Dubbing FM onto tape....

Your 3 head monster might be fine and dandy but will it make cd copies, in other words will it record a cd onto tape and sound exactly like the cd, mine does. That is the secret.

If you can find 3M Black Watch metal tapes 4040. You'll get great recordings. If you are using any signal processors, you can hook up the tape in on the tape deck to the main out on your pre amp if you have more than one main out. Be careful not to overload the input on the recorder. Also the volume control on the preamp will adjust the record levels on the tape deck, so use caution.

2 biggest problems: FM compression and tape hiss. No way around the first, the second is mitigated with the right tape stock. Unfortunately, many of the tapes with the best response have more hiss. Maybe try a reel to reel tape recorder like a Revox.

Hello, what I USED to do, is
record off of the FM radio on
a hi-fi vcr. You get a MUCH better recording
and the signal to noise ratio
of MOST hi-fi vcrs is at around
90DB.
The process that I used
AFTER that was, recording from FM radio
on to minidisc! Minidisc is GREAT for
editing any info, like track tiles, artists, etc.
I used to record off of the radio, but radio
is so bad where I live, you`re better off just
buying the cd`s, or exchanging cd`s with your friends
and burning them onto a cd-r.

Jvcvcrman08: I used to do a lot of that here in NYC where we have some amazing radio programs. However, it is very compressed. I agree about the hi-fi VCR, especially the ones from the early 90's.

The problem comes in when you make that digital transfer. I always lost something there, which is especially bad when what you have has FM compression to begin with. Better to stick with vinyl!