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Re: Dig if u will my research paper Chapter 3



Title: Re: Dig if u will my research paper Chapter 3
This is an interesting point, to me, only a novice when it comes to the history of looping.
 
Chapter 3 seems to indicate that Terry Riley used a device that (someone) was already calling an "Echoplex" in the very early 60s, and that in 1963 he described the device to a French technician, who subsequently reproduced it with tape decks.  Riley then called this device a "time-lag accumulator", and used it on various recordings from that point.
 
Is that accurate?  Not questioning your research, just trying to confirm whether your research shows that an "Echoplex" device existed first.  Is this the thing that Les Paul is sometimes credited with?  What Echoplex existed in the early 60's, that Terry Riley described... and who named it "Echoplex"?
 
Signed,
Curious!
 
Doug
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 2:14 PM
Subject: Re: Dig if u will my research paper Chapter 3

on 27/5/03 4:09 pm, Richard Zvonar at zvonar@zvonar.com wrote:

At 6:21 PM +0100 5/26/03, Geoff Smith wrote:
His piece Mescalin Mix was Riley's first attempts at live looping, "with the help of Ramon Sender, he made use of an Echoplex, a primitive electronic contraption allowing a sound to be repeated in an ever accumulating counterpoint against itself" 1

1 p98 Potter, Keith. Four Musical Minimalists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2000)

Did you confirm this with Terry? When I spoke to him about Mescalin Mix he said that he used two Wollensack tape decks. Also, in several conversations with Ramon Sender there was never mention of an Echoplex.

No I didn't confirm to this, as the book is so recent and thorough I though it would be true. However from what u are saying it sounds wrong.
I would however recommend this book as it is the most in depth resource on the music of Terry Riley that I found. In fact is was one of the few books I read where I thought that the author had been bothered to carry out original research into the music of the Minimalists.
If you read it or have read it then I would be interested to know what you think.

Cheers
Geoff