Hi everyone I'm currently doing some research for a Super 8 short film project with a deliberate nostalgic, melancholic aesthetic, and looking for portable analog equipment to record: Voiceovers with a warm, slightly saturated, imperfect tone Ambient sounds that feel gritty, textured, and timeless (raining, city sounds...) I'm looking to preserve warmth in the voice, with imperfections, a slightly saturated texture, etc and to avoid a clean, modern sound. I've heard great things about Walkmans and cassette recorders, but I'm not really sure where to start. I've currently found some models that could be relevant like the Olympus Pearlcorder (S701, S710, S721...) or Sony TCM 200DV, but maybe there is others devices too ! One example to describe what I'm looking for (in terms of vibe) is something that's vaguely close to this : Of course, if you believe walkman might not be the right fit and other analog recorders would be more relevant, don't hesitate to show me the right direction to look If you have links of audio samples recorded with these devices, I'd love to hear them! In advance, thanks for your help and wish you all a nice day
this has a good vibe, sounds a little bit like an ad for the Life Insurance Policy or the ones I am getting recently (someone must have figured that I am old!), the offers for my 'final resting place' hope your video will be more like "Little Fluffy Clouds" by Orb and we do have a person who might actually answer your Q: @macroPath I have all his tunes downloaded onto my Pono player, they are absolutely wonderful!!! just read through this thread: https://stereo2go.com/forums/thread...rying-to-repair-my-tape-voice-recorders.8177/
Hi Vetylya, and thank you Jorge for mentioning me. So, first of all we should talk here about Dictaphones, and not walkman actually. Or, the best option in your case would be a fantastic SONY TC-D5M or similars, which is a proper portable cassette recorder but, this is a really expensive one. I checked the video you posted as example, and the quality there looks pretty clean in both ambient sounds and voice over. I doubt you could get same exact results using a normal built in MIC of a dictaphone. My suggestion is to use a digital MIC connected via the Line In of a dictaphone, so try to get one with this type of Input and see what happens. You will definitely get a more clean recording while keeping it still lo-fi. I did that already and it worked. You can check out a tutorial video I've made for my You Tube Channel ''Addictaphone'': Hope you got also a digital MIC, or find a way how to connect a good external MIC via that Line In of the dictaphone. Good luck with that!
Indeed, it's more appropriate ! I've looked into the SONY TC-D5M, but it's quite pricey and not as portable as I would like with a dictaphone/walkman format. The idea is to have a device I can always have on me, to record ambiant sounds when it inspires me or a few words about whatever I feel in the moment. Your idea of combining a external mic with an analog dictaphone could indeed offer a good middle-ground !! I should choose one that has the option to add one, so I can experiment with both the internal and external mic. Do you have some devices you would recommend ? Also, for the external mic, I would also probably prefer something compact (like a simple "head mic" to plug directly on the dictaphone, if it exist ), do you have a specific model to recommend ? I'll dig more into your youtube channel too, thanks
Hi! In my small collection, the one who has the best sound I think is a Sony M-455, which is recording in stereo, while most of the dictaphones are just Mono. Unfortunately this model has no Line In port. But wait, there are also the dictaphones with normal cassette which can offer of course a better sound compared to the microcassette ones. It depends on how small and portable you want it. The best models of my collection are (just to pick up some): Microcassette with Line In: 1 - SONY M-100B from 80's, absolutely compact and thin. Definitely my fav model 2 - SONY M-727V which is more recent, maybe late 90's. Cassette recorders with Line In: SONY TCM-20DV , TCM-465V, and more or less all the TCM family in my opinion. It's hard to say, you just need to buy some on eBay or flea markets, repair them, until you find a suitable one for you. Regarding the MIC I have no clue to be honest. The option I proposed you is the only one I tried so far and I'm not aware of any other option which could work. Maybe you could try with a Lavalier Mic who has a mini jack and possibly also a wind filter?
