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Looper's Delight
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altruist@earthlink.net writes: >One big problem with "popularizing" looping is that there really needs >to be a visual and/or sonic representation of the process itself, in >order for the real-time aspect to be fully understood. in part, this explains my (long-spoken) desire for some kinda controller that is more visceral than a ft-pedal/midi-ctrlr, both from the performer's and the audience's perpective..... >Torn playing on >a Bowie or Tori album is great, but if people are just listening to the >end result, are they going to appreciate that the sounds they're hearing >were done (at least in part) in real time? (99.99% realtime) quick answer: no. >And if they do, will it make >them want to buy a $600 hardware box with a fundamental learning curve, >rather than a $200 copy of Ableton Live or ACID? well..... if the reality of the process is *known*, they'd then likely be aware that said process ---at the moment --- precludes a pure-software solution, eh? >In other words, is there anything about the actual sonic result that >will offer something that can be substantially distinct from what can be >done in a standard step-time studio assembly manner? personally: i cannot recreate this (chimerical/mercurial/evolutionary) process in sw, thus far, so..... >This to me is one of the fundamental challenges - not just in a >promotion/advertising sense, but in a purely creative and aesthetic one. > Can you actually accomplish a MUSICAL or PERFORMATIVE result with these >tools that WOULDN'T be possible by just playing a pre-recorded backing >track or spending a few days splicing and dicing on a computer? just to muddle thisall a bit further: 'a few days splicing and dicing'..... what we can do in (almost) real-time can take hours/days/weeks/etc to recreate in a sw-solution..... add'ly, there's the very key factor of the musicality and manipulation of the input-instruments..... >Just >because you CAN do this stuff in real time, is there any intrinsic >musical result that truly TAKES ADVANTAGE of the real-time angle? i think that there is no intrinsic musical result, but for the performer's ability to interact w/the instrument..... >Can >you inspire people to WANT to take the time to learn the physical and >mental technique of using a real-time looper, when they could just >endlessly manipulate pre-packaged drum loops in a software sequencer >instead? ..... and up pops the specter of player-dom: what is the depth of interactivity 'tween player/input instrument(s)/looping instrument? >Influence/popularity/etc... I understand where everyone's coming from, >and I think everybody's right in a way. There's no age limit in terms >of when any person can start or stop being influenced by another artist, oh, good! 'cause i'm ageing faster and faster, these days..... >but that isn't really what Kim's talking about. What he's describing is >a certain social/cultural/commercial critical mass that occurs when a >particular idea is delivered in a sufficiently appealing way to make a >large number of people want to emulate that idea. right. >So you have Jimi Hendrix playing the Stratocaster, which prior to his >break was a pretty unpopular guitar on the verge of being discontinued. untrue! >Then Jimi comes along and it becomes what is probably the most popular >electric guitar of all time. true! >Or you have the Beatles come along, and >suddenly everybody who was at a certain age in 1964 wants to start a >band. Or Van Halen gets big, and then you've got ten years of >pointy-shaped guitars with flashy graphics, ten humbuckers, and Floyd >Rose Whammy bars. eek. >Then Nirvana is huge, and instrument makers start going for neo-retro >kitsh designs to reel in kids who are embarassed by the pointy shred >machines and want to play pawnshop Jaguars instead. And then nu-metal >bands start playing seven string Ibanez guitars which had been passe' >just a few years ago (much as Kurt Cobain's Fenders were considered >hopelessly unhip during the years when the Ibanez 7-strings were first >shipping), and now lots of kids are buying 7-strings so they can play >nu-metal tunes in their bedroom. oh. >But here again, in each case there's both a musical and a visual >signifier to each of these movements that people can latch onto. The >pawn-shop Jaguar is an apt metaphor for where a lot of the grunge guys >were coming from musically, just like the pointy Jackson guitar with the >graphic of the chick in the bikini on the front made sense being played >by a hair-metal band singing songs about the virtues of 17-year-old >girls. wow. >I'm already boring myself, so I'll continue this in another post.... please do! 'i'm upstairs, listenin' to my will smith'..... best, dt / s-c