The All Things Tape Thread

[Ruiner]

Here's two more examples

[echorec]

[MrNovember]

I love Hainbach's videos and approach to music. Huge inspiration

[PeterBregman]

Not sure if folks here saw this or not, but the SpaceCase TE-1 can now have CV control. Info:

"Hello all,

This is an email to announce that CV Control is now an available option for the Space Case. CV has easily been the most frequently and also most fervently requested feature for two years now.

It has been a long time coming.

There are two versions described below. The CV option was originally intended to be simple and very low cost. But requests were made, designs were developed, and the innocent CV feature turned into a full being. But to respect some original intentions for simplicity and affordability and a few public and various direct email mentions of such, I'm temporarily making available a basic form. This will be discontinued after a period of time and the full set will be the official and only CV upgrade available for the Space Case.

Any TE-1 can receive a CV upgrade.
If you want a CV upgrade, please reply to this email so that it may be arranged.

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- All CV jacks are standard 3.5mm
- Jacks are in center of rear panel
- With full CV version, all jacks are equipped for expression pedal

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CV Basic (temporarily available):

One style of use demonstrated here https://www.instagram.com/p/BcDv2pRBuyR/

Time: 0 to 5V : Controls the speed/time of the machine/delay. Speeds a bit above the stock Space Case manual speeds will be available for quicker delay times. Also slower speeds and all the way down to full stop is available, which also aren't physically available on the machine knobs. Naturally, since you have full control over the tape speed with this input, if you send in a modulated signal you will get modulated time. The circuit DOES respond to quickly modulated signals, despite it controlling a motor and belts, so fluttering sounds can be achieved especially when using a square wave to modulate your time signal going into Time jack.

Run: 0V / 5V : Designed for gate signals. With the machine transport buttons already engaged/on, the machine will not move at all when 0V is present and when 5V is present it will move exactly at the rate of Time (or Time knobs when not using CV to control Time). This allows for some rather flexible and powerful musical results and I especially look forward to everyone trying it. Also, unlike the mechanical buttons of machine, the audio is not muted no matter what the CV signal dictates the machine to move via the Run jack. This allows you to experiment with the transition from play to stop and hear all of the results. No "clicking/popping" occurs, so this is a sonically clean operation and you can consider this a very special sampler kind of tool, like a "time stretch" in a DAW but so much more. The instagram video above is an example of all of this.

Further.... Since we are dealing with physical objects spinning around, there is the mechanical factor to take advantage of in creative ways... If you very briefly release the Run signal, or, using a reversed polarity signal you hit it "off" for just a blip and release it to "on" again, you will have yourself a momentary "stop" then "start." Now, of course if the blip of signal change is quick enough, the machine will not actually reach down to "stop" before "start" has already started moving again but you will have just generated a micro-wobble and will be musically interpreted as a mechanical imperfection. The sound of an old "broken" machine, perhaps. You can vary the length of signal "imperfection/blip" to vary the severity of pitch motion, and then also vary the frequency at which they occur, or even better randomize it, and you'll have yourself an old unstable sounding tape machine playing original material from another time. Works great during echoes as well.

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CV Control for the TE-1:

Time and Run as above. Expression pedal works as expected for Time, and for Run simply toggles machine on at a certain point. If your pedal has a max point adjustment, you can set it so that higher point of pedal action triggers Run, and depending on the pedal, possibly max point triggers run.

Also...

Feedback: 0V to 5V : Front panel knob acts as Total Amount achievable. Exp pedal equipped.

Modulation: 0V to 5V : Affects Time of machine, no matter if time/speed of TE-1 is controlled by CV or its internal knobs. Exp pedal equipped

Echo Level: 0V to 5V : Front panel knob acts as Total Amount Achievable. Exp pedal equipped

Dry Level: 0V to 5V : Front panel knob acts as Total Amount Achievable. Exp pedal equipped

Output Level: 0V to 5V : Side panel knob acts as Total Amount Achievable. Exp pedal equipped

Insert On/Off: 0V / 5V : Exp pedal equipped. (Same as Time above regarding trigger action point)
This is a unique scenario. Designed for gates, 5V engages whatever insert you have in the audio insert jack, and 0V of course bypasses it. This allows for not only live timbre engagement within feedback loop, but also some very interesting playback possibilities because the Insert point is directly after the playback head.. If you record something onto the tape and rewind to play it back, you can sequence an On/Off of any sort of effect being implemented onto the played back sound. Add this to the already rich possibilities of sequencing Time and Run.

Further.... With the Echo, Dry, and Output Levels CV controllable, essentially you have a form of CV control over op amp distortion as well, since the amount of distortion in op amp is caused by Echo and Dry levels being sent to the op amp. To manipulate this all with CV you can manually select the Op Amp type with the side panel switch to set overall distortion level, then CV control your related levels. The Output Level CV can accommodate for now hotter signals coming from Echo and Dry. Send opposite CV waveforms to the Echo and Output CV controls and you will have some interesting things going on where the distortion increases+decreases but the following output level decreases+increases... in a dance of alternating overdrive..... on your echoes.

This full CV upgrade includes a new and more substantial power supply and power connection point to machine.

Tap Tempo is designed, and may be implemented in this CV set but may be reserved as an upgrade for the breakout pedal instead.

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Thank you everyone for the amazing enthusiasm, commitment and patience that i've received from all of you.

jim"

[Ruiner]

Yeah i'm sooo stoked on the cv control and the amount of it. Definitely getting the full upgrade on mine.

[ritz]

*heavy breathing*

[mysteryroach]

Anything know much about the WEM Copicat IC 400 Tape Echo - Varispeed.

Just saw one on sale down under. I've been keeping my eye out for a tape delay, but a TTE or a SpaceCase was more my kinda wheelhouse.

Opening bid price seems to be pretty reasonable compared to past reverb prices (550NZD). How much do you reckon you'd drop on one if you were being cheap?