Dictaphones for Music Production - A Buyer's Guide 

"it feels like a memory" that's a potent point for me. Definitely get that vibe.

I always feel happy when I hear that "Good to have you back!". It's so personal and lovely

these used to be my ambient/noise staple... :1 ...what i wouldn't give to be sitting on my bed in the mid-90s with my cats & rats & tape players & heaps of effects & cords borrowed from my power electronics-leaning roommate...

Record the same thing to all of them and play them all at once, pan hard left/right, or record them in a room. Put a different track on each one and play them in a reverberant room, don't ask how to sync them cause that's gonna be hard.

When I was a kid a had this thing called Deluxe Talkboy. I spent hours upon hours upon hours slowing down different voices I made. The best effect was when I burped into the mic and slowed it down. It sounded like Satan.

Many tubers make me want to buy expensive stuff. You made me want to buy an old dictaphone. Very LoFi and a great addition to my eurorack. On the tape there was a vague conversation which sounds great through the KOMA field kit fx pitch shift, delay and spring tank. Very inspiring. Thank you 🙏🏽 !

I found one in a skip in 2008, now I use it to produce Cassettes in 2019!

so good! I'm afraid to even show my giant, hoarder like collection...

If you press the play button and the fast forward button down at the same time (not the whole way down) - then you can play in high speed :-)

Dictaphones are really good, I have two Sony's a TCM-450DV and a 20DV, I'm using the latter a lot more for live shows now to generate noise at the end of sets by playing it through the magnetic pickup of my guitar with a fuzz and delay pedal on. I'm also used one of them to record a chord organ and then slow it down which has created a really nice, mellow sound, I'm tempted to mess about more with it in that setting and resampling the notes later so I have more functionality.

i finally managed to find a couple working dictaphones (Memorex and GE) today. Both have half and fast speed. And the results? Blew me away on several levels. Each unit has its own sound character. More transformative than any effects pedal I have. The sound of the motors is a much bigger part of the sound than I was expecting, and as Hainbach would say, they CRUSH the incoming signal. I tested them out with the Reface CP’s pianos (toy, electric, acoustic) clavinet, Grandmother, and acoustic guitar, sending the results through the Field Kit FX and a few pedals. Really remarkable that the “dry” sound was just as wet as the Field Kit’s delay and frequency shifter. That hasn’t happened before. I couldn’t help thinking a pedal or plugin emulating a dictaphone would probably cost about $300 and yet two of the real thing cost me a total of $12. Lots of experiments to come.

i cant belive that it actually never crossed my mind to use a real tape deck instead of cassette emulating plugins. thank you so much for opening up my mind for new possibilities! I'm really looking forward to play around with tape decks and especially dictaphones

Captain to the crew: “We’re leaving the Belt in 10, 9, 8...” Hainbach: “Probably the belts... are... leaving us here...”

What a gorgeous piece of music! I love analogue sounds. They will never be surpassed.

IMO one thing to look out for when buying a dictophone is the external mic input. It seems like most of microcassettes don't have it. Also tape counter is a nice feature.

Thanks for the trip. That was an excellent performance.

So glad I found you. You have the most interesting places on RU-vid, and you have the most relaxing voice. Your channel should be used for people who need to meditate.

I have little money but I can easily afford a dictaphone, and I think it will open up many possibilities. Thanks, you're probably the only "gear channel" that features these dozen a dime marvels...

The bonus track was a nice touch! 👌

There's an old joke in English (and a little bit naughty) which I hope you and your followers will understand and enjoy: Q: Do you use your Dictaphone? A: No, I always use my finger to dial the number!! Boom-boom!!!!

I am really glad I have found your channel. The variety of means how to produce sound, and the understanding and love of sound and music, combined with the playfull style is amazing.

i cant remember what videos i used to watch before you came into my life HAINBACH. I also dont understand how you know as much as you do about all this gear. Thank you. I hope to see you in person one day, so i can be like "Hi I'm Christian" and you can say "Hi I'm HAINBACH".

Thanks for the recommendations. I have a couple and I’m looking for more. I’ve bought ones with tapes still in with other people’s recordings on and got some great sample fodder that way. Great use of all the machines at the end too :)

One of the ones I have is that first black Talk Book. I bought it secondhand over 20 years ago, and it still works great.

I saw a VST effect plug - in in a music magazine, it was designed to mimic the sounds of old cheap tape to tape machines, and it was actually modelled from a cheap dictaphone found in a flea market in japan.

Oh that really picked up the resonances it seems as it sat on the piano. Marvelous texturing and additional processing. So much fun as drone emulates such a rainy day.

I was lucky enough to sneak home an old sony micro-dictaphone from my office! Another important feature for me is to have both a line in and line out on the machine since I often run a track from ableton out to the cassette and back to the computer, then mix both the wet and dry signals together. great video

9:23 Where did the glass of water come from? 😳

You're soooo Hainbach. Thanks!

LOVE THE OVERLAY OF CHORDS ...A SYMPHONIC UNIVERSE TAPE KEYS

I have an RCA RP3538A which I bought brand new about 10-12 years ago. I kept it by my bedside and when I would have weird dreams I would wake up and immediately record a description of the dream into the recorder, since you tend to forget dreams a few minutes after you wake. For years I never played that tape back. When I finally did, I thought I might need to see a shrink, lots of weird shit goes on inside my head that I don't even know about.

man.... what a treat the performance is at the end of this video. such lovely stuff. bravo!!

Tape ... how special it is

Yes, .. yes.. . a memory, a recollection... HAINBACH... the Sound Surgeon! Truly interesting, again! Bravo!

Great demo, thank you for sharing. Looks like your daughter created a ghost effect on tape, and with such textures it shounds organic, it’s like recall from the past when you find yourself in place that you didn’t visit for ages. Very cool atmoscape, what can say. Bravo, as always

My god what a channel !!!! So glad to have RU-vids recommend you . Thank you for all your sharing of your priceless knowledge

Amazing!!! Really groovy experiencing your piece!!! Starts off novel and then becomes art. Thanks for the great videos!!

wish I kept all my tape players & dictaphones from years past. I'm thinking of revisiting the world of tape looping ^^. Thank you, you have a new fan!

The last section from 15:46 had a quality that reminded me of parts of Brian Eno's Apollo: Atmosphere's & Soundtracks

that piece at the end was lovely

So the cake is not a lie? Love the demos at the end

I've been watching this video everyday since the past week. So inspiring, thanks!

so inspiring as always, I guess I'm going shopping for dictaphones now. I need this level of wobbliness :)

So here I was this morning watching this video, getting really interested, and then immediately searching online for secondhand dictaphones for sale here in Warsaw (no luck yet) so I could try to make some music even 10% as good as I heard in this video. Then, after this video, RU-vid suggested a video for me, a look at Portishead's Glory Box track, and in it was this quote by Geoff Barrow of Portishead: “Ambient music has never particularly appealed to me; Push ‘Go’ on a synthesizer, make some noise, put some delay on it and put a couple of sheep noises on it”. Funny. Now I know what to do; if I find a dictaphone I must also try to find some sheep to record. Maybe even a goat. Sorry/not sorry, Geoff.

It makes me sad that I once had so many of these creative tools, and didn't really value them fully, because they were replaced by supposedly "better technology". Looking back, the 4-track cassette I bought in the mid-80s was one of the most useful and inspiring pieces of gear I've owned. I've also lost a couple of these microcassette dictaphones along the way.

I HIGHLY recommend you get a Panasonic rr-930. It is a microcassette transcriber with variable speed, tone control and a foot pedal control. I think it is something you would like

I really love your videos, your music and music-making sensibility, and your general energy.

I loved to play around with dictaphones when I was a kid. I seem to remember you could find a spot in between play and ffw where you could wobble the playback speed by wiggling your thumb. Recorded voices would sound hilarious, sort of like when a teenage boy's voice is breaking. Recordings someone (your teacher) and playing it back like this was the ultimate way of getting on someone's nerves.

I obtained couple of dictaphones recently and then I stumbled on your channel. Great ideas for these little beasts!

06:49 Hey, I have one of that Panasonic dictaphone! 😊 I used a lot for collecting sounds outside onto a 60 minute TDK cassette (in about three years). It's okay, but I don't like the pause switch because sometimes the tape won't 100% stop when activated. But it's an okay "low-fi" dictaphone...

Thank you so much for showing me these very intimate techniques. You are amazing creator, please make more :)

Very cool and informative! I have a similar panasonic that i have modded: removed the internal microphone and speaker and added line in and out, very fun!

I love your "Oi-Oi-Oi" aftee being surprised

Thank you for your enthusiasm and sharing it with us, I really enjoy your videos. Best

H,always fun to watch and listen to! Nice result,in my head I'm expecting some big string section and orchestra swell to take it stratospheric!! The textural differences would rock! Very cool, thanks!

Hello Hainbach! I’ve been following your channel recently for a referral from a great friend. All the material you put here informed me and helped a lot and for that I thank you very much. In addition, a few weeks ago, I bought a dictaphone model of the Sanyo MS1120 in perfect condition. It is a very interesting model and I am trying to try it on some compositions. Best wishes and a great week. M.A

Great video. I am perhaps slightly surprised your wonderful collection does not include the Panasonic RR-830. Perhaps you are unfamiliar? This was a very popular, quite ruggedly built business desktop dictaphone transcription machine which came with an interesting foot pedal - so the typist could back up the tape and such during transcription. It also has several controls, pitch, speed, vsc, etc. which should be rather useful in low-fi experimentation and creation. You can find them nearly new on eBay, often in their original boxes and below 50 Euro. Cheers.

microcassette 1:38 sanyo talkbook 2:34 newer sanyo talkbook 3:18 sony m-650V 3:59 panasonic rn-202 4:36 sony m-100mc 5:45 full size cassette 6:08 sanyo talkbook (bigger) 6:48 panasonic rql 3-1 7:56 sony tcm-450 8:42 GE fastrac 11:00 showcase 16:09 review 17:07 bonus track

One of the best RU-vid videos I've ever watched. I put a dictaphone on my Ebay favorite a couple of days ago and now it seems I'll have to close that deal.

Heinbach, thank you so much for your super useful videos - helped me to find the right dictaphone for my music production.

I have the Sanyo talkbook like the first one in this video - great wee lofi machine. I also own and recommend the Sony TCM-3 if you want more clean recordings my favourite field recording device.

So cool... on the lookout now for one to play around with! Wonder what chorus guitar would sound like at low speed...

just bought my first dictaphone after watching these vids! a sony tcm-200. cannot wait to experiment and put some of the techniques you've outlined to use!

Baby Monitors. We have a Tomy Baby link. I walked past it with some metal tools the other day, forgot it was on. I couldn’t work out who was in my room playing the theremin 🤣🤣🤣

Hahaha ... I have little Sanyo and I modified it to be a miniamp and play and record with my guitar and my oscillators, it's fantastic to record ideas and then listen to them! Lo / fi total! ✨💖

Very useful! I want to know more about using tape and mixing/ mastering without a computer I have been making music with a drum machine for a long time and get frustrated with abelton and DAWs

I think you might be one of my favorite composers on the internets. The dictaphone was one of those devices I overlooked (I came from the cassette 4-track world)...you have opened my eyes.

Great insight, as always. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

Great video! Timely too, I just found a Sony desktop cassette dictaphone in my parents attic. No speed control but the belt needs fixing so I'll look at fitting a pot while I've got it open.

Oh my....That Dictaphone Symphony is absolutely wonderful. I Love your Videos. Now I want to use a Dictaphone with my Eurorack. These Tape Loops are so lush. Stunning work you did there!! And now you and your Tape Loop Videos got me into Tape Loop Universe and I'm looking forward to experiment with these Loops. I can imagine that a Dictaphone, my Morphagene, Nebulae and Arbhar could be good friends :-) Look Mum Computer is Dr. Frankenstein of DIY and you are Dr. Strange :-) **Love your vids* Kind Regards from Switzerland

I would love to hear the whole piece of music you achieved here. Great work.

Lately bought a microcassette dictaphone Casio :) Can't wait for it delivered and to play with this new toy. Pretty interesting overview btw. Thanks

Brilliant, the demonstration you do really reminds me of the sounds from the movie Sinister, really atmospheric.love it :-)

Video beautiful and very useful (as always). I can ask if you record the sources with their built-in microphones (like some kind of reamping) or exit the sound card / mixer and go back to the MIC / IN inputs on the dictaphones (if any) and then re-enter on DAW or digital domain using the AUX output of cassette recorders. I bought a SONY TCM 200 that also has pitch control, but I noticed that when you record an audio source from Ableton (-14db) through its MIC input the saturation becomes softer but the noise is too obvious. you can suggest an alternative solution to record in the cassettes / mixers in the best possible way. Thanks in advance, Grazie ancora, Emi

Makes me wish I still had the one I played with as a kid, a Radio Shack brand one, reminds me of the older Panasonic. Really enjoying your ideas man!

you should get the Olympus. Such a pretty machine. Metal body. very nice looking.

this is such a great video, thanks for sharing the insights. Lush little jam at the end also

I would listen to this for hours

I've listened to this so many times - love it. Also 'Cake'...

Great stuff man. Just discovered your channel. Subscribed.

4:37 i have found this exact one, along with a proffesional dv camcorder all under 100 dollars!!

"Do you use a dictaphone?" "No I just use my finger."

Loopop sent me. I love your videos and your music. Just fascinating.

This seems so fun

Check out Bibio's Fi, Hand Cranked, and Vignetting the Compost albums if you like this. There are only a few piano tunes, it is mostly acoustic guitar.

Awesome job!

I wish I could find these in this price range. Searching online, I am seeing people asking several hundred dollars. Very cool technique.

thank you, this is very inspiring, much appreciation

damn Hainbach, that music was incredible!

Awesome stuff!!

im going to 2-3 thrift stores this weekend, trying to bring back 1 or 2 for my haul.

very inspiring, thank you

Have you ever made a pause tape on a minidisc 💽 It takes ages but it’s very satisfying.

It sounds like something from “everywhere at the end of time” by the caretaker.

Beautiful piece at the end!

I found one with a tape still in it where a young homosexual guy facing opposition (particularly from a disapproving stepmother) was professing to the tape like it a diary. It’s a fascinating ghost. Wonder how he’s doing now.

Wow, that sounded lovely!

Is your a genius musikian! A true spirit!

FANTASTIC CAPTAIN HAINBACH!

great video! This sounds so great!