Direct Recording to Cassette

[whyseye]

I was recently gifted with a sweet, pristine older Onkyo cassette recorder (TA-R240), sans manual, and would like to using it for recording VO tracks, with the option of dumping them later to my computer for conversion to AIFF/WAVE/MP3 files if needed.

The machine has Dolby B & C, LED peak meters, input level controls and panning. It has left & right 1/4" "mic inputs" on the front, and left & right input & output RCA jacks on the back.

For recording right into the machine, would it be better to go:
a) Direct in to left or right 1/4" mic input with a high-impedance dynamic mic
b) Take high-impedance mic through DMP2 preamp to 1/4" mic input
c) Take low impedance mic through DMP2 to 1/4" mic input
d) Either mic through DMP2 to RCA input
e) None of the above - sheesh!

I usually rely on common sense and trial & error, but I don't want to take a chance of frying this puppy - it's a cool lil' deck, and could be very handy for me, and I don't want to hurt it out of ignorance.

Any thoughts?

 

[A Reel Person]

Hello!

WTG on the "new" cassette deck score!

IMO, you'd be best served with going directly into the two 1/4" Mic inputs, as is, with two Hi-Z mics with 1/4" plugs. Simple as that. Those mic inputs already have mic preamps, inside.

Another, more complex alternative, would be to use a Portastudio or other front end mixer, and then run a multi-mic/mixed LINE level signal in stereo to the rear RCA connectors. Just a thought.

Either way is fine with me, but it depends on how complex a setup you want to go with. There's nothing wrong with recording direct-to-stereo with two live mics. It's the basis of everything in recording, and I've gotten some excellent results doing just that.

/DA

 

[whyseye]

If I just have one Hi-Z mic, can I go through a 1/4" splitter to record on both left & right tracks (in mono)? I'm pretty sure that's what I did many years ago with an old deck, but I don't remember whether it worked or not.

If not, will a pair of unmatched low-Z mics through DMP2 to 1/4" inputs work? Or should I just go with the single track, since the dry vocal track will usually wind up being mixed into the music bed?