Re: MIDI Loops & powerbooks

[James Coker <jcoker@interaccess.com>]

> Then Jim contributed:
> >I've achieved midi looping two ways. One was to trick
> >MOTU Performer into looping and doing additive recording
> >on the same track at the same time, the primary problem
> >was chasing note releases on playback.
> 
> What is this problem? Do all sequencers have it?

It's not the sort of thing the designers intended, so each sequencer
will act differently.  The looping features in MOTU are best suited
for drum or pattern programming.  What I wanted was multiple loops
with different lengths, and I'm not sure where it was happening, but
I kept loosing notes here and there.  Since then I've gotten an 
Echoplex, and I generally use that w/ a guitar for looping.

> 
> >The other way is to
> >use Opcode MAX, with which you can do just about anything
> >you could want (with midi), provided you have the time
> >to build and debug it.  It is very easy w/ Max to do
> >midi delay lines w/ feedback.
> 
> So there is a way to imitate the FeedBack of a delay on Max? Each
> repetition gets softer? I will have to study Max more.
> But in a sequencer it is not possible, is it?
> 

One can do feedback using Max, but the "code" to do that
has to manually remove notes when their volume (midi velocity) reaches
zero, otherwise the delay line can end up with a large number of 
notes that are not played, ultimately slowing down the system. I did a
good bit of Max programming last winter and found that the flexibility 
is remarkable, but more advanced patches can be time consuming to 
build. On the other hand, it is relatively easy to set up muliple 
lines (w/ feedback) and have envelope generators control their levels
independently, transpose them on the fly, etc.  


> Well, for my music, I am not interested in using MIDI. It reduces
> expression too much for my taste. Probably even ZIPI would have been 
>little
> intuitive.

Doing midi-based looping is very different than audio looping, midi is
not as expressive as having a real instrument to play, but is very 
flexible and interesting in other ways. Max comes with a couple of 
large patches that are interactive composition engines.

BTW:  I have a powerbook 5300, and generally have found it to be only
as fast as the 60 Mhz 601 desktop Macs, as there's no L2 cache and I 
think the system bus is slower.  I have Max 3.0, and I'm pretty sure
it's not native.

jim