Splicing Tape Loops

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: / hainbach
CHANNEL MEMBERSHIP: / @hainbach
MY MUSIC: hainbach.bandcamp.com
FASHION: teespring.com/de/stores/hainbach
CONNECT: / hainbach
MY SIGNATURE SOFTWARE:
GONG AMP www.audiothing.net/effects/go...
WIRES www.audiothing.net/effects/wi...
MORPHING ROTOR www.audiothing.net/effects/th...
TEST EQUIPMENT LIBRARY www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-...
LOOPER apps.apple.com/us/app/gauss-f...
BUY THE GEAR I USE (EU):
redir.love/thocf/n2lm9oo2ym
BUY THE GEAR I USE (US):
bit.ly/3nsnE9Q
(affiliate links, I get a few % if you buy through them)
IMPORTANT: Check the comments for the advice imparted by the old tape heads if you want to try this yourself.
I have been wanting to create a tape loop collage by hand for a long time. Here is my first effort using the Telefunken M15 tape machine, a pad/drone from the Roland Juno60 and SH02, a Fender Rhodes, a Bechstein M10 piano and a ride cymbal.

[@paulmitchum8658]

Former-engineer-me cringes... Use a splicing block, especially for taping the bits together. Splice to leads so you can spool all tape onto an 'ashtray' rather than letting it run wherever. Never (ever) move the pancake without a reel underneath. But the most important of all... Always remember to degauss the tripod and the mic stand. ;-)

[@Hainbach]

Thank you! I feel like I should make a part 2 after all the feedback I have gotten. And find a splicing block on eBay.

[@Hainbach]

Pinned your post so others who might attempt this will see.

[@ChrisRandallMusic]

@@Hainbach That's what that little white thing on the lower right corner is, I'm 99% positive. That said, for this sort of thing, it's not that big a deal. Watch videos of the Dutch Masters working (there's a couple here on KZbin, and you'll see they just used scissors and scotch tape, and no splicing block at all. For "real" edits, if you're splicing a song or whatever, a much better technique is required, but for this sort of stuff, it's more like "YOLO!" kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4PNfqh4bbaempo

[@Byneq]

Dude you have one perfectly good splicing block on the very top of your magnetophon... and you don't even realize that :)

[@panicBoydotcom]

A good splicing block with have a perfect channel where the tape seems to "snap" in nice and straight, and the taped splice will be perfectly aligned. There should also be a thin diagonal channel for a razor. There's not much use for them these days, but I still love tape.

[@DarkSideofSynth]

Next time you get mad at your DAW, folks... watch and re-watch this ;)

[@cassl7001]

I feel so lucky. The worst thing it can do is crash

[@Vishnu-xn4vx]

11:06 First time i see Hainbach expressing real human emotions Amazing video as always

[@MikeKraze]

I love how calm he remained, I learned a valuable lesson here. Great video indeed.

[@c31979839]

My heart started racing when I saw that happened. I almost yelled at KZbin "noooo! Turn it off, turn it off!"

[@cnwb]

AARGHH STOP STOP STOP THE MACHINES! - Someone needs to sample this.

[@maxiblasius272]

so cute

[@AM-ui9mc]

cnwb sampled and composed as a full length track on my insta: stuck_on_planet_earth

[@paulbremer3692]

"Stops the machines" Should be a merch T-shirt for sure :D Great Video.

[@bazedjunkiii_tv]

agreed

[@ciarfah]

Hainbach's shocked face STOP ZE MACHINES!

[@anniesthesia]

Thank you for not editing out the goofs. It’s hard to learn without mistakes and seeing someone else make them helps others avoid.

[@Hainbach]

Yeah, I have learned so much by stumbling through things. If I can help others through failing, it's a double win.

[@bazedjunkiii_tv]

STAHP ZE MASCHINES!

[@geofflowther2458]

14:00 - "Honour thy error as a hidden intention" (Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt - Oblique Strategies)

[@insomnike]

Your pleasant surprise when you find out the cymbal is backwards is great. Thank you for sharing this without over-editing - so much more authentic

[@Hainbach]

Thank you! It was a curious balance. I tried to keep it in the spirit of how it was created, without being boring. I cut about 25min of spooling back and forth, picking up dropped pieces of tape, searching for my demagnetizer, answering the door etc. Good to hear that the spirit of let's just do this is kept alive.

[@middknight5202]

I felt the same! Was a great and real moment!

[@sampleexamplemusic]

14:10 that sincere laugh made me so happy and started my day on the right foot :)

[@mikastapes]

"Let's do the right thing and play it back at half speed!" :D Priceless Could be written on a t-shirt. I know it's three years later now but I still must try this 🤩

[@TheJovenja]

another inspiring video. Most of us would have gone mad when the machine pulled in the tape. But the serenity with which you react is also reflected in your music. thanks for the creative impulses

[@pbartmess]

My heart leapt to my throat as I watched you scramble to turn off the machine. I'm glad it didn't do any real damage. The music is sweet as usual. The backwards cymbal is thrilling.

[@northerncatto]

The merch plug, the technical problems, the end result, what a ride that was, lol

[@bobbychaos]

I'm sorry to say, but the more you struggled, the more I enjoyed the video :) It hit close to home, and made me feel better about the growing pains of creating something. Can't wait for the next one!

[@gorillabraudcast474]

As far as advice for you, try recording at double speed then when you play it back at normal speed you will hear the difference. I think it gives it a little bit more character. Plus u save tape

[@waltersmetak]

My god! This is absolutely insane & incredibly difficult! Watching this, I was reminded of Perrey and Kingsley (among others with infinite patience and diligence from the period) and how they created practically all their music in the 60s and 70s this way - the only form of sampling. Amazing to watch this and think about how "electronic" musicians struggled before the advent of the digital age.

[@Hainbach]

Oh yes! It was a very deliberate and painstaking process. Funny, right after uploading this I made a rather video/sound rhythmic piece that would have taken months back in the days. And it was three hours now.

[@wendelynmusic]

Wow I haven't done that since college back in the early 80s. One of my first loop pieces was made from a recording of me playing my flute in a stairwell. It took me about a month to create. I still love the piece. You can get a splicing block for taping the pieces together. It makes it a lot easier

[@secto97]

That reversed cymbal at half speed sounds incredible

[@jeremybarnes7873]

Nice, Mr. H. Like you, I have some high-end tape machines and limited experience getting deep with them, like this. Best experiment was probably getting an old Telefunken answering machine loop to convert into a useful tape-echo reel without much mess (it was short). I have so much respect for the masters of this craft, Delia and all those who never received the recognition they deserved. Perhaps we can try to use one channel with a pulse recorded simultaneously (listening to it also in headphones), to sync a modular to the tape loop and hopefully make finding exact cut points easier. In a way, what they did back then with measuring tape and multiple pieces of the same note is easier...but there's nothing particularly easy about any of it. A real nail biter of an episode. Excellent work, and brave of you to share the journey with all of us.

[@ruisless795]

Terry Riley had his loops go out of the window in his yard spinning around bottles. The amount of patience a person has to have to create an album this way is dedication! Love to see you enjoyed this experiment very much. Tape splicers make it a tad easier, but yes mistakes will happen: )

An analog man in a digital world and it's amazing! Nice video, keep it like this.

[@BoltvanderHuge100]

really funny in a subtle way. a fascinating machine from the past. the sounds finally cuddling the soul as always. thank you hainbach !!!

[@AaronHuslage]

Reminds me of my youth. You can also have it pull from the center of the spool if you want. So fun

[@amuletsmusic]

"doing stuff like this on cassette, making your own loops pffff, I find that to be rather difficult..." YUP! haha, but might have to do a video like this using cassettes...

[@Hainbach]

Oh yes, please do!

[@HitmanJenkins1]

A video on splicing cassettes would be amazing, I don't even know where to start with something so fiddly.

[@amuletsmusic]

@@HitmanJenkins1 you can start with this video - kzbin.info/www/bejne/nna1ZKZng7Wllbc

[@stuartchapman5171]

I have made a couple of cassette loops, damn they're so fiddly. I find it impossible to do anything exactly. I have a couple of the common length easier ones and put industrial sounds on. The "bump" is clearly audible but goes well with the source material and gives e xtra texture. I embrace the random results and exploit them. Not everybodys cup of tea though. Kee up the good work Hainbach.

[@insideTheMirror_]

So cool vid. I love that you chose to leave your mistake in the video.

[@taiteo558]

The physical aspect of tape- you running it around your door handle, draping it over the mic stand- is what makes it seem magic to me. It's something real, and can be manipulated in physical ways, interact with the world. You don't get much of that in a DAW, and it feels inspiring, somehow, to be reminded that music is still more than data

[@miiimuu622]

"I hadn't intended that, but it's lovely". I love how the backwards cymbal draws you in and very suddenly releases you.

[@biggsbiggs]

This has been amazing and takes care of some G.A.S. that I had 15 minutes ago. Now I am going to hug my Morphagene, my Phonogene, and my El Capistan, and my Volante.

[@ComparativeIrrelevance]

Lovely sounds, and the smoothest merch plug I've ever seen! :-P

[@kevinpreid]

I love the sounds made by the play head being in operation while you're pulling the tape around.

[@Hainbach]

Working on a sample pack of tape sounds!

[@deejaydubla]

And just like that, Hainbach gets fired on his very first day at the Radiophonic Workshop.

[@dharvell]

The reversed cymbal is a happy accident. Love it.

[@yankeewithnobrim4937]

The way how your reel to reel fast forwards sounds oddly futuristic. Almost like star trek. Great videos dude and keep on the tape recording

[@AndrewHeathArts]

Wonderful! Fascinating, informative and (very) entertaining at the same time. The result? Pure magic! Thank you.

[@chrisbliss7130]

„oh, merch!“😆 nice advertising technique!

[@ChickyNYC]

Great work. I spent years editing 2” tape for clients and don’t miss it. Editing 1/4” tape for myself, however, is a lot of fun

[@BabyDropHead]

videos such as these reinforce what makes you a pleasure to watch! you are quite willing to show your mistakes and still make some beautiful textures in doing so

[@Hainbach]

Thank you! This video showed me that I don't have to make a perfect presentation, but that documenting the process of discovery is interesting, too.

[@modularmountain3910]

Hainbach is the master of ambient drones. This is really cool, but I fear if I bring home a giant tape machine home my girlfriend will kill me. Thank you for showing your mistakes and the process that you went through. Nobody is perfect and especially not these trolls in the comment section.

[@Hainbach]

I want you to stay alive, so better get an UHER 😋. Comments are super today, already working on part 2 where I will combine what learned

[@modularmountain3910]

@@Hainbach SUPER EXCITED FOR pt 2. Thank you for doing this. Im over here in California still trying to perfect my cassette loop skills. LOL. Just checked out the UHER and I think I found my next purchase. Perfect recommendation, thanks. Now instead of killing me, she's going to think I secretly joined the FBI and am wire tapping the neighbors apartment. Haha.

[@stuartchapman5171]

I couldn't justify the price or footprint of a reel to reel to my partener. I do collect lots of weird and wonderfull library and spoken word vinyl, though, which is great to manipulate by hand through pedal chains

[@blush_response]

i think you blew my mind with this. i previously thought tape was a waste of time but damn. the reversed cymbal is a thing of beauty, especially at half speed

[@ocean457]

KZbin is such a beautiful thing.

[@mattshepherd4861]

"Now let's do the right thing and play it back at half speed" love it!

[@deastman2]

I haven't edited tape since I was in college in the 1980's, but I think you could be making it harder than it has to be. Normally, you would rock the reels back and forth manually as you dialed in an edit point. then you would mark it with a grease pencil so you know where you're going to make a cut. You would do that for both the beginning and ending of your edit segment before making any actual cuts. As others have mentioned, you would also want to lay the pieces of tape together in a splicing block while you tape them together. You could do your cutting there as well with a razor blade, although your built in cutting mechanism might be better.

[@Hainbach]

Thanks for the tip! I did the manual rocking back and forth, but I neglected the marking. It's much easier that way, I agree. And I do absolutely need a splicing block. The tape fell down so often it was not funny anymore.

[@antigen4]

a bit of advice for the initiated - store your loops tails out on small 5cm bobbins (small reels) for posterity and LABEL them with the date - you will be GLAD you did !!! i have several hundred of these from the 1980s

[@AugustorLazzers]

Great video! So unique, I love the warmth it has. Now I want to try splicing!

[@Jackson-df3rv]

Great video, I'm glad that the loop turned out so well.

[@churchofaggressiveaudio6498]

Such patience you have.

[@Hainbach]

Ha, not by nature! I trained myself hard to have patience by building model airplanes as a kid. There I learned that patience is rewarded, impatience leads to failure. Still, it's like my impatience is caged in a zoo.

[@arbitrarychemistry]

That was so awesome! Great sound and experimentation.

[@tonyisyourpal]

Am I the only person who would happily buy a Hainbach “stop stop stop the machines !!!” t-shirt ?

[@AM-ui9mc]

tonyisyourpal should say ”STAHP ZE MACHINES!”

[@horatiotimewaster5755]

Very cool...such fun! Makes me want to edit some tape. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@skinny900n]

I shot a documentary recently at the rest of WDR STudio für elektronische Musik, with Volker Müller the sound engeneer, that worked there since 1972. And he used the old 50s/60s setup with three M15s for this. Pretty impressing, I got to jam on them during the breaks. He showed some pretty nice techniques. Can let you know when its finished!

[@Hainbach]

Oh wow! I really need to see that!

[@thebmxband1t]

I used to love my Revox B77 with optical sensor. When locating edit points i could manually shuttle the reels back and forth with my hands a bit like a dj with a record, making sure i kept tension between both reels. Im not sure you can do that for yours because these reel to reel decks often employ quite strong clutches or brakes. Love this though and very entertaining ‘STOP THE MACHINES!!’ 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Hainbach]

Shuttling is possible, it's very fluent in that regard. Only gotten better at using that feature recently. 😊

[@maksymushka]

Incredible as always. Looking forward to more in the future!

[@joshuacarro]

i just love this guy, he inspires my videos for sure. can't wait to see more HAINBACH!

[@sashaguryevmusic]

the cutting block on the bottom right of the machine has a channel in it for splicing the tape together

[@jmalmsten]

Rewatching some old videos. And now I get an urge to cut up a recording into tiny spaghetti. Scramble it around and blindly splice the random pieces together. Probably do it into two separate loops so I mix them together on a third final stereo track and hard pan them to get the full width. Having one loop slightly shorter to have things go in and out of phase. Though, I have no tape gear ready... I guess something similar can be achieved in digital if I follow the same methods andturn off waveforms to keep the workflow blind. Hmmm. Darn it. Now I've gone and bevome inspired. Darn ye to heck.

[@mrparapluie12]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful technique 🙂 Dont have that fancy gear but gonna try it with a regular tape cassette and see how it will sound 💁‍♂️

[@raoulvanherpen9620]

So cool to try the old way! Wish I can do that ones, but man, what a work!

[@willdeath5062]

Ha! That merch plug was great. Simple and to the point.

[@joegigs4999]

This was incredibly inspiring, great work!

[@dillipphunbar7924]

Well done Hainbach..very mellow loop. The reverse cymbal was a happy accident.

[@donkeyfacekilla1]

Great video and great resultant tape loop!

[@leethium6982]

your videos always have a relaxing aura I think! I would love to have so much analog equipment, it sounds so fun. vst will never do that (luckily?)

[@dkambury]

Awesome video! I don’t know if this was mentioned elsewhere, but when I was doing theatre sound with tape machines back in the 80s, I’d use a white grease pencil to mark edit points so I wouldn’t have to guess. Love your vids!

[@wiggisization]

Just happened to pick up an old tape machine yesterday, then I come here to find this. Serendipity!

[@stupid4President]

This is my expensive splicing tape. I now going to place it next to the rolling capstan. Let's see what happens 😂 I have experienced that the capstan can grab my fingers during cleaning; now I only work on the tape recorder when it is off!

[@Hainbach]

So we all make our delightful discoveries. 😂 But I should probably ponytail up when working on the machine.

[@mr.brosio7915]

Sounds really nice!!

[@imamonster23]

that pure joy at 14:11, I felt that :)

[@NowyouknowMusic]

Bro, you made me lmfao! I just got a tape machine and this is going to be me soon. 😂

[@jonridley]

that was great Hainbach, a lot of work but a great result, something tells me this took quite a while :-)

[@CuriousDroid]

Watching this makes me think my Octotrack purchase a while back was a wise one

[@TheSilentCartgraph3r]

Do you do 5u Modular Paul?

[@mtate]

Fantastic. Sounded very Ambient 1 which is no bad thing!

[@Hainbach]

I love Eno.

[@chatolars]

That was fantastic to watch

[@susanneratzer2281]

So I look and learn what I can do with my old taperecorders, tapemachines and the tapeecho.

[@jonathanclarke2582]

Not sure if this is noted, and it's really not a big deal: when you're cleaning tape heads/mechanics with IPA, clean in a wiping in one direction fashion (left to right). You will risk scratching, and deforming your heads if you rub on your heads with a dirty/fluxy q-tip. It's not a big deal, but if you're using tape machines almost DAILY, you're going to wear those heads eventually.

[@Hainbach]

Another great tip, thank you!

[@FerneyManrique]

Man you are superb!... though... 11:58 LOL. Great stuff...

[@thehowlingterror]

Results were good.

[@BrunoWiebelt]

Thank you immense interesting! I like the meta soundtrack with all the machine sound .... tape between fingers and so on

[@Hainbach]

Yeah! Feel like I should make a sample pack just of machine sounds.

[@AgustinDavidF]

very funny in some moments (for me, I don't think it was for you). Good sense of humor, man!

[@gooneybird808]

So so so dope!

[@arturomariscaltroncoso8012]

And this is a perfect example why digital was invented.

[@Dadaistics]

Really good!

[@FlesYm80]

Amazing!😍😍😍

[@montigol]

This is an excellent video

[@juliusschlotthauer1159]

Immer wieder eine Freude :D

[@SupraTompan]

Aahaha, 11:05 "Staph ze maschines" had me laughing 😂👍 Great and enjoyable video.

[@niklasvfx]

Sehr Nice! Mach weiter so!

[@Poppaneedsanap]

you should record and chop up the sound of that deck in rewind. Killer video here, as always

[@thankyoumisterspell]

Morphagene IRL! Love this video, fascinating stuff as always

[@graphene1487]

rarely do i hear the term "apothecary." super cool!

[@user-xv8yg1li2t]

Невероятно, вы удивляете каждый раз. Браво!

[@Hainbach]

I can only read the last word, it's been too many years since I had russian. So, going only on the last word here, thank you!

[@yastudia]

@@Hainbach It's unbelivable, you amazing me every time. Bravo!

[@Hainbach]

Thank you, very kind to translate.

[@wul01]

Great video as always, Eno will be in touch, I'm sure.

[@LucianoBSQ]

6:33 = Best rewind sound ever

[@raavenstark5905]

"My expensive tape.." 2 seconds after.. woups

[@mcchickenmcdicken]

i love this. are cassettes the correct gateway drug into tape loops?

[@Hainbach]

Absolutely! Cheap and cheerful. Many videos on that topic on my channel.

[@RaketenKuhGewehr]

Stop! Stop! Stop the machines! Ah yes, the beauty of tape machines.

[@jamesflowers874]

Can you please do a video on doing backwards effects on a reel? THanks

[@gorillabraudcast474]

Dude I used to spend weeks doing this making rap beats. It would piss me off when nobody gave 2 shits about the difference of sound or the time it took everyone would just say " I think your mpc is messed up" !!! Haha regardless its awesome that you are messing around with tape it really does sound better than just using samplers to loop or even worse my ultimate hatred, fruity loops!!

[@andresgrumann4079]

How long have you been doing this video? For fun, not for an entire life, nice Hainbach, wie immer!

[@OmBotCult]

really cool!

[@cokewisdom]

wonderful.