[sdiy] Build a Tape Flanger?

[harry]

Sorry if I'm late (500 e-mail cache today)

Take TWO identical reel to reel with 3 heads.

Run the signals into both record heads... mix the monitor heads
together out of phase.

The delays will be exactly equal and phase cancellation will occur.
Then pressing on the reel (or vary the motor speed DUH we have
servo control these days...) will cause only ONE to be delayed. As
one deck runs slower and slower... it will  flange down. Let the speed
start going back up again and it will flange up.

Forget about trying to run two tapes in sync... thats the way Phil Spector
discovered the effect but not a good way to do it unless you are very
patient.

H^) harry   (ps  Analog tape decks do not suck... BBD's suck)

Glen wrote:

> At 02:15 AM 8/30/01 , Scott Gravenhorst wrote:
> >I've always wondered:  Once one reel down is momentarily slowed,
> >how did they 'resynch' the decks so that the difference is
> >eliminated again?  Drag a finger on the other one?  Sounds
> >difficult.  Pardon my naivete...
>
> If I understand it correctly, they would first slow one deck, and then slow
> the other one. This process was repeated over and over, for as long as they
> needed the flanging effect. If they needed to perfectly synch the sound, or
> eliminate the flanging effect, it would always be simple to fade down the
> volume of one of the decks, leaving only one of them audible.
>
> Yes, this does sound difficult, but I believe this was how it was done
> before purpose-built "flangers" were invented.
>
> Later,
> Glen