STuff
Boom box mics are small diaphragm electret condenser microphones often with an optical compressor. Sometimes in a stereo XY configuration. In my opinion, they are great for recording, even in Lo-Fi. The cool sound you hear is a condenser microphone with a nice 'creamy' overdriven optical compressor being driven hot to a tape recorder. Yes, right in your nice little boom box. Unfortunately, many of these boom boxes use cheap as hell preamps and record heads. There's a DIY project for everyone - A thread on modding a standard tape recorder to run on a nice +/-15 or 27v battery supply and using a discrete class A circuit to drive the tape heads... Anyway....
A tape doesn't clip that easily, it just redirects the extra subharmonics back into the low end of the audible spectrum on tape for some interesting effects. Tape is fun!
Tape bleed can occur when you overdrive your record heads... Your tracks are stacked on the tape like this:
-------------------Track 1 Here----------------
-------------------Track 2 Here----------------
-------------------Track 3 Here----------------
-------------------Track 4 Here----------------
When you record too hot, the tracks can run into each other. I think.
I think Walters is actually from this top secret government agency that requires absolute knowledge of personality profile and engineering knowledge before hiring... It's a test!