Wait! To get the best possible recording use the FASTEST tape speed. That's why reel to reels run at faster speeds than tapedecks. The notes get streeeetched out on more tape than at a slower speed. For lofi use slow speed.

Dope trick Mr. Burton. I used to save my dead batteries because it would make the tape run real slow and wobbly. Never knew about that hole.

What kind of Walkman are you using?

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/sony_walkman_wm_fx101.html

Just some $1.99 shit from goodwill. Jack Burton knows a good deal when he sees it.

So is there a pitch adjusting screw on a regular hifi system tape recorder?

Yuss, that's my trick so don't wear it out. All tape players should have this, but it seems its a matter of finding the right spot. Some companies cover it up and other more professional devices leave it out for user fine tuning. Keep an eye out, that's what Jack Burton always says.

Jack Burton is my hero

Thank you sir, Jack Burton tips his hat at ya.

thanks for the tips jack

a little unrelated but i saw in a video of people cutting records with a cd and a sewing needle attached the speaker, the speaker would vibrate the needle and cut the grooves into the cd, the dude slows down the song on his computer first and etches the grooves at 33. then speeds up his home made cd record to 45 rpm and now the record plays at regular speed you can use combinations like this if your walkman has record, or you could use it to speed up old 4 track tapes that play to slow, but hey who doesnt like to listen to really slow backwords 4 track tapes,

another cool unrelated idea i had is make a microwave oven into a vinyl cutter, using the cd engraving technique but mayybe the heat would melt the plastic a bit and make some wicked grooves, i can see it not working tho, melted plastic is pretty hard to work with.

So I was going to sample some piano loop (from cassette) and play synth over it. If your cassette player isnt synced, everything will be atleast a few cents off.. Is this considered "bad"?

its only bad if it sounds bad, everything doesnt have to be the same pitch,
i dont use a tuner for my gutar, and its in tune with my p606 , so i guess i have close to perfect pitch.

Yo, i took apart an old tape deck to fix the rca's and found that there is lots of little dials to mess with on the inside,
here is some from my old philips tape deck.

record speed adjust for deck1 and deck2.
play back speed adjust for deck 1 and deck 2.

Bias adjust for record.

Play back output

Record Level.

Dolby Filter adjust.

MPX trap filter
(this is a filter to take out a radio noise)

Record Oscilator ? (dunno)


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My other tape deck, a Kenwood, only has record and playback output,
and you can sort of tune the speed my tweaking a screw on the actual tape motor, but feels sketchy like your gonna get zapped,

its pretty sketch bag though when you gotta break your tape machine open and fiddle inside with a screw driver to pitch your tapes, ha
but the cool part is some have extreme pitch ranges, so its fun.

you can over dub on a regular casete recorder by covering the erase head with electrical tape. it wont monitor the other tracks while recording though.

Very cool- gotta grab a walkman from thrift store soon.
Thx
C

PS this is like discovering I could fix my new 20x80 binocs by peeling back the rubber grips and adjusting the prisms with a small screwdriver- gold.