[sdiy] UK - B&Q Tape adapters

[Harry Bissell]

older cassette motors used built-in governors for motor speed, they cannot be adjusted. Those with servo controls can be adjusted over some
limited range... There was one Sony reel-to-reel (I used to be a repair tech) that could vary tape speed over a REALLY wide range, from 1-7/8"
to 15" per second. Externally there was a switch to select the speeds, but internally it was a single drive. Wish i could remember which unit that
was (OK I'm useless I guess...)

H^) harry



----- Original Message -----
From: Todd Sines <sines_list at scale.gs>
To: Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Sent: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:49:17 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [sdiy] UK - B&Q Tape adapters

I bought a few microcassette and standard "walkman" style cassette recorders for this purpose as well, after having sellers remorse for selling my SRE-555 Chorus Echo.

If I want to do speed control, do I need to get a Nagra or Tascam style machine to do this, or is there a way to fool the Walkman-type method into slowing down its speed by.. adding a potentiometer somewhere in the mixt to control the motor speed?

more ideas:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=80091.0
http://blog.makezine.com/2008/04/30/diy-analog-tape-delay-mac/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xelent/2455014579/in/pool-69453349@N00/
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=25238.0
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=96092.0
http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-13001.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/henry01/flanger/flanger.htm [at this rate, might as well buy a SRE-555 Chorus Echo again :P ]


+odd

On Mar 29, 2012, at 5:33 PM, Mark Codling wrote:

> Yes  exactly what I intended.
> Take 1 old tape unit.( You can pick up old cassette decks all over the place.) Strip it down and build a plate  in same plane and existing erase  and record head add a tape guide and as many heads as you can get / want.. could do this on reel to reel  as well I guess. That might be easier..
> 
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl [mailto:synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Tom Corbitt
> Sent: 29 March 2012 21:20
> To: Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] UK - B&Q Tape adapters
> 
> He's talking about building an Echoplex. which would be cool indeed.
> 
> The problem is that you will also need to find an erase head to wipe the tape loop before your write head. I also wouldn't count on the mp3 heads being able to read either. If you had a donor tape recorder/player to give you a erase and read head (plus some of the tape transport/movement elements, it could see that maybe having multiple write heads writing signals back to the tape in variable places might be quite interesting.
> 
> Making an Echo has always been one of my bucket list items, I probably need to start soon since magnetic tape is becoming quite rare in my part of the US these days.
> 
> Tom C.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 3:56 PM, Ove Ridé <nitro2k01 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 29 March 2012 21:50, Mark Codling <mark.fireeye at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>>> Hi.
>>> Not sure if this of interest to anyone.
>>> But B&Q in the UK (Bournemouth anyway) are selling those tape adapters .
>>> (the ones you stick in your car cassette unit to plug your MP3 player 
>>> in) for £2 or 3 for £4.
>>> OK so big deal.
>>> But I was thinking.
>>> Buy a few and rip apart one of the many old cassette decks I have rip 
>>> out the head from the tape adapters and build a cassette echo unit 
>>> all the outputs could be simply plugged into a mixer to start with 
>>> build up a simple mix unit and feed back into the record head 
>>> .etc....probably do the whole thing for £25..
>>> 
>>> Got me excited anyway something to do bank holiday weekend.
>> 
>> Not sure I see the point. There's no delay element. Unless I'm missing 
>> something crucial, it seems like this would be equivalent to simply 
>> plugging a send channel of the mixer right back to a mixing input. (Or 
>> other similar feedback loop.) You'd get an oscillation, but no real 
>> echo.
>> 
>> --
>> /Ove
>> 
>> Blog: <http://blog.gg8.se/>
>> 
>> "Here is Evergreen City. Evergreen is the color of green forever."
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-- 
Harry Bissell & Nora Abdullah 4eva