KEVIN D. ENGLAND (kengland@welch.jhu.edu)
Thu, 9 Sep 1999 17:22:50 -0400 (EDT)
I'd heard about a reel-to-reel tape dj a few years back who was supposed to be
a real star. I think he was from an Eastern Bloc country and developed a
whole tape based technique because that was all the gear he had. Anybody
remember reading about that? It was probably in the early 90s when I saw that
article...
k
On Thu, 9 Sep 1999, Elson Trinidad wrote:
> Actually, tape is more like vinyl - tape is analog (unless it's a DAT), and
> theoretically, you can "scratch" on tape (though the effect won't be as dramatic;
> the tape reels revolve much slower than 33 1/3 RPM).
>
> The first examples of electronic music were done on tape, and even performed on
> tape - Stockhausen, Reich, et al, mostly by chopping up tape and re-arranging the
> bits;- musique concrete, the forefather of all sample-based music was a
> tape-based medium. Of course, we're talking about the old school reel-to-reel
> tape, which has a better sound quality than cassette or 8-tracks and can be
> manipulated due to their open mechanisms...Actually the audio effect known as
> "flanging" was invented from tape -- by running two tape machines playing the
> same tape, and pushing the *flange* of one reel, slowing it down slightly and
> causing a tonal modulation between the two. Also, the first sampling keyobard,
> the Mellotron, used tapes to store its samples (each key was a mini tape machine
> and each sound was a stretch of tape that played on its own playback head).
>
> But the weakness of tape as a DJ (TJ?) medium is evident: no random access (gotta
> rewind, fast forward), tape can get eaten up or damaged (they're *much* more
> fragile than records or CDs) and have a truly limited lifespan (most of my
> cassettes bought in the early '80s don't have any sound anymore). Oh yeah, and
> while vinyl crackle, rumble and popping may have its admirers, NO ONE likes tape
> hiss! If you're gonna use tapes, you might as well put everything on one tape,
> and if you;re gonna do that, you might as well not be there!
>
> Elson
>
>
> --
> - 30 -
>
> :. elson trinidad, los angeles, california, usa
> :. elson@westworld.com
> :. www.westworld.com/~elson
>
> "funny how frustration breeds desire" - meja
>
>
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