http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2wGj73hjTc
In this video, Robert Fripp demonstrates his ‘Frippertronics’ setup for live looping and overdubbing, using a pair of reel to reel tape recorders.
Frippertronics With Tape Recorders
With the two tape recorder setup, an audio tape is stretched between two tape recorders, with the distance between the two recorders determining the length of the delay.
As the tape passes through the first recorder, a sound can be recorded. This sound is then played back, after the time delay, by the playback head on the second tape recorder.
The delayed sound can then be fed back as input into the first recorder, to create a slowly decaying loop. Additional audio processing can be done on both the audio input and the delayed return. A similar setup was used on Fripp and Brian Eno’s 1973 proto-ambient album, No Pussyfooting.
The tape delay setup mirrors one used by Terry Riley for his 1963 recording, Music For The Gift.
via BibiAudiofil, dangerousminds; Frippertronics diagram via Seymour Duncan
I believe there was a video clip with Fripp in it in the fall of 1978 when Midnight Special featured Hall & Oates promoting the Along the Red Ledge album that Fripp produced. In addition to Frippertronics, the album featured vocal loops matched to each console fader, something similar to what 10CC did with “I’m Not in Love”. Along the Red Ledge wasn’t one of Hall & Oates’ most popular albums, but it is one of my favorites.
I’m just amazed that something that’s this outside the mainstream was put on TV.
So all you need to do is take out the erase head? I’ve messed around with tape looping but always wanted to do live looping like this on tape
So Robert Fripp makes this mind-bending experiment live on tv: turning a tape with synth-loop on and jamming along with e-guitar?
Hey, originator, pioneer… Learn to listen…;) don’t show your ignorance like this in public…
you can hear the loops as he plays,
The Schoenberg of Progressive Rock and one of the most underrated guitarist on earth. Prog on mister Crimson King.
Underrated?
I always thought he was, generally, considered to be among the very best.
If you don’t own a copy of “No Pussyfooting” go get it N O W. It’s a brilliant album and still absolutely relevant in 2015. Fripp and Eno are two of the greatest living musical visionaries and what they do together is amazing. If you love electronic music, you owe it to yourself to listen to this album.
Stunned silence from the studio audience.
They were well away on the surface of Jupiter by the end of the piece.
I’m personally really into the work Fripp did on David Sylvian’s amazing album Gone To Earth. One of my faves.
In this case George is right . This is not Frippertronics, it is indeed simply Fripp jamming along to a pre-recorded backing tape. And Andrew – you don’t need to take out the erase head. You set the first tape recorder to record and the second one to play. You also end up with your complete performance on the tape.