Feb 2022 chaos random noisy tapeloop zecooploops 4-track cassette
I decided to have a go at cassette tape loops a month or so before FAWM, so I built a bunch. These are short infinite loops of lofi cassette tape in a cassette housing that has been modified. I made several different paths and lengths and tested them out to make sure they ran.
Well, they are very temperamental and I have had a hard time getting them to run in my 4-track player. I did manage to get one running, but I will be the first to admit I have no idea what I am doing. I recorded a couple tracks of my VolcaBeats with a simple drum beat. Then I recorded two tracks of synth parts using a Casio CT-360.
The tape loop is only about 10 seconds long, but the tape often stops, starts, speeds up and slows down, which is part of the fun. I tried to mix something from the four tracks, along with an analog delay in one effects send and a reverb in the second.
It's chaotic... at best, haha. FAWMing at its very essence, haha
.
Please download this and see what you can do with it. Add it to a song, or chop it up and make something new.
Tag it with #zecooploops
Here is a version with all the individual dry tracks. The first two were essentially the same drum beat, just offset a little and the next two were different patches from my Casio CT-360. You can download this to use individual parts. Tag with #zecooploops - thanks!
https://files.fawmers.org/FAWM_2022/zecoop/ZeCoopLoop1_Tracks.mp3
@mosley Feb 2022
Abstract art-wave in my favorite kind of way, I totally love the experimental vibe of this piece!
@nahlej381 Feb 2022
I need to do the 4 track challenge sometime I love my lil tascam tape boy this is wild sounding I love it
@danvaillancourt Feb 2022
Wow! This awesome. I love the randomness and choppy stutters. Cool synth parts and delay feedback.
@mandolinda Feb 2022
Very interesting process, but I think I will leave it for the big boys and girls.
@petemurphy Feb 2022
Holy tape spool! This is bloody blinkin' marvelous, John!
Really enjoyed it.
@ampersandman Feb 2022
How very creative and inspirational. Beautiful weird noise.
@slawbleu Feb 2022
Oh wow....this is great! Are those oscillations that pop up here and there from the analog delay? I love these kinds of pieces...they just sound like raw inspiration! Nice work!
@judypie Feb 2022
Ok love that picture! I don’t fully understand how you did this but it makes for a wickedly wonderful soundscape! Total terror, yup!
@jorh Feb 2022
Each sound is so impactful - it does a fine job of creating this claustrophobic atmosphere that builds and builds. If this was in a film I'd definitely be watching through my fingers waiting for something terrible to happen ha! Very much enjoyed the ending we're everything else was stripped back and it became like a thudding as someone walked closer.
@dreamscuba Feb 2022
This is very cool and definitely in the art category of music. Nice one. I like how it builds up into a kind of chaotic crescendo and then descends...
@adforperu Feb 2022
Well thank god I chose to listen in daytime. Fascinated with how you put this together, and great to hear you experiment in such a way. Reminds me of the soundtrack to the first Silent Hill game.
@vomvorton Feb 2022
Genuinely unsettling! Definitely sounds like the part of a horror film soundtrack where things are going badly off the rails. The drums are so boomy and cool and those casio loops are like a swarm of alien wasps preparing to attack.
@dzdandcunfsd Feb 2022
Very cool! This is a great. All aboard the zecooploops train! All the fun of making something with the end product with none of the work! Who can resist LOL. I will for sure do something with this.
@tangle Feb 2022
There's a whole universe in here. Awesome!!
@pfoo Feb 2022
Wow, that sounds like a crazy fireworks display and weird marching band parade. The soundtrack to a creepy revolution where the machines finally take over.
@fuzzy Feb 2022
I love those pictures.
This is slightly ominous, like being chased through an abandoned space station by an angry robot.
Excellent headphone track here.
Nice.
@aeye Feb 2022
Oh man. There are so many possibilities here. But this is super cool. must....resist.....downloading.....and focus on remaining songs.....
@gilhari Feb 2022
Very cool! The maker aspect is awesome by itself, but there’s some solidly interesting noise going on here…
@sph Feb 2022
Big fun! The photos alone are already all kinds of awesome but these sounds are so cool. Unpredictability is an exciting ingredient.
@halfwayhome Feb 2022
I was hoping to sooth my ears after spending a bit TOO long on my last track - oh well! But I do love what a bit magnetic tape can produce. This is 'eventful'. I'd like to see a high budget video produced to accompany this :)
@mikeb Feb 2022
That's some crazy tape looping!
@emkaydeebee Feb 2022
Wow, this is different! True fawming as you say! I love when the ‘melody’ comes in, and you can really hear the way that loop pulls itself about, which really helps you to see it in your minds eye as well as hear it.
@majordanby Feb 2022
This is mental. There is a great creepiness to the start and then gets like a Clint Mansell soundtrack later on. Edgy and cool.
@santadharma Feb 2022
Oh what a fun project. We keep wanting to play around more with tape loops. Sounds quite trippy like it could be a soundtrack to an experimental film.
@sapient Feb 2022
Blimey. This takes me back... I got an album in the very early 90s called Syrophenikan by a Canadian ambient / scary electronica band called Delerium.
This is the closest thing I've ever heard to that album. It's gorgeously creepy, ain't it? :D
Count me in as an immediate fan of zecooploops!
@the3queens Feb 2022
Like @nadine I don't know anything about how this is done. It's very interesting.
@nadine Feb 2022
I have absolutely no idea how you created these sounds. Are you turning knows during recording? This is intriguing...
@karlsburg25 Feb 2022
Wow dude!! was not expecting anything like this from yourself. I bet you had hours of fun making this . Chaotic it may be but the sounds especially some of that reverb type backing when its highlighted around 3 mins is a totally new sound to my ear. Well this would be a challange but who knows. Woohoo
@w1n Feb 2022
Cool soundscapes, will definitely sample some of the juicy parts and use them in a song
@heuristicsinc Feb 2022
Wild. The unpredictability is the greatest asset.
@majordanby Feb 2022
Very interesting and strangely enjoyable. Reminded me of Pink Floyd, Darkside of the Moon initially. You can imagine a melody creeping out from underneath this soundscape and just erupting.
@b3nut Feb 2022
Hell that's different! Like a sonic rollercoaster especially listening with cans! Cool!
@eargoggle Feb 2022
I love it, just like this it's so cool, I like the randomness of it, you think you know what's coming and then, nope...! That drum pattern in particular just sounds brutal in the best way.
@guatecoop Feb 2022
Holy smokes this sounds like catharsis….and super fun! I expect a lesson on how to do things like this, since I have looper tapes too!! I love how this is so out there and compelling—I kept waiting for the next part. So cool!
@bachelorb Feb 2022
I have been waiting for this ever since your FB post....... Definately chaotic..... so..... the lazy man question is..... are they worth making? Did they do what you wanted them to do???