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Looper's Delight
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>In response to Matthias' question: > >Primeiro: Muito obrigado para as boas perguntas (Desculpe, I just *had* >to >toss in some Portuguese!) oba! um som diferente na lista! (this is easy for everyone to understand, isnt it?) >I'll answer your second question first >>Do they [Indian musicians] use any electronics exept for straight >>amplification of their traditional work? > >Currently in North Indian classical music I've not seen anyone use >electronics in the sense of changing tone color, extending an instrument's >range, etc. About the only real use of sound processing is adding >artificial reverb both to live performances and studio recordings to >enhance >the overall sound. Unfortunately this tends only to make things muddier. >If it's used sparingly it can be a nice effect but more often than not >both >the main instrument (or vocalist) as well as the tabla accompanist are >drenched in reverb and this winds up ruining the music (for me at least). I tend to "ruin" my music with long reverb, too. The "drone aspect" of the reverb may be more important than the clarity of each note? >I have recently heard a sample of a young Indian classical musician >playing >synthesizer. You can listen to this at http://www.neelam.com I always >dreamed about the possibility of synthesizers, midi, etc. within the realm >of ICM (Indian classical music). It seemed that if someone had good >knowledge of the music that almost anything would be possible in terms of >sound sources. From the clip I heard, this particular recording seems >rather one-dimensional as far as texture, etc. The playing is correct and >good, but the "piano" sound seems trite. To be fair, though, I remember >seeing Sun Ra many times in the early and mid 80's playing entire concerts >using just one setting (and a cheesy ball-park organ sound at that!) on a >synthesizer that was the "multivoice" state-of -the-art at the time, and >he >always sounded fantastic. So it's not just the equipment, it's what the >guy >sitting behind it does with it. Well, the equipment certainly is a limitation, too. Maybe you would not like the sound any more, today. I would not like to invade the fine indian sounds with synthesizers... >Another use of electronics which is becoming extremely widespread is the >recent invention of "electronic tanpura" (also spelled tamboura) >replacing >the traditional string drone instrument. This has really taken off in the >last ten years where almost every performer I've seen recently - vocal or >instrumental - has used one, either alone or in combination with a "real" >tanpura. To my ears it doesn't sound as nice as a genuine string tanpura, >but I can certainly understand the portability, the comparative >sturdiness, >and the wider tuning range. (A string tanpura only sounds good within a >very limited range -- for instance C to D, but not above or below). Yet >another increasingly popular device is the "electronic tabla." I must >admit >guiltily to using one of these myself. It can never replace a live tabla >player, but it's great for practice since you can work with about a dozen >common "taal-s" (rhythm cycles) and vary the tempo as well as the pitch >(to >tune to your instrument). Plus, it doesn't "give attitude" like a real >tabla player, and you can turn it off when it becomes too annoying ;) >(My apologies to tabliyas worldwide!) Instead of using an "electronic tanpura", the drone could be looped from the sitar for each piece of music, wouldn't that sound nicer? >>How do you think the indians would receive the looping tools to >>simplyfy/extend their music? > >Excellent question! One common aspect of Indian music and looping is that >ICM is largely repetitive to begin with, but part of the allure of a good >musician is that s/he will take even the most frequently repeated phrase >and >slightly alter it each time, making it new and exciting. But as far as >serious classical performance goes, I couldn't really forsee looping being >widely accepted, except possibly for replacing the tanpura drone, which is >already being done electronically. However, the Indian sense of tolerance >and absorption from other countries and cultures is legendary. For >instance, the sitar, sarod, shehnai, and harmonium were all developed from >"foreign" instruments, and today there are many performers playing >modified >"slide" guitars and electric mandolins. So anything is possible! I'd >love >to see it happen. How about the use of pickups on those instruments? I remember the arabian musicians using pickups on their instruments for quite a while. >James Pokorny > >Ate logo, Matthias! Muito obrigado pela contribuicao interessante, Joao!