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While this loop is being played back, the audio signals for the A and B side are sent to a "slave" recorder or an audio bus that contains multiple "slaves". The "slave" records the A and B side to a reel of raw 1/8" audio tape wound on a "pancake" reel (similar to [[film|motion picture film]] wound on a plastic core) at the same high speed. After it is recorded, this pancake of tape is then loaded onto special machines called loaders. The loader has cassette shells containing only a leader called C-0 cassettes that are loaded one at a time or into a hopper where the C-0s are fed automatically depending on the type of loader. The tape from the pancake is then spliced onto the C-0 cassette's leader and then wound into the cassette by the loader.
The 1/2" loop of tape in the duplicator usually will have a segment of clear leader spliced in between the beginning and end of the program (with some duplicators using a metal foil splice instead). This clear leader splice is read by an optical sensor (or in the case of a foil splice, coming in contact with electrical contacts in the tape path) in the loop bin duplicator, which triggers a cue tone that is recorded to the reel of 1/8" pancake tape. This cue tone tells the loader to stop and cut the tape from the pancake and splice it to the other length of leader in the cassette shell (a process called "de-spooling"). In fact, part of this de-spooling tone can be heard at the leader splice of some pre-recorded audio cassettes, as a very low-frequency [[arpeggio|arpeggiated]] rumbling, but as an actual tone when played back at a higher speed.
In the [[XDR (audio)|XDR]] duplication process, the loop bin duplicators use 1"-wide loop tape instead, yielding in a better quality duplication.
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