mega-ultra cassette player - does such a thing exist?

["matt davignon" <mattdavignon@hotmail.com>]

Hey everyone,

I'm fantasizing about getting something like a cassette player 
specifically 
engineered for live musical performance. Does something like this exist? 
These days, there are performance turntables (Technics SL-2100) and a 
multitude of performance CD players. How about tape? I guess this is a 
simultaneous request for knowledge about the existence of such a product, 
and also tossing out the idea to equipment manufacturer/designers who 
peruse 
this site.


I'd be looking for something with some or more of the following features:

1) Variable speed: Something like an analog pitch wheel that can make the 
tape travel anywhere between half and double speed.

2) Instant reverse: The ability to instantly be able to switch something 
from forward to reverse and back again. (Instantly as in I wouldn't have 
to 
remove the tape to flip it over. It's okay if there's a minute pause or 
pitch bend as the tape changes directions.) This would be independent from:

3) Instant tape flipping ability: As in what you have in most car stereos.

4) Both a locking and a non-locking pause button: A locking pause button 
would be what you're used to seeing in a normal tape deck. A non-locking 
pause button would be one that you have to keep holding down for the tape 
to 
remain paused.

5) Live cueing, rewinding ability: Like on a hand held tape recorder. If 
you 
press rewind while play is down, you hear that chirpy sound. If you hit 
rewind alone, it just rewinds.

6) Sliders for volume and panning. Preferably mounted on top of the thing 
for easy use. Sliders win more points than knobs. The panning knob 
wouldn't 
necessarily be panning the output of the device, but panning which channel 
of the tape the input signal is picked up from.


Not as important:
1) Mechanical (not electronic) tape transport buttons: These are the most 
common tape player control buttons. The kind where when you press play, 
the 
play button remains down. This would be opposed to digital controls, which 
have less moving parts and are supposed to last longer. I just prefer the 
mechanical ones.

2) Top mounted controls (for ease of use)

3) 4 channels!! (Okay, this is just letting fantasy play too much here.) 
Wouldn't it be great to have the option of playing the front and back of a 
tape at the same time? Or to use tapes recorded in a 4-track?


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