cheap cassetterecorder sound

[EdJ]

Hi,i was listening to cassette tapes i recorded 20 years or so ago and am wondering if there is a way to replicate the wow and flutter(i think it was called that)from the tapes.
With an Electric Mistress you can get a sound which is, well similar is not the word.The Mistress sounds more static,cleanish as the original tape sounds livelier(is that a word?)Would 2 flangers do the trick or is there  an easier solution?
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Greetings,Ed

[Paul Marossy]

I'm not sure what that "wow and flutter" sounds like on a cassette tape. Is it like a tape playing with a dirty head and roller, kinda shaky? Maybe a one or two-stage phaser would do the trick, just enough to give you a subtle phase shift...

[petemoore]

:idea:
 Here's one...lol...might be neat and cost the cassette tape [for those with cassette rigged as echo...or those with reel to reel...
 Tape damager...you have something that stretces deforems mutilates [not so as to break the thread] pierces and or costabulates the tape after recording and before playback.
 he he he he he heh he he hehe he heh...
 We had an Big recorder wired for echo, pretty cool havin somebody slow and speed the tape by pulling/pushing on the reels, I could never train my doggy to do that tho.

[petemoore]

wow amd flutter
 generally refers to a tape which is physically distorted, you have probably seen a casette tape or VCR with rippled or 'krinkled edges...caused by excessive tape wear, and more quickly by being threaded and advanced through a misaligned tape machine.
 I hear it as a volume drop and sometimes a 'streamy' sidetones along with the program music. Drop ins and outs of certain frequency bands [more on one side of stereo usually] are caused by the tape not having good contact with the playback head.

[vseriesamps]

does anybody have a schematic for turning a crappy cassette recorder - like a handheld - into an echo unit?

[Ansil]

hmm  cassette oplex anyone

[petemoore]

FWIW no, but there's something lurking in the shadows [I don't know where I saw it] about starting with an X# of tape heads or something like that...
 you need a record head before the playback head, once you get it recording, you find an output of the playback head and schizzamm...a one speed one echo echo machine [of high order]....feed some of the echoed signal back into the record...I think you'll have multi echo...maybe too much, not sure, but you can probably keep it from 'running away' [infinite repeats] by attenuating record head feedback input.
 Might I suggest reel  to reel, not exactly Mr. portability, but for messing around and using alot of tape up...they can be cheep and require less tape changing, plus the ones I had all had multiple speed control or in the case of being an echo machine, this means different length echoes/long tape run times.
 also a cool thing about r to r's is that the tape can be pulled 'over here', you can basically take the tape threading  to the other side of the room [while it plays] as long as you're inline with the tape alignment ... and do whatever you want with the tape while its still in the reel to reel pinion/head threading.
 try wrapping some tape mutilating structure to the pinion idler/tension wheel [black rubber]... :twisted:

[Hal]

does anybody have a schematic for turning a crappy cassette recorder - like a handheld - into an echo unit?

someone posted a project for this a while back, but it requires a 2-head tape player.  This is fairly uncommon for casettes, and probably not present on any portable tape players, since very few even have a record function.  It is something that is more common on reel-to-reel systems...
so i guess my answer is no, and that I dont think  its possible without _major_ modification to the tape playing hardware - that is, the installation of a second head.

[EdJ]

Well thank you guys but that is not what i ment.I tried different combinations of flanger/phaser/vibrato but i just can`t duplicate the sound.I guess the cheap cassette recorder did not record at a constant speed. Enough to give it a suptle phasing/flanging like effect without the sweep.By the way,if you pick up one of those early Philips cassette recorders with the (fake)wooden sides;there are,amongst many silicium transistors,an AC127,AC188 and one AC128 inside.Thought you would like to know :wink:
Greetings,Ed

[Ansil]

Well thank you guys but that is not what i ment.I tried different combinations of flanger/phaser/vibrato but i just can`t duplicate the sound.I guess the cheap cassette recorder did not record at a constant speed. Enough to give it a suptle phasing/flanging like effect without the sweep.By the way,if you pick up one of those early Philips cassette recorders with the (fake)wooden sides;there are,amongst many silicium transistors,an AC127,AC188 and one AC128 inside.Thought you would like to know :wink:
Greetings,Ed

step one.  take tape recorder. and build a circuit to vary the speed ever so slightly.
step two. run into input and out through output.
step three. there will be an ever so slight delay through it if you use it without a dry signal.

[ezkimo]

Listen to this:
http://home.no/ezkimo/tapeguitar.mp3
Is this anything like what you had in mind?

What I do is holding my jazzmasters tremolo bar in my hand while playing a normal fingerpicking, then you get these small random variations in pitch that give that cassette woobly chime. For added effect, go slitghtly up and down in your timing.

Added a compressor for the cassette squash but otherwise it's just: guitar-->DI-->souncard-->amplitube.  (I was lazy ok.. :wink: )

[EdJ]

Thanks,that is the way to recreate the sound allright!
Problem in my case is that i am playing a Telecaster.
Thank you anyway.
Greetings,Ed