[sdiy] Tape head collage (pretty much not synth DIY, sorry)

[CCartCat at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/25/04 5:37:55 AM, oakley at techrepairs.freeserve.co.uk 
writes:


> > Also reportedly Laurie Anderson used a violin with a tape head near
> the
> > bridge and a bow strung up with mag tape instead of horsehair.
> 
> There was an article on Laurie Anderson in E&MM in the early 1980s and
> she mentions the use of this. I know I wasn't the only one who then
> tried it out...
> 
> I used a piece of cassette tape stuck to a 12" ruler. The tape head and
> amp came from an old shoe box cassette recorder. I recorded several
> peices of material for the short bit of tape. the most success I had was
> with a 440Hz square wave.
> 
> The results were ... shall we say, of scientific interest only. I stuck
> to building keyboards after that.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Tony Allgood                           www.oakleysound.com
> 
> Oakley Modular Synthesisers      Penrith, Cumbria, England
> 
> 
> 

If I recall correctly from the film I saw 2 decades ago, Laurie Anderson's 
tape bows were loaded with recordings of short pithy phrases like "Hi, how are 
you?".   I don't even recall any randomness/extreme changes in the speed or 
start point of her playback.   Kinda like a loaded deck--her intended phasing, 
tone and emphasis were in her initial reading of the line (very, um, 
performance-like) as recorded and not in her playback.   Tho' could've been a bit of 
both.

Also, if I remember correctly (corrections/amplifications welcomed), the 
phrases were almost violin-like to begin with (think Chuck Berry "saying" thank 
you on guitar--that sort of mimicry reversed).   And LA was milking the 
audiovisual pun.   If so, her tape violin was less of a free-form sound exploration 
device (like the tape head collages) where whatever comes up comes out and more 
of a premeditated performance prop/conceptual gambit.

Fun, in any case . . .

Back to lurking,
Kevin Seward
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