History of tape loops
Magnetic tape was created in Germany at the start of ww2 used with the first tape recorder the AEG K1 Magnetophone, with the first uses to broadcast Nazi propaganda and to document broadcasts.
Tape loop is made from a single piece of magnetic recording tape primarily using open reel to reel recorders the tape would be cut looped back over the play heads and spliced back together to create an endless loop.
The length of the tape cut determines how long the loop lasts, this can also be determined by running the tape around objects such as Microphone stands & chair legs to increase the length of tape that can be used in a loop.
The speed of the tape’s travel can be altered with the use of tape recorders that have a varispeed function.
The audio on the tape could be pre-recorded, and spliced at the correct loop point, or a new recording could be laid down directly to the loop.
One of the first creative uses of a tape loop was by Pierre Schaeffer from France. He used tape loops in his recordings of ‘musique concrète, a practice that utilises recorded sounds as raw material that then go on to be reprocessed and modified, to create a sound collage.
One famous use of tape loops in mainstream music is the track “Tomorrow Never Knows” by The Beatles.
Utilising tape loops at various speeds in forward and reverse, to create soundscapes in real time while mixing the track, which started a psychedelic atmosphere.
The use of tape loops advanced as people figured out many other uses and ways they could manipulate sound in real time using tape.
One such device was the Mellotron, which used a series of tape loops that were activated by pressing the notes on its keyboard; each note pressed would play back at a different speed, giving a musical scale.
This device was also used by the Beatles and many other bands throughout the 60s and 70s.
With the advances of multi-head tape machines in the 1970’s tape delay came about. This was achieved by live playback from the playback head, changing the distance between this and the record head, you could manipulate the time of the delays.
The “first” standalone tape delay hardware was the Watkins Copicat machine. The creation of this device later brought about the Roland Space Echo, a complex multi-head tape looping device with feedback circuitry, varispeed spring reverb, and chorus effects where various tape heads could be selected at the push of a button.
This unit was used as one of the main creative forces in the creation of Dub music in the late 1970s.
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