RE: letting the drummer hear your loop live

[goddard.duncan@mtvne.com]

Title: RE: letting the drummer hear your loop live

>>If the loop is static, the drummer must play to it, physically. If the drummer can't hear the loop it causes the proverbial train wreck.<<

a powered speaker, usually a spare guitar amp, fed with a loop or a tick or a sequencer line and aimed at the drummer's head. they are usually more comfortable with this sort of side-fill arrangement than with headphones or "any of that in-ear nonsense". if there isn't a suitable aux send available, the headphone output of something in y'r rack- repeater or synth module- with something suitably rhythmic and loud coming out of it. but always make y'r own arrangements for this- don't rely on house-monitors.

if it's possible to put the master clock somewhere where the drummer can tap-tempo it, so much the better. the repeater is quite reasonable at this, though it's generated clock is a bit wobbly for running 'owt else off. the little korg electribe units are much better at tap-tempo'ing a stable clock, and we have used ours in exactly this fashion:

a sequenced piece ends, then there's a mad free-for-all run by the drummer, then the sequencers come back in at a different tempo but they have to join in with the drums... so I tap-tap-tap-start and everything comes in locked to the drums. as soon as he hears the sequencers start, he locks to them. he gets an aux-send of the sequencers and loops through a marshall suitcase-plexi combo, which is shrill enough to remove wallpaper and can thus penetrate drummer-skull-material adequately for our purposes.

the only drawback with this idea is that the jam-things don't like speed changes.

duncan/r.m.i.

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