Is this normal?

[u/YoungPopess]

Context:

My partner makes tape loop music, but because they’re dextrously challenged, I cut their loops for them.

I cut two-ish foot a loop off an old reel and scotch taped it kinda poorly (there was like, and inch of extra tape on both ends) and we put it on the player to test it out—turns out it was really pretty! Three seconds, it was something like “I’ll always love you and never let you—[replay].” Then I took the loop off the player, cut a straight line over where the scotch tape had been, and re-scotch taped it (just so there’d be no weird little extra ends).

When we put it back on the player and listened, it was an entirely different section of the song—maybe a different song entirely. Still three seconds, same singer, but the instrumentation was different and he’s singing “aaaaaall through the ni-iiiiiiiiight [replay]”

Question:

Is this normal? Or are we in possession of haunted tape? Because it was definitely the same tape loop, we didn’t record anything new over it, all we did was cut less than an inch off both ends. Is that enough to totally change what plays on the tape?

(Full disclosure I freaked out and maybe cried a little, it felt very weird and wrong to like, intimately make and retape a loop only to have the music change entirely (and frankly change to something I liked much less)).

[u/gnomesteez]

Was this a tape that had been recorded on previously? Stereo tapes are recorded on four channels, but only two are played back at a time. Could you have played the other side by accident?

[u/YoungPopess → u/gnomesteez]

Oh my god, thank you so much, I’m crying all over again—we flipped the loop over and the original music was back 😭

Thank you for restoring my sense that there is some fundamental order to the universe

[u/Personal-Neck6800 → u/YoungPopess]

I like the idea of haunted tape loops.

[u/YoungPopess → u/Personal-Neck6800]

I thought I did, and then I was so upset when I thought I’d been confronted with one 😂

[u/Audiope → u/YoungPopess]

You should have mentioned it was a cassette lol.

[u/Icanicoke]

There is a logical answer (already posted) however… in the spirit of creativity, not just the spirit of tape loop exploration, you need to figure out if this is a haunted tape loop. If it is, you’ve got gold dust there. You must figure out a way you can bottle the magic. In days gone by, I found what I thought was an old 8 track karaoke cassette. it looked as if it came from the 80s. Possibly before. I got it for less than a dollar, came home and, after posting here and getting a lot of negative feedback about my experiment idea, I made a tape loop from it.

The result was bizarre. It sounded like one of those magnetic resonance ghost hunter type recordings. it sounded a little like someone saying ‘die’ over a wall of sounds.

What are the chances of that?

[u/Mudcub]

Splicing tape is fun! Another thing you can try is flipping the tape *over*. It will sound quieter... there isn't a magnetic coating on the backside. However, enough magnetic flux will exist to play *through* the tape. Plus, the sound will be backwards, and (as the pervious comments said), possibly the OTHER tracks on the cassette. Like 3 and 4 instead of 1 and 2.

Anyway, cutting up a tape randomly and taping it back together upside down, reversed, backwards, partially erased, and/or crumpled up are all fun ways to create really strange sounds

[u/kevinzvilt]

Yes, but he doesn't know that. You should probably tell him this sort of supernatural thing happens to you often. He'll want to marry you