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TapeDelay

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Project: Tape Delay/Echo
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Name Tape Delay/Echo
Initiator Peterbjornx
Status WIP but working
Skills Electronics, Audio, Guitar(for testing)
Summary Modded tape deck serves as delay/echo effect

After building a couple of guitar amps I decided to try to make a delay/echo effect without using DSP's. Thinking about how to implement this i realized that the easy and cheap option was to recycle a cassette tape deck into a tape delay.

In order to achieve that I needed to add a separate playback head so I also had to modify a cassette to allow the new head to touch the tape.

Head assembly

For playback I am using the amp circuit that was in the radio/cassette combi from which i got the cassette mechanics

To drive the recording head I am currently using an old casette deck from which I broke out the tape head connections, I am working on a small circuit that will do both this(input preamp and ac bias) and the playback amplification.

The actual echo effect is realized by mixing the delayed playback from the tape back into the recording input. I made a simple circuit based around two potmeters, one of which functions as a crossfader and the other as a volume control for the feedback. By changing this volume, I can change the time it takes for an echo to die off.

I have tested it and it works like a charm! Next up: making it small enough to actually use, and to find out whether controlling the tape speed will work for controlling the delay time

TapeEchoBlockDia.gif

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