recording instructions

[fred d]

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif MY instructor suggested that I tape record him playing melody/and chords. # So that I could play along while I'm practing. #The problem is that all the tape recorders I have found are small hand held and I've been told that they are not suitable for MUSIC doe's anyone have any suggestions HELP

[mandodan1960]

Fred,
I have used a mini-cassette recorder $25.00 and it has worked fine for my lesson. I tape the entire lesson (30 min) and review it when I get home. It has really helped me with the melodies because this is not music I grew up with and can quickly forget how a song "goes". I don't need really good quality. Just need a to hear it over and over and over ...1000 times over and over and then it's a piece of cake.
DanO

[Brady Smith]

My suggestion is dont ask here...you'll soon be spending more than you can afford on an overpriced mando and professional recording setup to record Garth Brooks albums for WalMart. (Cause remember tagged with all the advise you'll get is..."ya get what ya pay for". BTW don't believe a word of it).

[J. Mark Lane]

..remember tagged with all the advise you'll get is..."ya get what ya pay for". #BTW #don't believe a word of it).
...or, as the Cretan said, "All Cretans are liars."

[kyblue]

I used to use a cassette, didn't care for it. The quality bothered me, particularly if the batteries are fading at all the sound is out of tune.

I now use an iriver mp3 player. Just with the internal mic the sound quality is good. An external mic can be added. And, the files easily upload to my computer so I have them forever (or as long as I backup my pc!!!)

I opted for a 20 gig player, but I use it as an mp3 player and photo display as well. Plug it into my Bose system and can play the files through awesome speakers. Also have some cheap speakers I run it through as well to make it more portable. There are probably less expensive models that will work as well.

Paula

[danmills]

In my personal experience, there's typically only about 5 minutes of a 30 minute lesson that I really want to listen to again. I used a cassette recorder for years, but I always found it tedious to fast-forward/rewind to find what I was looking for. I bought a minidisc recorder a few years ago, and the sound quality was much improved, but the feature that really makes it more useful to me is that it will automatically begin a new track every 3 minutes while recording. This makes it quick and easy to find the important parts. I haven't looked into the world of portable flash memory or hard disk recording devices, which presumably would have all the advantages of minidisc and more, but if I did go shopping for one, my first priority would be that it have a similar automatic track marking feature.

And yes, these toys will cost more than a cassette recorder, which I wouldn't hesitate to use if that's what I had available.

Dan

[Loren Bailey]

Think I spent 30 or 40 bucks on an Olympus hand held digital recorder. My wife bought one for school and it worked great at recording lectures. There is a mic and headphone jack. I used patch cord to record some of the stuff onto my hard drive. Don't expect to record an album with it but it works great for lessons.

Loren

[glauber]

Minidisc for me. Cheap media, and the Sharp units are as easy to use as a cassette recorder. The people at Minidisco (http://minidisco.com/) can set you up.