A machine that records audio or video onto magnetic tape. A tape "recorder" or tape "deck" generally refers to earlier analog devices, such as a VHS tape recorder. Until the 1990s, analog audio tape was the norm for recording music as well as answering machine phone messages.
Handheld voice recorders also used to be analog; however today, a voice recorder is digital with audio stored on a flash memory chip. A tape "drive" implies digital data such as an LTO drive for backup and archiving. See magnetic tape, voice recorder, VHS and LTO.