Fun with misused cassette dictation equipment
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ค. 2024
- Cassette tape recorders meant for dictation are boring, right? Wrong! The Panasonic RR-830 gives you many interesting effects which are fun for just fooling around or for making experimental music.
Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
2:30 Foot pedal
4:53 Other features
5:56 Variable Speech Control
8:37 Music with VSC
9:52 How VSC works
11:06 Other recording tricks
12:04 Conclusion
#cassette #vaporwave #ExperimentalMusic - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
That just gave me medical transcription flashbacks. The foot pedal.... rrrrrghhhh. u gotta use the freakin foot pedal for the full dystopian experience.That plus 100s of poorly marked tapes from a Pakistani psychiatrist and you have yourself a soul crushing job. Thanks for the flashbacks.
Ouch. Hope you've found a better job since then.
I remember seeing one of those at an old doctor's office as a kid. This would've been 2015 at the latest. The office is still in business, same design and staff, just old doctor retired (I still go there for my allergies). My mom actually just became a transcription lady there, but they use a computerized system now, and they brought the one she would use personally (for working from home) from their basement to our house😂
Fun fact: sometimes, when I switch audio output on my computer, either the OS or my audio interface gets the sample rate wrong, resulting in very interesting effects, similar to what Kevin has shown here. Luck had it that when I noticed a new VWestlife video and switched from my WFH setup, the very thing happened again. So when I hit Play, I heard Kevin's voice played at something like 11kHz, resulting in a slowed down, demonic voice. Then, when he began toying with tape's speed, the two layers of distortions kept interferring with each other, either cancelling themselves out or multiplying. It was surreal, I tell you.
Also, I'm Chester Gaylord on each new online forum I register from now on.
With such equipment and material, you could start some vaporwave venture and claim it to be 100% analog as in, purely made by hardware and very little software editing
If this venture is never released, we can call swap the second v with a r for a more accurate name.
Hate to be that guy but just because music is created 100% in hardware doesn't mean it's analog. You can make something using a Roland D50 synthesizer and record straight to tape but the D50 is a digital synth so it wouldn't be completely analog.
@@brokleenope. It is analog. Didn’t you see in the video he explained the technology in the machine? It uses true analog technology. A capacitor technology bucket brigade delay is being used. No digital stuff here at all. So nope sorry to be the guy to say you are not that guy 😂 (just having a bit of fun, i get what you are trying to convey)
@@casualretrocollector Hahaha you're pretty funny 😂 I never claimed the dictation machine wasn't a completely analog signal path but nice try though 😉
not really trying anytrhing lol, sorry if you got annoyed by whart I said :) all is good lol. and what a machine it is :)
FYI to anyone testing one of these out at a thrift store. The player will power off after about 5 seconds when you press play with no cassette in the unit.
Yes, that's the delayed auto-stop feature I showed.
@@vwestlife It's true, but I spuppose it's good to know that it's activated by sensing that the supply reel is not moving instead of whatever the name was of that part that got pushed up by tension in older machines. Makes a lot of sense being a more modern professional device, but might not come to mind at the moment.
I trained as an audio typist in the late 80s (only male in the class) on Sony equipment and the pedal unit was much smaller than on this machine. Probably the only time office equipment was designed for women as my size 13 feet didn't have a chance. By the time I'd passed, audio typing was obsolete.
8:26 - "In between, what I find is pleasing and I'm feeling fine, love is so confusing, there's no peace of mind..."
8:57 - Finally, a tolerable version of this song!
9:06 - 🤣 "I Will Survive" actually works as a ballad!
10:14 - That is a nice "juicy" reverb! There are some lovely flanger effects as you adjust the Delay pot. And, another set of Annoyingly-useless facts from my brain, Bucket Brigades are what used to be the method to transport water to a distant fire before firetrucks and horse-drawn pumpers existed. People would stand in a line, passing full buckets person-to-person in the direction of the fire. The photo shown is likely from a "muster," a competition where multiple fire departments compete in various firefighter-related tasks like a good old-fashioned Bucket Brigade, timed distance target-shooting with a charged line, or rolling up 100' of fire hose. The biggest challenge to the target-shooting event is not only aiming, but opening the valve on the nozzle properly. Open the valve too quickly, and the cartoon we all can imagine in our heads (a firefighter flying all around, clinging to the nozzle as the hose whips around) can be a very real possibility - this is why you often see many firefighters on ONE hose in a real fire event.
Source: Son of a volunteer and paid firefighter/EMT/HAZMAT/Paramedic whose been at musters as a child cheering on the volunteer department. We probably have a few glass beer steins from musters from the 80s still in boxes in the basement.
This takes me back to early-teenage years, experimenting with audio playback speeds using Farallon MacRecorder, HyperCard, and my poor little Mac Plus. Maybe someday I'll dig it out, refurbish it, and take a stroll down Memory Lane. Yeah, I know I can do stuff like this with a modern setup, I use Audacity (and sometimes even Sony Vegas Pro) to tinker with audio, but there's a certain nostalgic charm into doing things the "wrong" way.
I seem to remember a slow version of I Will Survive sung by Eugene Levy as Perry Como on an SCTV skit. It was a joke, but I enjoyed the performance.
@3:14 - The fact that the rewind button on the deck itself is about to move in conjunction with the foot pedal has me full of wonder. I had to watch a couple of times.
I totally expected the VSC to digitize the sound into memory - that is very interesting that it's all analog.
The earphones we use at the station are like that - the actual transducer is part way down the cord, and then the sound travels acoustically through a hollow tube to the earpiece.
does that completely trash the audio?
@@gamagama69 Nope - it's surprisingly more than fine for the purpose.
Chester Gaylord 😂
Another great video, I love the camcorder style of VWestLife's videos, it reminds of the simpler times on TH-cam from around 2010!
I think the reason the high end is cut when VSC is enabled is more of a safety feature for the tweeters. At the higher speeds, it makes the higher frequencies go even higher and with all of that not getting amplified, you don't run the risk of killing your tweeters. This is a very cool video.
Zombie Heart of Glass will haunt my dreams tonight
It’s surprising that a tape dictation equipment could be used as DJ cassette player, that’s kind of cool, since cassette tapes are almost impossible to do sound mixing!
Afair Vestax made some DJ casette Decks in the past...
@@Popk1ller I saw that, but they’re kind of complicated for tapes!
9:23 Vaporwave fans: hell yeah! that's the good stuff🔥🔥🔥
-Atte: A Vaporwave fan
I remember being blown away by the concept of Bucket Brigade audio chips when I was trying to fix a Roland Jazz Chorus guitar amp in the early '90s.
Wonderful! I, and other instructors, used these exact models in a medical transcription class for blind students in the early to mid-90s. We used different headphones of course -- one side was used for the transcriber, the other for the speech output from a PC running WordPerfect.
Wow! That's really interesting. I'm blind myself and while I wasn't there in the 90s I'm sure this would be super helpful. Technology has advenced quite a lot since then I imagine..
The voice quality with the built-in mic is very good. Crisp and clear!
Okay, the music played at different speeds and pitches made me laugh out loud. Hard to have a copyright strike with that much cloaking. I was a factory authorized Panasonic Service Center in the 90's and early 2000's and worked on a few on those, usually mechanical issues, never the VSC circuits. Panasonic did a good job there.
Most Panasonic products are very robust. I still have Technics tuner and cassette decks from the early 1990s that still works great.
TH-cam's Content ID can successfully recognize audio at 1.5x speed, with or without pitch correction. Sometimes 1.75x speed, too.
Neatly made and practical, I love this technology. I believe those BBD chips are scarce and are hard to obtain cheaply as spares.
😮Those BBD Chips Are Rare, And Pricey, Because The "Buckets" Tend To Begin Leaking😢💔Not Gonna Lie, and NOT
Kidding! They Are No Longer Manufactured💀👎✨💥
@@wilneal8015 Note that he isn't using any headphones.
BBD chips are still used in musical equipment.
pretty sure behringer still makes the chips under their cool audio brand
You can usually understand speech at double speed if the speaker is speaking very clearly, as in the dictation example earlier in the video. For conversational speech, not so much - though I am able to understand most conversational speech at 1.5x.
This is a remarkably sophisticated piece of equipment, despite being based on a (now) semi-obsolete format.
The ladies in the typing pool (back in the day) would have LOVED something like this. Yes, showing my age here....lol.
It's interesting that this is an evolution of what the compact cassette was originally developed for. It was never envisioned for music when it was created; it was for general purpose recording - dictation, notes, voice correspondence, etc.
Probably the silliest/funniest video I've seen by you. I would be fun to play with this unit for a few minutes, but not at $400. I hope that you found one used for a lot less,
Very interesting device. I had no problem understanding the speech with VSC enabled at double speed, because I use a screenreader to access the computer and am used to hearing text to speech at several hundred words per minute, much faster than a normal human speaking voice. So you could get used to it, especially if you were transcribing dictations from the same person regularly.
Same here 😀
I have "VSC" on my audiobook and podcast players (Android). I can play at faster speeds without chipmunks taking over. I mostly play podcasts and audiobooks on +1.2 speed so I get more content played within the time I have available to listen. Interesting and good on you Panasonic! 😎
I love those slide buttons. So classic and sexy with the dimples to give a sense of grip.
Options like that Talk Boy thing from Home Alone.
A really well-made unit. An interesting video as always Kevin.
Nice review! Looks like the tape transport works really well, I’m sure they designed it to withstand constant back and forth playback. Interesting that the VSC adjustment is completely analog, I would have thought it would have at least some type of digital processing considering it has that 90s look.
12:04 is just begging to be a sample in something. What an interesting little unit
Very interesting, although I knew such dictation machines existed ,not ever worked in an office environment or seen one up close wasn't aware of any of the features you demonstrated , I assumed thay just recorded speech and simply played back. Fascinating.
V you always find the coolest gear, great video as always!
Delighted to hear a Frantone reference - if you're into electronics, she's a peach. Also- bigclive!
This is one of my favorite videos of yours.
I imagine my step grandmother used either one of those or something similar. When we come over to visit, she would tap away well, my grandfather check spelling. Remember, she did it for doctors and had huge PDR‘s, dictionary‘s, and thesaurus books.
Ok this is one of your more hilarious videos 😃😂 Great one!
Chester Gaylord....😂
Sorry to be juvenile
I think this machine just brings out the juvenile prankster in everyone. I was totally hoping he was going to use the on-the-fly recording feature to make that line say "... or you could use it to intersperse new sounds into your ... " "BUTT". haha Because it's always funny when you replace random words with "butt."
Hi Kevin. Good one. I lol’ed at the ‘reunited’ cut.
Ok I just finished watching. Update. I also lol’ed at the closing, right at the moment you switched to the Amazon link and continued the voice 😂
The VSC function absolutely blew my mind. I can't believe I never knew about that. Thank you
Usable for vaporwave and future funk! Very interesting little machine.
That was great! 😁
I had both machines. The standard cassette and the microcassette.
Very fun and complete machines.
Great machine, love that vapor wave sound
Your mic is kinda noisy today... just like an interference... just in the beginning of the video
That was a ground loop buzz on the speaker I was using.
@@vwestlife here's another annoying video professional finding stuff everywhere... it's the habit, sorry... I watch every single video of yours.. cheers from Brazil!
I didn't know Panasonic made a dictation machine with variable speech control. I have an APH Handi-Cassette II that also has VSC, though on my unit it's called DPC, (Digital pitch compression/correction. I also have a Sony 4 track talking book player with DPC. Yes I believe there were digital equivalents to the VSC system this dictation machine uses.
When you were having fun with the speed settings took me straight back to that dodgy Emerson recorder video.😂
Congratulations VWestlife! This is an amazing video.
Its a very interesting equipment thanks for sharing with us! I love special tape recorder
This device / tech was still being used in the late 90s in the office I worked at.
Just found your channel. Excellent Content - another sub for you sir!
Great video! have a Telex C-1 that I use to record cassette playback through a couple of effects units. I'll soon be upgrading to a American Printing House For The Blind GE Model 3-5194A. I've found if you slow down playback and pitch up artists like Paula Abdul and Kylie Minogue you get a nice vaporwave sound.
1:48 Oklahomer Avenue? And yes! Those dictation cassette players are still fun! I had one in the late 80's that I found while dumpster diving as a teen! Seriously, it was in the garbage. Man! I miss that. Adjusting pitch and tone really changed the way music sounded. And that one also played tapes backwards too. I forgot what it was. But it was yellow with weirdly colored piano button keys. I wish I still had that. And oh gawd! Yessss I did listen to Blondie's masterpiece song, Heart of Glass back then too with those effects.
This looks awesome!
The "cursed" Heart of Glass madee spill the Coffee 😂
Now get 2 of these Machines, a mixer - an fx pedal with loop function - this would be a sick DJ Set!
Oooh, that has a bunch of controls that people would want to hack into it, as straight up OEM controls. Bit of foil on the erase head for sound on sound, and that's perfect for making all kinds of stylish tunes!
Oh wow, BBD?! That is pretty amazing.
These would also have been immensely valuable to musicians who wanted to slow down a recording for practice or transcription.
I've used a piece of playback software called 'Transcribe!' for many years now -- it has some extra features geared towards musicians, but it lets you do all that variable control (by semitone or slider, locked to pitch or not) in the same kind of way. I have a bunch of songs to transcribe too and I'm thinking how valuable those pedals would be and if that's something I can rig up.
The title is so on point: this is absolutely a VAPORWAVE machine.
Thank you for opening a window into the existence of Chester Gaylord!
Cassette Master had BOTH the microcassette AND the regular cassette version of this unit on his channel!
You could mske some really good vaporwave using this
Neat! I picked up one of those Sanjean/Crane Versacorders to get that one quarter speed record and playback for genuine tape sound when you want real analog distortion. I wish I had known about this instead, much more fun.
Great spooky Halloween ep? Cool nonetheless, I miss some of this old tech! thanks!
Those devices are definitely a lot of fun to mess with.
I grabbed a couple of these from Computer Reset. One of them works, and it does so well. I use it to load programs into my Spectrum clone when I feel like doing things old school.
It's nice to know at the end of the video when he shows how much you can get one off of Amazon that the price literally has not changed in nearly 40 years lmao 😂
I own one of these, they’re so much fun to mess around with
ROBUST !!! @6:48 - that variable speed effect was used on those psychedelic Beatles albums - analogue time stretch sounds great
Really nice video as always. And now I kind of want VWestlife to interrupt all my recordings with some Ba Ba Bas.
Good for analyzing songs and also practicing repeated parts at different rates.
4:38 "And I will never ever ever ever ever write a song about sibby."
Wow, would've loved this as a kid
Hearing the double speed option was even more enjoyable for those of us who already listen to everything on YT at 2x. ;-)
Back in the 90's I had a small Sharp boom box with some type of auto stop function that was similar to this VSC. It was actually pretty nice but the plastic deteriorated on me.
Maybe the Nixon Whitehouse had that machine, with its recording wipeout feature...
@1:01 Oh, hey! We have that microphone, too!
Very good
Years ago, in a previous job, I had the opportunity to pick up the microcassette version...complete and probably still in good working order. I passed on it, because I figured it'd just end up gathering dust.
I love the idea of some secretary who really disliked their boss just playing around with that speed slider for fun
Nice Hainbach-ish video. :) Reminds me of his video of that soviet Maestro synthesizer with the effect that if turned on, even if turned all the way down, affected the frequency response.
I had an American Printinghouse for the Blind player that had a lot of these features. It could run at 1/2 speed and variable speed. And all of the controls had braille of course. Hours of fun for a kid.
i found this only 5 minutes after upload?
well i WAS going to bed but that will be 13 minutes from now...now.
I had the "Sonique" music player in the early 2000s that had pitch and speed control just like this cassette player... I spend days fiddling around with it..
Cool machine! Reminds me of the old American printing house for the blind recorders that I have. They were made by General Electric, but had similar features. Some of the later models also had something called digital pitch control, which was very similar to the VSC feature on this recorder.
I have a Handi-Cassette II, I quite like it, but boy it is bulky.
@@Lachlant1984 oh no, that’s practically pocket sized if you compare it to the tabletop versions that came before it lol.
@@Dwall44 I've seen the desktop units, never owned on. Yes the Handi-Cassette II is pocket sized, but it's big compared to other similar portable tape recorders by companies like Panasonic and Sony.
@@Lachlant1984 that I cannot disagree with. It definitely is larger compared to those little Sony recorders.
The APH/GE digital pitch control was the father of VSC.
The first thought that I had when listening to the dictation samples was that I would probably have a hard time talking in the language of an official letter. I'd probably type something up to read off to make sure that it was ready to go to my typist....oh.
Love the sneakers!
If only shipping to Brazil wasn't 30 bucks... I'd love to have one of those
I had a good laugh watching this video! I wonder what the 12 year old me would do with such device!
This device brings back memories of my first job as a medical transcriber
awesome! I could use one of these for erasing/FF/RW. good vid
I should also say that my Handi-Cassette II can play cassettes in stereo... as long as the DPC switch is turned off, if you turn DPC on, you can only play the tape in mono.
nice review Vdub, I have one similar but its the micro so the fidelity is much worse. It has speed control but no VSC, that's a really sick effect. Wonder if that's a Panasonic proprietary technology. I've not seen it on any other dictation machines. nice ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ
I have one of these and have been using it for years. One of my all time favorite tape decks. I never knew about the quick erase feature or that you could loop with the foot pedal (which I sadly lost).
That's funny, I rescued one of these from the trash at work a couple years ago. Only recently I've started using (an abusing) it. One surprising thing: I was able to make basement band recordings with it, albeit pretty low-fi. Listenable and it wasn't completely blown out when placed across the room, using the internal mics. The downside is it has some pretty noticeable wow-and-flutter. Great for goofing off, or making simple slap-dash jam/rehearsal recordings because it's easy to pack & carry with other gear.
#cassetteusagein2023
I wonder if Stock Aitkin and Waterman had something like this. The debate as to whether Kylie is Rick Astley sped up or Rick is Kylie slowed down was a big one.
OMG... thanks! Now I want one!! 🤦🏼♂️😅
I think these may have been used by rap artists in the 90's for sampling old cassettes.
I would have loved to have one of those as a kid! With the vari-speed delay, it's like an early version of what Rush Limbaugh called CashBox-- the digital device for radio that reduced pauses in speech and sped the pace of speech to compress shows and allow for more commercials. Tv stations pervasively use tech like that to compress tv shows and, in some cases like Hogan's Heroes, MASH and other vintage programs, they may be run so fast they're impossible to understand.
I found one of these at school and it ended up coming home with me. I didn't know much on how to use it so I just played tapes in it. I ended up taking it apart and the power supply in it ended up being the memory backup for a car stereo.
That VSC could be a way to get past the copyright filter on youtube. I have a toy megaphone that I've modded to take line level audio and I can run music through it and get the same effects as seen here.
| Awesome ! | :3
WE ARE WITNESSING THE BIRTH OF DJ GRANDMASTER WESTLIFE.
Techmoan would love one of these too :)
You nearly could have done a live remake of the Chipmunks on 16 Speed version of My Sharona haha