Re: Throbbing Gristle tape looping

[Tim Nelson <psychle62@yahoo.com>]

There was an instrument in the 70's called the
Birotron that was developed in association with Rick
Wakeman as a next generation Mellotron.
<http://www.8trackheaven.com/birotron.html> While the
Mellotron's notes came from pre-recorded strips of
1/4" tape, the birotron actually used 8-track
cartridges. When you played the keyboard, whatever was
on the cartridges would sound. The problem was,
Mellotron tapes contained the note's attack portion,
and the Birotron's cartridges were endless loops in
which a keyed note would start abruptly.

There's a story (perhaps apocryphal, but who knows?)
about a practical joke the members of Yes played on
Wakeman at a rehearsal; after a dinner break, Wakeman
was late in returning (he was notoriously 'thirsty' in
those days) and the band members brought in a bunch of
8-tracks from their cars. When they were playing again
after Wakeman returned and they got to the part where
the Birotron was supposed to produce the sounds of
choirs or strings or whatever, Wakeman hit the keys
and heard Simon & Garfunkel.

I've used MiniDisc decks as (non-real-time) loopers;
since they're random access, if you edit a sample so
there's no glitch at the seam, and set the deck to
Repeat One, it'll loop without a gap. If you set up
several decks with a mixer, you can play the faders
like a keyboard. Unfortunately, I used Sony decks
which have extremely fragile loading mechanisms, and
Sony doesn't really like to honor their warranty. I've
done similar things with CD players and/or cassette
decks loaded with endless loop tapes, but MiniDisc
works better, at least until the little plastic gears
eat themselves.

-t-

--- Kris Day <commencement13@hotmail.com> wrote:
Does anyone know of a way to controll car stereo tape
decks or any tape decks for that matter through like a
joystick or keyboard maybe even in a theremin like
instrument?


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