Re: Some ideas...

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

jj said:
>Pardon if this seems naive in the ways of loopage, but I'm still
>very much captivated by one of the simple ideas Brian Eno
>cooked up in making that first looping delay system for Fripp,
>and that Eno still uses quite a bit (don't know about Fripp):
>basically different loops of differing lengths played over
>each other such that the ways they will interact musically
>is unpredictable. I've had my Jamman for awhile, but have
>only recently began to explore this via recording one loop
>to one track on my DA-88, then another to another, etc., and
>listening to the end results. The problem with this is that
>there is not as much spontaneity as having them loop over
>each other live (I'd *love* to see a looping machine do
>that).

Well, get together with another JamBeeing for a session!

"non-musician" Dave wrote:
***
Start out with four (for this example) simple drones(or sound loops or
whatever) and periodically measure some measurable variable of the drones
(some examples:
1) number of frequency components in the drone above/below x hertz
2) delay of the drone above or below its starting value
3) reverberation of the drone
4) distortion in the drone
5) volume).
I don't even know if some of these variables can be measured but you get
the idea.  Anyway have the drones react to one another based on some set
rules, like if drone1 has x number of frequency components above 5kHz then
adjust the distortion of drone2 by some function represented by f1(x).  Or
if the delay of drone3 is y seconds, then add f2(y) frequency components to
drone 4 whose values are given by f3(y, f2(y)).  Maybe in addition to rules
to alter the drones you have rules governing the death and birth of other
drones.

What you'd have instead of a few sound loops with different periods where 
the
interest would be to see how they recombine to sound different at different
times would be sound that actually react to other sounds and can give birth
to a sound or hook up with another sound to kill a third sound off.  Sure
it's pretty much impossible or at least super-hyper daunting but it sure
does make ya wet yer pants with the possibilities.
***

This does not look realistic, but highly fascinating. The parameters would
be others, but a frequency analisis could be a good start.

jj again:
>Anybody think this is remotely possible with the devices we have today?
>Any other thoughts on how to put some fresh, (relatively) unpredictable
>or at least systemic experimentation into looping?

I think we will care about such type of creativity, once we have a multiple
looper, recording on HD. In the computer, the user should be able to create
such things.
Maybe MAX will be expanded to use with audio files?

My personal taste: I tried to create several kinds of automations for
music, but I do not even like a (automatic) touch-wah, if I can have a
(manual) pedal to control the frequency to my taste!

Matthias