Re: Andre LaFosse vs. Mark Sottilaro: The BAD DESIGN SLAPDOWN

[Andre LaFosse <altruist@altruistmusic.com>]

Yo peeple,

and Yo Mark.  Thanks for the eminently thoughtful followup.  Gotta say
that the subject header has all the makings of a killer remix CD.  "The
Bad Design Slapdown"... that's gotta be an album title in the works!

I appreciate your raising the issue of "creator's intent."  The analogy
you drew with the in-depth yet unusable animation doesn't strike me as
being entirely applicable to the Repeater situation, however.  

Why?  Because in the case you mentioned, the background was unplayable
on a personal computer.  It couldn't function in the environment it was
commisioned for.  Whereas the Repeater is (finally!) very much a
real-world entity that does operate as it's supposed to.

And it's the last four words of that sentence that I think are the crux
of the issue here.  Damon has said that it was designed more from the
point of view of a recorder than a processor or sound editor, which I
think is the core of the current debate.  

Electrix is very highly regarded for making very user-friendly units
with musicians in mind, so I think it's a bit unfair to suggest that
they didn't understand what they were trying to do.  

Could it be that some of the Repeater customers, in fact, didn't
understand what Electrix was trying to do with the product?  In light of
some of the comments knocking the thing for not functioning like a
standard effects processor, it's at least an interesting twist worth 
considering...

The bottom line (it seems to me) is that the whole concept of what a
looper IS, and what it's SUPPOSED to do, and HOW it's supposed to do it,
is still very much up in the air.  There aren't any hard and fast rules.
 And when it comes to hardware-based, real-time, multi-track loopers,
Electrix has just written the first chapter of that particular book.

Here's an interesting angle: if Electrix is focusing so much on the
real-time looping angle, and wants to dedicate its brain trust to that
niche (as seems to be the case), why couldn't different loopers be
designed for different types of looping applications?  In much the same
way that people will reach for an SG over a Les Paul, or a Telecaster
instead of a Strat...

Anyway...  there's not much more I can say without having a Repeater in
my hand, but I very much look forward to hearing more about the thing,
and seeing what sorts of creative paths it leads people down.

--Andre

PS - very glad you dug the CD, Mark.  Thanks again for picking it up.