--- Forwarded Message from [log in to unmask] (Gordon Hartig) ---

>Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 09:41:55 -0500
>Subject: Re: Tape Copying Machines
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: [log in to unmask] (Gordon Hartig)

>
>
>--- Forwarded Message from Mike Ledgerwood <[log in to unmask]>
>---
>
>>Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1999 14:48:33 -0500
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>From: Mike Ledgerwood <[log in to unmask]>
>>Subject: audio recording machines for profs.
>
>I have some faculty who want to make their own tapes for students.
>I actually have been using Tandberg portable analog recorders for
>this purpose although the 1 1/2 track system has made me pause at
>times.  Does any one have a recommendation on machines for this
>purpose, analog vs. digital, too?

        Do the faculty want to make multiple copies of the same tape to
distribute to their students?  If so, check out products from Telex
Communications of Minneapolis.  We have had very good service from a Telex
Copyette 1&3 Cassette Copier purchased in the fall of 1992.  It is analog
and makes up to 3 copies of a tape at once at high speed.  The machine
copies exactly what is on the original tape, and for tapes recorded on the
Tandberg system it maintains the student track/master track split.  Two
concerns, though:  (1) If you put the original tape into a copy slot by
mistake it will record on that tape even if the erase-prevention tabs are
punched out, and (2) We have had bad luck with some inexpensive tapes
breaking and clogging the machine, most notably CVS brand tapes -- both
60' and 90'.
         As for machines to use for making the original tape to begin with, our
faculty members sometimes use the Tandberg IS10 for this purpose, but they
also have had good luck with the Califone portable tape recorder model
5270 AV, which can be used with the built-in microphone or an external
switched microphone (we got our external mike from Radio Shack for about
$10.00).   The Califone units have been quite durable, and for classroom
use the instructors prefer them to any of the machines our AV department
can make available.

Gordon Hartig
Language Lab Coordinator
Middlesex Community College
33 Kearney Square
Lowell MA  01852
(978) 656-3358