Pete of Casperelectronics.com recently updated his website to include a blog. The very latest entry is a nice virtually step by step guide to circuit bending a Barbie Karaoke tape machine with echo effect. These rather pink devices are readily available on eBay for cheap. The resulting sounds are devastating to say the least. The tape motor control mod is also posted and I am sure can be applied to any tape device. The key appears to be the use of a voltage regulator, which outputs a steady voltage without effecting the rest of circuitry too much.
i did one of these a while back. i didn’t mess with the tape deck at all because i got mine at the dump and the whole tape part was smashed in. and the thing smelled so i took out the board and used only the delay part. here’s a blurry picture…
http://www.milkbeep.com/images/delaybox_001.jpg
-captainmarmalade
Wow! Tank you Casper!!!
damn captainmarmalade, what do you have going on in there to warrant that many knobs and switches? i didn’t think there were that many bends inside of one of those things. do you have a photo of the inside or any plans you can draw out for us laymen folk.
i’m looking over my old notes.i never got around to stickering this thing…..
the bottom 8 knobs: are for different high feedback delay effects.
one is where every other delay hit is a buzz sound, 3 different types of hi end trebly sounds, one slowly morphs the signal into a solid tone, three are different types of tones based on whatever audio you have run into the thing, and one is for if you have no input and want to run it as standalone (makes a buzz, which will feedback forever that you can control with the other controls)
above that, the four are solid tones, not requiring a feedback amount at all.
the middle one w/ toggle, pot, and momentary are for temporary pitch effects. they override whatever delay time you have. i think those come from a different source of bends than the top center pot, which is delay time.
the delay time changes (what else?) delay time, but it changes the pitch with it.
the two pots on the left are two different bassy sounds. first one being regular bass and second one being bass-midrange.
the two pots on the right are treble. the one on the far right is just regular ass treble, but the one to its left seems to sound like an overall cutoff. it sounds better than the others so i was using it more when i played this thing.
no ways, you can’t have my plans. find ur own!
-captainmarmalade
dont be a bunghole and share your plans.