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Looper's Delight
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PB> I'm definitely with Jeremy: Repetition is not what defines looping. I see repetition as one of the most important tools for composition (could be the repetition of a musical phrase but also the repetition of musical parameters or just the repetition of the length between two beats). To repeat or not to repeat something is what keeps the music between tension and relaxation and gives the listener a feeling of safety or irritation. Even if looping does not mean to repeat whatever all the time and there is a lot of ways to escape boring repetitions, I think that looping deals with repetition. Even if you do not repeat the possibility is there. So maybe the possible repetition defines looping? Still I like to imagine a loop visually, from car racing to hoola-hoop to möbius loops out of paper, there is endless ways to play with a loop. These pictures give me a more precise imagination of what loop-music can be as I could describe it. Matthias PB> On May 14, 2005, at 0:59, jeremy wrote: >> Recycling existing material is not necessarily repeating what was >> played >> originally. A few things I’ve tried..... >> >> Using feedback pedal or swell pedal to fade notes into the loop >> Output volume down until your curiosity gets the better of you. >> Dropping straight into reverse after record, feedback at zero >> Play insert, scroll backwards and forwards over section (rec/play) >> Play insert in rhythm with half-speed function (rec/play) >> Play mute button rhythmically (start and continuous) >> The substitute button >> Flip mode >> Processing the sends to loopers >> Processing the returns from the loopers >> Sending dry only or wet only to the loopers >> The off switch >> Pitch shift on Repeater >> “Plate spinning” i.e. Constantly maintaining/remaking a loop. >> Taking time to play before looping a phrase – only loop when you >> need to >> Play ratty little noises, play quietly, leave space, orchestrate >> >> I’m sure there’s more. What I hope to achieve by these techniques >> is that >> the listener will not recognize the loop as what has just been >> played – it’s >> a new thing. PB> Very interesting to sum up available looping options like that! If we PB> leave EDP territory for a while and look into using different PB> software there are many nice techniques that use random calculations PB> to mangle the loop while the musician records (overdubs) into the PB> loop. I find that extremely interesting. Yesterday I set up a looping PB> environment in Live 4 with randomly shifting rhythmic volume patterns PB> of two parallel loopers. On each 4th note there is the probability of PB> 1 to 11 for the rhythmic pattern to change to a different pattern. PB> Since loopers, panned left-right, change patterns randomly, there is PB> almost never the exact poly rhythm in volume envelopes. Not in the PB> stereo pulsation either. It's simply cooking. PB> Add to that the fact that just using two, or more, loopers PB> simultaneously will create different non static texture if different PB> loop lengths are used. And finally, when I transpose the pitch of the PB> two loops the loop length is changing. Higher pitch gives shorter PB> loop length. When pitch transposing is done to loops in recording/ PB> overdub mode old layers (recorded at a different pitch) take on a new PB> rhythm. And this can be done even more non linear: if you go from C PB> to F you can set up the pedal to transpose loop one five semi tones PB> up and loop two seven semi tones down.