Record CV with tape?

[Unfiltered]

I know it can be done, since the Source uses tape sequencing, but what about with a reel to reel tape deck? CV is just AC, which audio is as well, so why not? Signal to noise ratio not high enough? Line level +4db is, ranges somewhere between -2.5 to +2.5, wheras Moog CV is -+5v, right? So as long as the tape doesn't clip, it should be fine, right?

[Just Me]

There is always that little thing called DC blocking that can screw you up. CV's usually are DC or VLowFreqAC. Since the deck and it's associated inputs are not capable of say under 20Hz, it can be difficult to do. That isn't to say you can not record a high frequency tone at varying levels (AM of the tone) to become your CV at the outputs. If you have a stable amp you can amplify the output of the tapedeck to whatever levels you need.

[jeepo]

I'v thought about trying this, haven't gotten around to it though. I have a few walkmans for research purposes, it shouldn't be too hard to short the dc blocking capacitors. If and when I try this, I'll let you know what happens.

[Kevin Lightner]

Before you think too much on this, have any of you seen MOTU's Volta?
It records CV and Gates.

http://www.motu.com/marketing/motu_prod ... elease.pdf

[Just Me]

No Kevin, I never paid attention to Volta. (I don't have a confuser in the studio.)

[bunnyman]

Morton Subotnick used to record control signals w/ his Buchla (apparently, it involves a bunch o' envelope followers). See here: http://www.buzzclick-music.com/mort_lore.html and http://www.buzzclick-music.com/mort_sidewinder.pdf I've never tried it, but it looks pretty interesting!

-andrew bunny

[AlakaLazlo]

Regarding the above CV record to tape system, I was briefly exposed to Mort's concept at Cal Arts in the late 70s. I modified his system because my Moog doesn't have LPGs, so I took the CV I wanted to record to open a VCA which was sourced with white noise and the out was amplitude modulated noise which I recorded on my old Dokorder 4 track. The output back from the 4 track went through an envelope follower and gave back a CV. It did not track very well, no matter how hard I tried to set the scale of the VCA CV in and the Envelope Vollower output, but it worked great for generating synced S-Triggers and CVs for other than 1VpO critical controllers.