Research into the art of Frippertronics

Frippertronics

Frippertronics (a term coined by poet Joanna Walton, Fripp's lover in the late 1970s) is an analog delay system consisting of two reel-to-reel tape recorders situated side-by-side. The two machines are configured so that the tape travels from the supply reel of the first machine to the take-up reel of the second, thereby allowing sound recorded by the first machine to be played back some time later on the second. The audio of the second machine is routed back to the first, causing the delayed signal to repeat while new audio is mixed in with it. The amount of delay (usually three to five seconds) is controlled by increasing or reducing the distance between the machines.
Fripp used this technique to dynamically create recordings containing layer upon layer of electric guitar sounds in a real time fashion. An added advantage was that, by nature of the technique, the complete performances were recorded in their entirety on the original looped tape.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frippertronics

 

Frippertronics/Soundscaping The process known as Frippertronics originated when Brian Eno demonstrated a tape-loop system (wherein a single reel of tape is actually physically joined together at the ends and then run continuously between the outermost reels of two adjacent decks, the first of which records incoming sound and the second of which plays it back) based around two reel-to-reel Revox decks to Robert Fripp. (According to the liner notes for Fripp's 1994 solo album 1999, a mechanical diagram of this process graces the cover of Brian Eno's Discreet Music.) In a 1979 interview conducted by Ron Gaskin (which is, incidentally, one of the most illuminating and amusing Fripp interviews I've run across, and which is available on the Elephant Talk Web archive), Fripp describes the mechanics as follows:   Read full artical here:

http://www.loopers-delight.com/tools/frippertronics/frippertronics.html