cassette tape loop

[dagosto]

I've recently been opening up old cassette tapes of mine that have broken and splicing them back together so I could archive them. This gave me an idea of creating a cassette that was a tape loop. You could gang a few cassete decks together and make your own tape delay and looping setup. Has anybody ever done this?

[Chaorta]

Originally Posted by dagosto

I've recently been opening up old cassette tapes of mine that have broken and splicing them back together so I could archive them. This gave me an idea of creating a cassette that was a tape loop. You could gang a few cassete decks together and make your own tape delay and looping setup. Has anybody ever done this?

Throbbing Gristle did. I've done it with open reels, but not cassette....might be worth trying though.

[Professor Riffs]

Originally Posted by dagosto

I've recently been opening up old cassette tapes of mine that have broken and splicing them back together so I could archive them. This gave me an idea of creating a cassette that was a tape loop. You could gang a few cassete decks together and make your own tape delay and looping setup. Has anybody ever done this?

Bob Ostertag did a lot of groundbreaking work using tape & tape decks & such. Dig him at http://www.detritus.net/ostertag/ if you haven't before. His early work "Getting A Head" is killer. From the site:

"Ostertag releases his first LP under his own name, Getting A Head, with Fred Frith and Charles K. Noyes on Frith's Rift mini-label. The record features Ostertag playing an instrument/invention created by himself and Bryan Medwed, consisting of 3 modified open-reel tape recorders linked together with helium balloons. The record marks one of the first, and to this day one of the only, times that tape manipulation techniques developed by the first generation of electronic composers for use in the studio were adapted for live performance and improvisation."

While it's newer and doesn't involve any tape stuff I very very highly suggest the album Pantychrist. I believe there's a link to purchase it on the site.

[dagosto]

Thanks for the info guys. Did throbbing gristle actually use cassettes? I've done the whole open real thing while at school. I had two 1/4 inch machines going at once one time with the same tape loop across both of them. Fun stuff. This is somehing most of us could do at home though.

I was thinking of having like three or four cassette decks hooked into a mixer and/or DAW and routed all over the place. The signals could be routed into the DAW then fed back out into the loops in different ways. I am definitely going to try this in the near future.

[smopo24]

bob ostertag usually has interesting packaging for his cds; the metal box is much more appealing than the standard jewel case. i thought the one he did with the tape loops and balloons was a creative idea. did anyone listen to the disk of the person digging a grave?

[Nubus]

I once saw a homemade wlakman mellotron... cool here it is:
http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-e...ron-131661.php
And my friend Todd has his 4-track set up at all times with a tape loop in it. He randomly records passages while we're rocking out and mixes them in. I love it.

[smopo24]

i must say that the walkman mellotron is f***ing awesome! are they selling them? i want one!

[lukedavo]

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sssssssssssssssssssssssss
sssssssssssssssssssssssssss,I have a feeling you'd be getting plenty of this, ssss
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sssssssssssssssssssss, the dreaded tape hisss



(Tape snake)

[smopo24]

hiss? so what; if i wanted pristene, anal, soul-less, clinical sound i'd listen to celine dion!

[lukedavo]

You are after somehting that doesn't sound like sh*t, at least semi-profesional correct? When just messing around tape hiss is a blast, but in a situation where its not wanted which I imagine is 99% of the time, probably best to not introduce cassettes if possible.