Homebrew Drum Computer (magnetic heads)

[Mr Ian Primus]

--- Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 14 Dec 2007, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
> > This whole idea strikes me as just plain crazy...
> > But!  For some reason the above reminded me of
> something that I was
> > considering early on,  probably early 1970s or so.
>  Instead of a drum just
> > use a loop of tape.  You can start with an old
> reel-to-reel deck,  ignoring
> 
> Howzbout an 8-track?
> 
> Unfortunately, the kids today don't even remember
> them, so wouldn't fully
> appreciate the absurdity.

That actually would work pretty well, since the
mechanism already intends to have a continuous loop of
tape. You would just have to shorten it somewhat.
Waiting 12 minutes for that bit to come back around
would be a pain.

If you shortened the tape, and a somewhat shorter foil
splice and had both the record and playback heads
egaged at the same time, then you could use the foil
sensing splice/contacts and have that generate an
index pulse to start timing.

Of course, you're still limited to 2 bits wide, since
eight track tape recorders still only have a stereo
head, with a solenoid to move the head.

Now, if you could find a quadraphonic 8 track recorder
(rare as heck)...

-Ian