DIY Tape Echo?

[carboncomp]

Are there any DIY Tape Echo units out there?

[moosapotamus]

Check out the Echo-Matic on this page...
http://moosapotamus.net/IDEAS/ideas.html

~ Charlie

[joelindsey]

You can rig up a tape echo with a mixer and a three head tape cassette deck or reel to reel. It needs to be three head because the third head is used for monitoring off the tape, in this case it's what you pull the wet signal off of.

I've read that three head cassette decks are hard to come by. I wonder how difficult it would be to install a third head to a two head machine and then build a preamp for it. I'm surprised there isn't a boutiquer out there making tape echos that use cassettes. Seems like it would be pretty popular. 

moosapotamus - NH represent!

[carboncomp]

So theoretically, with just a simple mixer circuit like the Echo-Matic you could gut a Tape-recorder for the heads and motor.....but mount them with a 3rd head and just spindle it up so you could use the copicat magnetic tape loops that up for grabs all over the net?

[joelindsey]

Yep. You don't even need tape loops, you could use unmodified cassettes/reel2reels. If you are using a reel to reel you wouldn't even have to tear it up or modify it at all. That's one of the functions of the mixer. You take some of the delayed signal and send it back to the input, creating another delay. Granted, you would have to rewind/flip the tape after some time but that's not a huge deal. You'll probably want to add a speed control for the motor, otherwise it will be fixed to a very short delay time.

I've considered grabbing a portable tape recorder off ebay or goodwill and playing around with it. I wouldn't know what to put the thing in once I've gutted and hacked it up, though.

[tubegeek]

Let's not forget those big fat 8-track cassettes - bigger tape, although you can't use the whole width at once unless you swap heads with a different type of deck. But the tape is an endless loop and I'm sure you can find a unit to hack up pretty cheap....

I've always wanted to do this myself, I figured the way to do it would be to massacre a cassette deck and extend the tape path some distance for the lengthy repeats.

[carboncomp]

Granted, you would have to rewind/flip the tape after some time but that's not a huge deal.

Just been chatting with a friend who builds pedals and kits, and he was saying you could use endless tape cassets used in PA and answering machines so no flipping would be needed! (think he is onboard with helping me too  ).

So can drive the cassettes with any gutted cassette player that also has the Record/Playback head, and erase head.

Now we just need to hunt down some information on wiring up a dedicated Play heads!

this could be fun!

[artifus]

[doug deeper]

Wait, you guys live in nh?!?!?!!!

[joelindsey]

Wait, you guys live in nh?!?!?!!!

Yeah, and I'm going to see MMOSS on Saturday!

[moosapotamus]

Wait, you guys live in nh?!?!?!!!

yup u?

[doug deeper]

Small world! I'm in Barrington, where abouts are you guys?
Also, DIY tape echo.

[moosapotamus]

Down south, near Salem NH.

[Der Groovemeister]

I have always wanted to try, but never came to it, 2 (2 head) reel to reel tape recorders for echo. Let the tape run from the first into the second recorder. You can vary the lenght of the delay by moving the recorders further away or closer together. You need to use the capstan of the right recorder and put the left one on pause.

[wavley]

I have always wanted to try, but never came to it, 2 (2 head) reel to reel tape recorders for echo. Let the tape run from the first into the second recorder. You can vary the lenght of the delay by moving the recorders further away or closer together. You need to use the capstan of the right recorder and put the left one on pause.

You mean Frippertronics?





It's why I call my space echoes Wavetronics North and my pedalboard Wavetronics South

edit: added another Frippertronics pic

[Nasse]

http://personal.inet.fi/musiikki/kaikugalleria/tm-63.htm in the old days boats were made of wood and men iron... "that sound" was popular around the world in the early sixties...