

Hell, being a musician these days practically qualifies one to run a large IT department, what with all the troubleshooting, management/installation/coordination of system updates and the like. Such units were marketed mostly through the Guitar Center chain, meaning everyone with a guitar and a Peavey amp also had a four-track recorder.Ī decade or so later, supposed technological advances led to PC-based recording, which turned something artful and nuanced into something indistinguishable from the formatting of an Excel spreadsheet. The driven few who remained immediately began craving higher sound quality and, yes, MORE TRACKS, which was right around the time that multitrack cassette recorders became affordable. ("Ugh, that's me"), leading most folks to quietly set down the acoustic guitar they got for Christmas and never pick it up again. Since we weren't exactly expecting Abbey Road quality results from our cheap, portable cassette recorders, listening back to those first bedroom demos was exhilarating ("Hey, that's me!").

Let's say that you came of age at a time, long before the internet, when the ONLY way to get your song ideas down in some sort of audible format was to grab the nearest portable cassette recorder and hit PLAY/RECORD at the same time and pray the batteries haven't died since you last used it.
