Comments on: Primer: Pitch-Bending a Walkman

By: howsthatsound

howsthatsound — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:41:54 +0000

Torçat, glad you find this info useful. Sorry it took so long to respond. To test to see if you can get more speed control from this mod, experiment with your connections. Sometimes i will temporarily solder 2 of the wires to the new pot and experiment with the placement of the third. I will do this for all of the wires connected. In the case you inquire about above, I found that one of the 3 solder pads for the pot was connected to another resistor very near by. I tried connecting to the far side of that resistor with my probing wire, and found that it greatly increased my speed range. It may not work for you (every walkman is different) but it is worth a try.

By: Reko

Reko — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:12:42 +0000

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! and once more THANK YOU!!!!!!

By: Torçat

Torçat — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:16:13 +0000

Thanks so much, this is great….I would like to try. i have an old walkman I just opened…
When you write about the resistor soldered to one of the soldering pads, and say to bypass it and solder in front of in the series…what do you mean? i don’t get it…Is not the resistor already, as it came from fabric soldered in series to the trimmer (or pot)? I would apreciate it if you could clarify this for me.
Thanks

By: howsthatsound

howsthatsound — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:18:04 +0000

Hi Evan. I’m not sure how that makes a flange effect more than just detuning would alone. The original flange effect was created literally by putting your thumb against the flange of the tape reel as it played back to give it a detuned effect.
Your idea is cool in theory, but in practice it will be very difficult to pull off. I’ve tried many times, and there’s just very little room to add anything to a cassette player. My advice to you if you want to try this… Draw up plans on paper first. Everything seems a lot simpler than it really is when it is in your head. And be patient, nothing kills tedious projects like that easier than getting anxious.
Let me know if you get it working!

By: Evan C

Evan C — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:34:36 +0000

I have been planing on doing something like this in order to make a flange effect. I plan to take the face plate off of the walkman, splice and splice a cassette tape into a loop, remove a portion (or all) of one (or both) of the cassette’s face plates, then put a tape head from another walkman near the other tape head. If it works right there should be less time between speed changes than on a digital flange effect.

By: kendracalhoun

kendracalhoun — Sat, 10 May 2008 02:51:01 +0000

sweet thanks

By: howsthatsound

howsthatsound — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:12:33 +0000

thanks. yeah, i love de-tuning tapes. i actually really like listening to some renaissance tapes i have slowed way down. it sounds pretty creepy sometimes. i have one pitch modded walkman that i keep specifically for listening at reduced speeds.

By: Chano Santamaria

Chano Santamaria — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:57:18 +0000

The pitch-shift feature on many tape machines is missed. It had more uses than simply changing the key of a piece. A while ago I used to slow down a piece; the result was incredibly dramatic! Cool to see another blog refusing to let analog be forgotten.

By: guitarFlame

guitarFlame — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:08:18 +0000

Man, what memories I have about these things!!! I had a Walkman for ages and played all kind of music, I was mad to buy one and when I finally had it I felt like being in heaven! A great joy for a kid!

By: shadows

shadows — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 22:53:30 +0000

Thank you so much. I shall be starting right away.