Tape Loop workshop 001.

This 3 hour workshop will offer an in-depth look at the process of making tape loops and the kinds of things you can do with them. You will come away with your own tape loop and the skills to make 1000 more.

Tape loops and other kinds of DIY tape techniques have played a huge role in the evolution of music. From John Cage to Delia Derbyshire through to Aphex Twin and J Dilla.

This is the first in a series of tape-based workshops run by Beep Boop Electronics and facilitated with help from Bristol Communal Modular, based out of Bristol Hackspace - a community run DIY electronics and fabrication space in St Phillips.

No prior tape loop or hardware hacking experience necessary.

“I didn’t have any equipment when I started” . . . “I used to make tape loops and put them on ghetto-blaster motors or reel-to-reels that I could get for five quid from junk shops. I did a hell of a lot with those, like creating finished collages of sound that I’d then make, say, five copies of. I’d sync up all the motors and play the tapes back, fluctuating the tape speed to create effects like flanging, chorus and phase-shifting.”
- Aphex Twin

“In true DIY fashion the late Detroit producer disassembled his cassette deck and modified it so he could elongate specific parts of the tape and sample them”
- From notes on J Dilla’s process

“What we are doing now is not important for itself, but one day someone might be interested enough to carry things forwards and create something wonderful on these foundations.”
- Delia Derbyshire on the tape loop and synthesis explorations pouring out of BBC Radiophonic workshop in the 60s

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