Re: open reel deck looping?

[Tim Nelson <tcn62@ici.net>]

At 03:03 PM 4/25/00 -0700, Lance wrote:
>i wonder,
>of those of you who have done the tape bit, what is the longest loop you 
>have
>created?
>
Back in the early 80's, I had an Akai GX4000D and my roommate had (I think)
a Realistic open-reel that we used to hook together like we were Fripp and
Eno. (I usually had to be Fripp to his Eno, which I assume was because of
my nearsightedness and his thinning hair, but I never really asked...)

One time we put the two machines at the distant ends of our dormitory
hallway, and had a couple of open mics and a BigMuffed/volumepedaled guitar
and a Casio going through a Radio Shack mixer into the first deck. (We
lived in the basement of the dorm, so this hallway only had rooms on one
side of the hall, and doors suddenly opening with people tripping over the
tape wasn't a problem. Plus we usually involved our dorm neighbors in our
lunacy, as long as there was contraband beer involved. They got to belch
into the mics which they really enjoyed.) 

The two decks were about 75 feet apart, so it was a looooooong delay. We
had them connected with long cords and adapters which sort of worked as
non-adjustable lowpass filters in the sense that no high end made it
through. One of the decks ran slightly faster than the other, so it always
had to be the one on the right, but I don't remember which one. It was
pretty cool for a while, but the tape became pretty cruddy pretty quickly
dragging along the dirty tile floor, and eventually there was a big pile of
1/4" tape in the hallway for a couple of days. Ah, college...

Tim