D8 Skills #121 | Making Tape Loop

Today, I learned how tape stores information, how the machines operate, and how to make a drum loop.

Tape stores information by magnetising a thin layer of iron.

I first recorded a four-bar drum loop I'd made onto tape from my laptop, purposely driving the inputs to get some tape distortion. I then found and marked the start and end of the loop with a white pencil. I also marked the top of the tape and in which direction the music goes.

I then cut the beginning and end of the tape, and attached them together to make a loop.

I lastly played the tape loop on the machine using a small mic stand for it to go around, and recorded it into my laptop.

The loop was taken from my project, 'Anthem of Objects':