Music Discussion Questions and 'Home Frippertronics'

["Stephen P. Goodman" <sgoodman@earthlight.net>]

> Edward_Chang@mail.amsinc.com intoned:
> 
>   Why loop?
>   The root reason is because unique rhythmic textures can be readily
>   created in a short amount of time.  Also when I'm creating loops, it
>   feels similar to mixing chemicals to create an unusual mixture, or
>   painting over and over different parts of a canvas.


To each his own!  My own migration into this area had less to do with quick
execution than it did with the quasi-organic nature of repetition; the
thing that made it possible for me was being temporarily able to afford
buying a 7.6-second Digitech unit for less than $150 used.  From my
standpoint, the process had to not be complicated, in order to not impede
performance.  The last thing I want is to have to use someone else to
operate equipment.  Also, I wanted to approach the idea of the Home Piano,
that time-honoured prop of Culture, which one could also just sit down and
bang on, should one wished to, without having to 'turn anything on' besides
your brain.

I've already documented my setup a number of times, so I won't go into it
here - but another major interest in making the setup was that it have as
few components as possible, resulting in fewer noise leaks.

As far as the Home Piano idea, though, it's nice to be able to 'just lay it
down', I admit.  It's just that, if I'm going to pretend that I'm
performing this material, I have to be able to recreate the pieces from
memory.  So I have that consideration every time I sit down for a new
piece.  Ultimately there is very little improv in the actual published
works.  But the ones that I'll put together at home that constitute either
raw textures, or candidates for The Loop Of The Week (see my page if you
haven't yet), are almost I-Ching-Like in their result.  However I feel at
the time - as long as I can maintain transparency - usually translates well
into the texture resulting.  Sometimes I have to turn off the unit just to
think of the track being eliminated altogether, if it sounds Dark enough. 
I could go on but no.

Stephen Goodman           * http://www.earthlight.net/Studios
EarthLight Productions     * Get the Loop Of The Week Free!