FREE "Frippertronics" Delay/Looping Mini-Course

[@hansvandermeulen5515]

If anyone could be called the Bob Ross of guitarplaying on yt, it would be this guy.

[@jo.burgos]

My thoughts exactly

[@jaredadam1691]

Yeah no kidding. This is what "happy little trees" sounds like for sure.

[@reghunt2487]

Fripp's chain for the original Frippertronics was Les Paul into Big Muff into Wah into Volume then into the tape deck. Using the LP and Muff gave him a lot of sustain. That's a big part of his sound in particular. He would also create a stereo echo by feeding the playback head back into the record head.

[@bobsavage3317]

Hey, Happy 2023! Yes I found this video very helpful, especially the parts about using Frippertronics with chord changes.

[@christopherhuber9037]

Been listening to a lot of Evening Star lately, this is a very cool video. Thanks!

[@MrHarryStones]

Great stuff. Beautiful music. This was your first video I ever watched, I've seen you on my feed, but never clicked. I'm so glad I did. After about 25 years of just being obsessed with trying to play fast. I'm finally learning my notes and this looks like a super fun way to get better at being musical. I want to sit with a hot mug of the days first coffee and learn ambient guitar before I leave for work.

[@chordsoforion]

Glad you enjoyed the vid! Thanks!!

[@FiveFigsDigital]

I saw Frippertronics live in 1978 or 79 at Brown University in a very small lecture hall. Mind-blowing.

[@neillshenton]

I really enjoy your videos. They're really practical and I particularly enjoy how you bring in discussion of the music, like chord changes, not just addressing the technology. Also, you make some lovely music in these videos. The part with the mix of clean and distorted sounds put me in mind of Steve Hackett on The Lamb Lies Down. Big thumbs up from me!

[@HonestTries]

I've been wanting to get into ambient guitar for a long time from watching you and being a big Fripp fan. I recently began building my first ambient pedal board. I've been utilizing your videos a lot, so thank you so much, man! Very helpful stuff!

[@potatohead5309]

I know it's been said before my myself and others, you, sir, are the Bob Ross of guitar instruction. Thank you so very much for all your hard work, and be sure to include a happy little tree in your videos. ;)

[@1specificfrequency220]

Outstanding work! I've been listening to Fripp's "Leviathan" for the past few months and somehow I had this image in my head of Fripp playing a keyboard plugged into a laptop. Now I realize how comical that is.

[@DarkSideofSynth]

Perfect timing. I played a lead part over some synthbed yesterday, but wasn't satisfied, and was about to lean towards this technique but then had no time. Awesome!

[@goryanhavefun]

Thank you, Bill! I jumped in last night and this AM setting up the sounds on an HX FX with a Hologram Microcosm providing a pad, with selective eBow. It is SO satisfying once that natural rhythm you mentioned comes into focus. And so moving to play when it starts to come together where the chord changes alternate. Again, thank you for all of the time and energy you spend to teach and share your excellent work. It is a gift to all of us out here and it's more appreciated than you might know.

[@chordsoforion]

And once again - so very kind of you!

[@AmbientMusicStudio]

I've always struggled with the craft of passing from one chord or tonal centre to another. Your lesson was very helpful.

[@resetreboot]

This has been quite the eye-opener, to be honest. The part abouth harmonizing the chords and how to play leads was direct to the point and very clear. Thanks, Bill!

[@JohnPaulsonJohnisaStegosaurus]

it *is* essentially just a short looper effect, but you didn't mention that a part of it that is different from a modern digital looper is that there is a degradation of the signal with each generation of the loop. some loopers allow for a dry/wet balance like an old delay. also, introducing EQ or filtering and/or distortion within the looper audio path can simulate that degradation.

[@paulj0557tonehead]

I did this years ago with two Akai decks. Shell out for two identical reel to reel recorders some day instead of yet another guitar, amp, or other gear. The equipment in motion is part of the whole experience. Also, you learn how to rehearse over what is being recorded by lowering the rec/ PB head outputs. The tape bleeds of repeats in a much more pleasant way than the digital recreation.

[@SOAMLE]

Jaco Pastorius was also an early adopter of live looping and looping layers. Great video.

[@GaryBeilby]

Your best breakdown of this approach so far. Loved it!

[@brotkastable]

Dziękujemy.

[@chordsoforion]

Thank you so very much for the support!!!!!!

[@samseitz9937]

Thank you so much Bill for the deep dive. This technique has always been a mystery to me until now. I now see that using this for leads can help inform what you play next.

[@IsaiahGrande]

Another excellent video! Musically the last minute were the best

[@dangoldbach6570]

Best way to learn music theory is fripping. 1,3,5 chords, find the common notes, rebuild the new chord from there. Playing slow is the fastest way to learn how to play fast

[@peternchlls9]

slow is smooth and smooth is fast!

[@williamthomas3515]

Bill that was another great video. You are really a master player and instructor. 7 second delay really takes practice to be patient but it really comes naturally to you I can tell. Thanks a bunch and keep the instructional videos coming.

[@baileytaldrich]

Great video, very much in the vein of those early ambient guitar tutorials that brought me to this channel. Simple and clear instruction. Thanks for all that you do!

[@cosmowerkstapes]

this takes guitar to new heights. a whole new world of possibilities.🤩

[@raulsilva-ok]

Thank you very much for this video, Bill. I'm already waiting for part 2 of Frippertronics!

[@guntertouschek3873]

wowh, Bill, this is amazing, thank you so much for inspiring me, you are really diving deep, thanks a lot. amazing what they did in the seventies with the tape machines .🤪

[@arno-luyendijk4798]

Thank you for the very enlightening video, Bill. TIl now, I thought frippertronics to be something quite complex, but if it is, a s you explain, the ancestor of delay, it becomes very clear and almost easy to use. My Joyo Aquarius delay has looper extras and a separate looper setting which I am exploring at the moment. In combination with the Ditto + looper, you can record the looper and save it when letting the Aquarius loop go. A new world of sound possibilities has opened, and for a great part thanks to this and previous videos from your channel, thanks.

[@drewinman7171]

Extremely helpful. I'm working on doing this with bass.

[@davpat2112]

Fripp and Eno's Evening Star is one of my all time favorite pieces, incorporates Frippertronics but the solo tone is what really gets me, has a cello quality in the lower register that still blows me away after 10000000 listens. Love your channel, thanks for all your hard work producing this content.

[@Syd4510]

Evening Star (the track) is a wonderful piece, totally mesmerising and magical. Well, the album is amazing too!

[@davpat2112]

@Syd bysyd indeed, I must have listened to it 100s of times over the past 35 years.

[@Stagliaf]

I picked up that record not really knowing what it was. I was just looking for Eno records. Hearing Evening Star for the first time blew my head off. That sent me going down the Robert Fripp rabbit hole

[@hubertvancalenbergh9022]

I love An Index of Metals.

[@user-yz3et4lq9y]

I've never said this before, but you sir, have a BEAUTIFUL vibrato, so fluid & perfectly 'wavy' :) Thank you for the education & the fun!

[@chordsoforion]

Thanks very much!!!

[@ThePedalboardOrchestra]

Great and very inspirational tutorial. 🙌🏻👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Your sounds and tones are awesome 🤩

[@majordabalert]

I’ve been binge watching your stuff from up to like 8 years ago. Frickin love you bruh. Just finished line of despair and I can’t wait to hear your other stuff

[@chordsoforion]

Thanks so much Jeffrey!!!!

[@mark.guitar]

Nice explanation Bill. After using my dd200 to try this out using the dual delay setting I'm off to the pedal box to pull out all of my delay pedals to have a play. Cheers.

[@steveball7086]

Another great video aimed at Frippertronics. I’d also love to see more detailed aspects of this technique in the same instructional format. As a couple of suggestions, discussion of decay/feedback settings would be useful. It appears that your decay/feedback is relatively low (maybe 50% or less) to keep the loop(s) evolving. I would also be very interested in your approach to setting up a loop and improvising over the top. I love this technique, but it requires some manipulation to keep the loop “evolving” and to improvise/solo over the top without adding to the loop (particularly in a live performance setting). I usually do this by setting up 2 basically identical tracks in Ableton: one for the evolving loop and the other for soloing without adding to the loop. When I create loop that works, I push the feedback up high, jump to the other track to solo, and then return to the loop, reduce the feedback and “evolve” the loop, etc., etc. It’s simpler than it sounds to pull this off, but not really ideal from a smooth performance/workflow standpoint. I’d love to hear you approach to this aspect of Frippertronics. Great work as always. Thanks so much…

[@chrishansondc]

Great timing, just stumbled upon the “sound on sound” mode of the keeley eccos and it’s ridiculous fun. Will have to try some of these ideas you shared, thanks for the education and glorious tones.

[@Ksamenk]

I was waiting for this, many thanks Bill!

[@krismael]

My favorite video on all things ambient guitar

[@alphanuevo]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing. Some alternatives for folks too if they're interested: 3 head cassette recorder / deck (I use a portable Marantz), Mile End Effects makes an awesome delay pedal (more weird than long delays but still very nice), and use a DAW and you computer with the built-in effects. Cheers from Seattle.

[@davidrobertson4301]

For many years, the story was that John Lennon touched the flange of one of the tape recorders that were synced to another tape recorder and discovered the sound effect of the flange. Support workers at Abbey road have stated in an interview that they were told to get that type of sound that John Lennon would cut up with strange things and then they would try and make it a reality and in fact it was the white coated a technical assistance at Abbey road who invented flanging

[@AC2N]

Superbe ! Merci pour le partage toujours inspiré, inspirant… Ça donnerai envie de garder en boucle continue l’ambiance, tel un drone complexe, pour jouer par dessus avec des sons plus courts et secs.

[@johnrussell29]

This is my favorite video that I've seen by you so far. It taught me a lot and inspired me too. Thanks,

[@danielleohallisey4218]

Really appreciate the way you laid out this tutorial. Brings us along for the ride!

[@basarat]

Really Cool 🌹

[@robertclarkguitar]

Absolutely beautiful ...Love Fripp. I've been a fan a while since picking up guitar in 2019 ish. Ambient ...blues and what I really do not specifically put on genre specifics more exploring the sounds. Effects are heavy at times but I love to get lost in emotions. Excellent work. I need to keep growing and building my sound.

[@macsarcule]

Thanks Bill! ✌️😌🎸

[@ellenrik]

Absolutely helpful, though I'm mostly an acoustic player, however, I do have a couple of electric guitars. This certainly gives me some inspiration to investigate possibilities. A great video, as always. All the best for 2023 and beyond.

[@theodorsloth2194]

Well done! Great Video, I learned so much, thank you! By the way the Boss DD-8 is a secret weapon for Frippertronics for some reasons. Firstly it is cheap. Secondly its powerconsumption is less than 100mA. Thirdly its delay time ist 7 seconds in Stereo. Fourthly it can do several types of good sounding delays - normal, tape, bbd, delay+verb, shim, mod, reverse and som other crazy stuff that is also well suited for ambient music - an all this in different stereo modes. Moreover the delay time can be tapped in different modes. For example I setted mine as such that I can tap in quarters wehreas the delay time is a whole note und thus for times as long as the time between the taps. This is great for synchronizing a frippertronic landscapes to a song.

[@chordsoforion]

Great that the DD-8 is "Frippertronics" friendly!

[@Metayes]

Brilliant! Thank you for showing so many opportunities!

[@silvansky]

Thanks for the ping pong delay in front of the long tape one trick! It sounds awesome!

[@telekhal]

Thank you Bill. That was wonderful. I do ambient stuff and you told us so many tricks. Bless your soul.

[@xman5b]

Love this! Thanks for the tutorial. I love all of the Frippertronics info you have provided over the years and have found it very useful for my playing.

[@JonValtandtheEvilRobots]

I laughed when you said “g major situation” haha. I tell people when I’m making the ambient type music, that I’m not playing music, I’m playing MOOD. Haha “situation” is funny.

[@muhammadrezahaghiri]

This is a great video. Probably the best guitar video I could find and watch today. Your video gave me a few ideas to try to create long and dreamy lead lines!

[@pneumachina]

brilliant! you made everything so clear! thank you!

[@themouthorganizer6212]

Thanks Bill - very clear and inspiring.

[@Theweeze100]

Hey Bill good to see you here! You are the reason I went down The Ambient rabbit hole in the first place!!!

[@jungstrauma4]

my most solid delay to frip is the tc electronic flashback delay 2 mini. loading up the digital delay with 6 sec. delay:) this and a nice drone-ing synth is my meditation. by keeping feedback on max while wild twisting the delaytime gives some nice glitches if its to loud turn the feedback down until the level is good and on max to give some another drones over it....thats what i do mostly with it...i love frippertronics^^ thank you bill!

[@justPiero]

Very helpful! Thank You!!

[@peterolsson3662]

Very inspiring. I did not know how frippertronics work,though i heard it quite often. Gone give long delays a try.

[@thedude-jb7wx]

i feel like im cheating on rhett shullster.This is just so good. Rhetts tones and beard are not near as luscious. Please make a 2112 or operation mind crime concept album with all this stuff. A story of epic proportion awaits. Like the mole people live in a planet with a hollow center and battle thru 1000s of miles of caves with giant spiders to arrive to a flat earth with ice caps that encompass many separate worlds hidden from each individual existence. I dont know im a total mronbut you sir are a man of honor and diplomacy, indubitably!

[@kid.dynamite4918]

Lol

[@user-yz3et4lq9y]

Haha!! Yeah, I remember my first beer!

[@thedude-jb7wx]

@@user-yz3et4lq9y you do? Im very proud of ya!

[@michaeljarvis5489]

🚬✈🌫

[@thedude-jb7wx]

@@michaeljarvis5489 cigarette a plane and some paper??

[@baraovandermor]

Thank you very much. Fantastic video, very well explained and led me to test it. I've a BOS-GT001 but unfortunately, the maximum that I can get is 2 sec delay.

[@hernanpatricioorellanaalar3473]

I just wanna Thank you for your video! I will try! Thanks! 😀👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@00tmk]

What a beautiful video. thanks a lot for your work. I'd suggest to add an AB-Y pedal to the board. Then one may control the amount of layers of sound stacked on the long delay. As well to make improvosations and melodies on the top of them. It will demand a mini-mixer to combine the signals @ the end of the line to the amp.

[@krokus5714]

Gracias Bill por el vídeo, lo pondré en práctica. Aquí en Jaén a 3º grados centigrados.

[@RikiAbi]

Very inspiring, i will use this for some generative electronic music

[@geoffpeck1043]

Excellent lesson Bill . Really helpful.👏

[@GOLDENCORE78]

For years I do this stuff using Akai Headrush, 'cause it had also a "HF DAMP" (that adjusts the amount of high frequency signal in the delay sound) and a 23.8 sec of time for repetitions....

[@jacjones7414]

Thanks for this incredible introductory tutorial. Truly inspiring and I now can't wait to pick up my guitar and pedals to start experimenting. Really well constructed video!

[@ChristopherJWalton]

Wonderful tutorial and thoroughly inspirational. Many thanks!

[@brotkastable]

beautiful lesson, thank You

[@mattc1176]

What a great video, thank you so much!

[@peteodonnell6219]

Helpful totally ! But now I want one those gizmo's . I loved the tonality big country made, but I was clueless how they created the sound. So thank you kind sir !

[@hicketnunc3886]

Прекрасен! Как всегда! Спасибо

[@1965zimmy]

This is such an incredibly helpful video. Thanks!

[@bobtronic73]

Thanks so much. Very educational and beautiful playing too

[@Noodlze]

Never really thought about pushing a delay out that far. But damn that's cool sounding. I might have to try adding something like this style that to one of my weird jams.

[@thebreakfastmenu]

Rockin shorts in the middle of January? I can respect that.

[@davidsummerville351]

Thanks for doing this! I got a electro harmonix superego plus and it is a pretty powerful tool. I was wondering if you were familiar with the pedal. The freeze, layering and gliss does the job of the delay pedal only much better. Can't go wrong for 280 dollars! The pedal also has 11 effects including delay and echo.

[@brianmorton4127]

Thanks Bill!

[@JohnLRice]

Beautiful, thank you for the tutorial. 😎

[@213davidhunter]

I really enjoyed this demonstration, I wonder if you have listened to John Martyn at all? Especially Live at Leeds from 1975. I am not sure an echoplex is entirely the same, but they sound very similar! I will be checking our your other videos, cheers from Ireland!

[@charlesbernklau6234]

Nicely played and explained, thanks for this!

[@austinknowlton1783]

Interesting video. I'm not into super long delay times, just a little slapback in my signal but hearing about the history of delay was worth the price of admission. I have been playing guitar and reading about it for over 35 years and I never knew that Robert Fripp basically invented delay, at least in the way guitar players use it. Guess I always thought Les Paul had invented it. Btw I used to have that same Alligator volume pedal, lol.

[@davidleinweber]

Did Eno do an album called 801 Live? I remember a friend who was really into that kind of music and he used to run around our high-school saying “The Time is 801.” Sort of a humorous high school memory, lol. I seem to remember it was Brian Eno

[@tonyisyourpal]

He did - he formed a band called 801 for some live shows that were recorded - it comes from The True Wheel on the Taking Tiger Mountain album that includes the chorus singing “we are the 801 - we are the central shaft”…

[@thejames9681]

Thanks, man-very generous of you!

[@hubertvancalenbergh9022]

The Triple Delay is crucial, I use it all the time. I feed it with guitar tones from a Zoom multi-fx and synth sounds from a Roland GR-20. Guitar and synth go through separate volume pedals, so that a choice or real-time mix between the two is possible. The end result goes to the Triple Delay. I have tons of other gear, but at the moment this setup works for me.

[@chordsoforion]

It is a great delay!

[@thejontao]

Watching this makes me want to pull out my guitar. Too bad it’s midnight! :-)

[@nadim.bakhshov]

Hi Bill - love your stuff. Thank you. Historically, Robert Fripp did not come up with the two tape loop idea - Brian Eno came across Terry Riley's invention of it first. He was inrigued and showed it to Robert, who then developed his own variant. But if we're being fair to Terry - and I think we should be - he really is the source of what most people call Frippertronics - often crediting Fripp with its inception. In Terry Riley's work he called it the Time Lag Accumulator. Here's a sample: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYO7c5ptaM-sa7M. You can hear why Eno was inspired to borrow and adapt it and how Fripp extended and developed an interesting formulae for its use. So actually Fripp's use has its root in American miniimalism, a connection he further echoed in the early 1980 KC albums and phasing effects with Adrian Belew.

[@MarceloKatayama]

Brian Eno claims he came up with the tape loop system on his own before discovering that Terry Riley did it first. So, no, he didn't show Riley's system to Fripp. He showed him his own invention, which was, in essence the same thing. My point being, Eno wasn't aware of Terry Riley before developing his tape loops.

[@nadim.bakhshov]

@Marcelo Katayama I think you're probably right about the technology but the music was inspired by American minimalism Eno got equally fascinated with minimalist music, especially with Steve Reich’s It’s Gonna Rain. Eno’s important Systems Music idea can be traced back to this piece. “I was so impressed by this as a way of composing that I made many, many pieces of music using more complex variations of that. In fact all of the stuff that is called ambient music really - sorry, all the stuff I released called ambient music, not the stuff those other 2 1/2 million people released called ambient music, - all of my ambient music I should say, really was based on that kind of principle, on the idea that it’s possible to think of a system or a set of rules which once set in motion will create music for you.”

[@fluentpiffle]

We should also be fair to Daevid Allen, who worked with Terry Riley and used tape loops he had recorded previously with William Boroughs.. Bill might want to check out Daevid's work with glissando guitar technique also..

[@chordsoforion]

@@fluentpiffle Fun fact - Not only am I aware of Daevid Allen, I met him in person and mixed his show in Baltimore in the 80s. It was he and Gilli Smyth together. The promoter asked me to do the sound and gave me the choice of money or front row seats to a Bruce Cockburn show. I chose the latter. 🙂

[@veloopity]

@@MarceloKatayama "Eno wasn't aware of Terry Riley before developing his tape loops" - do you have a reference for that statement?

[@timbaugh1944]

An excellent mini-course. As usual, I learned something new, especially using intervals creatively and moving between chords. How were the delay lines set up? Serial or parallel? How is the subdiv knob set for each delay line? I'd love to see more of these mini-courses if you have the time to make them.

[@chordsoforion]

Hey Tim! The delays were setup in series (to replicate multiple delay pedals). Not sure about all the sub-disivions, although the 3rd delay was likely quarter + dotted eighth. Glad you enjoyed the vid!

[@agerven]

Dang! i thought i got it Tim, but now you make me aware of the subdivisions. Are they really used in this video? In order not to complicate things further for me i think i'll put them all to the same value (quarter) and just worry about the time intervals only. It's a good thing Bill divided this course into a number of manageable chapters because this will take a loooooot of practice on my side (but oh, the fun and enjoyment of progress).

[@thibaultabrial]

Thanks a lot,Bill,very instructive and inspiring to get in the Flippertronics journey ;-)

[@757SoundLab]

It’s nice seeing this again, thanks for posting it here! Have you tried out the Chase Bliss Habit? It’s a Frippertronics beast, among other things.

[@reghunt2487]

10:33 "You'll hear [Fripp] not use a volume pedal... a lot of times he's just playing out and out distorted guitar" this is very wrong. 99% of Fripp's style involves the volume pedal to bring notes in and out. It gives the loops a dreamy quality, but also controls noise build up. What Fripp might do some time is fade in a trill then fade it out, of he might fade in a note then slide it up or down then fade out, or he might fade in staccato picking then fade that out. And once in a while he pops notes in and out with the pup switch. But he never just opens it up and picks notes. That would become a mess. Now yes, you can do whatever you want, but to emulate Frippertronics as he has recorded it back in the day you have to understand Fripp's technique. It's very possible this guy is referring to when Fripp plays a solo over the already recorded loop. That's way different from the loop process itself.

[@toxiludwig821]

Great! Thank you.

[@mirllewist3086]

Lovely- thanks!!

[@Sevetamryn]

Your videos are really inspiring, thanks a lot!

[@andrewridge4978]

Helpful, illuminating, instructive, and spellbinding. Thank you very much.

[@rottalmusik6563]

Yep it is🤘🎸💜

[@joe_plays_music]

Very helpful Bill!! Thanks! Just a question: I can do the same thing (frippertronics delay effects) with a tc flashback x4?? Thanx a lot. Just subscribed after seen this. Now I'm gonna search other videos on your channel😉

[@chordsoforion]

Hey Joe: Yes, you can definitely use the FB X4 for the main Frippertronics style delay. Like the Triple Delay, it has a max delay time of 7 seconds. Of course, you will need another delay pedal for the slapback effect, as the X4 can play one delay line at a time.

[@franciscoespinolavaldivia1335]

Gracias❤