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February 13, 2025, 04:04:56 AM

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Tone Experiments with a cassette recorder

Started by blackcorvo, February 01, 2025, 03:09:22 PM

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blackcorvo

TL;DR cassete tape recorder sounds cool when pushed by a headphone amp, here's two vids showing it off.

First, recorder directly pushing the speaker cab:

Second, recorder into TPA3118 amp:

Long version:

A while ago, I acquired a Sony TCM-S64V "cassette-corder" to experiment with lo-fi recording. Recently, I discovered I could use it as a guitar amp by plugging a tape adapter into a headphone amp, pressing "play", then engaging the pause switch (which stops the motor, but keeps the audio circuit on). Since I kinda like it too much and was afraid of possibly damaging it with this experimentation, I found a similar (but more bare-bones in features) TCM-S63 "cassette-corder", cleaned and repaired it, and proceeded to use it in front of my headphone amps and got the exact same great tones as my other "cassette-corder".
It feels just like pushing the front end of a big amp.
I especially like the very compressed start of the attack in the notes. I wonder if it's core saturation from the tape heads, kinda like if you pushed a tube power amp so hard the output transformer started saturating...

I'll leave the analysis of that to you all.
She/they since August 2021

joecool85

I think this sounds awesome!  Great job!

What is the signal chain though?  IE - is the guitar going straight into the cassette adapter or is there a preamp or pedal first?  Any added distortion circuitry?
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

blackcorvo

#2
Quote from: joecool85 on February 01, 2025, 04:38:33 PMI think this sounds awesome!  Great job!

What is the signal chain though?  IE - is the guitar going straight into the cassette adapter or is there a preamp or pedal first?  Any added distortion circuitry?

The chain is:
Guitar>headphone amp>cassette adapter in recorder>out (cabinet or p.a.).

On the first video, there's a couple parts of the first clip where I lower the volume of the recorder and you can hear most of the distortion get dialed back. It basically adds crunch on top of whatever you're using to push the recorder.

[EDIT]
And for anyone curious, the schematic for these recorders is freely available on Elektrotanya: https://elektrotanya.com/sony_tcm-s63_s64v_s65_s66v.pdf/download.html
She/they since August 2021

joecool85

Quote from: blackcorvo on February 01, 2025, 06:17:58 PM
Quote from: joecool85 on February 01, 2025, 04:38:33 PMI think this sounds awesome!  Great job!

What is the signal chain though?  IE - is the guitar going straight into the cassette adapter or is there a preamp or pedal first?  Any added distortion circuitry?

The chain is:
Guitar>headphone amp>cassette adapter in recorder>out (cabinet or p.a.).

On the first video, there's a couple parts of the first clip where I lower the volume of the recorder and you can hear most of the distortion get dialed back. It basically adds crunch on top of whatever you're using to push the recorder.

[EDIT]
And for anyone curious, the schematic for these recorders is freely available on Elektrotanya: https://elektrotanya.com/sony_tcm-s63_s64v_s65_s66v.pdf/download.html

What are you using for headphone amps?  Are these Vox amPlugs?
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

blackcorvo

Quote from: joecool85 on February 02, 2025, 10:43:54 AMWhat are you using for headphone amps?  Are these Vox amPlugs?

It's all in the videos. I used a Joyo Bass and an Xvive Classic Rock
I do have a Vox Amplug 2 AC30, but didn't like how it sounded as much as these other two.
She/they since August 2021

Tassieviking

Where did you get the cassette adaptor ?
Whats the brand and model of it ?
A nice picture speaks a thousand words.
I really like to try this as I have some old cassette players somewhere.
There are no stupid questions.
There are only stupid mistakes.

blackcorvo

#6
Quote from: Tassieviking on February 03, 2025, 01:27:07 PMWhere did you get the cassette adaptor ?
Whats the brand and model of it ?
A nice picture speaks a thousand words.
I really like to try this as I have some old cassette players somewhere.

I got it from MercadoLivre (a Brazilian marketplace, it's kinda like Amazon), but I found one available on e-bay .

The adapter is a Coby CA-M800 "cellular phone car adapter", there's pictures of it at the end of the first video, but I'll attach them on this post too. I'm pretty sure any modern equivalent will work just as well, but you might have to remove the insulation from the cable to make the cassette player/recorder door close properly (I ended up using some thin wire off of a broken laptop screen cable and made an adapter to connect it to pedals and such).I only got this one because it was the cheapest available for me, but the fact it has 3.5mm jacks instead of a built-in cable honestly makes it work better for me.

If you do get one, fair warning: the coily cable it comes with WILL crumble. Just cut it off and keep the 3.5mm tip (if you reuse those like I do), and maybe keep the mic it comes with. For some reason they made the mic cable insulation of a different material that won't crumble, so that part is okay. It even has a lapel clip!
She/they since August 2021