Interesting Old Tape Echo

[James Wilsey]

A friend said it was pulled out of a studio in Las Vegas, I thought it it looks like it was put together out of old Ampex gear. The story is that it has the name "Surrounding Sound" on it. Trying to see if I can get some better pictures/closeups.

[James Wilsey]

Just got some other pics:

[Mystr Tiger]

That looks wicked!

Looks like it runs at either 10/20 ips. I see some sort of dial with calibration settings which might suggest that the delay is adjustable. One thing I've wondered about the tape delays in the past was whether that had any way to adjust the delay other than the 7/15/30 ips settings. I suppose some amount of variable delay might be possible if there is a variable speed control.


Very cool - especially if it works (or if it can be fixed)!

[Trakworx]

It looks like perhaps you can change the delay time by moving the repro head - very cool looking unit!

[biggator6]

Originally Posted by Trakworx

It looks like perhaps you can change the delay time by moving the repro head - very cool looking unit!

Yeah - it looks like an Echoplex delay adjustment.

That's cool as hell. Does it still work?

[James Wilsey]

Originally Posted by biggator6

Yeah - it looks like an Echoplex delay adjustment.

That's cool as hell. Does it still work?

Not sure, it was bought by a rends of a friend. Not sure if they've even tried it yet.

[Big_Bang]

Love the "reinjection" knob !!

[chuckduffy]

Originally Posted by Mystr Tiger

That looks wicked!

Looks like it runs at either 10/20 ips. I see some sort of dial with calibration settings which might suggest that the delay is adjustable. One thing I've wondered about the tape delays in the past was whether that had any way to adjust the delay other than the 7/15/30 ips settings. I suppose some amount of variable delay might be possible if there is a variable speed control.


Very cool - especially if it works (or if it can be fixed)!

usually delay time is a function of tape speed and (as someone else pointed out) the distance between the record and playback heads. a feedback (in this case I guess re-injection) knob generally feeds a potion of the playback signal back into the record head to control length. i never used this particular unit, but I used to build my own out of broken junk cassette decks back in the 80s when i was 4 trackin :-)

[Mystr Tiger]

Originally Posted by chuckduffy

usually delay time is a function of tape speed and (as someone else pointed out) the distance between the record and playback heads. a feedback (in this case I guess re-injection) knob generally feeds a potion of the playback signal back into the record head to control length. i never used this particular unit, but I used to build my own out of broken junk cassette decks back in the 80s when i was 4 trackin :-)

LOL - I did that too once! I simply soldered a wire from the play head of a cassette to the record head. It sounded pretty distorted, but it was fun just to try it. I was just a kid then and had only a basic concept. I imagine you did a much nicer job though, maybe with an actual feedback control and all.