Today I made some good progress on a homemade tape delay I've been putting together from two cassette players. I have two heads, one recording and one playing, simultaneously on a small loop of tape. As things stand, whatever is input is output once, just a few moments later.
This simply isn't satisfying me. I'd like to know how I can monitor the original signal through the same out jack as the delayed signal. I'd also like to know if anyone can give me simple instructions on how to feed the output back to the line in at a reduced level so I can get more than one echo.
I'm not very knowledgeable about electronics, and have kind of surprised myself by getting even this far. Please help me make this project a success! 😀
This simply isn't satisfying me. I'd like to know how I can monitor the original signal through the same out jack as the delayed signal. I'd also like to know if anyone can give me simple instructions on how to feed the output back to the line in at a reduced level so I can get more than one echo.
I'm not very knowledgeable about electronics, and have kind of surprised myself by getting even this far. Please help me make this project a success! 😀
This shurly can be done. Give us the models of the tape machines, and post a picture if you can. Look for schematics. Sounds like it is just a matter of monitoring the signal that you are sending to the record head, and combinng it with the playback, which will of course be delayed.
Just to experiment, connect a high value pot across the output. 250k, 1meg, whatever. The output still goes wherever it did originally with little loading by the pot. Take the wiper of the pot, and run a wire from it back to the input. Dial in the amount of feedback you want. This is utterly basic, but ought to get you started. You might wind up adding a resistor in series with that wiper lead so it mixes with the input source better.
And the keep the original signal along with the delay, use a mixer.
And the keep the original signal along with the delay, use a mixer.
Yes, That is even more simple than what I was contemplating. Bear in mind that the leignth of the delay is based on the physical distance between the record and the playback heads. It is likely to be physically difficult to change that distance and therfore the delay. This is the prinipal behind a device called an Echoplex that was manufactured back in the 70's. In that case they provided a method for sliding the playback head closer or further away from the record head thus varying the echo period. Lot's of fun.
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