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Re: Time Lag Accumulator, Frippertronics, Eno
----- Original Message -----
From: "marcus savino" <marcuskp@mail.com>
> I am
trying to put together my own Time Lag Accumulator, used by
> Riley, Eno, Fripp etc. I have done quite a bit
of research and
> have been unable to find a really detailed
description/diagram
> of the proper ways to make this
work.
> 1. Is there a diagram (besides Eno's Discreet
Music jacket) that
> outlines in detail how to to put one of these
together?
Here is a photo of Fripp with the
system:
As you can see the feeder reel of the left deck
passes tape under the left deck's head, which is recording. The tape then
passes under the head of the right deck, which is playing, and is taken up on
the right deck's takeup reel. The audio output of the right deck is fed
into a mixer, which mixes the live guitar sound with it and feeds into the audio
input of the left deck.
> 2. Is there something specific to Revoxes that
make them ideal
> for this process? Is it necessary to use
Revoxes or will Teacs work as well?
As I understand it most other tape decks (including
Teac and Tascam) have wheels adjacent to both reels that the tape
goes over. These wheels fall to the bottom of their
grooves if the tape is not there. If either of these wheels fall the
deck will no longer run. You may be able to jury-rig tape decks by duct
taping the wheels, but this may not be your best approach. The Revox decks
provide superior sound quality (they were sometimes used for the master mix down
in studios back before DAT machines), which is important for looping.
Every minor degradation gets magnified on each iteration of the
loop.
A great thing about this approach is that when you
are finished, you just remove the takeup reel from the right deck, rewind it,
and you have a master tape of your performance. This is what Fripp did to
record his Frippertronic albums. They were not recorded using a recording
studio's deck.
Good luck putting this together.
-Vance
