RE: chain tape

[Morgan Lang <mhl21@columbia.edu>]

Hi Dennis:

I'm interested in participating in this thing, but what about pragmatics? 
For
example, it would be convenient for the next person in the chain if all the
previous people had identified (on some sorta chart?) what elements of what
piece they had messed with and where the messed-with bit now resides in the
mix. In order for this to occur the original recording would have to be
accompanied by some sort of data sheet (or transcription) explaining what's
going on in the piece.

Furthermore, the more people who contribute to the tape, the shorter their
contributions will have to be. For example, if 40 people want to work on a 
90
minute cassette, each person will have only a little over 2 minutes to get 
to
the point. In a way, this could be an advantage--we could end up with a 
very
dense sound collage full of rapid transitions.

Finally, three more considerations: (1) how will it be decided--and by
whom--where the tape gets sent, what the deadlines are, that sort of thing?
Someone will have to take charge, not only to ensure completion of the
project, but also to prevent the list from being cluttered with messages 
like,
er, this one. (2) Are we talking a cassette tape, here? I wonder how many 
of
the interested parties have DAT machines and, if most of them do, whether 
it
might be better to do the project on DAT? (3) People will want to hear what
happens to their music as it gets passed along? Assuming the tape makes its
way back to the original source (yourself?) would it then be incumbent upon
that person to copy and distribute the final mix to all the participants? 
If
that's the case, a "subscription" fee should be required of all those who 
want
a copy, and that fee should be used to copy the tape via a duplication
service. To make it easier on the person who has to do this work, 
contributors
should send SASEs with their money, yes? 

Let us know what the master plan is and count me in!

Best,

Morgan Hamilton Lang