Re: What kind of music are you using looping for?

[mark <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

On Thursday, June 26, 2003, at 12:49  PM, Terry Blankenship wrote:

> I was curious what types of music the members on this
> list are using looping for.

Type of music?  I've been called Ambient, IDM and noise.  I different 
things I do can fall into all of those genres.  Here's a few things 
I've done with other loopers (Jon Wagner on drums on one track and 
Maria Cornblatt on vocals on the other) over the last few months.

http://www.zerocrossing.net/mp3s/

> Guitar looping

Mostly guitar, but more and more often I'm triggering MIDI instruments 
with a Yamaha G50 setup.  Sometimes I find it limited and go to 
keyboard to get these sounds.  The more cool synth stuff I have 
acquired the more normal my guitar seems to sound!  Funny how that 
worked out.

> Percussion looping?

Tried using a roland drum pad to trigger a planet earth module, but 
found it more awkward than using a keyboard, but yeah, I live loop 
percussion and sequence loop it as well.

> Electronic Dance Music (Trance, Tekno, etc)?

Kind of dancy I guess, I do like a beat.  Some not.

> Other?

Lot's of what I do can be totally ambient or noise (I perform with the 
Bay Area band Big City Orchestra) some of it can be considered more 
Frippy.  BTW, Fripp did an album called FFWD with some gentlemen from 
The Orb.  Great album, IMO.  Lot's of Frippertronics with nice groovy 
beats.  A big influence on me.  It's out of print I think, but if you 
can find one get it.

> Are you working with software in your computer to do
> looping or using hardware like the echoplex?

I've played with Digital Performer's POLAR, but it lacks a feedback 
control.  I could do some tricky routing, but why when I have a nice 
Repeater in my studio?  It's all the looper I seem to need.

> Which do you prefer and why?

When all is said and done, I like a good dedicated hardware unit, I'm 
not sure why.  I don't think a single CPU can do all the looping, 
effects and sound synthesis I need.... not yet.  I'm sure this will 
change soon.  What I'd really want is two brother synced EDPs but I 
want to pay $700 for the pair.  I need stereo and EDPs are plain and 
simply too much money for me right now.  It probably seems to people 
that I always seem to be getting stuff, but a lot of it comes from me 
taking a lot of gear I've collected over the years and Ebay'ing it in 
an effort to consolidate my studio.

Mark Sottilaro