Re: Appropriate use of canned material in concert was RE: Fear of "canned" loops

["Miko Biffle" <biffoz@arczip.com>]

> From: "Emile Tobenfeld (a.k.a Dr. T)" <emile@foryourhead.com>
> Subject: Appropriate use of canned material in concert was RE: Fear of
"canned"
> loops


> Many years ago (20 or so), I did visuals for an early electro improv band
in Boston (Mono Vogue -- I doubt you have heard of it)

> One night, the leader was the only one there at the start of the set.
Undaunted, he started a cheesey drum machine lick (in those days, that was
the only flavor), started a recording of an  incredibly dry lecture on
industrial engineering, and played keyboard over that.

> This still strikes me as the most appropriate use of precanned material 
>in
live music performance that I have encountered.

Aha... This gets at my own theory (and reluctance) to use canned loops.

The pre-recorded material should never appear smarter or upstage the actual
live musicians! I want pre-recorded stuff to be fairly dumb and obviously
there only to supply some simple function. Either timekeeping; something to
react to (the above example from Emile); SIMPLE atmospherics.

If anything interesting is going to happen, I believe it should be applied
in real time. Fancy-pants stereo processing; re-contextualization of the
canned stuff with real-time creativity etc. Canned stuff should always
appear dumber than the performer!

If the canned stuff is the impressive stuff, there's really no 
justification
for the presence of the live musician!

-Miko