Open Space within a loop is my friend....And, what I do with MY EDP.

["Dylan DeAnda" <dylan@loudcloud.com>]

<Preamble>

 

This is a mix of edp technique, composition epiphany (for me at least),
and what I do with the edp 

I m not trying to dictate any protocol, just sharing a few of the ways I
use the edp.

 
In addition to this tirade, I recorded an example of some of these
methods.  I recorded it this morning before coming to work, no
breakfast, it's all improvised, unedited and quite rough, but it's just
an example, made from "scratch" <pun intended.>....The only problem is I
don't have an ftp/http server to host the file for download.  (If anyone
wants to loan me about 17MB of space on their server, for a few days,
I'd greatly appreciate it.)

</Preamble>

 

 

I had an epiphany the other day in relation to my looping and use of the
edp.  It s helped my sound improve (as far as I m concerned) a few
levels, and allowed me to get a little more variety and space in my
loops, while I am freestyling, composing, noodling or whatever.

 

I just discovered the value of leaving a few open beats in the loop.  

Then as the loop rolls through, accent where you like, in a more
relaxed, composed fashion, and if I need some breathing room, it s
already there.  Less obtrusive than trying to mute to the beat, organic
silence&.why didn t I think of this sooner&.tsk tsk.  

 

Spread it out.  Don t try to jam it all in there in one pass, roll
slowly with it, nurture the loop.

 

I figure if it works out well, and I do want to be able to do it fast on
the fly, I can just go back over it, listen to it, reproduce it,
practice it and chop it down for efficiency, until I can do it at
whatever tempo I want, but not until I get a GOOD loop.

 

Since I am doing 4-8 bar loops, I have been trying to get a sound that
doesn t sound like the same 4 or 8 bars over and over. 

 

I was trying to make the whole loop at once, I was thinking about how I
wanted it to sound en totale and then trying to get that into the
initial bass/rhythm loop&..wondering why it all sounded crammed in
there.  In addition, it allows you to multiply it out to n loops and
then you can sprinkle in flava wherever you deem necessary, get a little
on the fringe, and still be grounded by the constant of the audible or
looped beat (1 bar drums/bass then 1 bar silence, or 2 bars noise then 1
silence) that is every other bar&&season to taste.

 

I use 2 turntables, (DJ)mixer, and an edp.

 

What I like to do with my Turntables and my EDP:

 

Record:

 

I like to take a beat <Anything ranging from Roger Whitaker (Don t
laugh, he s got some fun stuff to work with), Herb Alpert, Undisputed
Truth, Old Funk, Muddy Waters, Henry Mancini (Really well produced
cleeeeeaaan sounds that swing so hard.), David Axelrod, whatever>, and
scratch/cut a few beats into a few bars, leave a few bars open for later
on, then multiply to stretch it out.

 

Sometimes I record 1 beat, multiply it to 4, insert silence or accents
appropriately, then multiply it out to 16/32/33/99, whatever and have
fun from there.

 

An interesting technique that Andre threw out to me  <Thank You
Immensely, Andre>:

Record and end with Insert.  This starts creating sub-loops within your
main loop.  I use it like this:

Record at beat 1, 

first insert right before beat 3

I now have 2 beat sub-loops recording, as many as I want.

<Since I am recording from a record, eventually there will be a
variation between what the looper is doing and what the musician is
playing, so when you end the loops, sometimes they don t end cleanly,
but multiplying until it s round helps smooth everything.>

I cut off the record and now I now have 8 2-beat sub-loops in my
super-loop, all a little different.

I figure out which ones I like, then proceed to start my multiply right
before the target 2 beat loop, multiply it for 4 sub-loops (total of 8
beats).

This produces a whole new shape to the loop, since the beats are just a
little bit off from the previous.

>From this point, I can do more surgery on the loop that I m working
with, then multiply it out.

Now here s where the LaFosse Neurosurgery takes place:

You can hit undo on a sub-loop that will run through the other
sub-loops, so you can shuffle your sub-loops around within your
super-loop, kind of like that one game you got at elementary school
carnivals, the flat piece of plastic with the little plastic tiles
inside that you have to shuffle around each other to make a picture of a
pensive monkey or a cow wearing a silly hat&&&Remember
those?.....no?....ok, well it doesn t matter in this context.

 

 

 

Variation:

Record a really short, empty loop (1/4 second or really fast press) 

multiply it out to around a 4 second loop, so that you have around 16 or
so sub-loops, 

at this point, you have a 4 second loop divided into 16 parts.

I like to overdub and then pitch bend a long tone
(beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep), up and down or to whatever melody I can
concoct in my noggin at the time.

I overdub across all 16 subs.

>From here I  multiply this out, to say 32, and start to undo 1/16th sub
at a time, this allows me to make a new song as I undo a 16th and it
gets replaced with another from down the line, tra-la-la ing up and down
the scales.  You can get some very fast arpeggios that are more precise
than trying to lay them down by hand.

 

 

Another Variation:

 

Record 2 or 4 beats and end with multiply.

This throws the edp into multiplying your 2 beats and you re overdubbing
what you re playing, working double duty, and creating new rhythms.

I use a breakbeat, record 4 beats, end with multiply, and let the record
play for 4 beats and cut it for 4 or 8 beats, as it s multiplying.

This gives a spicy little 4 bar fill of the beats doubling up,
retarding, accelleradoing, or wappin around, it s a whole new beat from
the same 4 beats&wheee!!!

A fun little beat juggle exercise.

 

 

 

 

 

I do a little surgery with multiplying, until I am happy with the size
of it, then I start to fill in the gaps.  

 

 

Overdub:

Overdub to mark my turnarounds and drop accents and stabs into the loop,
insert to break up monotony and sometimes reverse a beat <heavy cymbal
sizzlers are the best, since they draw up to the accent
&.ssszzzzziiiiiiiiiszsszszzzzZZWAP!!>  

 

I sometimes use the cymbals at different pitches (reversed for the
aforementioned  szwap) overdubbed at different intervals (different
start points in the loop) so that it can build up or sort of phaze up to
a crescendo or accent of a beat/bar.  

 

It comes off a bit drum and bassey, but not correctly (I ve read the
guide on the LD site about d&b looping/percussing, but I m still
digesting it), since I don t have the skills to whip up one of those d&b
ghost beats, yet.  If anyone has any good advice on programming d&b with
an edp, I d appreciate the knowledge.

 

I like to use overdub with spoken word records, so that you can
rearrange a speech passage mixing up the words, to refocus the orators
message to your liking, scratch out a beat, or let one trickle languidly
underneath, glue it (overdub) to the spoken words you ve just rewritten
and then little roll for a few loops.

 

Overdub helps me to smooth out the loops, by melding the end of loop
into the beginning.

 

 

Feedback:

I like to add some dynamics (this is something that I need to work on in
my loops, which is why the open space thing is such a discovery for me,
since it allows me to switch it up every few bars.) with feedback fading
out the loop, and then undoing the fade outs, so that it s a sort of ebb
and flow back and forth.  Or use the feedback to fade a long tone in and
out by turning down the feedback where you want to bring it s volume
down a bit, then bringing it back up to bring the sound in again, or
soften out a sound by reducing feedback on one pass through the loop.

 

One fun use is to do a really short loop ½ second or as fast as you can
get it, so it s firing off like an M-60 (You know that annoying loop
that your spouse always walks in when you re doing it, and it sounds
terrible), and then multiply it out while fading up and down with the
feedback knob, this will fade the machine gun in and out, so that you
can get a little rhythm out of the project.

 

Feedback is great to make a dubby, echoey, or even machine-voice-like
(really short press of record and turn feedback down to your liking
effect over other s voices.  It helps add ambiance to a sound, giving it
more space.  

 

I like the depth or the tail that you can throw on a sound by recording
a beat or two, overdubbing, turning feedback down midway for that echo,
getting a good rich echo going, then turning up feedback, so that I
preserve my last sound clearly, but it s now tailed by itself from the
feedback echo.
h-h-H-H-HELLO-O-O-o-o-h-h-H-H-HELLO-O-O-o-o-h-h-H-H-HELLO-O-O-o-o-h-h-H-
H-HELLO-O-O-o-o

 

 

 

Well, I ll save the mail server a few bytes of storage space and cut
this one short, just wanted to share some of my uses with y all.

 

Thanks for your valuable time and patience.



 

Be well.

 

D

 

 

Thanks and best regards,

 

Dylan DeAnda

dylan@loudcloud.com

703-653-6883

"What is it men cannot be made to believe!"

-Thomas Jefferson

 



Thanks and best regards,

Dylan DeAnda
dylan@loudcloud.com
703-653-6883
"What is it men cannot be made to believe!"
-Thomas Jefferson