Those tape loops

[Abbott]

I've been hearing a lot about all the beatles recordings where they were doing something to their four tracks which made a single recorded sound repeat itself over and over and over again. How do you do this on a Tascam 414 Portastudio four track?

 

[A Reel Person]

re: the Beatles' tape loops, they were just that,... tape loops.

They were short, spliced segments of tape, of which the beginning and end were taped together, forming a loop. Then, they'd put the tape loops on R/R tape recorders, in play mode, and bring these signals into the mix with a mixer. "Tomorrow Never Knows".

Tape loop is a reel-to-reel concept, and technically, you can't do that on a 414, or any cassette. There are things you can do with samplers and computer software that emulates 'tape loops'.

There's a whole musical genre based on electronically generated loops, but I guess that's another post.