Worth it? (Taper question)

[Jeff]

I've been collecting pepsi bottlecaps for their pepsistuff/points recently, I didn't even know what you could get with it. So I checked just the other day and there wasn't much of interest, but one thing that I saw was this:

Olympus Microcassette Recorder

I realize its kind of .. old fashioned. But hey, that's how tapers used to do it, right? Besides, seeing as the most appealing option of prizes is a USB thumb drive, I'm considering picking this up in an attempt to tape the occasional show.

So the question is, since it would be free, would it be worth it? Would the quality be any good? Or would I just end up with a useless mini tape recorder instead of a slightly useful storage device?

[onlycrayons]

The microphones on those cheap-o recorders are pretty crappy. I'm guessing that they would become overwhelmed by live amplified music. Then again it's free, so why not give it a shot? I'm not sure how you'd digitize the tape if the recorder doesn't have an audio out.

[Jeff]

Jul 15, 2008 15:27:30 GMT -5 onlycrayons said:

The microphones on those cheap-o recorders are pretty crappy. I'm guessing that they would become overwhelmed by live amplified music. Then again it's free, so why not give it a shot? I'm not sure how you'd digitize the tape if the recorder doesn't have an audio out.

That's kind of what I figured and thus the dilemma of getting "pretty crappy" vs. a slightly useful thumb drive.

I've been borrowing my Dad's digital camera recently, but with my old one I had the sound issues (on videos), but found if I was towards the back it was okay. If I left it near the sound booth or something maybe it would come out reasonably?

As for digitizing, if it has a headphone jack (the product page shows headphones as accessories) I could just use a 1/8" into my computer I think?

[onlycrayons]

Yeah, you could use a 1/8" to 1/8" from the headphone jack. I'm all for more audio of shows.