DIY cassette-based tape delay

I made an analog tape delay using an old Tascam Portastudio and a walkman.
Update-- Here is the tutorial I made on Instructables: www.instructabl...
shameless plugs:
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[@compulsor5853]

Oh- and then creating and SHARING the how-to with the (rest of us) great unwashed? You win president of sciencey stuff or something.

[@mitch829]

do you have a tutorial made on this yet?

[@freakyfadge]

Loveless cost 250 grand, when they could have just used this.

[@saintjabroni]

$250,000 to make the record Loveless??

[@freakyfadge]

@@saintjabroni British pounds... so even more

[@saintjabroni]

@@freakyfadge Crazy to see that number in writing...just crazy. Long gone are those studio cost days. Pretty damn much, no?

[@freakyfadge]

@@saintjabroni I don't know, recording digitally probably saves cost on tape, but I think it was the sheer length of time they spent in the studio is what made it so expensive. They were in there for 2 years non-stop from what I gather.

[@saintjabroni]

@@freakyfadge 😅🥲😰😭🤣

[@ocean457]

I've just read your instructables...So much work and talent you put into this. Precious brother! Cheers! And the sound is magnificent

[@RobertoDiAguiar]

Very good

[@granteppley6162]

I'd love to see a tutorial on this! So cool.

[@storm_clouds]

+Grant Eppley www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Cassette-Tape-Echo/

[@explodingPSYCH]

I've been thinking about doing this, but using another 4 track head so I can do real time transfers from a four track. Do you think I'd need to do any additional mods to get it to playback only the play head WHILE recording from the record head?

[@_paradr0id]

This is fantastic. A tutorial would be very appreciated. I have a mixer and would like to pick up a view walkman's to pull this off.

[@storm_clouds]

+Mark Kibble Tutorial is finally done. Check the description!

[@GeorgeGeorge-xj2bc]

Nowadays a PT2399 chip that costs under 1$ with few other components that not exceed 5$ total can make it.

[@almohadillaseisefes]

loving those little motherfuckin artifacts.

[@judclark7376]

bravo on the last 20 seconds

[@virensoni2970]

I want this device

[@rot_studios]

That sounds pretty damn cool, with all the little artifacts, wow and flutter :D

[@eddiegomez4134]

Dude that is awesome! I found a teac model 124 cassette deck today going to see if i can make something similar.

[@jaka2274]

is the extra foam in the tape really necessary? Also, i will have to move over the original head a little to the left to make the external head fit. The initial rec/play head being verry near to the the eraser head, can that cause problems? Due to the electromagnet in the eraser maybe interfering with the rec/play head i mean... (The tutorial is really damn great, i like the project!)

[@storm_clouds]

The foam helps the heads make good contact with the tape. That part is very finicky unfortunately. Regarding the erase head interference: I'm not sure! Good luck

[@danielwelsh]

That's awesome. Can't wait to see the tuitorial

[@storm_clouds]

+Daniel Welsh www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Cassette-Tape-Echo/

[@stewps13]

duuuuuuuudeeeeee You got me goin crazy, I wanna figure out how to do this with mine too

[@storm_clouds]

+O.A VAL Tutorial is finally done. Check the description

[@stewps13]

sweeeet dude!!

[@porksoda2342]

DAMN

[@RAFAELLO077]

is there a tutorial how to do it ..i would love to try please!

[@storm_clouds]

+Raffa Jaffa Yes, finally made one. Check the description

[@Goofhonk]

sounds like the aliens from signs

[@MoFiTheMagnificent]

After this mod, are you still able to use regular cassette tapes on your tascam?

[@storm_clouds]

No, sadly

[@TheTurtleneck64]

If I made this with a mixer and two cassette recorders, what wires/cables would I need? Assuming the recorders have standard headphone jacks and the mixer has 4 inputs and 1 output. And for the recorder head (or whatever) that will be moved, and the speed control potentiometer? I've never done ANYTHING like this before.

[@alexfield4041]

я так и знал что ты русский))

[@NateTreme]

sounds great!

[@Derenwater_Muggins]

What physical modifications (if any) do you have to perform on the tape decks?

[@storm_clouds]

+Evan Newcity Check out my new tutorial for this.

[@Penguin806]

+Evan Newcity Alberti!

[@DanielDavissynthman]

That's great.

[@compulsor5853]

Genius on so many levels. Most impressive is your choice of the foundational device. Proven reliability, availability, user familiarity!!! It leapfrogs most major impediments to implementation, serving, modifications etc etc. Finally, cleanly and wonderfully executed, and sonically spot on.

[@nightmuffin937]

Is there one for CD players?

[@storm_clouds]

nightmuffin937 not that i know of, but there are a few made out of floppy disk drives you can find on youtube. Here's some weird projects made out of CD players: www.philarcher.net/works/sled_guitar.html www.nicolascollins.com/sleddog.htm

[@Do-op6sy]

Это потрясающе!

[@vanessalouzon]

woah!

[@metoo4313]

I've been hit by a musical storm of HOT!

[@jthek2000]

How hard was it to re:in/re:out the pot trimmer w/ a 5k pot? I will try it

[@MichelDbar]

Дима, привет! А у тебя есть инструкция на русском?

[@storm_clouds]

к сожалению я не говорю достаточно хорошо... может кто то захочет перевести?

[@MichelDbar]

Dima Zadorozhny Привет! Все равно, спасибо за ответ!

[@russwilson2305]

Took the words right out of my mouth!

[@gabet3754]

Sounds like an EQD pedal. Nice

[@geecen]

Thanks for this! Sounds awesome.

[@tonyhawh20]

This is really awesome. Love the sound your getting out of this! I tried for a few hours today and ran into some serious issues. Would love a tutorial on how to get this setup running. I've got a simple 4-track tascam and a radioshack recorder, but can't seem to make it happen. The tascam only has one channel to go into, is this my big issue? Do you have a spliced cassette in the tascam that just loops? Looks like the caassette's front is ripped off. So many questions

[@storm_clouds]

Yeah, the 4-track needs to have at least two inputs. Actually, it's not even necessary to use a 4-track. Just a mixer and two walkmans should work too, but I decided to use the 4-track because of the built in mixer for convenience. You could include a cheap mixer with your current setup if you want to still use the tascam. The idea is to combine the guitar with the output of the extra tape head, and send them both to the input of the recorder. I'm using a tape loop that I made because otherwise the tape will start coming out of the cassette shell and make a mess and get everywhere. A loop has a bit more tension and stays on better and is much easier to put back on if it falls off. I had it sitting in there with the top of the cassette taken off because at that point I needed to keep messing with the connection between the tape heads, the tape, and the pressure pads behind the tape (the little fuzzy things you see in the first shot). Right now the cassette I'm using looks a bit different than in the video and is more secure. It will be necessary for you to take a cassette shell apart and hack away at any pieces of plastic that get in the way of the extra tape head. Normal cassettes are only built to take one play head and one record head, and modifying the cassette to work properly with the extra head is the most frustrating part of this project. I haven't made a tutorial yet because I didn't take any pictures or video while I was working on this, so I would have to make another one to make a really proper tutorial, which I don't know when I'll have time for. Sometime soon I am hoping to type up a text tutorial with some pictures or doodles to illustrate the process.

[@cafesinleche6]

Dima Zadorozhny This is very very cool. Did you get a chance to get any doodles together? Or even just some pictures of what all the connections look like with some explanations... Thanks man! Awesome stuff

[@mcspongeicus]

Dima Zadorozhny brilliant, this is incredible. As everyone else is saying, we would all love to see a tutorial on this. Great sounds.

[@storm_clouds]

+Daniel Effenberger Finally made one: www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Cassette-Tape-Echo/

[@tonyhawh20]

Dima Zadorozhny Awesome. Thanks dude!

[@Mellow_Mike_Sup]

What model portastudio is that!?

[@jacobsteel]

Great work! Thank you!

[@Francisco12G]

It sounds really good, dope!

[@testrecone9083]

A tone is very beautiful

[@alexmiranda7886]

What kind of Walkman did you use? And did you press the record function or just the play button on it?

[@storm_clouds]

It was older... I think a Sony. Just play, not record.

[@DaveZula]

Really cool sound!

[@tapeexperiments]

Sounds Lovely👊

[@goodnightlamplight6505]

teach me your ways!

[@C-Stanz]

Clever.

[@paultasbeeb]

love it

[@weeg91]

Why spend 10k on acoustic treatment, or 1k on digital delay when you can do it this way for next to nothing.

[@louisrobertbrown]

+weeg91 why spend 1k on digital delay when you can spend 1/10th of that?

[@storm_clouds]

+Louis Brown I mean, there are lots of really good reasons to own other types of delay effects, digital or otherwise. This is just a fun little project for people who like weird sounds

[@louisrobertbrown]

+Dima Zadorozhny I understand that, I just thought the commenter set up a false premise

[@Jack-eu5vu]

Anyone know the tascam model he's using?

[@storm_clouds]

Porta 02

[@guilledelfino3599]

noo que impresionantee!!!!

[@NiamorH]

sounds great!

[@RAFAELLO077]

do you by any chance know, i have a 4 track porta, and would love to do a mod to slow the speed down, any help ?

[@storm_clouds]

+Rafael DeSade Check out Step 5 of my tutorial

[@Bazabuza1]

MAKE A BETTER AND MORE CLEAR TUTORIAL PLEASE!

[@storm_clouds]

yikes. what would make it better?

[@storm_clouds]

you might enjoy this project/tutorial keepdevelopingprojects.wordpress.com/category/tape-delay-pedal/

[@Bazabuza1]

Sorry about the dumb comment,instructables.com wouldn't load the pictures on my phone where i looked at the tutorial at first.Without the pictures the parts where you use foam to adjust tension of the tape loop and where you put a pot in the circuit of the motor to have a speed modifier are really vague.I wish the part about the foam and tape loop tension was more straight forward. Keep up the great work,i love this.

[@Origoangelohrol322]

Excellent but you should work on the tape speed stability. It's poor now but can be better.

[@storm_clouds]

+Origoangelohrol322 Yes I have it more stable now since this video was recorded. I'll make another video showing some other improvements soon

[@Origoangelohrol322]

+Dima Zadorozhny If you make different configuration of the heads you'll get higher delays with higher tape speed which means better stability and high frequency response because as you can hear when you lower the tape speed too much to get higher delays you get very dull sound. I think of configuration like that: first playback head, then the erase head and after it the record head. That way you'll record the sound, and it'll pass the whole loop of tape and after that it'll be played back. Then immediately after that it'll be erased and recorded the new sound. The drawback is maybe that you won't be able to achieve very small delays in this configuration.

[@danielwelsh]

thank you

[@cooliofoolio]

Ohhh god, does that Walkman have a record head too?

[@storm_clouds]

No, the combined play/record head from the walkman was taken out and superglued onto the 4-track's head.

[@fugamantew]

You genius!

[@alexmiranda7886]

Can you still use this as a normal cassette player?

[@storm_clouds]

No, the tape won't fit

[@Goodbye_Horses]

Would this work with 4 pre recorded "tracks" on a loop in the 4 track? As opposed to running a guitar in.

[@storm_clouds]

nope, but you could use a second 4-track as the input if you wanted to?

[@Goodbye_Horses]

yeah that's what i was thinking was the case. Had to ask! thanks

[@DigginForRawMaterial]

No tutorial? cmon u have to do it!

[@storm_clouds]

+LootingForEars Tutorial is up!

[@cassiusnymh]

Hi the link is for a cat tent? Can you reply with link again please! Cheers :)

[@storm_clouds]

hey, which link? the link in the video description seems to work

[@ge200099]

cassius nymh a cat tent isn't that bad :)

[@Deathrottencat]

Holy shit, this is AMAZING! Really looking forward to some kind of tutorial for this!

[@storm_clouds]

+Deathrottencat www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Cassette-Tape-Echo/

[@Deathrottencat]

Ah Yeah! Thanks for taking the time to get all of this summarized! Keep up the good work! ^^

[@storm_clouds]

Deathrottencat NP, thanks for your feedback!

[@giuliotisato8965]

How can you generate such a long feedback? I'm trying to make my own one tape delay but until now what I obtained is just the slap back repetition because of the second head. Do you run the delay into an external mixer?

[@storm_clouds]

Are you using the Portastudio? Make sure the channel with slapback is switched to record mode.

[@giuliotisato8965]

Dima Zadorozhny Yes I'm using the porta 02. Actually, for the second head, I tryed with a regular tape player (walkmam) but it hasn't the record mode. Could that be the problem?

[@storm_clouds]

Set the walkman to "play." The output of the walkman should be going into the porta 02, and that channel should be set to record to tape

[@giuliotisato8965]

I've finally menaged it! The problem was the position of the walkman's head: I've removed it, re-soldered it (focusing on the alignment between the heads) and somehow it has started to work. Thank you man, for real! Now I've a very funny toy. However, my delay's output signal is very much distorted rather the your. Maybe it depends by the walkman/tape's quality. What do you think about?

[@KiR_3d]

Интересно звучит! Понимаю, что это будет не то, но по качеству у PT2399 будет сравнимый звук? И сколько нужно чипов в цепочку, чтоб получить такую длинную задержку, если известно?

[@storm_clouds]

K sozhelenie, ya ne znayu nechevo pro chipov i takzhe yeli o elektronike v obshe...! etot experiment menya nauchil vse shto ya znayu

[@KiR_3d]

это не так сложно... если охота "нырнуть" в это, конечно.

[@Seems_like_mountains]

Can i ask you how you made up the audio in the first 10 sec of the video?

[@storm_clouds]

+seems like mountains Just strumming some chords

[@Seems_like_mountains]

thank you, i'm gonna try to build this beauty! Great video!

[@storm_clouds]

+seems like mountains awesome, thanks. Let me know how it works out!

[@TehNarwhalz]

we neeeed a tutoriaaaal

[@storm_clouds]

+Reel Tutorial is done!

[@StantsLOL]

This is so great! I would love a tutorial as well.

[@storm_clouds]

+StantsLOL Tutorial is up!

[@StantsLOL]

+Dima Zadorozhny Thanks so much man! You're a hero, can't wait to try this out

[@lepistanuda]

man do you like Duster?

[@storm_clouds]

YES I DO

[@lepistanuda]

I knew I recognised that shell maj7 chord haha

[@2high2die]

Can I do this just using a Tascam Portastudio 4 track, or do I need a second unit? Great video.

[@guthriesavagefriedman35]

Sorry this comment is 5 years forward from yours but you can use pretty much any 4 track and yes you will need a mixer or at least something to send the effect

[@keeelane]

i want to learn how to do this

[@storm_clouds]

keeelane yes, i'm still planning on making a brief tutorial... possibly by the end of the month

[@keeelane]

Dima Zadorozhny awesome, looking forward to it

[@KarlSimonOscarFrisk]

Dima Zadorozhny +1 here! Super awesome!

[@martinpreciado3585]

Dima Zadorozhny Looking forward to the tutorial as well! Cheers.

[@storm_clouds]

Check it out: www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Cassette-Tape-Echo/

[@CJIeDonbIT]

Можешь такой же сделать? :D

[@storm_clouds]

Эти записывающие устройства Tascam становятся все дороже, и их все труднее найти. Рушить их, честно говоря, жалко, это реликвии. Некоторое время кто-то продавал подобное устройство, сделанное на магнитофонах Marantz, но они прекратились, так как запас рабочих рекордеров подходил к концу (думаю)

[@pandanurse]

can you explain how this works?

[@storm_clouds]

There's an extra tape head attached to the recorder. You can see it in the first shot. The guitar signal goes through the mixer, is recorded onto the tape by the original tape head, is picked up by the extra tape head a few milliseconds later, which is amplified by the circuit in the walkman, and brought back into another channel on the mixer, which is then in turn recorded back onto the tape by the original tape head. this feedback loop makes the sound repeat over and over. the distance between the two tapeheads and the speed the tape is moving determines the speed of the repeats. There is a knob in the back (which you can't really see) that I added that slows down the motor of the recorder and lets you control the speed of the repeats. It's the same basic idea as the original tape delay effect created by manipulating reel to reels, or the Roland Space Echo, but adapted for cassette tape. Hope that helps!

[@lcaise]

Dima Zadorozhny seems to be complicated

[@storm_clouds]

lcaise It's complicated to explain, but it's really a lot simpler than it sounds. I am planning to make a step by step instructional for anyone that wants to make their own soon. In the mean time, here is a good explanation of how tape delay works on a reel to reel. Reel-to-reel Tape Delay Demonstration with Electric Guitar My project is taking that same idea and adapting it to cassette tape, which normally works with 2 tape heads instead of the necessary 3 that reel to reels already have. Hope this helps

[@MJMICHA]

Dima Zadorozhny How difficult was it adding an extra tape head to the Portastudio? Was it a basic addition to the existing circuit board? That is the only thing I cant figure out.

[@storm_clouds]

+Ozark Soundscape Check the description for the new tutorial

[@animanoir]

the intro is lovely