An English language after-school consulted me for a low-cost solution to record their classes for students to review at home. They are using a dual-deck cassette recorder but it's too time-consuming.

You need to consider:

  1. the recording equipment and media

  2. how you duplicate the media

  3. how to distribute the media

I would recommend digital means throughout. That would save your cost over time.

You may equip your classrooms with mp3 recorders or PCs to record the class. Then you can burn the mp3 files, the size of which enables faster burning than audio CDs. You can even use USB thumb drives for even faster file transfer (64MB should be enough for a 2-hour class recording). The easiest way is to provide the files online for students to download themselves. Most students in Taiwan should already have an mp3 player or a PC to play the files.

If you go with the cassette solution, you may want to consider the cost in the long run (I think the cost will outrun digital solution after several classes). The cost would include the cassettes themselves, the duplication system, and the time and efforts involved in duplication. Digital means also allows easier archiving and duplication.

If cassette is a must, and you don't go after studio quality, you can use recording devices with monitor out (if you use a PC, most likely its sound card would work). This way, you can record into digital files and analog tapes at the same time. Then, you can use something like "high speed cassette duplicator" to make duplication. When you buy a high speed cassette duplicator, you can opt its copying speed, the number of decks (how many tapes you can copy at one run), and the number of channels (mono or stereo).