Gary, Sorry, I didn't express myself properly. In fact I am "pro" digital recording. I totally agree with all your comments regarding wow & flutter, and the challenge of recording piano sound. I have an interesting HiFi CD audio recorder. It's a Philips CDR785, which I don't think they made many of. Ths unique thing about it is that it has a quarter-inch tereo jack socket on the front to take a stereo mic (or two mics via an adaptor) and you can record from an acoustical audio source straight onto CD. On subsequent models they removed that feature. I've used it to record a piano and song recital and it worked very well. It's not, of course, really intended for portable use. What I was getting at, really, was the *universality of access* of cassette tape in former times. I had in mind a musical couple locally, she a singer and he an accompanist and organist. They had a JVC "ghetto blaster" type machine for years, which made decent stereo recordings from its built-in mics. They could record an accompaniment for a choir member and hand over the casette, very easily played on any other machine. And they always recorded their own recitals. For myself, for years I carried around a Philips D6920 Audio-Visual stereo cassette recorder and two mics, and made some nice recordings at various events. The next model up was the Sony Professional Walkman, too expensive for me. Well, three or four years ago, my friends' JVC packed in, and the belts on my Philips started to get slack. At that time - and I know things are changing now - it was difficult to find any ready replacement to do the things my friends wanted to do - easily make recordings they could hand over, etc. Nor would personnel in audio stores be of much help, for it's rather a "niche market", making stereo audio recordings from live sources on the move. I accept that in the intervening time, things have moved on. MP3 players are now ubiquitous, and many offer a facility to record. In most cases, however, the use of a PC will be involved at some point, if you want to, for example, make a copy of an accomplaniment to hand over to a choir member. Nor do manufacturers seem to want to make it easy to record in stereo from accoustical sources - it's not what the industry is about - they want you to buy packaged commercially produced music, not make and record your own! So, I think what I meant was, things are not QUITE "there yet", in terms of going into a store and saying "I want to make a recording of the church choir this week and give copies to some members to let them listen. Sell me a device to do that, my old cassette machine is bust". I think a lots of store personnel would struggle. I am certainly not one of those, by the way, who say that vinyl is better than CD! Best, David. David, '"...but things are not quite "there" yet..." Are you serious? Digital recording is fantastic. Easy to use portable digital recorders are readily available. No previous method of recording can compare with digital regarding. Digital recording devastates all the previous methods regarding fidelity, including wow and flutter, harmonic distortion, noise and dynamic range, not to mention the economy of storage mediums, random access capability, ability to edit and modify sound, etc. Of course, the piano has historically been one of the best instruments to record as a test of a recording medium as it has a huge dynamic range and especially the fact that wow and flutter is very noticeable when recording piano. A piano's sound is dead solid when it comes to sustaining a uniform pitch as notes decay, so any wow or flutter is noticed. This is unlike woodwinds and bowed instruments. There is virtually no wow and flutter with the digital medium. Interestingly enough, George Martin has said that those who don't like what they sound like when recorded digitally and want to use analog tape instead, need to address what it is about their sound that needs to be "fixed" by the distortion of analog tape. Gary Fluke Snohomish, WA
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