Re: midi looper

["Jon Wagner" <jondrums@hotmail.com>]

/much snipped for brevity/
> > there are many graceful ways to fix this problem.
>
> yeah, you can work around some of this, but it will be weird
> to get used to using it, and in some cases will defeat,

You're right of course.  I just meant that there are many ways to get 
around
the "problems" you've brought up.  I think its going to depend on the 
player
which is way makes the most sense.

> need some way of communicating music notation via text to do
> this easily...
> ok.  i'll use overly simple one note example.
> 1. create a loop with a staccato c4 vel.127 on 1 of a 4 beat loop.
> 2. set feedback at 80%.
> 3. let fade a few times, say three times - vel=65.
> 4. click overdub.
> 5. play 1/2 note c4 vel.127 on beat 1.

Now this all makes sense.  Add to this the problem that most sounds have a
release time, so things will sound even wierder!  To be honest though, 
maybe
its just a fact of life that a midi looper won't be able to handle two
simultaneous passages very well when they have overlapping notes.  BUT, how
often do you think this really comes up in a musical looping situation -
normally if I want two lines going at the same moment, they'd be on two
different channels, or at least two different registers of the keyboard.

> i don't see that as all that graceful.  if you ignore cc commands
> while overdubbing, you are hardly overdubbing. notes have similar

I'm not sure, but I would bet that most commonly CC commands come in
"bursts".  In other words mostly you've got constant CC values, but
sometimes a pedal is moved (a burst of CC messages) and then you settle 
back
into constant CC value.  You could identify "bursts" and keep track of 
their
duration - got me?  Then the user could choose either replace or ignore 
when
overdubbing with CCs.  ignore would basically ignore new bursts that 
overlap
old ones, while replace ditches all old bursts that overlap with new
incomming ones.

> > *no bump at the loop point - great for ambient loopers -smile-
>
> there might be a bump depending on how you handle an unreleased
> note at record end.  but it wouldn't be the same as the bump

I agree.  I would think that it might make sense for the device to ALWAYS 
go
straight into "selective overdub" when exiting record mode which to means
that it will be in overdub - but only listening to note-off commands that
would close up a note already in the main loop.

> > *could configure a midi-filter before the looper, so that only certain
> > things are looped, but all things are passed through (this
>
> now i get to be confused.  if it is late in the chain,
> how is controlling devices that precede it?

I meant late in the chain, but before the sound modules...  After all of 
the
controllers.  Maybe its not that big of a deal.  Imagine if you've got a
keyboard split and you're playing basslines on CH1 and leads on CH2 at the
same time.  If the midi-loopers is configured to loop only stuff on CH1,
then you'll get your bassline looped without the lead. That's all I was
getting at.

> hmmm... thorsten's midibox as a looper...

maybe you should ask him!

> did anybody make it this far down?

obviously.
Jon