surround looping

["Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill" <rs@moinlabs.de>]

I'm currently reflecting the possibility of doing looping-related
performance in a speaker configuration with more than two channels.

While I understand that this has already been done (Andre LaFosse @
Monkey comes to mind), it seems that the vast majority work in mono or
stereo (and here, again the majority is working mostly in mono).

First, I'm thinking a little bit about the hardware configuration. Most
devices I know are basically mono or stereo. This includes loopers,
effects, signal sources and, most importantly, mixers.

So here are my thoughts:

i. Surround configuration: To keep it as simple as possible, 4.0 seems
the way to go for me. Anything I'll say from now on with regard to
channel numbers will refer to four channels. Any reasons why I should
try to setup for 5.1 or worse?

ii. Mixers: Of the five mixers I have, only one offers surround
capabilities. For the others, a pseudo-surround mix would have to be
realized either via auxes or busses. The busses would have the
disadvantage that it only gives the possibility to position sound either
front or middle or back on the x axis of the room. Would you see this as
a limitation? Working with auxes might prove rather counter-intuitive...

iii. Loopers, Effects, Processors: Well there's not a lot with surround
capabilities in my setup. I already hear people screaming "laptop" - so
they get a separate paragraph altogether.
Apart from that, there is no real surround looper I know of (except
perhaps the big Eventide devices). What looks sourround-capable is the
Modular G2 I'll get in a few weeks - it's got four ins and outs and lots
of flexibility. Anyone tried this one in a configuration like this?
Apart from that, I am thinking of using mono loops, which I might then
place in the field via the mixer, rather than try to record loops in
surround. Same goes for the effects - get a stereo signal and then place
this somewhere in the room.


iv. Laptop: Apart from the fact that I didn't yet find a looper plugin
which I like (Windows platform), and the latency is still larger than
with dedicated hardware units, what would I need as a host application?
I'm sure it wouldn't be Live! (because it can't to surround, can it?),
and I'd like to avoid having to use Nuendo. Any suggestions?
I still find the problem that I only have two audio ins on my laptop,
but this could be worked on...

v. master processor: I think I just leave the Finalizers and Ultracurves
and L2s at home, simply to avoid shifting images...


So far, just a first thought - looking forward to your input!