1. Find the exact beginning and end of the tape segment you wish to loop and mark the cutoff points with a grease pencil.
2. Cut out the desired segment (see step of above procedure for cutting instructions. In the case of loops, either hard or soft cuts are fine. Again, hard for a sudden attack, soft for a more gradual attack.)
3. Make into a continuous loop (see step 4 of above procedure). Be sure loop has no twists.
4. Splice together (see diagram 4).
   
   Diagram 4, Finshed (spliced) Tape Loop
   
   
5. 5) To play back loop: Run the loop around capstans, through place holders, and in front of tape heads as you would for normal playback operation, but run the remaining tape around the remote capstan. Pull taut-not tight, making sure the tape can move normally (see diagram 5). Press play. Tape loop will play back repetitiously at regular speed until you press stop.
   
   Diagram 5, Tape loop playback operation. Note: A) Most tape loop playback operations will require a console, or horizontal reel to reel machine, see diagram. B) Actaul reels aren't involved in tape loop playback at all.

Cut and Paste Editing

Say you have two takes of a song. One take has an unfixable flaw in the last section of the song. Another take however, had better results over the same section. Isolate the flawed part in the first take, cut it out and replace it with the better part from the other take and splice it on. This type of editing is obviously risky and has potential to cause serious continuity problems. But sometimes it is the only solution. This same type of edit was used famously on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever.’ Other uses for this technique are to edit out overly long portions of a song, mix edits, and even slicing out small pieces of tape to remove stick clicks during a sloppy drum fill!

Other more advanced techniques refined by earlier electronic music

composers made use of such things as simultaneous tape deck playback: music comprised of separate parts played on separate tape decks timed to sync up by carefully measured (by ruler) lengths of leader tape. This type of music, also known as musique concrete, was originated by Pierre Schafer and Pierre Henri. Their piece, ‘Symphonie Pour un Homme Seule,’ is widely regarded as the first musique concrete composition. Other notable pieces done in this method include Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ‘Kontakte’ and ‘Gesang’ or Iannis Xenakis’ ‘Orient/Occident’ or ‘Bohor.’ Mario Davidovsky, Otto Luning and Gyorgy Ligeti have also made significant contributions to this repertoire. This music also utilized backwards tape wherein you cut out a tape segment, flip end over end, and splice in for desired backward envelope. Also artificial tremolo, achieved by cutting many equal-size segments of tape and equal-size segments of leader tape (by the use of a ruler) and splicing them together (see diagram 6).

Diagram 6, Artificial Tremelo. Cut and spliced.

These are very labor intensive and seemingly archaic techniques, but there are a few very good reasons to use them. If you do it a lot, your technique improves and you even discover options unavailable with a computer. In sum: If you’re looking for new ways to be creative in your editing, it pays to have these options at your disposal. There is also the element of control. This kind of editing gives you a kind of ‘no-turning-back’ decision-making power over your recordings. Perhaps most importantly, experimentation with manual tape splicing and editing is enlightening and informs one’s own understanding of how sound engineering has evolved