It’s cassette tape time with the Tyler Audio TCP-01
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- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
- Imagine it’s 1987 all over again and you are in grade school. Your teacher tells you it’s your turn to go over to the music station...what kind of cassette tape player is at the music station? A shoebox cassette player of course! Check out this new shoebox cassette tape player and recorder from Tyler Audio! It’s unboxing & review time! Thank you for watching!
Interested in one?
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I've also seen these cassette recorders sold by Onn (Walmart's brand), Jensen, Coby, etc. They're all virtually identical. The mechanism is actually a knockoff/clone of Tanashin, based on their design but not made by them. As you experienced, the quality control of these knockoff mechanisms isn't that good. The REM jack is for a remote on/off switch, which some microphones have built in so you can pause the tape while recording.
Actually, I have a walmart brand cassette player that has a good auto stop mechanism, one that stops when youre rewinding or fast forwarding, to be specific. The sound quality is horrible tbh
How can you identify an genuine Tanashin?
@@Recordology See my "knock off the knockoffs video" (on my main channel). I show you how to identify the differences.
@@Recordology I believe if you see a little metal loop it's that mechanism
@@Recordology i have to ask, do you know of a budget friendly decent recorder..i wanna record my own mixtapes, but i can only find cassette to mp3 converters, and none that go vise versa
I had the exact same cassette recorder that was branded as a GE back in 2005! Worked alright. Used it to record class.
I remember we always had a few of these knocking around the house in the early 80s, as my dad was a salesman for an office supply / business machines company and used to travel round to schools and offices selling OHPs, early photocopies, 'ditto' machines, toploading VCRs and the like from the back of his Cavalier station wagon. My sisters and I would record our own 'radio programs' on them. I distinctly remember one of the songs I introduced being The Tide Is High by Blondie which dates it to 1980 or thereabouts.
I used one of those kind of cassette players in my car for music at one point in the 1980's! It lived in my passenger seat. The first one of these that I ever had was given to me on my 12th birthday in 1974. Take care...
I used to tape songs off the radio using one of those.
I remember when I was a young child I had a sharp shoebox cassette recorder.
That was back in the early 80s. I don’t think I ever recorded anything on it as I was only about three years old but I am pretty sure it was probably DC bias recording.
I also remember having one made by ITT which was a British make and it was AC bias and very good quality.
If only they would make great quality AC bias recorders these days. Anyway probably most people are using MP3s et cetera but I still love cassettes. Thank you so much for taking the time to do these videos of different products. Have a great day.
The problem with plastic tape mechanisms is, plastics aren't that reliable when warmed up & they can slightly warp & expand throwing the whole mechanism out of whack.
I bought a cheap, modern shoebox recorder branded "Bush" with a USB port so you can listen to MP3 from an inserted flah drive. The MP3 function has no display, only about 3 buttons.
It played straight out of the box & i was satisfied with it, then it warmed up, within a couple of weeks of use, I started having issues with it& I haven't used it since.
I’ve noticed that for the past 20 years we’ve been trying to get back to the old days, probably because of what has been happening for the past two decades lol
RCA came out with a Gray version of this type of shoebox Cassette recorder/player. It looks almost if not exactly identical, with the only difference being that Tyler's is black on black, whereas the RCA's was Gray, and the door was light gray. The only problem with the microphone external version is that it's not heavy enough to not get knocked around easily.
I have the same Tyler shoebox cassette player and I had no problem with FF button
My brother had a Sony back in 1979, which had an integrated microphone and jacks for an external one with on/off control, the carrying handle was made of metal, control buttons were sturdy and the door for the cassette opened slowly. This one looks so cheap.
It is cheap with plenty of plastic and sharp edges on the door.
The rem Jack can also allow it to be used as a datasette for vintage computers for loading software from a tape. This allows the computer to switch the tape on and off for loading programs
Thanks......I really needed this.🤗
That REM Socket can be connected to a Foot Pedal for longer dication sessions so you don't have to hit/release Pause again and again.
And you can use these shoebox recorders as a data stroage device on old computers and with the REM Port the computer can control the tape transport and make a break when the data from the datasette has to be stored in memory or for some games the levels are loaded one by one and so the recorder needs to stop until the task is finished
Ah yes, the shoebox- type cassette player. Had a Phillips one of these back in the day , it was built like a tank. My parents have a Sony one which is not too bad. Those were the days.
Thanks for explaining the magnetic blue thingie. :^)
The reason for the rewind / fast forward problems is these players use very weak motors. The 4x 'C' battery compartment is a good clue, the thing uses a 5-6V motor. Most of the older models were 6x 'C' setups and had stronger motors. Fewer batteries means the case can be made more compact, but the tradeoff is you have less power to work with. My old Panasonics and GEs were about twice the size of that Tyler thing, and only seldom had trouble with fast forward or rewind.
Whats weird is that in play the torque is strong (testing with finger on the spindle) but on FF its very weak.....
@@Recordology It's actually NOT that weird. During play, the tape is pulled along by the capstan. The capstan has the benefit of mechanical speed reduction (small motor driving a larger flywheel), which results in better torque. I know that sounds weird, but yes, when speed is mechanically reduced, the torque is increased - basically, it's how the transmission in your car works. In FF/REW, this is disengaged and there is no torque multiplication to pull the tape.
You noted early on that if you start at beginning and FF, it starts normally and slows down. That's because of the same principle - as more tape is wound onto the spool, it loses mechanical advantage as the tape pack grows larger.
The Tanishin mechanisms aren't really that bad if they're equipped with a good strong 12V motor, or even a 9V setup. But those decks basically use the same motor as inexpensive turntables, and I don't know if you've noticed or not, but if you have one of those cheap turntables with a USB power feed, the torque is not all that great compared to the same mechanism with a 12V power input.
Interestingly enough, 8-Tracks had a similar problem. If you had an earlier, home tape deck with a burly 120V AC motor, (like in my Magnavox console) it had little trouble handling those long 80 minute cartridges - at least, so long as the splice in the tape held up (and it often didn't, usually destroying the tape...lol). That same cartridge in a car unit, though, would struggle, because it was a wimpy li'l 12V motor trying to pull it along.
On another topic, you are apparently interested in odd record formats. Would you be interested in doing a video on 16 rpm? I have some research and some interesting materials....
@@Recordology The torque increases somewhat proportionally with the speed reduction. The comment about the battery size and small motor was spot-on. This unit was designed with very minimal overhead to save cost. It pales in comparison with the vintage units of the '70s and '80s, such as the Japanese-made Sony and GE brands.
Is it possible to do stereo records in the line in input?
The only difference in the audio was that the built-in mic picked up the sound the motor was making. I got one of these in Radio Shack in the 70's for about $30.
I found a sony shoebox recorder at goodwill and it doesn’t suffer from picking up the motor. Microphone sounds amazing especially when micing something like a synthesizer through a bass amp for example. Or drums as a reamp device. Glorious distortion on synthesizer or E-piano like a Fender Rhodes
I used to have a Jensen type one And now I have A tabletop unit from sony (1973) And my main deck from Quadraflex (1977) It was well worth the investment though.
When I was about 8 years old, I had a Soundesign tape recorder (we didn't call them shoebox recorders then in 1973). It had a microphone with the switch and had a rectangular plug that plugged into both jacks at once. That machine worked for a little while, but would eat tapes. A year or so later I got a Sanyo recorder and used it for a few years until I got my first stereo tape recorder (still another shoebox) from Radio Shack, which had the new Chrome tape setting, I guess around 1976 or 77. It had a walnut veneer cabinet with a brushed aluminium top. I still have recording from those machines and they sound much better than the Tyler. I wish I still had them all.
nice to see that they are still manufacturing these shoe box cassette recorders though the sound leaves a lot to be desired. i had a panasonic brand of this type back in the early 80s and the quality was quite good if i remember. glad to see that these are still available but they don't make anything like they used to as the old saying goes, thanks for sharing again.
I would imagine phone means headphone, and rem means remote control:
Got a little secret for you, if you don't already know... In a case such as this even with major stereo cassette deck units that don't want to fast forward as fast or rewind slow or plays too fast or drags, here's a trick that you can do and it doesn't injure the tape in anyway: Take cassette out of it's cassette box and hold it in your hand and give it a good five or six slightly firm slams onto a table top and turn the tape over and give it another couple of slightly firm Slams on the table top and what that usually does is loosens up that tape inside that may not have been played for a long long time and in most cases your tape deck or even a little portable tape deck like you have in this video, in most cases that will straighten out the problem and it will fast forward and Rewind and play just great. I've done it many times to certain cassettes and they're still operating just fine!😀 Just a little food for thought.
That’s awesome thanks for sharing!
How sad that as a child of the 80's I did not know about this!
@@Recordology I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. I'm age 55 and not necessarily A Child of the 80s. In fact my golden moment for me was between 1978 and 1983. The best music ever! MTV! Are you kidding me? I graduated in 1983.
That speed thing happens when the tape gets underneath the capstan and not on top. So its because of that, that the speed goes faster, due to the tape not being guided between the capstan and pinch-roller. And as for the FFWD, that cold ether be a gear slightly outta place, or a belt issue. REM I think means remote.
That’s awesome thanks for sharing!
@@Recordology No problem.
Yeah, I’ve had several of this type of recorder over the years. In the 70s, I mainly used to use them to record audio from my 12” black and white TV., mainly Star Trek and Monty Python. These new ones are pretty crappy, all based on a knock off of the Tanashin transport (i never thought I’d be using Tanashin as a benchmark of quality). You can get good used ones made by Radio Shack, GE, Panasonic, and others at the thrift store and on eBay for less that won’t need anything done to them.
"(i never thought I’d be using Tanashin as a benchmark of quality)." hahahhaahahahahahaha
How can you delete failed recordings?
I do have a similar from around 1999. I connected it to my computer and made mixtapes from Napster mp3:s around 2001-2002 to listen to on my freestyle. I used to play some old MSDOS flight sim at the time and one of my tapes is recorded from Winamp while I was playing. So you can hear the pc speaker style brrrr from the engine and the occasional crash. Feeling old 8-)
These days I sometimes use another unit to listen to mixtapes when you need the sound source close. In the garage doing something noisy for example. I'd rather handle one of these than a smartphone in that environment
I always thought you should press STOP after each function. Anyone else agree?
Yes.
Nope, but others did tell me to.
REM is "Remote". It was common on 80s shoebox cassette recorders as it allowed an 8 bit computer to control the tape deck, my MSX used to start and stop the tape automatically using the remote socket for example. That may actually be an explanation as to why devices like this are appearing in numbers again given the huge resurgence in retro micro computing that's going on, although the fact that a brand new device has problems fast forwarding and has major speed issues shows just how junk modern cassette mechanisms can be.
I'd also add the REM socket was originally used for microphones that have an ON/OFF switch, 8 Bit micro companies just used that feature to add a remote start/stop function.
Do you think the recorder could be connected to a mixer for record something like guitar and vocals?
It could but I wouldn't use this one for recording...... look for a vintage unit. We have reviewed some.
@@Recordology Thanks bro
I have my own Panasonic Slim Line one that I used to use to record phone interviews when I worked in news papers. But it is in a box that is inaccessible. So for some upcoming projects I'm ditching my TASCAMS and have just bought a Sony TCM-939 and an 80s mic. I had no idea you could buy these new. The Sony has cue and review feature which most of the 'shoe boxes seemed to have.
Is this the same as jensen, qfx and hamilton buhl or even coby?
I remember those black bricks used to be tossed out everywhere around 2000.
Do you know of any cassette recorders that can record stereo (in both ears)?
My first recording device was a GE real to reel machine It was later before cassettes
Last time i was in school was 1976. Back then we didn't even get to use cassette players and we wrote with pieces of flint... just kidding. It was a really long time ago and i do feel ancient.
Hahahahah
'pieces of flint' lolololol
Bad is my favourite MJ album too
I had a Panasonic similar to that one in the early 80s
REM remote mic a mic that has a switch on it that would say on off. It works to pause the unit or turn it off. This was used for recording stuff so you could stop the unit then start it aging from the mic and keep recording. Also some decks you could leave the mic plug and and use it to stop and start playback. This is what that type of mic looks like
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/330697-REG/Hamilton_DY_5_DY_5_Cardioid_Dynamic_Cassette.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI%3A514&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-af6BRC5ARIsAALPIlXV0TMmsNhqRmi2k0ggSIex_GcUS0Dy8OPfm9ReURaM1c2q13pl7akaAiq3EALw_wcB
phone would be earphone mono, Try recording with batteries sounds like it is picking up dc noise from the power supply.
Can you tell me which barries does it take? I can't find it
I think it takes c size.
Can you please take a picture of the batteries and send it to my email? I got the same recorders but I couldn't find the right batteries for it. Yenglee02@gmail.com
that`s really interesting....i was wondering if the tapes were tight..sometimes banging them on the table loosens them up..or put them in another player and ff rewind them a few times...then try in this player..its doubtful,but could work....don`t think you can expect too much from the microphones....think there was slightly less hiss on the second one..but not much in it..cheers..ade..great name for a player btw...
Agreed ;)
I am trying to get one of those I mean the one you reviewed
(Fun fact The brand of this is my name in real life, Tyler)
I can't press the record button it's stuck for some reason i just bought it new can someone help me?
Lol after all your years of experience, I'm surprised you forgot about the 5 seconds of leader that doesn't record. 😂
gets me every time ;)
Oh Well, You'll have to use a BIC pen to fast forward your tapes!
indeed!
@@Recordology A BIC pen will never let you down!
Maybe the ff belt is bad.
Is this derek s???
Защо не използвате Stop?? Така този нов продукт няма да изкара дълго време....
Това ми е лош навик. Благодаря ви за гледането и коментара! Имайте невероятен ден!
"man thats memories right there" god, listen to yourself jk
I had one of these and i absolutely hated it. First of all it was playing to fast, the build quality is pretty awfull and the keys feel very loose. I bought a Philips n2234 wich has a WAY better build and sound quality.
And the Philips has a radio - mic and Phono port. It has soft eject and you can fast foward while playing a tape. Quite fancy for a shoebox recorder.