Author Topic: Question for tape delay design  (Read 1129 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline sahko123Topic starter

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 324
  • Country: ie
Question for tape delay design
« on: October 06, 2019, 09:34:48 pm »
thanks for reading this,

I'm designing a tape delay for an fx rack and i have two questions i have a tape player that ive mostly dismantled. Can cassette erase heads work as mono recording heads if re-wired with the appropriate circuitry installed. and what voltages for the signal and bias would be appropriate for the use.
Asking for a friend
 

Offline Le_Bassiste

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 296
  • Country: de
Re: Question for tape delay design
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2019, 10:46:57 pm »
nice project idea and simple answer: no. tape erasure is accomplished with high frequency magnetic fields generated by the erase head. thus, the erase head is simply too small to deliver a useful frequency response in the audio range.  so, in practice, you need at least a 3-head tape deck for your project. with that setup, you will of course have to make the tape speed variable in order to get different "room sizes", i.e., different delay times. 
in the good old analog times, there were also  designs that used multiple playback heads for even fancier delay effects. irc, the WEM copicat had quite a fan base with fender rhodes piano players, albeit utterly noisy.
http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/britamps/watkins/copicat/copi8.html

edit: on the "spectrum" album by billy cobham, the track "snoopy's search" has a guitar solo by marc bolan, where he uses slapback echoes, causing  a huge "hiss" on the recording. that's how the copicats sounded.
hth!
« Last Edit: October 06, 2019, 10:57:02 pm by Le_Bassiste »
An assertion ending with a question mark is a brain fart.
 

Offline dmills

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2093
  • Country: gb
Re: Question for tape delay design
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2019, 11:40:15 pm »
Also replay heads have a really small gap, where record heads, not so much (the recording is defined by the tape passing under the trailing edge of the gap, while the playback is in effect integrating the flux in the gap hence different designs)...

Regards, Dan.
 

Offline sahko123Topic starter

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 324
  • Country: ie
Re: Question for tape delay design
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2019, 08:49:50 am »
So in other words I'd need a different tape head. Which means I'd probably have to frankenstein one in
Asking for a friend
 

Offline Le_Bassiste

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 296
  • Country: de
Re: Question for tape delay design
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2019, 12:31:11 pm »
here's a picture of a 3-head arrangement in a stereo cassette player. note that record- and playback-head are combined into a single head unit that has two prominent "bulges".
An assertion ending with a question mark is a brain fart.
 

Offline sahko123Topic starter

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 324
  • Country: ie
Re: Question for tape delay design
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2019, 02:21:48 pm »
If I manage to mod a record / play head in place of the erase head to get the first recording and the next playing. And I'm not really looking for high fidelity a bit of distortion is welcome
Asking for a friend
 

Offline jonovid

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1546
  • Country: au
    • JONOVID
Re: Question for tape delay design
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2019, 02:55:58 pm »
when looking at the classic Roland RE-201, or the Space Echo.
I see what your trying to do with a cassette tape drive,  :o :clap:
ben there done that, as a kid.,  why reinvent the wheel.
the Space Echo schematics are out there. 
take the time to see why cassette tape maybe problematic limiting you to only 3 tape heads
why 6.4 mm reel-to-reel audio tape loop is best tape echo you can imitate.
that best echo IMO is a empty room, following that is a classic plate echo - see video

the classic Roland RE-201, or the Space Echo  will work as a tape delay

« Last Edit: October 07, 2019, 03:06:09 pm by jonovid »
Hobbyist with a basic knowledge of electronics
 

Offline jbeng

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 53
  • Country: us
Re: Question for tape delay design
« Reply #7 on: October 08, 2019, 12:17:20 am »
You can also Google "Echoplex EP-3 schematic".
That will yield schematics of the actual tape delay units used by "many notable guitarists of the 1970's", according to WikiPedia.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" - David St. Hubbins
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf