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Looper's Delight
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Hi all, You could call me a lazy cheater (or any of a number of other things, including just plain nuts) but for the past couple of years (3 or 4) I have rather enjoyed using "canned" loops in my music -- in addition to the "live" ones I create with my guitar on my EDPs. Strangely, it always sort of surprises me when people say they'd NEVER use "canned" loops in their music (as though using such is a major "sin" of some sort) when the current musical environment is so full of that very thing (either via sampling or vinyl or sequencing or drum machines or beat/grooveboxes and or Acid/Live software). Before, when my setup was even larger and more complicated (some folks who've seen my current rack might shudder at the thought) it also included 2 keyboard samplers and a bunch of other instruments including 2 MIDI wind controllers (yes I played 'em simultaneously) and a vocal pitch to MIDI converter and a Macintosh computer. I looped everything live, nothing was ever prerecorded -- and (just as often) nothing was even remotely preconceived before the first note. So, believe me, I can say I have plenty of experience doing it the "free" and supposedly "hard" way between 1987 and 1998 or so. But, I guess I just sort of got tired of battling with Murphy's Law and daring the whole systemic edifice to implode just before every performance. If something CAN go wrong . . . it usually WILL, and the increased dependence on technological complexity just naturally exacerbates the problem and making "snafus" even more likely. Involve other people in the collaboration and the opportunity for chaos increases exponentially. My current, smaller, MIDI guitar and 16-space rack (with stereo EDP pair) plus Boss "phrase sampler" setup allows me to relax just a teeny little bit -- and vastly decreases the frequency of my having to visit the chiropractor as often. One way or the other, all of my "canned loops" are still my own. I may nick a percussion sample from a duly purchased Acid CD-R library, an obscure audio CD fragment, an environmental sound from around the house and/or neighborhood or even something I might play on some ordinary instrument I have here at home. But by the time I'm done editing it in Hyperprism on my Mac these are usually unrecognizable as even remotely relating to the source materials in any way. I spend a lot of my time creating loops on my computer and cataloging them into "families" or "sets" of related loop length and key/time signatures. These sets and families are often quite large and offer a lot of opportunity to make new and interesting combinations of textures and sounds that I did not actually imagine or expect when I was working on the individual member loops. I am constantly surprised by what "works" . . . and often by what doesn't. Anyway, I like to take these "surprises" into the recording studio and/or onto the road sometimes and play with them even further -- either by merely recontextualizing them with what I happen to be playing live on my main instrument (guitar) or by merely varying how I trigger them "live" in relation to one another (sometimes you can completely change the feel of how 2 or 3 or 4 loops sound together simply by hitting the PLAY button in a different place rhythmically. So, even if they're "canned" the performance is not so much so . . . necessarily. There is still room for a modest amount of variation. The phrase sampler also has onboard FX that can mangle and chop the loops further (sometimes in unpredictable ways) and I also have some outboard FX to mess them up a bit too (including an Alesis AirSynth). BTW, what I'd really like is a Kaoss 2.0 but that's more $$$ than I have at my disposal currently (and a whole other story). However, I must admit, 95% of what I do performance-wise is still on my guitar and EDP anyway. That's where my main attention is anyway. This way of working also makes it easier to work/collaborate with others who may be looking for a clear "pulse" (hey Ted, where's the damn "one" at?) when I am deliberately trying to make that ambiguous on my "live" EDP loops. They (usually, if not always) can clearly hear something in the "canned" material and "count it out" and play with/against it in a more-or-less conventional manner. I can also post loops to people I am collaborating with and they can hear at least THAT part of the performance concept beforehand and think/ imagine an maybe rehearse to it . . . whatever. That's what drummer/looper, Bob Sterling and I do frequently (we live 775 miles apart). We can perform a gig without playing together for as long as 1 or 2 years at a time, and then launch into entirely "new" material on the spot and improvise pretty darn well (I think) together over the kernel of an idea in a short loop (or 2) shared between us on the net -- as often as not, taking it to places "live" neither one of us ever expected it to go. Anywho, I am finding "canned" loops kinda freeing in a way. When something predictable (at least temporarily) is going on in the background -- even something bone-headedly metronomic and simple -- it's often easier to be more daring, experimental and "outside" with what I am doing live on the guitar. That might sound like a complete contradiction . . . I dunno. But, these are my thoughts on the subject. I guess these thoughts also reflect the whole modus operandi of my 2001 CD. That's essentially how it was made. Each of the 10 pieces was recorded in just one take -- and the entire CD took only 2 days. I had little idea what shape each piece would take. I was aware of what loops I had brought to the session (and my little bag of guitar/sustainiac/ebow/EDP tricks). But it was all done "off the cuff" given those items. Subsequent performances trying to recreate some of the material on that CD have met with spotty success (my opinion) at places like Loopstock and Y2K2. I am not very good at repeating myself -- the whole effort seems wooden and artificial. I do better with a blank slate and maybe a couple of interesting, freshly canned loops (and no hard-and-set preconceptions). Anyone else have thoughts, opinions and/or experiences to share? Or does everyone here associate anything "canned" with Milli Vanilli and/or Karaoke? I guess some types of audiences would even consider looping as "cheating" in some way. I guess the line between "live" and "canned" loops has become blurry over the years and has largely ceased to matter to me at all. Best, tEd ® kiLLiAn http://www.mp3s.com/tedkillian http://www.pfmentum.com/flux.html http://www.CDbaby.com/cd/tedkillian http://www.guitar9.com/fluxaeterna.html