experimental noise/grind/glitch

tommytomthms5 · Joined: Nov 23, 2007 Posts: 7 Location: usa

i want to make noises and strange effects by slightly warping a cassette tape i have tried many techniques and searched google but nothing worked and after each the tape was ether A. broken or B. playing like new.....

my question is how would one quickly and easily warp a cassette tape?

Danno Gee Ray · Joined: Sep 25, 2005 Posts: 1351 Location: Telford, PA USA

Are you trying to physically WARP the plastic tape? The case? or the magnetic field information encoded on it?

tommytomthms5 · Joined: Nov 23, 2007 Posts: 7 Location: usa

what works better? Wink

blue hell · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:41 pm Post subject:

Well if the tape breaks that's not too bad, you can tape it together again and it will certainly sound warped then. You can put in pieces back side front, or upside down. It might not play too well, but that would be a warp as well Very Happy

edit: did you try magnets on recorded material?

did you try to cook the tape? micro wave? washing machine?

Danno Gee Ray · Joined: Sep 25, 2005 Posts: 1351 Location: Telford, PA USA

Physical warping of the tape won't provide much sonic distortion unless you are able to find the fine line of temperature where the tape strata stretches enough to distort the information stored on it. Very fine line...most unlikely. Audio distortions of tape recorded data are usually produced with record / playback speed shifts, odd record / playback head placements, or esoteric signal level changes / biases during recording.

Early sound effects for music were discovered by using many of these methods. Flanging, I believe, was discovered when brushing the hand against one of the reels of a reel to reel recorder to cause subtle speed changes during playback.

There are numerous people on this board with vast amounts of knowledge on these subjects. My knowledge only scratches the surface.

tommytomthms5 · Joined: Nov 23, 2007 Posts: 7 Location: usa

okay so i have an old hand held walkman should i be messing with that and not the tape???

Danno Gee Ray · Joined: Sep 25, 2005 Posts: 1351 Location: Telford, PA USA

I would think that would get you more mileage. Try finding the playback motor speed control ciruit. Add a pot to vary the motor speed and see what that does for you.

tommytomthms5 · Joined: Nov 23, 2007 Posts: 7 Location: usa

ok ill try im not very knoageable on that sorta stuff

blue hell · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 4:43 pm Post subject:

Danno Gee Ray · Joined: Sep 25, 2005 Posts: 1351 Location: Telford, PA USA

LOL, Yeah I know. Just try to reproduce the effect yourself though.

ian-s · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:21 pm Post subject:

When I was a kid, I discovered that recording sounds on cassette with low batteries produced some interesting results.
Louder parts of sounds caused the AGC to kick in, which seemed to divert power from the motor and slow down the tape that the signal was being recorded on. I don't think I've ever heard a similar effect.

Danno Gee Ray · Joined: Sep 25, 2005 Posts: 1351 Location: Telford, PA USA

Very cool. Then a pot on the battery lead to act as a variable power starve might have good results as well.

Excellent suggestion g2ian!

blue hell · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:33 pm Post subject:

BTW, old cassette players, the ones with mechanical switching, sometimes produce nice results with buttons pressed simultaneously or partly.

tommytomthms5 · Joined: Nov 23, 2007 Posts: 7 Location: usa

thanks for the replies guys ill look into it

Stanley Pain · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 4:40 pm Post subject:

Low Note · Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 5:11 pm Post subject:

um... wouldn't it not turn on with a cable sticking out the door? It seems like it would be pretty dangerous to break the safety mechanism on that - especially if you planned on using the microwave again!

Would you be able to get a faithful recording if you plugged the mic into a wireless system or would the nuking mess with the wireless device?

kijjaz · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:06 am Post subject:

I might wanna try working with multiple tape players & recorders..
and I might wanna try to mangle with the recorders.. for example by messing around with record or stop.

that'd make some warps out of any original materials easily..
it's quite basic..
but i guess we can do a lot with this basic idea.

pots_and_robots · Joined: Nov 26, 2007 Posts: 6 Location: Out There

I have an old tape recorder that records on small tapes. I'm not sure of the brand, model, type of recorder, or type of tapes, but I could definitely look into that and find out. I use that tape recorder to record samples, and if you want to physically mess with the tape recorder I would suggest messing with the built in microphone. That creates a variety of sound. However, since I haven't actually opened my tape recorder up and messed around with it, my knowledge on more physical alterations is limited. I usually manipulate what I'm recording instead of manipulating the actual tape player.

Per · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:16 pm Post subject:

Why don´t you find a second hand reel to reel tape recorder? The tape are easier to cut and treat, and I guess there still is some tools like leader and cutting board available.
I got two old Studer/Revox machines in the studio, and it is possible to get them for small money now days. (But the prices of new 1/4 tape is high).
Per