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Looper's Delight
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Of course I was fortunate to meet ya silly!
love,
Corynne
At 04:53 PM 2/22/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Corynne writes:
>
>> I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to have met one other
>of
>> us on this list. During the time we talked, this person asked me a
>> question which I'd like to present to the rest of the list... I was
>asked:
>>
>> How do you begin your loop pieces?
>
>Since I didn't ask you this Corynne I've gotta assume two things:
>
>A. you've met at least two people on this list, and
>B. that you aren't particularly fortunate to have met me. <grin>
>
>Anyhow... here's how I begin my loop pieces:
>
>1. Deep breath and hold it.
>2. Stomp "Record" button.
>3. Realize I haven't thought out what I want to play.
>3a. Get a bit wild-eyed.
>4. Fumble a few noises out of the instrument.
>5. Swear.
>6. Hit "End" button.
>
>Then I spend a few minutes pulling my head out of you-know-where and
>decide
>if I'm going to loop a little phrase like an ostinato, or if I'm gonna
>just
>start smearing freaky noises all over the place, layering it up like some
>demented gamelan, and make myself a loop (3 layers or more =
>"sludgescape."
> 2 layers or less = "soundpaper.") Having decided that, I start playing
>the ostinato or start making freaky noises and when the timing and
>phrasing
>and such is as good as it's gonna get, I click the "record" button and the
>"end" button at the appropriate places.
>
>Then I make a quality control decision: if I think I can work with it I
>start noodling over the top until I've got something I can live with, at
>which point I layer it on. If I can't work with it, I'll try one or all
>of
>the following loop-salvaging maneuvers:
>
>Slow the loop to half speed.
>Reverse the loop.
>Run the loop through the intelligent harmonizer and a few gallons of audio
>syrup via the Digitech Studio 400.
>Bury the loop in several layers of innocuous, abstract sound overdubs.
>Resample a short (2.8 sec) segment of the loop via the Studio 400 and use
>that for the loop while I fix the first one.
>
>If none of that works, I just kill the loop and start over.
>
>Sometimes I have grand designs for a loop: for example, I want to play
>something scalar with very specific phrasing during the loop, and then I
>want to develop a counterpoint and layer it on there such that the notes
>or
>chords in the second layer fall between the notes or chords in the first.
>In theory, I would get something that sounds like it was impossible (or at
>least heroic) to play. Ordinarily, however, it sounds like a couple of
>teenage boys on LSD with cheap electric guitars.
>
>And sometimes I get lucky. Didn't someone once suggest that musicians
>"trust the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse?" I forget
>who. Hmph. I think it was a guitar player, though. Probably nobody
>connected to looping. ;-)
>
>Scott Bullerwell
>tanelorn@dimensional.com
>Boulder, Colorado, USA
>
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