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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 พ.ย. 2024
- Learn more about tape looping & cassette music, download all my music & sample packs, and sign up for one on one lessons with yours truly. Oh and get exclusive content like this music!
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Many people have asked about tape loops and how to do it themselves, so here is my long overdue video on how to make a cassette tape loop. In this video, I show you the basics of tape looping and the method I personally use to making my loops (there are many variations out there). You can use any tape (with screws) you want. Be patient, experiment, and don't get too frustrated - there is a lot of trial and error involved.
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Why the specific cut length?
@@PaulChabot i think for the tension
I began experimenting with cassette tape loops in the early 80's.
You can also use a longer tape loop by including the other spool.
Also something to try. When splicing the tape together put a half twist in the tape to create a Mobius strip, it plays twice as long, the second half coming out backwards....
You can also buy telephone answering machine loop cassette tapes, designed for recording short messages on ....
( Also put back the plastic inner film is called a "slipsheet" it does helps to keep the tape lubricated )
Wonderful stuff AMULETS, keep it up .
Love T()G /|\ XxX
HOW COOL!
Is the twist mobius loop thing possible with chrome/metal type tape? Coz it seems to have a different coating on the other side.
Yes. The tape head is powerful enough to read through the tape.
More great ideas! I just need some blank cassettes and a half price books or some other stashed tapes.
Charles Williams 👍😋
Thank you so much for this. I'm also an Ambient artist and I've had a mound of old cassettes FOREVER and now they're going to become a part of my art after years of collecting dust. Thank you so much for this inspiration.
When I was about 11, 12 13 yrs old, 85-88 era I was known for being able to fix all my friends cassettes when they popped or got jammed up. I got into beat making by accident around the same time. Being that we wanted to rap, I discovered how to make pause tapes. I'd record a open drum loop from a song, rewind record until it was long enough. Then I'd go into another tape and add sample chops in. No one taught me I just did it. Getting more and more into making beats and meeting people, hearing stories I found that I wasn't the only person doing that shit. I always found it funny that those of us with this bug just find a way regardless. I wish I had thought to loop a cassette tape way back then. This is dope and making me wanna take it back to my essence, that cassette tape. 🔥🔥🔥 I have an old reel to reel laying around that sounds like trash. Maybe I'll experiment.
Super cool.
I am 12 and I'd like to say that this really inspires me to use more cassette tape, it's so underrated nowadays...
I want to get the tape and make every kind of music with it.
how are you getting along?
@@henrikpersson4698 i'm recently thinking about making a tape loop of the Saudi Arabian EAS
do it! @@movagalbastomp
Its like a little slice of a Mellotron! BRAVO. I tried this is in 1980 with my mate Richard we wrote a hilarious (hilarious to two 11 year-olds), We had two cassette recorders. We recorded a sword fight (fishing rod rests) which we played in the in the background whilst re-recording more 'Sword' clashes whilst the first played in a loop in the background... we honesty thought we were Jean Michelle Jarre. You seemed to have tamed the beast here. I have never thrown one old cassette recorder away so it is time to go REALLY Loopy! Great work mate. One Analogue salute in your direction. 🏆
I always slice and angle because you get (a) more surface area for contact and (B) a faded break. Just my thoughts..
How do you match the angle?
@@myautobiographyafanfic1413 slightly overlap both ends of the tape and make one cut.
@@scottligon434 I’ve seen the same tape splice method described in my dad’s old open-reel instruction manual or something.
Damn. You just opened a whole new sphere of time consuming activity for me ... hope you're proud ;)
YES! SO PROUD!
As has been said a million times in the comment section, thanks for making this instructional video - you've given me inspiration.
I built my first tape loop now with your instruction. Let's see if it works!
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Yes it works!!!!
Vengman did you record your audio before cutting it after?
This was just like watching the scene from Toy Story 2 where that guy refurbishes Woody
falloneus geri the chess master*
"You Can't Rush Art!"
I always piss blood during that scene..
I didn't think it would be that easy, and I already have a loop in mind, thanks AMULETS!
How fucking beautiful is it that the tape loop is physically a loop. It's like... the sound is circular as is the tape. Kinda blows my mind.
Why do you think they are called loops u dimbus
I enjoy stuff like that, seeing where terms that are still used today have their origins. Like how a track literally refers to the track that the needle of a turn table goes around.
I bet you love plate / spring reverbs ;)
First stop on my tape loop journey!
This is one of my favorite videos on the internet.
Ahhhh this song is so beautiful too. I can't wait to start getting into real analogue production. VSTs just don't have that warmth and human side to them.
Dakotah Rivers VSTs are great - they give birth to completely new sounds and will get infinitely close to emulating the real world, but they’ll never be quite the same as analog.
I did this and recorded "Richard, thank you for the beautiful shoes" back in 89, sent it to my bud Richard, and he couldn't stop listening to it and he almost lost his mind. Memories.....
Thank you for including the tape length measurement, never could get a loop to play for longer than a few revolutions by eyeballing it
finally using this to make my first tape loop on a tape i found in a skip. wonderful results. also freezing some tape over the next few days and thawing it to make another one.
This was an awesome noobs tutorial! I'm ready to start looping cassettes. Thank you.
You inspired me and I’ve been making all sorts of loops of different lengths. Still experimenting and figuring out the best recording techniques but I’m having fun. Thanks dude 👍🏻🛸
Just made my first tape loop thanks to this video. I've been wanting to add these elements for a while now; much appreciated!
Thanks for the inspiration; made my first loop today 🖤
thank you so much for sharing this. Very useful. I am looking at designing my own tape based delay unit for guitar and this solves the problem of the tape running out.
thankyou very much. an excellent tutorial. i followed it almost in real time and the loop worked perfectly. cheers !!!
It's difficult but what beautiful mistakes I've made so far. I love your work and am glad to be a student.
Wow, Just came from the interview Michael besisnski and I found a lot of recommendation video like this and about loop tape
Thanks a million for this - big ups!
nice. now I can use my cassette deck as a tape saturator for my drum hits!
Thanks! I think I got it. My first attempt was a tiny bit too short, while the 2nd one is slightly slack, but it's working. I saved the leftover tape, because I suspect that my tape job won't hold up forever :D
Try temporarily unscrewing the erase head from the deck. This allows you to record an additional layer of detail over the first. It muffles the first layer a bit, but the muffling texture only adds to the mysterious and beautiful analog sound. Keep in mind, the more layers you attempt to add, the more distant the first layer becomes, so probably no more than two or three layers!
Holy crap! Thats a great idea
Don't unscrew it, just put a piece of aluminum foil over it.
@@vsevkrawczeniuk8019 can I ask what is the erase head?? I just see one thing which is the tape head
@@althepsyphros3314 There should be another head, usually it's black or white, to the left of the play head. You might only see one head if your deck doesn't record. The erase head is only there for erasing the tape before recording to it. If your deck does record and you don't see it, it's probably a mechanically activated erase head and it's only lifted up when recording. Open the lid, press in the interlock for recording on the top right of the deck (where the notch on the tape is) and press the record button, then you should see it.
Couldnt we make a footswitch where you could just turn it on and off?
thank you!! just made one and SUCCESS! You made it very clear and easy. Thanks for sharing this and your lovely music.
TIP: Some hifi cassetteplayers have a sensor that stops playback if the left spinner is not spinning. One workaround is to leave the original spools of tape intact and move them out of the openings of the playhead part to the inside of the tape case and then make your loop around both spools. Some players are also picky about the tapes tightness, so make it tight first, and then gradually remove tape from the original spools, educing their size and loosening the loop until it plays ok. The downside is that the loop stops afer 60/90 minutes, but chances are that the audience went home by then anyway.. I´ve experimented with a rubber band between the bare plastic spools but the bugger keeps slipping and getting stuck, maybe dremeling a groove for it to sit in the spools could fix that. Also I like to make the loop cuts diagonal and use superglue so it runs smoother.
thanks a lot for this information! i solved the problem of the player stoping when the left whel doesn't turn by making a smaler loop of audiotape to connect both wheels (difficult-- 15,5cm). the actual loop goes over both wheels. i found 23,5cm a good length for that one.with that method you can make a A-side and B-side loop also. If you want that continous loop: it's easyer to tape the hole for the erasehead on the casette (of course you need a piece of paper to protect the audiotape from the sticking tape). its the left big opening.
Thanks for the measurements! I've been having a lot of trouble trying to get the correct length that is the correct tension.
What Podcast? What are the measurements???
@@jondoe8o watch the video again
So satisfying to make! Thanks for sharing the knowledge
Thanks man, I did a couple and they work great!
awesome! so glad to hear it
yeah, i'm still working out the tension details but they do play
Alessandro cortini is amazing with his tascam.
Totally subscribed to this fountain of awesomeness.
My teacher sent me this, I'm waiting for the cuarantine to end so I can buy the cassettes I need.
amazon
Im incredibly new to this, im assuming theres recorded material on the tapes and youre not just using blank ones lol
these are blank but you can do it with prerecorded material too, either way!
You record to the tape as its looping (typically)
What a nice tutorial!I will try it right away!!
Perfect for my latest project.
I think there's no turning back from what I've just seen. You opened a door here...
Great video, thanks for this
Thank you so much for doing this! I stumbled on your instagram the other day and was so intrigued by your sound. I think I'll have to experiment with this myself a bit :)
Great video! Thanks for spreading the craft. Ever have any problems with the tape gumming up the pinch roller? Seems like after it warms up a bit the tape adhesive weeps a little. I re-use the splice tape that connects the magnetic tape to the leader tape. you can buy splicing tape but who's got the time or pockets for that?? quarter inch splicing tape is a little too stiff in my experience.
Thanks for sharing this video!
Don't feel like making a tape loop, but still want to experiment with one?
Buy one here: amulets.bandcamp.com/album/tape-loop-series
anymore gonna be made ? are you you totally sold out ??
oops, thought these were tape echoes , still very dope..
Ok. I get it. I'm from San Antone and in Austin most of the 90's. I think people from around there especially at that time are cassette freaks because of all the love put into mix tape making, demo tapes always being made, crazy experimental music, and the underground tapes being sold like Daniel Jonhston, those DJ Premier chops, and the weird genre of "apartment music" coming out of Hyde Park.
Soo cool, love your work!
thank you brother
This video was super helpful and easy to follow! thanks.
Any thoughts on making the loops longer?
that plastic inner film is called a "slipsheet" and helps to keep the tape lubricated so it doesn't stick to itself over time (there's a dry lubricant on there). I'd put 'em back if you get a chance.
Blessed video
I'm a new subscriber and love your videos and a patreon as well.
thank you for being a great inspiration,... wonderful work!!
gorgeous video & sound & yes & loop forever & ever & ever & ever & ever...
this is really useful thanks!
Thanks for converting to metric :)
Thanks ! So happy
your channel and work is a fucking goldmine!
Great video !!
All these quarantaine situation guive me the motivation to experiment with my guitar pedalboard,
Is that all I need to do in order to make my guitar signal go trough a walkman and then go in my pedalboard / amp without being worried with the cassette tape stopping ?
I only play in a live context so no recording and playing into a daw, I just want to color my sound with tape without the trouble of big tape desks and reel to reel machines.
Thanks ! Léo
Who remembers splicers?
I do. I still have one, too. Nice video, but I don't recommend using normal Scotch tape to do this. You have to use real splicing tape. It you don't, the glue from the Scotch tape will destroy the tape heads.
Any help with audio not recording but loop is put together correctly? The tape loop plays back but when I record over it doesn’t seem to record ?
Well is it possible to buy one and if so did you make a video about how they are used?
thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you!
Great video!! Made my first tape loop after watching this. How do you get around the audio gap made by the erase head on a lot of tape decks? (I think this is what’s happening)
really helpful, thanks!
Great, thanks! Now I am trying to figure out how to calculate how long in cm will an eight bars loop be at a specific BPM...
Ok. Thanks for sharing. That's a very short loop, a little more than 2 seconds. Your recording with it sounds great. Why did you discard the slip sheets?
really nice! I made one the other day with just a pad holding a chord and it turned out working quite well. How do you time a more rythmic loop? Just measure the playing time of your loop as best as possible and then record something over it? Thank you for this video tutorial :D
SonKomischerTyp try a metronome or click track playin outside the recording device and count it out
that sounds awesome! you're very welcome
Any tips on how to make the loop more continuous? I've tried making loops a few times and they are still dropping out for a fraction of a second at the splice point.
the gap or drop out of sound comes from the gap between the record head (black) and playback head (silver). If you put a piece of tape over the record head it will allow you to continuously record over a tape loop and will eliminate the gap in sound. good luck!
AMULETS Cool, thanks for the tip!
After some experimentation and careful observation I have determined that the dropout occurs regardless of which heads are taped off during recording and playback and also that the dropout happens precisely at the splicing point. One factor that had occurred to me was that I've been using 90 minute tape due to availability and that maybe that the thinner tape experiences more of a dropout when splicing and taping. Thanks for the advice anyway.
You should tape the black one?
I am also having the same problem as the OP. When you say a piece of tape...do you mean sticky(Scotch) or audio tape?
I've tried sticky and it really distorted the sound and didn't do anything for creating a continuous loop?
I feel I may need a rubber ring on the wheel as the tape is not being guided by the plastic wheel.. or would it be because of the minute lack of tension?
This looks curious. One question: is it possible to make seamless crossfading loops? Does your tape machine have overdub capacity? Thanks.
On 1/4” cutting on a 45d angle dampened some of the glitch
Doin it. 👊
Is this the type of tape they use in studio analog chains?
Great vid- might be a dumb question but how do I know what bit of the tape I’m looping e.g what section I’m cutting ? Also how do I know which side of the tape is which to stick the tape onto in the first place ?
So, is it best to record the tape before or after turning it into a loop?
When you repurpose a tape do you have to be concerned about record guard tabs when recording onto the loops?
If you put tape over those tabs tightly it should be able to be recorded on
Pretty interesting, but the music is so wonderful...I can't concentrate attention on the video :)
what kind of equipment did you use to tape record this loops? thanks in advance. Good vid
Hello thank you for your video I have a doubt, there is some relationship of cin time regarding the measurement of the tape.
hey, is it possible to print cassette in 3d ? so we could use the unuse tape to make more tape loops
LeuPiDeuVache I imagine so but I have no idea where to start with that haha
Thats a great idea
What do you do with all the leftover tape? I've got a couple spools in a Ziploc bag at the moment but I feel like there must be a better way to organize it.
it is useful to keep the extra tape around, especially if it is nice tape from a fresh blank. Sometimes loops break, get worn out, get pinched and distorted or otherwise destroyed. Having the spare tape will let you build a new loop and re-use the casing.
Legend! 🙏
Thank you @AMULETS ! If i understand well, this 5 sec loop will become a 2,5 sec loop on my TASCAM 414 running at 9.5 cm/s (3-3/4 ips) ? I began to test looping with normal speed MARRANTZ and i will receive a 414 soon, so i imagine the cassettes wont sound the same ;-)
Do You have to récord somethibg before cutting the tape to make the loop?
Hi there,
Can I start a recording after I have tinkered the loop cassette, or does the recording / sound have to be recorded on the tape beforehand? I had tried to first build the loop cassette and then make a recording, but I always heard a crack when the recording stopped! Can you tell me how to do it right
thanks in advance
Regards
Hi;
could you give to me some advices about infinite loop cassette to start to experience with four track recorder...wich tape lenght to achievement a track??? Thx
would the scotch tape be on the outside or inside of the loop?
Inside.
should I be able to turn the tape manually with a pencil? I've tried this a few times today and I can't seem to get the tension right, either its too loose to spin or too much tension and my tape player stops. the tape in your example seems loose compared to my attempts. thanks in advance :)
How do they make longer endless loop tapes like say 5 minutes? Would it be possible to do that at home?
This is awesome. Can you record directly onto the looped tape or is it better to cut up prerecorded material?
both work great. cut up prerecorded material is fun because its so unpredictable.
Tapes of the loop
how would i make the tape loop longer
I have some regular blank tapes. Can't remember the size. But is it possible to turn a regular size tape into a 15min cassette?
Thanks so much! Where is the gorgeous music from ?
Quick question for you. I've heard some people say you need to remove/disable/cover the erase head for this to work seamlessly? Is that the case? and if so, what would be your best recommendation to temporarily do this? Thank you and best wishes! Love what you do!
Jack Murray put masking tape over the erase head, Simple as that.
Any difference cutting the tape on a 45?
I really want to start experimenting with cassettes, though I have two doubts about it:
1- Can I loop an already recorded cassette, say 4 example an album by X artist that i find at home? (I mean like sampling the cassette turning it into a loop)
2- Could you recommend any specific cheap tape player/recorder, brand or something? I'm not really sure about what I should buy
Thanks a lot, love your videos!!!!
earl what you doin haha
For a cassette recorder such as Tascam 414, would you need to double the tape length to get 5 seconds (as it plays back at double speed)?
The 414 and 424 can also play at normal speed.
It'd be astonishing to create something like Tomorrow Never Knows. Not with cassette tape, of course.