Re: Drumming with loops -- some methods (longish)

[matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias Grob)]

Matthias Grob wrote:
>> Do you allways
>> easily hear acurately enough to follow? I understood from the other 
>posts
>> that this was a problem?

Eric answered:
>Practically, yes, this can definitely be a problem.  Esp. in live
>situations, where the monitoring situation can range from flakey to worse.
>I use a small guitar amp, pointed right at me, slaved off the guitarist's
>main amp, as a monitor, and this seems to help, both for hearing the
>looping and non-looping material.  Plus I can control the volume of what's
>blasting at my head, which I also like.

Thats a good way.
I remembered another one, for the Plex: *BeatSync can be input or output*.
If you select SYNC = OUT, you get a pulse that is an audible click. So you
can draw a line directly from BeatSync to the monitor and turn it up in
case of doubt, or so.


>(re: post on Hint page)
>Yeah, the whole thing should be proof-read and polished up a bit before
>before anything.  I'm sure my tenses are flying back and forth all over
>the place as well.  :)

Our friends were very quick. I hope you agree with the published version?


>> Someone said that in Reggae and other music, the bass is reference and 
>not
>> the drums.
>
>That's true -- would there be anything to add to these tips to generalize
>them more, so that they are more appropriate for a variety of genres?

Thats what I was looking for. There is input from other experienced people.

>> So simple way is to have the bassplayer start his loop first, defining 
>the
>> time. He may record just a few "corner" notes, giving a base for every 
>one,
>> but also leaving space to "curve" around.
>
>"curve" and "corner" -- that's a nice way to put it.

It just happened while writing. I liked it, too.


>> Did you never feel like having your own drum loop going, as a base and 
>sync
>> reference for the others?
>
>Yeah, I do have pedal envy sometimes. :)
>Seriously, I have been trying to incorporate some live drums loops into
>the whole sheebang.  Tried baseing some songs on tape loops, but that had
>the problem of being a)very inflexable (at least with pedals/samplers, you
>can alter the speed or the loop if desired.  With tape, you're stuck.) and
>b)damn near inaudible once the whole band got going.

Looping loud instruments is difficult really. I wrote a text about this and
sent it to Kim where it ended :-). I might post it again.

>I've did recently get my own 8-second digitech sampler pedal, and a Roland
>SPD-11 drum pad, and have been slowly bringing that in at rehearsals.
>Haven't had the guts to try it live yet though.  So far, the less
>"Realistic" drum sounds seem to be blending in better (the more similar
>the sounds are to my kit, the more it just sounds like I'm playing sloppy
>if the loop drifts).

This way you are save from feedback, too.

>Seems like looping non-electronic percussion might be problematic live,
>though I'd love to hear from anyone who's done it at all, successful or
>not.

Bira did it recently here with clay pots, kalimba and small percussion. It
turned out very nice, without feedback problems. He played alone and not
loud, though.

Soon we will know more about this, I guess...

Matthias