Ableton Live: Drone tutorial - Using Delay loops to emulate tape. FREE DRONE DOWNLOAD!

Recently I have been inspired by demos of the Soma Cosmos and was interested in the use of 'Frippertronics' - a loop based delay pioneered by Robert Fripp. After watching a nice video by Heinbach exploring the same technique with a pair of reel-to-reel tape machines I created a version using some Ableton stock FX which works well.

I have stacked x2 delays which emulate a pair of tape machines and enable longer loops to be used but also weirder rhythms. Although I am running the delays on 100% wet you could adjust this to emulate listening to multiple heads at once...
The delays are followed by a saturator, a compressor and an EQ to emulate the character of tape and help the sound degrade as it loops. A LFO has been added to gently modulate the delay time which creates a slight pitch modulation similar to WOW and flutter. The output of this channel is then fed back to itself creating a loop.

I found this to be a simple but rewarding way to play with sound and create drones. Running additional parallel FX would be useful for manipulating the spectral content further and a MIDI controller would make it more 'jam-able'

It is a simple FX chain to make but if anyone wants some drones to play with you can download the full recordings from GDRIVE.

Clicks and Flutes https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NNMF...

Cheers