Portable tape recorders

Portable tape machines have been around for decades, and they are still popular today. 

Sony, Nagra, Uher and Marantz have been some of the biggest names in the business for many years. These companies have produced some of the best portable tape machines on the market, offering high-quality sound recording capabilities in a compact package. 

With their portability, these devices can be used to capture sound on-the-go or even in remote locations. Whether you’re a professional audio engineer or an amateur musician, these portable tape machines are sure to provide you with excellent sound recording capabilities.

Here are some suggestions for portable tape machines which are great for recording 

your electronic masterpieces.

basically there are 2 types : Cassette vs Reel2Reel

Marantz PMD series

This is a PMD 221

It has 3 heads and records in MONO

tHIS IS A PMD430

3 tape heads , stereo.

Has variable pitch and bias controls.

Sony TCM 5000EV 

3 heads, 2 mic ins, line out, headphones out. Tone , speed, VU meter.

This is a Sony TC-D5M

Great machine ... poor man's Nagra ?

Sadly no way to change the pitch

Another portable sony is the Sony TC - 3000SD

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This is a UHER 7000s

Still pretty cheap to get

Multi speeds, stereo,

Uher is a german brand founded in 1952

Another Uher

This is a report monitor 4000

This has 3 heads ... so you can turn this into a tape echo

Nagra

This is a Nagra III

Probally the cheapest today, but be careful as they are getting old and are hard to service.

I don't own one but I think these use 7inch or 5 inch tape reels

A 7″ reel can hold from 1200 up to 2400 feet of tape, resulting in playing times of approximately 32 minutes and 64 minutes, 

respectively, at 7.5ips.

Above is a Nagra 4.2

three speeds: 38, 19 and 9.5 cm/s (15, 7 ½, 3 ¾ ips)

 separate recording and playback heads

powered from either an external supply (ATN-4) or internal batteries.