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Re: How to place Looper in audio path?



>For a live rig, what is the best place in the signal chain to place a
>looper?  For example, I bring all my synths and mics into a single small
>mixer which I then use to create a monitor mix for myself and I send a
>mixed signal (stereo or mono, depending on the venue) to the house
>system.  Currently I have my effects processor (Lexicon MPX1) on my aux
>1 & 2 bus (for stereo) but I am not sure how this would work with a
>looper (whether its an EDP, Jamman, or Repeater).  Should the signal
>going into the looper be dry and then you apply effects to the whole
>layered sound?  What if I want to just have a freeze type of delay that
>is longer than the 2 sec. max offered by the MPX1 (ie, the looper could
>do this)?  I would like to keep the signal as clean as possible so that
>the delays are creating delays for themselves and making a big mess.
>Finally, other than some of the suggestions on the tips and tricks page,
>is there anywhere I can learn more about what I can do with a looper in
>a live performance so that I am not just laying down drone after drone
>to underscore a lead sound?
>
I do live looping in 2 contexts, as a bassist in a trio, and doing
electronics in various improv settings. Sometimes I do both at the same
time.

In my bass setup, the loopers (in this case a DL-4 and a bommerang) are the
last items in my signal chain before my amp. Since there's just one sound
source, the bass, there's no need for a mixer, and I mix loops in and out
using the front panels of the loopers.

In the electronics setup, which I'd guess is closer to your system, I have
the loopers (JamMan, Vortex, and occaisionally DL-4) fed from Aux sends
from my mixer, and returned into mixer channels instead of the Aux sends.
The reason I do this is so that any input on the mixer can be looped, and
the loops can be fed through other processors, even fed back into
themselves, which can be interesting. The problem is that this requires a
lot of Aux's and a lot of (preferably stereo) input channels. I still
haven't found a portable mixer that really works in this context, I'm
currently using either a Mackie 1202 (only 2 sends, so I end up using
Y-cables to split the sends), or a Mackie 1604 (physically too big, no
stereo input channels), depending on how big a setup I'm using.

____________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@peak.org
New & Improv Media
http://www.newandimprov.com
Now available: Admiral Twinkle Devil: Wabi Dub
____________________________________________