RE: Learning How to use the EDP?

["M. Steven Ginn" <sginn@airmail.net>]

Hi Kim,

Thanks for the insights into using the EDP.  Trying to decide how I will
use the EDP can at least provide a starting point.  I guess I was
thinking I had to have a good understanding of all the different
combinations of parameters first so that I would know which combination
would work best for what I want to do.  Sort of putting the cart before
the horse.

I am a sax player (tenor & soprano) and windcontroller player (WX5 &
EWI).  I play a selection of about 6 different synths with my EWI and
use them for 3 primary areas for sound generation.  First, I use them
for acoustic emulations of various wind instruments (flutes, pipes,
brass, etc.) and non wind instruments like strings (cello, violin,
etc.), both solo and ensemble.  Next, some of the sounds I produce are
lead type synth voices using analog and fm.  Finally, I use the synth
rig for generating things a keyboard player might create like pads and
other types of textures where I can fill in if a keyboard player isn't
available or add to and enhance if one is.

As for potential uses of the EDP, initially my thought was to create
pad/drone textures which I could play over.  One example of a very basic
use would be when I play a bagpipes where I start a loop of one or
several notes for the drone and then I play the chanter on my EWI over
it.  I can do this with my WX5 playing a single drone note, but felt the
EDP would allow me to not only play my EWI (which doesn't have the same
note hold feature of the WX5) but also create multiple note/chordal
drones.  I also really like a lot of what Jean Luc Ponty has done with
violin and looping from a rhythmic standpoint.  Also, I am not sure how
I might use the EDP with my sax but maybe there might be some for it as
well.

As for audio routing, I am currently bringing everything into an Event
Ezbus which gives me a lot of flexibility for my routing.  However, with
only one effects processor (Eventide Eclipse) I have been going back and
forth between deciding to use it during the creation of the loops on the
EDP or processing the loops after the EDP.  I could actually see how
nice it would be to select a preset on the Eclipse to process my loop
creation and then change the routing and select another preset on the
Eclipse that will process my overall sound and my solo playing over
whats going on in the loop.  But doing this all on the fly during a live
gig is where it gets complicated.

Thanks,

M. Steven Ginn

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kim Flint [mailto:kflint@loopers-delight.com] 
> Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 10:34 PM
> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: RE: Learning How to use the EDP?
> 
> 
> Hi Steven-
> 
> It will be a lot easier for people to answer these questions 
> for you if you 
> can help us understand more about you. How you might use the 
> Echoplex or 
> any other looper depends a lot on you, that is why there are no stock 
> answers for your questions.
> 
> What do you wish to do with loops? What kind of music do you 
> play?  How do 
> you play it and how do you see loops fitting into that? What 
> instrument do 
> you play, if any? What other gear are you using? What need 
> are you trying 
> to fill by getting a looper? The more you can answer these 
> questions the 
> more others can help you. (and probably you will gain a better 
> understanding of yourself in the process.)
> 
> Looping is not a genre of music or something only done by one type of 
> musician, it is just a tool and a musical approach used by 
> many different 
> musicians with many different needs, in all styles of music. 
> Saying you are 
> a looper doesn't really tell us that much about you. We find 
> customers of 
> the EDP are all over the map, from regular blues musicians to 
> electronic 
> dance music producers to ambient players to wildly 
> experimental types to 
> whatever. It is really varied. If you just tell us that you 
> have an EDP we 
> can't tell if you are an old skool rapper trying to bring 
> your human beat 
> box routine into a live drum and bass context or a Fripp 
> wannabe trying to 
> make droney guitar layers into a soundscape. The "right" 
> answer for one 
> might be totally wrong for the other.
> 
> kim
>