cassette tape decks for sampling

Friend of mine found some old cassette tapes - was wondering the possibility of getting a 'deck' or machine that allows precise controlling of the playback of cassette tapes in order to sample them

Not sure how to word what i'm looking for - I know in the film world we use (or rather now, used to use) DV and BETA tape decks which allowed for precise controlling of the play back of the tape - that is to say there was a jog wheel and a scrubber which allowed you to freely rewind/fastforward etc.

anyone have any ideas?

Not sure why you'd need precise control on the decks, surely you'd just sample the whole thing and then do the 'precise control' bit once recorded on the 'puter/sampler (or am I misunderstanding your purpose)

  On 1/9/2013 at 1:01 AM, TRiP said:

Friend of mine found some old cassette tapes - was wondering the possibility of getting a 'deck' or machine that allows precise controlling of the playback of cassette tapes in order to sample them

 

Not sure how to word what i'm looking for - I know in the film world we use (or rather now, used to use) DV and BETA tape decks which allowed for precise controlling of the play back of the tape - that is to say there was a jog wheel and a scrubber which allowed you to freely rewind/fastforward etc.

 

anyone have any ideas?

Why do you need "precise controlling"?

Run a Walkman into a sampler. Trim the start-points after. Case closed.

Any used 80s/90s dual deck or component deck will have RWD/FF and some will also have two playback buttons so you can listen to both sides of the cassette without taking it out and flipping it manually. Some Denon and Sony decks have pitch control as well. If you're looking for more "high end" recording/playback find a 3 Head deck. New decks tend to fast forward and rewind faster.

Happy hunting. No idea what they go for in the UK but stateside I've easily seen them for $10-15, often less. Just test it out before buying, then clean it and demagnetize and it should should good as new.

  On 1/9/2013 at 1:06 AM, mcbpete said:

Not sure why you'd need precise control on the decks, surely you'd just sample the whole thing and then do the 'precise control' bit once recorded on the 'puter/sampler (or am I misunderstanding your purpose)

welllllll - what i'm really looking to do with them is be able to control the playback speeds alike one could by spinning a record back and forth with their fingers - in a DAW, sure, i'd be able to speed it up, slow it down etc. but i'd just be punching in percents and digits, nothing beats the feel of getting the right playback speed manually

would any of you be familiar with jog wheels? sort'a like the vid below:

(edit: to clarify, i'm not looking for a midi controller alike this video, just posted it to illustrate the sort of seemless playback control i'd be looking to possibly find in a tape deck)

Umm yeah do that AFTER you sample it.

I would suggest getting a $20 Panasonic or RCA unit and do the fine tuning digitally, unless you are using an MPC in which case that may be more difficult. Whenever I sample from analogue media, I just use a technique called bracketing, which means starting a few seconds before the snippet you want and ending a few after. Ableton is ace at chopping up samples, but you can do it it most software.

  On 1/9/2013 at 1:26 AM, TRiP said:

  On 1/9/2013 at 1:06 AM, mcbpete said:

Not sure why you'd need precise control on the decks, surely you'd just sample the whole thing and then do the 'precise control' bit once recorded on the 'puter/sampler (or am I misunderstanding your purpose)

 

welllllll - what i'm really looking to do with them is be able to control the playback speeds alike one could by spinning a record back and forth with their fingers - in a DAW, sure, i'd be able to speed it up, slow it down etc. but i'd just be punching in percents and digits, nothing beats the feel of getting the right playback speed manually

 

would any of you be familiar with jog wheels? sort'a like the vid below:

 

(edit: to clarify, i'm not looking for a midi controller alike this video, just posted it to illustrate the sort of seemless playback control i'd be looking to possibly find in a tape deck)

tape deck with pitch-control is the most ideal thing I can think up for you. I don't use analog (well hardware I mean) samplers, I end up digitizing my cassette sources regardless - but I do like the pitch control on my deck, it's more akin to a turntable than software editing

I have Sony TC-W475 with 30% +/- but I think most are 8% tops and it's not a common deck feature. Also, I'm cautious with it as I don't want to break it, so I don't turn it quickly during playback. No cassette player, save some crazy DIY reel-to-reel project, will have the flexibility of a direct-drive turntable, digital sampler or MIDI controller

HMMMMMM! you could... take the tape heads out of some portable cassette players, cut up the tape itself (it would be beneficial to know where you want to cut it, but if not, whatever), pin the tape strips to a flat surface, attach the tape heads to your fingers, and play that shit like a washboard... yeah?

edit: this book is a good guide to this sort of thing: http://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735

edit 2: that said, i typically just sample tapes the way people have mentioned above. cut up the wavs in audacity or a daw or a sampler, go nuts.

just get a cheap walkman with one of those covers that's just a shitty bit of plastic and doesn't hold the tape (basically one where if you press play and open the cover, the tape still plays), rip this off and then manipulate the speed of playback by slowing down the reels with your finger.

Like this -

that's fucking awesome

  On 1/9/2013 at 1:29 PM, BCM said:

just get a cheap walkman with one of those covers that's just a shitty bit of plastic and doesn't hold the tape (basically one where if you press play and open the cover, the tape still plays), rip this off and then manipulate the speed of playback by slowing down the reels with your finger.

boom!

exactly the kinda answer i was looking for - sounds like a perfect solution

just looking around 2nd hand ebay type sites - hard enough to find a tape player/hi fi system that has flat type horizontal tape player - most models seemed to put them upright/vertical which would lead me to believe the door would be necessary for play back

shall keep looking tho!

a lot of those old hi fi seperates cassette players don't have covers, you just kind of position the tape onto the reels and it sort of stays in place...some of them have a removable cover you can put on top if you want, but it doesn't affect the payback. or like i say, just find some old 80s ALBA walkman in a car boot sale or something

  On 1/9/2013 at 1:40 AM, joshuatx said:

  On 1/9/2013 at 1:26 AM, TRiP said:

  On 1/9/2013 at 1:06 AM, mcbpete said:

Not sure why you'd need precise control on the decks, surely you'd just sample the whole thing and then do the 'precise control' bit once recorded on the 'puter/sampler (or am I misunderstanding your purpose)

 

welllllll - what i'm really looking to do with them is be able to control the playback speeds alike one could by spinning a record back and forth with their fingers - in a DAW, sure, i'd be able to speed it up, slow it down etc. but i'd just be punching in percents and digits, nothing beats the feel of getting the right playback speed manually

 

would any of you be familiar with jog wheels? sort'a like the vid below:

 

(edit: to clarify, i'm not looking for a midi controller alike this video, just posted it to illustrate the sort of seemless playback control i'd be looking to possibly find in a tape deck)

 

tape deck with pitch-control is the most ideal thing I can think up for you. I don't use analog (well hardware I mean) samplers, I end up digitizing my cassette sources regardless - but I do like the pitch control on my deck, it's more akin to a turntable than software editing

 

I have Sony TC-W475 with 30% +/- but I think most are 8% tops and it's not a common deck feature. Also, I'm cautious with it as I don't want to break it, so I don't turn it quickly during playback. No cassette player, save some crazy DIY reel-to-reel project, will have the flexibility of a direct-drive turntable, digital sampler or MIDI controller

i've got a Sony TCM-AP10V, sounds about similar to the TC-W mentioned here....it has two front knobs; one for pitch control, one for speed control. you couldn't do any heavy lifting quick cuts without damaging the knobs over time, they're not made for that sort of thing, but it is fucking ace at manipulating tape slowly. beautiful little walkman-like player.

  On 1/9/2013 at 5:22 PM, TRiP said:

  On 1/9/2013 at 1:29 PM, BCM said:

just get a cheap walkman with one of those covers that's just a shitty bit of plastic and doesn't hold the tape (basically one where if you press play and open the cover, the tape still plays), rip this off and then manipulate the speed of playback by slowing down the reels with your finger.

 

boom!

 

exactly the kinda answer i was looking for - sounds like a perfect solution

  On 1/9/2013 at 9:11 PM, BCM said:

a lot of those old hi fi seperates cassette players don't have covers, you just kind of position the tape onto the reels and it sort of stays in place...some of them have a removable cover you can put on top if you want, but it doesn't affect the payback. or like i say, just find some old 80s ALBA walkman in a car boot sale or something

cassette walkmans all the way! they'd also be easier to tweak than an old deck in terms of parts and belts and such

  On 1/9/2013 at 9:40 PM, auxien said:

i've got a Sony TCM-AP10V, sounds about similar to the TC-W mentioned here....it has two front knobs; one for pitch control, one for speed control. you couldn't do any heavy lifting quick cuts without damaging the knobs over time, they're not made for that sort of thing, but it is fucking ace at manipulating tape slowly. beautiful little walkman-like player.

oh nice - yeah I've seen some walkman/portable cassette units with both speed AND pitch control, seemed fairly common for speech recorder oriented models in the 70s and 80s

If you're into DIYing, you could try hacking your own speed control in...