Circuit arrangement for skipping marked portions of a recording tape

A tape playing apparatus having a transducer head, means for driving a tape wound on a reel at a playing speed for reproduction of materials recorded in said tape, and means for rotating said reel at higher speeds than said playing speed with a portion of said tape contacting with said transducer head, the speed of said head contacting portion of the tape being variable as a function of the diameter of the convolutions of the tape on said reel, comprising:

• an oscillator for generating a skip mark signal at a predetermined frequency;
• means for applying said skip mark signal to said transducer head when said tape is driven at said playing speed to record said applied signal in selected portions of the tape;
• voltage controlled filter means having a passband of which the frequency is variable in accordance with a frequency control signal applied thereto, the passband frequency of the filter means normally corresponding to said predetermined frequency of the skip mark signal when the tape is driven in said playback mode, said filter means being responsive to an output signal from said transducer head for generating a fast-forward speed control signal to cause said tape to be driven in said fast-forward mode, whereby the frequency of the skip mark signal detected by said transducer head becomes higher than said predetermined frequency;
• and
• means for generating a said frequency control signal in response to the occurrence of said fast-forward speed control signal, the magnitude of said frequency control signal being a function of a varying diameter of the tape convolutions, whereby the passband frequency of said voltage controlled filter means is varied to correspond to the frequency of the detected skip mark signal.