The side facing up is the side that will be recording on. To record, press both the record play and the record button together. All of our cassette recorder possess internal microphones. They are often marked, and they can usually pick up sound clearly from within a radius of three or four feet. The volume knob is generally located on the side of the cassette recorder.
All tapes have two tabs on the top part that allow the tape recorder to record onto the tape.
When the tabs are present, the contents of the tape can be recorded over. When the tabs are not present, the tape can not be recorded over. If the tabs are gone and you still want to tape over the contents of a cassette, then you can cover the holes where the tabs were with a small piece of tape. While these cassette recorders work well for recording a conversation in a quite space, or various sounds at close range, for better quality you will want to use a microphone. The use of a microphone will generally ensure a higher quality recording.