Re: Need suggestions for sampling/storing loops

["Jonathan El-Bizri" <ssrndpty@hotmail.com>]

> My sincere thanks to all for the input thus far.
>
> Kim is right:  I had thought about the CD player solution, but that
> would involve using my hands too much.  What I like about the Line 6
> and Boss loopers is that both hands can stay on the fretless bass and
> the feet operate the looper. Furthermore, it seems intuitively that a
> CD player would be harder to quickly change the number of times the
> loops would be played (I guess "last-minute arranging" is a good term
> for that?).  A sequencer would, I believe, solve that sort of thing.

I have mine on a volume pedal, so I can fade it in and out during
performance. Yes, I have to use my hands to switch tracks, but with the
loopers going, it's not a problem so far. Then again, I have a lot of other
button pushing going on anyway.

>
>  From the hype, these Yamaha/Korg/Boss "groove boxes" are designed to
> loop samples.  This seems to be what I desire most.  My big concern
> is memory, followed by editing capabilities (how to "massage" each
> loop to be stored so that it sounds like the original loop produced
> in the Line 6 or Boss loopers.)

Actually, the groove boxes loop sequences not samples. I have the emu xl-7
(the other button pushing I refered to). I'd stay away from the Yamaha
sampler/sequencers. The SCSI bus for loading samples is unusably slow. A
band I know who are using one can only us it for every other song, while it
loads the next set of loops (!). The Roland boxes have the signature Roland
"bedroom tone" (ie sounds like a kiddie in his bedroom :>) though I've 
heard
some really nice 'squelchy FM' sounds being made from them, good for IDM
stuff.

The Yamaha rm1x has some pretty nice live sequencing stuff I've heard, but
the sounds are supposed to be rather naff. The emu sounds are >really< 
nice,
but the sequencer isn't a full featured.

Korg doesn't have a sequensizer.

>
> But from what y'all are saying, it sounds like I need to find out
> more about the Repeater, because if I'm understanding it correctly,
> it seems to be a looper with a big-ass memory (with the 128 meg
> storage card), providing the capability to create loops on that unit
> in the first place, then store and recall the loops for later use. If
> what Kim says is correct about the half-second pause, however, the
> Repeater would be less appealing.  From the "Tools of the Trade"
> section of the LD home site, there seem to be pros and cons that I
> need to better understand.  Thus, more homework is in order.

It doesn't to pause if it's already looping - just waits for the end of the
bar.

>
> This leaves me with one question. . . .I really am not very
> elctronic/computer savvy:  Is 128 megs on one machine the same thing
> as 128 megs on another, in terms of length of storage time at a given
> sampling rate?  For example, the Boss SP505 can take a 128 meg card.
> Would that hold roughly the same length of sampling/looping time as
> the Repeater with 128 meg card?

Yes.

biz