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Looper's Delight
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Not just that. I recall an article in Musician (I think) with Fripp, where he described the setup. In particular I remember him having a compressor-limiter in the chain on the way to the first tape deck, and saying something about it reducing the accumulation of noise on the final tape reel. After a disasterous first experiment (without a compressor-limiter box, just the guitar, fuzz, small stone into the loop) with a pair of decks, I completely agreed. I've got the recording of it still, you've got an awful kind of subharmonic drone that increases over time and eventually dominates the entire piece. Underneath this, in time with the length of the resulting loop, is a peaking "shiirp!" sound that also gets louder and louder over time. I decided it was best thought of as a musique concrete experiment, as well as a reminder of the old days. And secretly wished for a pair of high-end Revoxes or Sonys to make a tape loop as long as possible. Ah. Stephen P. Goodman EarthLight Productions * http://www.earthlight.net/Studios - The Free Loop of the Week! http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery_Front.html - Cartoons! http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack.html - More Cartoons! ----- Original Message ----- From: "KEVIN SIMONSON" <RITX075@revenue.state.il.us> To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 23:36 PM Subject: Re: Time Lag Accumulator, Frippertronics, Eno > If memory serves, there was a third component to the revoxes to make > sure they were both operating at exactly the same speed, yes? I don't > know if this is unique to Revoxes, or is some sort of custom-built > item. > > -K > > >>> vgloster@microvault.com 04/17/02 06:22PM >>> > ----- 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 > > > >