My
First Sony - Cassette-Corder (toy cassette recorder
with drum & animal sounds)
This red and blue toy cassette recorder of 1988 (service manual date,
Made in Taiwan, R.O.C.) has 6 yellow plastic drumpads those can be switched
between drum and animal sounds. These samples are surprisingly clear (although
8 bit or similar) and have unique timbres.
main features:
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cassette recorder with play, record and stop function
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cassette rewind and fast forward buttons don't lock (need to be held down
- a defect??)
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separate sliders for "master" and "sound pad" volume.
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reasonable large loudspeaker (10cm?)
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microphone jack
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6 drumpads
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drum/ animal sound select switch
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6 drum sounds {tom-tom 1, tom-tom 2, drum 1, drum 2, cymbal 1, cymbal 2}
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6 animal sounds {cuckoo, cat, dog, pig, goat, lion}
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sound hardware uses compressed 10-bit loop samples with volume envelope
(noticeable in the "goat" sound).
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multi-chip hardware:
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CPU = "MSM7H003-002" (16 pins)
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ADPCM sound ic = "OKI M6243-34 19002" (44 pin SMD)
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eyes for carry belt
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microphone jack but neither output nor power supply jack
notes:
When I found this thing, the recorder would have made tape mess because
friction wheels were dirty/ oily; after thorough cleaning it seems to work
now. It employs a documented OKI sound IC M6243 that is was designed as
a speech synth with compressed ADPCM and 192 kBits internal rom. According
to service manual schematics it is wired to the drumpads through an "I/O
Interface" IC "MSM7H003-002" (CPU) that likely sends a 3 bit(?) address
to select sounds. Many pins are unused, which may mean that there are more
than 12 sound samples hidden inside the M6243 (which supports up to 20
seconds speech @ 8.2kHz and 124 words - seen in "1987 OKI Voice Synthesis
LSI Data Book").
Another drumpad equipped cassette recorder was the Sony TCM-4050
(4 bigger drumpads, sound ICs MSM6652-305RS + MSM6653-304RS, seen in service
manual). Likely as an add-on for these recorders Sony released the
small drumpad sound toy My
First Sony - Sound Pad SOP-1000, which plugs into the microphone
jack and also plays surprisingly clear effect samples.
| removal
of these screws voids warranty... |
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