Recording FM Broadcasts
- Thread starter raymeedc
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
KentTeffeteller
Gimpus Stereophilus!
Best reliable CD recorders are the Tascam line. The CD-RW 900SL is superb. Lets you use any Data CD-R or RW disc and sounds great. I still use my old CD-RW 750 and it's been reliable in heavy use.
radioactive
tube gear fanatic
i agree with kent,as you cant go wrong with tascam gear.if you can find one look for the cdrw-4u it has a small footprint and has a usb output on the back in case you want to use it on the computer.
I have been using an Alesis Masterlink to record FM for the past few months and it's been a lot of fun. I am recording jazz from an uncompressed NPR station and the cd's sound great. The Alesis has a hard drive that can hold 17 hours of music (24 bit/96khz) or 52 hours normal redbook. I usually record three hours at a time for a few nights then edit out the talk and songs I don't want, fadeout the songs if necessary, put space between the songs, and then burn the cd's.
KentTeffeteller
Gimpus Stereophilus!
A new Tascam is $500-$600. Doesn't need Music CD-R discs. Can use any media you like.
raymeedc
Active Member
Thanks aldoallen .... this sounds like the perfect solution for me. I want to record mostly acoustic jazz & classical, both, thank goodness, available in uncompressed form on non-commercial stations. Especially with classical, this entails recording for hours at a time, coming back later on to make a decision about whether or not to keep certain pieces. This would be a royal pain in the butt, if not practically impossible, with the limitations of a traditional recorder. It's a bit expensive, but will pay for itself in time with the extensive library I'll build.
By the way, have you, or anyone else here, checked out the Yamaha CDR-HD1500? It seems to be similar in price & capabilities at first glance (I haven't yet thoroughly checked out the reviews) but includes a 200GB drive, 5 times that of the Alesis.
Last edited:
I had not heard of the Yamaha, but I just checked it out on Yamaha's web page. I looked through the manual for it and it seems more complicated to operate than the Alesis, but that could be just a matter of not being familiar with it. The one feature I would like to have on the Alesis is the capability to download the harddrive to an external disk instead of only making cd's. It would make it a lot easier to transfer to the computer for storage or car radio (mine has a USB input for thumb drives). The Yamaha has a computer connection but it sounds like it's just for inputting titles. The Yamaha has a 200 gig harddrive but it supposedly has a maximum recording capacity 100 hours of music. The Alesis can hold 52 hours with, I believe, a 40 gig harddrive so I don't know what's up with that. As far as the time goes though, I record at 24bit/96khz and have a capacity of 17 hours which is plenty for me. Once it's on the harddrive, you still have to edit the recording to break it up into tracks and clean it up and burn it to a disk which takes some time, so I would get way behind if I went more than 17 hours. I then burn at the normal 16 bit/44.1khz so it will play in any player. I noticed the Yamaha can not make 24 bit recordings only 16 bit if that matters. It sounds like the Yamaha can record on RW disks where the Alesis only records on R (one time) disks. So I really couldn't say which one would be better for you but I know mine does everything I need (whith the exception of download ability) and makes excellent sounding disks.
charlottemi
Active Member
I use a Marantz CDR310 for digitizing vinyl or recording FM, and like it. The sound quality of the recordings is great (depending on the chosen file format, of course), and I like the fact it's a portable unit, too. That makes it easy to hook up to other systems as well (friends, work, church, etc.). I imagine it's very popular on the concert bootlegging scene, but I wouldn't know about that.
It has a hard drive like the others in this thread, but it's capacity isn't as high. At the highest quality, I can save about 5 hours on the hard drive before having to dump it onto CD.
You can find these for about $600.
It has a hard drive like the others in this thread, but it's capacity isn't as high. At the highest quality, I can save about 5 hours on the hard drive before having to dump it onto CD.
You can find these for about $600.
davidk5
Super Member
Very cool , i may have to get one of those if mine ever dies .
Cadillac Kid
Addicted Member
I use a a Tascam HDP2 Compact Flash recorder. Load up a 4 gig card with hours of 44.1/16 audio files.. Then just drag them into Toast and burn.
KentTeffeteller
Gimpus Stereophilus!
Compact Flash recorders are a superb option. Zoom, Tascam, Marantz, Sony and others make excellent ones. Our news crew uses Marantzes. They've been reliable and sound great. You can upload to your computer editing platform easily for that purpose. There's a Marantz rackmount unit available too which is great. :tresbon:
Bozzmonster
Sabrina Says 'Feed Me!'
On a weekly basis, I record programming off of FM (the local NPR station has a four hour block of folk/celtic/bluegrass music on Sunday nights.) Current rig is my trusty Sanyo Plus T55 tuner, though you can use any radio with a headphone or RCA output. This is routed out to a switch bay to my receiver so I can monitor. It is then routed into an M-Audio 2496 soundcard. I rip files with a shareware program called RIPVinyl which records .wav files, splits independently when there are pauses in the program. Those are saved on the computer's harddrive. If I want a CD copy, I just burn it to CD via the internal burner. If I want to edit files, I use Audacity.
Old_Tech
Yer-isn't!
Carver PSB-11
I use a Carver synthesized digital tuner through a Carver preamp then onto a Cassette. I have Nakamichi decks and a few Denons. So far the Nakamichi's have captured it all quite well. I like the Carver digital tuner it loses the noise if there is any. Both my Sansui receivers have multipath whistles and I hate that in a recording.
I record Echoes and Hearts of Space off Public Radio WXXI.
I use a Carver synthesized digital tuner through a Carver preamp then onto a Cassette. I have Nakamichi decks and a few Denons. So far the Nakamichi's have captured it all quite well. I like the Carver digital tuner it loses the noise if there is any. Both my Sansui receivers have multipath whistles and I hate that in a recording.
I record Echoes and Hearts of Space off Public Radio WXXI.
