How To Slow Down Your Tape Deck
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| by Vic Chaney
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Introduction:
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When you try to learn music from a recording, it is often hard to hear
everything because it is going too fast. It really helps to slow the music
down. I used to do this with a record player, and put it on 16 speed. It is
then real slow, an octave lower, and a bit differnt in tone. Nowadays it is
very difficult to find a record player, let alone one with a 16 speed. Some
tape decks have a speed control, although on many it is more a matter of fine
tuning, rather than slowing stuff as slow as half speed. Most decks have no
such adjustment, so this is an easy method to control the speed all you want.
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This works using an adjustable voltage regulator to slow down the motor of
your tape deck. It takes about 5 parts that cost about $10-15 at Radio Shack.
If you can cut wire, solder, and follow a simple diagram, you can do this.
Then you can learn stuff off of tapes very easily.
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If you slow it down to half speed it comes out an octave lower, but the real
trick is to use a pitch transposer. With the pitch boosted to normal, you
can hear the notes much better. This is a function of many of the modern
mutiple effects units (ART, Pro-Fex, etc.). I like to slow down the real
fast stuff a whole octave, then boost the pitch back to normal. Moderate
speeds I might only slow it 6 or 8 frets' worth. After I learn it a little,
slow it just 3 or 4 frets worth to practice it at a more reasonable speed,
but still made a little easier. Later, full speed is a piece of cake.
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Is it risky to your tape deck?
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If you can't strip the end of a piece of wire and the solder it to somewhere
based on a simple circuit, get some help. Otherwise, you should be fine. This
device doesn't do anything but reduce the voltage getting to the motor of
your tape deck. If you wire it wrong then it won't work, but is not likely
to hurt anything. It is important to put in a switch, so that you can cut
the speed control out and return to having your tape deck in its usual mode.
You may have to switch it off for rewind and fast forward.
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The Details:
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First, get the Adjustable Voltage Regulator from RadioShack (part #276-1778).
There is a circuit diagram on the package that will work OK, But I have made
a few changes that makes it easier to work for a tape deck motor.
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The 5K potentiometer (pot) the package recommends covers too great of a range,
and leaves you with with a narrow litlle area of the knob's turn to adjust the
speed. Put the 470 ohm resistor in series with a 1K (linear taper) pot and you
get a lot more control. I prefer the deluxe version: get a 1K 10-turn pot
(small size), and then get a little dial counter that counts the turns, and
has markings down to 1/100 of a turn. This will add $40 to the cost, but the
pot makes it real easy to fine tune the speed, and the knob-with-counter makes
it easy to return to the same settings.
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The capacitors are not really necessary, since you are already working with
smooth, filtered DC.
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I put most of the parts on a little terminal strip inside the deck. Get 2 feet
of 6-wire cable, and run it from the terminal strip inside the deck to the pot
and switch ouside the deck. (Or, just use 6 pieces of hook-up wire.) That way
you can get a tiny little chassis box, and fasten it to the side of your deck.
Then you'll have the on-off switch and the speed knob right where you can get
to it. Or keep it ultra-simple: use a regular ol' pot, and mount the switch
and pot on the back panel of the tape deck, and then just reach around.
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The trickiest part is connecting it to the inside of your tape deck. You have
to find the two wires that go to the motor. One of the wires will be the
positive, and the other the negative (and may be grounded). If you only see
one wire going to the motor, the other conductor is ground (the chassis of
the deck.) You need one wire going from the negative to the little speed
control circuit. The positive lead you have to cut, and lead a wire from
each of the cut ends to the switch. (Don't worry, when the switch is off,
the motor is connected back into the deck "just like old times".)
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The last one I did was a dubbing tape deck. It had four wires leading to the
motor. I figured that the red one was the positive, and cut that one. I
couldn't figure out which one of the others was the negative, so I ended up
trying them all. When you get the wrong one, it doesn't work when you throw
the switch. That's all. It finally worked when I used the yellow one, and not
only does it allow me to slow down the tapes, but also to speed them up as
well. It may take some trial and effort with your particular deck. It is well
worth it. If you do it to a dubbing (double) tape deck, you want to be sure
to use the "play" deck (so you can record to a full speed tape for easy
playback later).
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If you have a voltmeter available, it will make your job easier to fing the
right wires the first time. It will maybe save some time in trial and error.
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Once you can slow tapes down, it is real nice to be able to boost the pitch
back to normal. An effects processor that has pitch transposing capabilities
works great. You just run the output of your tape deck through it and out to
your stereo. There are abundant adapters for the plugs to make this easy. I
find slowing stuff down and then boosting the pitch back up to be so valuable,
that it is worthwhile for just that reason to get one of these effects units.
In addition, the abiliities to make nice sounds on stage (reverbs, digital
delays, equalization, other stuff) increase your enjoyment of playing.
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Look at the circuit diagram, and also look at the
picture I have drawn of the components. If you have trouble, you may
write to chaney@community.net
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Of course, I cannot control your renovation efforts, and cannot be held
responsible for what happens to your tape deck. If the circuit diagram and
picture diagram look like Chinese to you, you shouldn't be attempting this
project without help. I sincerely believe that if you can do the soldering
properly, there is almost no chance of hurting your deck, it is easy and
cheap, and will make learning music off of tapes MUCH EASIER.
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Parts List
| Adjustable voltage regulator. (Radio Shack #276-1778) |
$2.00 |
| Potentiometer, 1 K-ohm, linear taper |
3.00 |
| resistor, 240 ohms (approximate) |
.25 |
| resistor, 470 ohms (approx.) (or two 240's in series) |
.25 |
| Switch, DPDT |
6.00 |
| Total |
$11.50 |
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Optional parts (nice but not necessary)
| Potentiometer, 1K miniature wirewound 10-turn |
$20.00 |
| Knob |
1.00 |
| (or) Counting dial (instead of knob) |
20.00 |
| terminal strip (keeps your wires in place, neater) |
1.00 |
| small chassis or project box |
2.00 |
| 2 feet of 6-wire cable |
1.00 |
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You can get all you need at Radio Shack for the basic version, but your local electronics parts store will have the optional parts like the fancy pot or the counting dial.
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This little gadget has been my solution to helping to learn music off of recordings. If anyone has a different solution, or variations on my efforts, I would love to hear about it. Please let me know.
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Vic Chaney, chaneyv4@sbcglobal.net
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