Re: Terry Rileys' mysterious French engineer tape loop innovator

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

On 27/10/2014 15:33, Kevin Cheli-Colando wrote:
> I do think you're being a little bit over cynical here.
>  The person was an engineer who took Terry's idea and made it a reality.

well here's Riley's description of the invention

 “ The first is playing back, the second recording, the tape streched across the heads 
of both. As this machine records, it feeds back to the other machine, which plays back what 
it’s added. »

read it carefully, it doesn't demonstrate an understanding of the setup.
(note: the buzzword "feed back", as if someone had heard the term but not 
understood)

I don't think Rick's being cynical at all,
if you had a great idea for sound manipulation and found
someone who could realise that for you I reckon you'd
either remember their name,
or wish you could.

If I was going to pick a most likely scenario then I'd go for this

1.TR asks for some way of doing sound on sound sound in real time.
2.Unknown engineer does the setup, the 'emergent feature' is that old 
layers gradually decay.
3.TR plays into it and really likes it.

That's all conjecture(invention) of course, but I don't think it's cynical
to imagine the scenario.

The alternative scenario, that TR told the engineer how to hook up the two
machines and the engineer just implemented it would make TR the inventor.
 

Whether this was the first time anyone had done long tape delays with 
feedback,
or used that particular method to achieve it there's only really one guy 
to ask, the unknown engineer
...and we don't know who he(she?) is




andy