@aeva yeah I might have misunderstood your question but I was thinking that wasn’t an option because noise and inability to overdub easily.
I used to have a two deck recorder that was able to copy a tape but also record from a stereo input at the same time. Was super fun but I haven’t had that since I was a teenager and I wish I could think of the name.
Yes I 100% made mixtapes with cheesy radio DJ style interludes.