I decided to go back after my first tape loop creations as I wasn’t happy with how they came out. They weren’t sitting on the tape reader correctly or had the right tension. My tape splicing wasn’t accurate and the connections didn’t work as intended and clogged up within the machine. So it’s time to create version two.
I spent some time taking apart my previous tape loops and figuring out how to make them better and analysing with my engineer’s brain what is going on. I put them back into the tape player and kept testing with my JU-06A and going into inputs and outputs. I figured out it was the tension. I got the first tape to work and then eventually it sorted itself out! Eureka! I had figured out why it finally wasn’t working properly and it was because the tape wasn’t running at a stable rate, it was wobbling or skipping and not keeping the correct tension on the tape head. The easiest way for me to figure this out was to compare it to another tape that was working, a musical one and I saw the tension and how it was supposed to be.
After the first one worked, since I purchased four blank cassette tapes I decided to see what other alternative tape loop types there are online I had created the Single wheel Loop successfully and decided to make three others. Number two would be the Standard Loop, Number Three would be David Chandler Loop and number four would be an extended cassette loop that goes out of it which isn’t in this photo.
So after some time I successfully created all three form that photo and they worked perfectly, I’m getting the hang of creating tape loops and making them work almost flawlessly, I also found information online about putting masking tape over the erase head, which then creates tape loops that don’t stop recording, you can keep layering your compositions instead of there being a blank sound as it catches the end of the tape. So I did that and found it fascinating the relayering of sounds. something I will incorporate into my final pieces. The last step was to create the extended tape loop. I watched a video and saw a few photos and realised I had to cut the front side A and keep the back Side B in order for it to fit into the tape machine. I cut it with scissors which didn’t work exceptionally well but well enough to give me what I wanted. I installed it into my Walkman and then gave it a play. It also worked flawlessly!
I think the next step is to have a practice jam idea on what equipment and sounds I want to use for my final improvisations that I will make for my prototype hand-in. For me, I think four improvisations are best as I have 4 different tapes. So in my head one loop type for each piece, performing with different samples and having the extended tape loop playing long drone sounds.