Interesting Repeater quirks (was: CFC size)

[S V G <vsyevolod@yahoo.com>]

     SVG wrote:

      Since you asked, it seems possible to record an 8 minute loop at 
240, drop the tempo down to
1 and then sit back for a loop of 32 hours in length.  Y'know, it starts 
to grow on you the third
time around...


     Jondrums replied:

     So here's the question:  Can you record an 8 minute loop at 240 or 
so, then slow it down 10
times to 24bpm (80 minute loop) and then overdub?  Hopefully this wouldn't 
bring the os to a
grinding halt...
     

     Me (again):

     I did a test of this today (must have too much time on my hands or 
something).  I recorded
the maximum loop (8 minutes) at the maximum tempo (240 BPM) and then 
slowed it down 4 times (60
BPM).  This effectively gave me a 32 minute loop.  I was able to 
successfully overdub on top of
that track as well as on other tracks.  It doesn't bring the OS to a 
grinding halt, though the CFC
light does flash orange and red which is not the usual display that I 
observe when doing normal
overdubbing (normally it's green when playing back, red when recording the 
first track, and orange
when overdubbing, and always steady, not flashing).  The result is a 
definate degradation of the
sound.  You do not get the usual fidelity as if you were overdubbing 
without changing the tempo. 
Someone described this recently as a "lo-fi sound".  I think of the term 
"lo-fi" as describing
something that has the high end degraded or attenuated and that's not 
quite what's going on here. 
Perhaps the terms "granulated" might aptly describe how it sounded to me.  
And it may change with
the type of sound that you are manipulating as well.  There is a unique 
grainyness to this sound
that I find appealing in the same way that I find analog synthesis 
appealing.  The sound is
unstable and seems to border on the edge of subharmonic generation.  In 
fact it does go there from
time to time according to my ear.

     In the process, I discovered a few things.  The Repeater will allow 
about a 30% shift upwards
in tempo (on an existing track) before balking, though it will go all the 
way down to 1 BPM and
manifest all these interesting granular subharmonic instabilities that I 
mentioned in the last
paragraph.  If you then record something on a new track at 1 BPM (or any 
slow-ish speed) it will
have a similar granular sound to it even though you are playing it back at 
the speed you recorded
it at.  If then you hold down the tap tempo button to return the Repeater 
to the original tempo,
the sound quality returns to something close to normal, though now the 
track is much faster than
originally recorded.

     This becomes an interesting approach to messing with the tempo.  In 
the past, I've tried
recording something and then increased the tempo to get a faster version 
of what I've just played.
 The degradation of sound quality has prevented me from using this in 
extreme ways.  Now, I can
record a silent loop of longer than desired length, drop the tempo by 
whatever amount I want,
overdub onto the same or different track, then pop the tempo back up to 
the original speed.  I can
trim the loop to fit whatever I just recorded if I need to at this point.  
The advantage that this
method offers me is that the sound quality is much higher than just 
recording something and then
turning the tempo up.

          SVG




__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus – Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com