The Do's And Don'ts of Editing Tape - Splicing Tape Loops Pt. 2

[@stupid4President]

Thank you for another interesting and fun video! I have also found a very nice video on YT where an experienced German gentleman is splicing a classical rehearsal tape on a Telefunken M15A. His machine is a little bit different (hence the A?) for instance his headblock is reversed. From his video I noted some points: - There is not a problem with splicing and editing while using pancakes. - When you have a machine with Edit control and built-in scissors using a grease/wax pencil is a bit superflous - You (well, he, but may you also) can unlock the capstan roller during an edit. The handle on the far right should do the trick. - His (seemingly self-attached) splicing block is on the headblock, this is probably more convenient than right under. - He doesn't prepare his splices but has a nice tape roller for it (never seen it before). I think preparing a lot of splice at forehand would create a mess here. - You can pull tape across the heads after a splice to find your next edit point. His video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/enfMkJ9qZsSVosU

[@Hainbach]

Great find, thank you for that! Will sticky your comment.

[@droses1600]

If you're an experienced tape editor (as I became), sure, a wax pencil is indeed superfluous as you get a 'feel' for doing it and marking it just slows you down. But when I taught 20 students in Birmingham, England, I found that it is much easier for a beginner (like Stefan) to physically mark your edits, especially when you're going to have a lot of them strung up on your washing line with pegs.

[@stupid4President]

@@droses1600 My main motivation for saying that the wax pencil was superfluous in THIS case is that the used headblock here contains its own cutting mechanism. Without this, a wax pencil is surely the way to go. However, if you have positioned your tape at the right point already then I see no added value by using the pencil, pulling the tape out and cutting it, while all you need to do is pushing the lever to cut the tape.

[@droses1600]

@@stupid4President And my main motivation for advising Stefan and other newcomers to editing to use a pencil is because he had so many pieces of tape that he needs a way of marking the head of each piece, as well as with a sequence number. My students used mainly Revox B77s, and the splicing block was on top of the cover for the heads. So mark your edit point, lift the tape out of the tape path and position it on the block in the right position, then cut with razor blade. Have to admit I haven't seen too many machines like his with an integrated cutter on the head.

[@jaredfoldy2139]

"it was all carefully recorded" *CLUNK* "using a sony pcm 100 recorder." i lost it 😂 informative as always sir!

[@no_wrong_notes]

I love how you don't take yourself too seriously and can laugh at your own mistakes. Keep up the great work Hainbach!

[@blacktapes3475]

I used to record in a Musique Concrete tape based studio in the 90s. Haven't touched tape since, but you inspired me to dust off my reels and listen again. So much character and depth to the sound compared with digital. Now I'm on the slippery slope to spending money on nicer tape machines and more tape! Very inspirational video as always.

[@BrunoWiebelt]

thank you so much for mention me. And I like your creative "music konkret" video ... thank you for all the good smiles on my face

[@Skootavision]

This has just reminded me of the time when I was about 11 - asking my parents for the strongest alcohol they had so I could try and clean the heads on an Akai reel-to-reel. This was long pre KZbin so I did everything wrong (with brandy!) but the Akai still survives to this day by some miracle. Thanks as ever Hainback

[@earthisarealm5393]

Stops the machines!!! Bahaha! That was genius! ❤️

[@dessiplaer]

When used to edit tape oh so long ago, I put my edit tape on a tape dispenser. One that was rather heavy and did not move around much. After marking the tape, I would cut the tape in an edit block, remove the unwanted length of tape, cut off a length of splicing tape holding the loose end with my left hand with the razor blade in my right hand (I am right handed). Then i would stick the end of the splicing tape (the end I just sliced) and attach it to the razor blade diagonally at the corner of the blade. That way, it is easier to control the angle of the splicing tape when applying it to the recording tape (you can hold the splicing tape in place while holding the razor blade).. This was shown to me by the owner of the studio where I was employed. This was back in the day before computer editing. We didn't have anything digital at all. Hope this was helpful.

[@blush_response]

you had me cracking up with the 'stops the machines' samples

[@Hainbach]

Yeah, in panic my accent shines through in a fun way

[@blush_response]

HAINBACH I just love that you resampled it a few times and pitched it

[@AM-ui9mc]

Joey Blush check out the full stop ze machines song on my insta stuck_on_planet_earth

[@equalequalslopezcartoons3702]

The ending is legendary you are truly my favorite KZbinr now.

[@localtechnique]

Loved the jam at the end (and the magnetic rasta thumbnail). I can see how tape would be fun to work with by choice and not out of necessity. Tape loops have always fascinated me but I was never brave enough to try them with cassettes, which was all I had access to. I have a tape deck here that I borrowed a few years ago to digitise my old recordings before the tape disintegrates. I really need to do that some time, but also try using the tape deck for some hiss and saturation.

[@pbartmess]

It looks like you had a lot of fun making this video, especially the musique concrete piece. This was the first thing I watched this morning so I started my day with a smile.

[@Hainbach]

Oh yes, I had a lot of fun! So good to move between analogue and digital editing.

[@captianbubble]

The music concrete section is that nine minutes and 15 seconds if you want to skip to that. Anyway, about that video! Great video! Also, I love the music concrete video part of it! You are funny in your own way! I did something similar with a song that I created, and I used my old Sony Walkman, and I made the clicking of the Sony Walkman as my temple up the little piece. And thank you!

[@droses1600]

Thank you for mentioning me, and I'm glad you found my comments useful and amusing (absolutely true story about the blind guy by the way!). But 4m39s: friction???? No, no, no, friction has nothing to do with it. These machines (esp. the high-end ones like yours) are designed to work effortlessly and flawlessly with spools. Friction is NOT a factor. Trust me, try doing some editing of speech (and music) where you rock the spools back and forth to find the edit point, then mark with your grease pencil. It's a whole lot easier, believe me. Seems like your friend had some 5-inch spools. All you need is two from him. Give it a try at least. Love the musique concrète piece - pure genius!!!

[@Hainbach]

Thank you, that last piece was fun to edit after all the analog cutting. Regarding friction: that is how it was explained to me by the sound engineer whom I got this machine from. I know you can easily switch between Bobby and reel usage on it with a press of a button, but I doubt I will personally ever edit anything that requires the precision to notice it. 🙂

[@droses1600]

@@Hainbach Well maybe that engineer had been sniffing his isopropyl alcohol (or something a bit stronger perhaps - they say that inhaling too much of that metal oxide residue can aaaaffffeecccct youuuuuuuuu....) a bit too often, because in 35 years of working in analogue and digital studios - both radio and music recording - I've NEVER heard that before. (Any other industry pros like to comment on that here?) Sure, a cheap reel-to-reel machine might encounter belt breakage or motor damage if there's a massive amount of pulling back of a reel while it's running - but I doubt it.

[@jonathanclarke2582]

Thank you for listening!! I didn't know they made cassette tape splicers, so thank you for bringing that up. I truly enjoy your videos!

[@model_number_band]

Great video... Your willingness to share your knowledge is in equal measure to your talent. Keep it coming Mr. Hainbach.

[@jonpatchmodular]

STOP SSTOP ZE MASCHINES!! That was such a frantic moment, the damn thing ate like fifty meters of your expensive splicing tape, I have to admit it was really funny

[@BabyDropHead]

You're such a loveable and humble character Stefan, always a pleasure to hear your thoughts and insights. I don't know how big your fan base is here in Australia, but i for one would be happy to welcome you if you ever have the chance.

[@Hainbach]

According to my spies 2.5% of my viewers are Australian and I do sent a bunch of tapes over with every release. So it's not unrealistic and definitely something I want to do!

[@atkmodular904]

Again, Brilliant Stuff as Always Hainbach! These really bring me back to when i was studying Audio Engineering back in the day, I have a lot of the tips you go through here scribbled down on a piece of paper from my lessons, but some of the ones you go through here were new to me too, like degaussing the Mic stand etc. All great tips! These Videos are really giving me the itch to build some simple Tape Looper machines soon! I have a bunch of Tape Heads, Bearings and suitable Motors about, and i think i'd like to build something that looks kinda like the WEM Copycats, only that works as a tape loop Player/recorder. Thanks for the Inspiration!

[@LittleZdy]

Thanks for taking the time to make another great video. Electrical Audio has few great videos about editing tape (master & multitrack). I love the song in the end!

[@n3xt1nl1n3]

this is super helpful. i have been getting in to tape lately and this stuff is saving my life.

[@gorillabraudcast474]

Haha " it stays in there instead of dropping on the floor all the time " it took an old man to show me where the block was on my machine too! I hope there are dumb young men experimenting with old sound gear when when we're old so we can pass our knowledge, experience, and funny stories on and keep the "real life" aspect of music alive

[@konstantine8054]

Hahahahaha! Man, this is your best video so far. I actually laughed so hard with the last section (where the handheld recorder falls) that my colleagues turned around and looked at me.

[@Hainbach]

Thank you my friend!

[@droses1600]

@@Hainbach Agreed - include all the bloopers in every vid. We're not laughing at you, we're laughing WITH you....

[@SoundAuthor]

Eagerly awaiting your "Do's And Don'ts of Buying Sweaters" video 🤗

[@shufflephunk]

VHS splicing could be the next big hit after the cassettes!

[@LaboratoryGrey]

Love the almost-Coldcut-style video jam at the end.

[@Hainbach]

That was a joy to make.

[@OmriCohen-Music]

This was great! I have to be honest, I don't really use tapes, but I still find great inspiration in your videos, and this one was really funny also, so this was a bonus :) Thanks!

[@patricketp8356]

Damn. This musique concrete piece is genius. Please more

[@PhantomLegend]

Here's to learning new old things! Great video.

[@reggiep75]

A set of tapes recording nothing but the sound of switches, buttons and dials click would make a great texture fed thru a valve compressor to level the signal out and then use sidechain compression to make even more loops. I'd consider that a chunk of the original recordings would be digital to lower the noise but once the tapes were made..... GO WILD!!

[@Hainbach]

I got you at least partially: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJaUgY2Bnb94etk

[@dharvell]

I have got to work that "Stops the machines!" clip into one of my songs.

[@raoulvanherpen9620]

Nice and funny! Curious about the next tape splicing video. 👍🏻

[@JohnnyRock]

Thank you for the tape hiss! :)

[@Hainbach]

Its superuseful!

[@HitmanJenkins1]

Nice video once again, very informative stuff! Now I need to see if I can track down a reel to reel machine...

[@droses1600]

There's a recent vid by Techmoan about tips for buying R-to-R machines. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5-9iaCmgtRjjrs Haven't watched it yet myself (it would just make me crave for something I can't afford to buy anymore) so I cannot comment on, condone or disagree with any of his suggestions.

[@waltmodul7948]

Corrections ! No friction on the top of a SPULE ! Because the tape is ca. 7mm wide and the inside of a 1/4 inch Reel is 11mm the tape doesn’t touch the Reel. Even on the bottom.

[@maksymushka]

Great information as per usual! Thank you Hainbach! How in the world do you find the time to upload so much great content?

[@Hainbach]

I divide time between scoring work, playing live and KZbin now. Thanks to my patrons on Patreon is has become a viable extra job. Its not easy though, as a talkie usually takes 2.5 days to finish.

[@maksymushka]

@@HainbachThat's wonderful. I have to say that that's one aspect of Patreon that I've always respected. It actually allows for artists and musicians to get paid, and has become an invaluable platform in recent years. Good for you Hainbach!

[@DaraM73]

We used to China mark our edits throughout the reel, including the type of splice...straight, diagonal, S shape

[@sp3ct3rsd3mos]

nicely done... and thank you.

[@MrSolcys]

Hey Heinbach. Have you ever tried to make the Mobius Strip tape loop?

[@williamthesainsburys8943]

I’ve previosly tried to create those strange loops with VHS tape, I can imagine success would lead to a great effect as you’d have these ambiant loops, but with video. Howevernthe machine sucks up the tape and I never managed to get it working. Still gonna try again some day.

[@Hainbach]

Yeah, you would need some sort of free head VHS player, or open it up and mod it. But it would be immensily interesting indeed!

[@gardosen2889]

VHS loops are possible, but really hard. Have made a few successful ones and will try to make a video on it soon!

[@Joe_VanCleave]

@@gardosen2889 A decade or more ago I made a VHS tape loop player. I disassembled an older VCR and mounted the chassis and circuit boards on a vertical piece of plywood. I defeated the tape loading sensors so the machine would run without the front loading basket installed. I used a plastic reel from a VHS cassette as a counter weight at the bottom of the tape loop, to give it adequate back-tension for proper playback. Because the tuner still functioned, I would record off-the-air clips and play them back as endless loops. My favorite was the announcer on The Price Is Right gameshow saying "Come on Down!" Fun stuff; but I tossed the whole thing a few years ago in a cleaning binge and never had the chance to feature it on KZbin.

[@theclovercross]

you are a treasure! :) thanks for sharing

[@Its_Avalon]

Thanks for the awesome and inspiring content

[@LaghimaMusic]

I feel like every time you say “hey it’s hainbach” the ach keeps getting longer 😂

[@Hainbach]

Maybe I unconsciously try to teach my American audience to not call me Hainback. 😋

[@ron.h264]

​@@Hainbach Or Nickelbach

[@breakalime]

10:16 😂

[@mattplant2572]

I love him x

[@insideTheMirror_]

Hey everyone! While all of you experienced tape lovers are gathered here I wanna ask what I should get to add a bit of warmth in my mixes. Not sure if I am gonna use it on the final mix but surely I wanna use it in my individual sounds to get rid of that cheap sometimes sound of the plugins. Does it have to be something extra expensive? or I can do it with a regular cassette player or is it enough just a tape machine emulation?

[@n3xt1nl1n3]

fantastic video!

[@CaalamusTube]

Nice Thumbnail Hainbach! :P

[@Hainbach]

Honestly, I had fun! It was an organic way to integrate my face into these things, which is supposed to be good for clicks. I avoid that usually, but here it fit.

[@CaalamusTube]

@@Hainbach you have a good sense of humor... very dry :P

[@amuletsmusic]

oh shit got called out directly, better make a cassette tape splicing video...

[@Hainbach]

You better!😋

[@stefan1024]

Everytime you say "Hi, I'm Hainbach" you look like you'd try to hide a laugh :D

[@Hainbach]

Because I am happy to say it! 😀

[@stefan1024]

@@Hainbach Good for you!

[@lemonbirdo1353]

9:42 What's that genre of music called?

[@paulmitchum8658]

I was kidding about degaussing the mic stand. :-) But glass is a good solution, especially when emptying the beer bottles is required.

[@Hainbach]

Doh! I thought it made sense but was wondering about how to. 😄

[@CassiaConvolution]

@@Hainbach Perhaps "gaussing" would be better, so that you can get some nice degradation with each pass of the recorded material.

[@paulmitchum8658]

@@Hainbach Well, I'm very happy about the phrase 'four sentence masterclass,' so it's all OK. :-)

[@Hainbach]

Magnets and tape loop experiments are on my short list 😀

[@MrSchmelzer1]

This is awsome, thank you!

[@karmeluful]

I love tapes both cassette and reel to reel but was thinking of using cheaply bought cd's and dvd's from garage sales and charity shops for looping and 'experimenting' reasons..any suggestions?

[@Hainbach]

Trying out stuff over the holidays, maybe I will come up with something cool and make a video soon!

[@karmeluful]

thanks :D

[@bobjerome5390]

hi i have a EMI BTR 4 that i got hold of that was a slave deck running of cassette pancakes i made changes to it so i could use 1/8 inch tape it is very low on price i have plate to put the pancakes on like you have go to watch the tenson on 1/8 inch tape it's not to be used alot cassette 1/8 is evil at high speed sounds ace big time 7 1/2 or 3 3/4 i have basf spools 8 1/4 spool hard to find

[@hagbardceline331]

you are amazing bro

[@danielaofee6358]

To which side of the magnetic tape should I apply the splicing tape? The shiny side or the dull side?

[@Hainbach]

The dull side. You don't want splicing tape run over your heads.

[@danielaofee6358]

@@Hainbach Thank you. I have 3 reels of tape and they all have the shiny part facing out. I cannot seem to make the recording work. The magic eye on this vintage machine tells me it is picking up signal, but when I play it back, it is still playing the old music in the tape. Any suggestions?

[@Hainbach]

Mmh,, ave you tried the other way? Are you routing the tape correctly? Is it one of those consumer 4 track forward backwards machines?

[@danielaofee6358]

@@Hainbach Yes it is a rewind and forward. It is an old Tape o Matic. It plays just fine so I think the tape is loaded correctly onto the reel. But I have a funny feeling it has something to do with this Side One Side 2 and 4 track confusion. It comes from a reputable seller who has no time to help me at the moment.

[@kiboards1830]

I love how panic = way more german accent haha

[@thecoxberlin]

Hey Hainbach, hier ist Marcus. Ich hab ne kurze Frage. Hab mir nen Poltergeist gekauft. Nun knackt der wenn ich 360 drehen will... schon klar warum , aber kann man da was tricksen? Liebe Grüße, Marcus

[@Hainbach]

Puh, schon so lange her! Frag doch Koma direkt, ich erinnere mich nicht mehr wirklich.

[@wul01]

Rather than use splicing tape, I started using some crafters glue , found it easier than tape and you could barely see the join, this was on cassette tape too.

[@droses1600]

Absolutely not recommended!!! I assume to do this you had to overlap the joints? That will cause an absurd amount of wear on the heads. And if any of that glue gets anywhere it's not supposed to be like the capstan or pinch roller....expensive repairs and servicing up ahead. (Suggest you delete this post by wul01 as I think it's a spoof and intentionally designed to cause damage to other people's expensive equipment.)

[@wul01]

No it's not a spoof there was a slight overlap and no glue deposited.

[@wul01]

+wul01 as for wear surely having the thickness of the splicing tape and a possible overlap makes wear more likely

[@wul01]

+d roses and resent the suggestion it was

[@droses1600]

@@wul01 Tape edits must ALWAYS be perfect butt joints - no overlap and no gap. Anyone worth their salt in the industry will tell you that. Trying to find any alternative to splicing tape is false economy IMHO.

[@scttcmpbll]

TAPE LORD

[@desktorp]

2:48 Made In England (bet you forgot England used to make stuff)

[@jimboblivesforever]

Always wanted to try tape loops with a 4-track cassette machine, but every time I find one that is not prohibitively expensive, it's so far gone that I can't repair it myself. If anyone in Neukölln has one (broken or partly working) and is willing to part with it for very little money, message me, I'll give it a new home :-)

[@InVacuo]

You shouldn't need to degauss the tripod, pretty much all tripods are aluminium or carbon fibre.

[@gorillabraudcast474]

And I really like the beat u put together with the sounds of these amazing machines.. if you're recording devices dont make clicking sounds when u turn it on, then ur using software and are a devil worshipper!!! Haha but seriously

[@ZackWebsite]

what kind of life did Chicken George lead.....

[@droses1600]

Cannot comment on that, but I became good friends with him and we had lot of respect for each other. He had many good people around him. He used to be involved in pirate radio in B'ham before he attended my radio journalism course. I wanted to say "George, if you're reading this..." but of course he can't read it. But maybe someone who knows him will pass on my regards. However, if you know who I am, keep my identity secret and don't make it public please. Indeed, he was a better radio presenter than many of the sighted people I taught - and better than many of the so-called pros I hear on the wireless today will EVER be!!!