Re: multi-track looping

[Mark Sottilaro <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

On Friday, September 27, 2002, at 08:07  PM, Ritsu Katsumata wrote:

>> On Thursday, September 26, 2002, at 07:30  PM, Ritsu Katsumata wrote:
>>>
>>> 1) is this the only one that can loop more than one track at a time 
>>> (live) -- so, if I want to do a 4 beat loop on 1 track, then an 8 
>>> beat loop on track 2, etc.--  or are there others that can do this > 
>>> (easily)?
>>
>> Uh, the Repeater can't do that either.  It's got 4 tracks per loop, 
>> but they all have to be exactly the same length.  Of course, you can 
>> make and store up to 99 loops of different sizes and toggle between 
>> them if you want.  You can do a bunch on the EDP this way too.
>
>
> I realized as soon as I posted this that the way to do that is to play 
> the 4 beat loop twice, then do the 8 beat-- so I felt kind of stupid--

There's also a multiply function on the Repeater that lets you multiply 
a track, then make a longer track looped next to it.  Saves on memory, 
but I seem to never use it.

>
> but I guess you can't loop an 8 bar progression (live) without being 
> really tedious, can you?

Good question.  I'm always surprised at what an audience will like.  
Including myself.  I've looped 8 bar progressions many times, while 
running the loop through some kind of processor (usually a Lexicon 
MPX1) that I can control via MIDI.  The content of the loop stays the 
same, but it can be "played" via external devices.  Change the pitch a 
few times and you can get a lot of mileage out of a good loop.  The 
great thing about the Repeater is that you can set the feedback to 70% 
or so (any value actually up to 100%) and slowly change your loop over 
time.  This is when things get really interesting.

> I use a Roland MC 300 sequencer with stored midi files-- but I can't 
> toggle, so it sounds like from what you're saying here that the 
> Repeater would be like an improvement over the sequencer.

I'm not sure what you mean by "I can't toggle..."  I imagine you could 
make different patterns and switch between them no?  I usually make a 
very dense pattern, and then pare it down, adding drums and taking them 
away to create variety.  Seems to work well.  Again, the Roland Famly 
of sequencers seem to be good for that, at least the current batch.
>
> I'm starting to get cold feet about the repeater-- scared that I won't 
> be able to handle the learning curve.  Thanks (again) for all your 
> help!
>
Don't let them get too cold!  They'll soon be gone, only to be found 
way overpriced on eBay.  Actually, when it comes to loopers, I've found 
the front panel interface to be by far the best.  There's almost no 
learning curve, but I did find that after getting the FCP1010 and 
spending some quality time with it, it got smoother and smoother to 
use.  Now it's second nature.

Mark Sottilaro