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Looper's Delight
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In response to the current thread about comparing the EDP apple with
the Repeater orange...
well I guess this topic hasn't arisen in over a year so why not take a
whack at it... :)
The two devices are based on very different technology, each unit
approaches seemingly
simliar tasks in very different ways. The thing about it is that there
are some functions that
are identical or very nearly similar on the two boxes. They both
radically depart from each other
pretty early on. One of the big similarities concerns the loop starting
point and the
seamlessness of the EDP vs. the artifact created by the Repeater. Also
that with the EDP, you can
go immediately from recording your first loop to overdubbing without the
obligatory 1 second wait
that must be observed with the Repeater. This all stems from the
difference in design
architecture and I feel it is important to keep this in mind. One
architecture allows an enormous
number of possibilities along several paths, while the other architecture
allows another enormous
number of possibilities along several other paths.
I own a Repeater and not the EDP. So I am very familiar with the
quality of sound of the one
and not the other. I hear a degradation of sound in the Repeater, though
with proper gain
staging, it is very slight. I have heard the EDP in several different
situations, one of them
being in one of my bands where the guitarist uses one quite often. Every
time I've heard the EDP,
my sense is that the quality of reproducing a sound is much lower than the
Repeater. I wouldn't
like to make this a hard and fast judgement because I've never worked with
it myself. Certainly I
could do the necessary optimizations to pull the maximum tone out of the
EDP and get a real sense
of it's quality of sound? Has anyone else done this and what do you have
to report? My sense is
that the EDP sucks tone more than the Repeater. A loss of high end while
adding a digital
harshness is what I've observed from the EDP. I'd love to hear that it's
just improper gain
staging and that it can really sound nice after all.
A point about the Repeater that I have come to enjoy more and more
(and really a point about
the entire line of Electrix gear), is the incredibly well thought out
front panel. Even a step
above the rest of the Electrix line, the Repeater has such a nice feel to
it. The raised silver
section around the transport controls has these great details: Physical
barriers between the
reverse and stop buttons and the play and record buttons to discourage
sloppy or inaccurate
presses, indented undo, copy, and replace buttons to also encourage
accuracy, very logical
arrangement and flow of the panel overall, without an overwhelming variety
of "press and hold
these three buttons with your left hand while moving this fader with your
nose and turning that
fader with your johnson to get such and such special functions...",
crystal clear understanding at
a glance of what's going on throughout the system at a given moment.
Andre LaFosse is a great example of someone who has gone in depth
with the EDP and allows the
tool to inform his own playing style and musical output. I use the
Repeater in a similar way. It
is so difficult to compare them. Though it seems to be pretty easy to
want something to be what
it's not. Like any tool, I'd encourage you to look at each piece of gear
as containing it's own
particular qualities and mysteries. It is then up to you to unlock for
yourself some of what is
available. Depending on who you are and how you work and where you want
to go, each tool will
work differently for each person.
I work in an improv trio (two keyboardists and one guitar). The
Repeater almost never comes
into play because the sound is already rich and full enough. If that trio
ever works as a duo
(which happens often enough), the Repeater gets quite a workout. I rely
on it to provide that
extra layer of sound which I can rest on and do other things. And in a
solo context, it becomes
an essential and well used friend.
Stephen
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