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Looper's Delight
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At 11:42 AM 1/30/97, A.S.P. wrote: >One question I have is: Are there any samplers that will work as real time >loopers? To me it seems to be a perfect approach - you've got stereo >analog to digital conversion, you've got expandable RAM, storage, multiple >outs, plus you can use standard MIDI events to trigger/sequence stuff. > I've used a Korg DSM-1 extensively as a (sort of) live (sort of) looping device. The Korg is an ancient 12-bit sampler, with about a minute of total audio memory. I think my techniques will work with just about any sampler that responds to MIDI system exclusive commands, I haven't tried this with any other samplers though. Trust me, this isn't very pretty or easy, and if something like the JamMan had been available when I started, I would have never done this. I use it for live performances where I am sampling/looping/processing sounds made by other musicians. I've programmed a system exclusive control setup for the sampler, both from a computer using opcode's MAX, and from a Peavey PC1600 (I got tired of carrying the computer to gigs, and was able to get about 80% of it's functions from the Peavey). Before the gig, I set up a series of empty looped samples in the sampler, usually in lengths of 4, 2, 1 and 1/2 seconds, to fill the entire memory of the sampler. I also set up a collection of performance patches that apply different filters and modulation to the samples, and assign the samples to different midi channels (the korg will respond to up to 4 channels at once). At the gig, I get audio leads from the other the other musician(s) and hook it up to the Korg's audio in. During the performance, I'll have the other players improvise for a few minutes, while I put the sampler into re-sample mode, and grab their audio. using re-sample mode keeps all the preset looping points and key assignments. After a minute or 2, I've filled up the memory of the sampler and start playing the samples back from a keyboard or the PC1600. This can work really well, one performance with a percussionist playing congas came out especially well. The loop lengths are kind of arbitrary, so it doesn't really work for tight rhthyms, but for the kind of textural free improv I'm involved in, it offers some great possibilities. Since I got the JamMan and Vortex, I'm using the sampler much less for this, but it does have some advantages over a dedicated looper. Firstly, it's polyphonic: I can have 16 simultaneous voices of loops over 4 midi channels. Also, you can apply pitch modulation to the loops, and set up polyrhythms based on the key intervals (a fifth creates a 3/2 polyrhythm, for example). And, if I remember to stick a blank disc in the sampler, I can save the loops for future use (I usually forget, though). But it's not at all intuitive, it took several weeks of tinkering with hexadecimal code to get this system to work. The user interface on the DSM-1 is not at all geared to this kind of stuff, and having to remember all the technical stuff while you're playing is a pain. It can be done though. >There were some updates to the later Ensoniq samplers that gave you new >effects - wouldn't it be possible to turn an ASR10 into a real time >looper? > I've never used an ensoniq sampler very deeply, but the fact that you could re-write the operating system if you wanted always intrigued me. The fact that almost nobody did it implies that it's not a trivial task though. While I'm sort of on the subject, does anyone else on the list play in situation where they're looping the sound of other musicians live? It can make for some very interesting performances, and I feel it's a completely different esthetic from the usual plugging a guitar into a JamMan and looping your own noodlings, though I do plenty of that also. ________________________________________________________ Dave Trenkel, NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: improv@peak.org self promotional web-site: http://www.peak.org/~improv/ "A squid eating dough in a polyethelene bag is fast and bulbous, got me?" -Captain Beefheart ________________________________________________________