----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 4:22
PM
Subject: Re: Time Lag Accumulator,
Frippertronics, Eno
----- Original Message -----
From: "marcus savino" <marcuskp@mail.com>
> I am
trying to put together my own Time Lag Accumulator, used by
> Riley, Eno, Fripp etc. I have done quite a
bit of research and
> have been unable to find a really detailed
description/diagram
> of the proper ways to make this
work.
> 1. Is there a diagram (besides Eno's
Discreet Music jacket) that
> outlines in detail how to to put one of
these together?
Here is a photo of Fripp with the
system:
As you can see the feeder reel of the left deck
passes tape under the left deck's head, which is recording. The tape
then passes under the head of the right deck, which is playing, and is taken
up on the right deck's takeup reel. The audio output of the right deck
is fed into a mixer, which mixes the live guitar sound with it and feeds into
the audio input of the left deck.
> 2. Is there something specific to Revoxes
that make them ideal
> for this process? Is it necessary to use
Revoxes or will Teacs work as well?
As I understand it most other tape decks
(including Teac and Tascam) have wheels adjacent to
both reels that the tape goes over. These
wheels fall to the bottom of their grooves if the tape is not
there. If either of these wheels fall the deck will no longer run.
You may be able to jury-rig tape decks by duct taping the wheels, but this may
not be your best approach. The Revox decks provide superior sound
quality (they were sometimes used for the master mix down in studios back
before DAT machines), which is important for looping. Every minor
degradation gets magnified on each iteration of the loop.
A great thing about this approach is that when
you are finished, you just remove the takeup reel from the right deck, rewind
it, and you have a master tape of your performance. This is what Fripp
did to record his Frippertronic albums. They were not recorded using a
recording studio's deck.
Good luck putting this together.
-Vance