Victor Company of Japan, Limited

Hiroki Shimizu

Masatsugu Kitamura

Hideo Onoye

An automatic skipping control circuit includes a voltage controlled, variable frequency filter having a passband frequency variable in accordance with the voltage of a frequency control signal applied thereto. This filter is responsive to an output signal from a transducer head representative of materials recorded in a tape where a skip-mark signal is recorded in selected portions. The filter is normally tuned to the frequency of the skip mark signal when the tape is transported at normal playing speed. Upon the leading edge of a skip-mark recorded portion reaching the transducer head, the filter provides an output signal which causes the tape to be driven in the fast-forward mode, resulting in an increase in the frequency of the skip-mark signal detected by the transducer head. The frequency control signal is generated during this fast-forward mode to vary the passband frequency of the filter to correspond to the increased frequency of the detected skip-mark signal. Since the speed of the tape measured at the transducer head during the fast-forward mode varies as a function of the diameter of the convolutions of the tape wound on a takeup reel, the voltage of the frequency control signal is varied as a function of this diameter to keep track of the varying frequency of the detected skip-mark signal.

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Yokohama, Japan

Hiroki Shimizu