly good
sounding.

I guess we need more specifics as to your needs...

Jeff

UnionPac2001 wrote:
First, thanks for responding to my post.

Okay, here is what I specifically want to do: I want to make a
"bulk recording" of something (say a radio show), then I want to
edit this recording to contain only the information I desire.

The reason I'm looking into Digital Audio Cassettes instead of CD's
is because you must be careful how you handle CD's so you don't
scratch or dirty them. (Handling anything with care is difficult
for me because of my cerebral palsy -- just ask my poor dog.)

Thanks so much for your help,
Bill Geluso


Hi,
I
am
a newbie around here,
so please forgive what may be very
dumb questions.

No such thing as a dumb question. But there are a lot of inquisitive
idiots... : )

Does anybody manufacture digital (audio) cassette recorders for home
use? If so, do any of these units have dual decks? (I need a dual
deck so I can record portions of one tape onto another.) If such
units do exists, what are their approximate costs?

You need a dual-deck digital audio cassette recorder? Maybe I'm a little
confused, but this would seem to imply that you already have some sort of
digital cassettes you need to copy (?).

Companies such as Philips, Technics, Marantz, and Radio Shack dabbled briefly
in a format known as DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) in the early '90s, before
the availabity of CD burners. It was a format that failed rather quickly (but
sounded quite good), never having gained widespread acceptance by the public.
I personally own 3 of these decks, and if I recall correctly, no dual-well
decks were ever manufactured.

The closest thing to a "digital audio cassette recorder" manufactured these
days would be a DAT (Digital Audio Tape)deck. Sony, among others, still
manufactures these. Mostly used by professional recordists.

Wouldn't an MD (MiniDisc) recorder suffice? Relatively cheap, and fairly good
sounding.

I guess we need more specifics as to your needs...

Jeff

wrote:
Okay, here is what I specifically want to do: I want to make a
"bulk recording" of something (say a radio show), then I want to
edit this recording to contain only the information I desire.

The reason I'm looking into Digital Audio Cassettes instead of CD's
is because you must be careful how you handle CD's so you don't
scratch or dirty them. (Handling anything with care is difficult
for me because of my cerebral palsy -- just ask my poor dog.)

Thanks so much for your help,
Bill Geluso


Okay,
Thanks for the explanation. I still think a minidisc recorder (or 2) would be
your best bet, as any type of digital tape/deck would either be pretty
expensive (DAT), or hard to locate (DCC).

I don't know if you have any knowledge of the Minidisc format, so I'll explain
a few things about them: Minidiscs look like 3.5" floppies for a computer, but
they are slightly smaller in size. They use a magneto-optical RECORDING
process, but use an optical only PLAYBACK process (similar to CDs). They can
be recorded and re-recorded supposedly thousands of times without loss in sound
quality. They use a lossy compression scheme to fit up to 80 minutes of stereo
sound or 160 minutes of mono sound on one disc. I think some of the newer
decks also let you record HOURS of mp3s on one disc also.
As for sound quality, I would say they are very close to being CD quality. The
discs cost approximately 2 bucks a piece. They are also very durable, although
one must be fairly gentle when loading into the deck (this may or may not be an
issue). In the decks I have, the disc is pushed partway into a front loading
slot, and the deck pulls the disc in the rest of the way. I have heard of
people damaging the loading mechanism by pushing the disc in a little too
enthusiastically, but the discs themselves are nearly indestructable. Minidisc
decks also contain a wide array of editing features. You can change tracks to
a different order on the same disc, as well as combining or splitting tracks,
and erasing single or multiple tracks. Tracks and discs can be titled, so the
name is displayed on the deck display. They are HUGELY popular in Europe and
Japan, but less so in the States (but are still available here). I don't know
if any DUAL decks are available. I would check SONY's website for more info
(they invented the format).

Hope this helps.
Jeff