Surgical Tape

I copied all of these instructions from my friends flickr page who was so gracious to share. I'm not really sure I understand whats going on here but wanted to copy it for this community, and also to practive this whole 'instructable' thing. There are several techniques that people used to manipulate cassette tapes, and I hope to document many of them.

Hexalyn begins...

"I'm not sure if anyone has ever documented this before, but this set is devoted to what I'm calling "tape surgery", for lack of a better term. All you need is an old cassette that you don't care about and somewhere to play it. (I don't have a working tape player any more so I can't verify if this actually works the way I remember it.) What you end up with is a make-shift mashup tool -- no fancy software or high-end recording equipment required. Interested? Read on... "

original link

Step 1 Tape Surgery

hexalyn continues

"First, pull out a section of tape from your cassette. If I remember correctly, this works best if your tape has been fast forwarded part way. If you try this technique and it doesn't work, try fast-forwarding it to the other side. "

Original link

Comments

[golden22]

good idea, maybe you could record your own music or noise and play it like this as an effect

[mmmmmmandino]

i have tried something very much like this but i didn't use clear tape... we just would tie the cut ends into little knots, crumpled up the tape in some parts, just did tons of fun experements... it adds an awesome effects to the tape... but sometimes the knots do get caught so you have to fast forward or rewind to get them unstuck.

[lemonie]

Alternatively, tamper with a twin-head tape deck (these are the type which autoreverse). All you have to do is swap the connections between the two heads & the PCB. This is like tampering with your phonograph so that the motor runs in reverse. For overdubbing, you need to disconnect the erase head, which is usually white, cheaper-looking and off-centre.

[draggin]

you know i only meant to show you off hex, ;) tell you what, since you are all into instructables now, post it on here yourself, and ill be happy to link to you. just as long as the world knows of the genius that is surgical tape! peace. 8j

[hexalyn]

Thanks for stealing my thunder, draggin. :) I hope someone actually takes the time to try this out and posts about whether or not it works.

[Punkguyta]

Very interesting, special effects for the those of low income :-D

[Gthing 2.0]

great job i will have to try this

[dorxincandeland]

interesting... so is this like turning the needle upside down on your phonograph, putting down a roll of duct tape and playing a record backwards from underneath? stairway FTW!