By "Home" recording equipment, I assume you mean...
NON-PROFESSIONAL?
Wax cylinder and acetate disk cutters were never really offered to the general public as "Home recorders"
The market for "home recording" began in the 1950's on 1/4" reel to reel.
These were monophonic machines with inexpensive mics and built in Tube amplification and attached speakers.
Then later on by mid 60's Stereo became available still using 1/4" tape.
Along came the cassette mid to late 60's, first mono then stereo.
By the late 60's big professional studios had moved on to Multitrack on 1" and 2" tape and speeds of 30 inches per second.
The first affordable Home multi-tracks were 4 track TEAC, and on 1/4' tape (SEMI PRO) advertised as "DEMO" quality.
Then in the 1970's 8 tracks became more common and the quality was improved, (Otari, Ampex, TASCAM, Fostex etc.) and this is when "HOME RECORDING" really came of age!
For the first time in history, poor musicians could save up their nickels and dimes, and buy a multi-track tape recorder that was capable of professional results. Although high quality microphones, mixers and effects were still very expensive, many home studios appeared and began making records.
The dates are appoximate, but pretty accurate, because I was there!
I used Mono 1/4', then cassettes, then a TEAC 4 track, Then a TASCAM 8 track... then in the 1990's Digital tape (ADATS), and now hard disk digital recorders.
DOM FRANCO
