Delurk, intro and a couple of questions.

[Risto Paalanen <rtp@iki.fi>]

Hi, loopheads.

I suppose it's finally time for me to come out of the closet. My name is 
Risto Paalanen, and I'm a looper. I've been lurking on LD for years now, 
and I'd like to thank everyone on the list for their ideas; this is 
(occasional warts and all) probably the best web-community I've had the 
pleasure of running into.

I'm currently playing (guitar and doodads) in a noise/industrial/ambient 
band called Älymystö (whose sound is currently under renovation and 
apparently turning into something a bit like this for our upcoming CD: 
http://www.taphead.net/kolminaisuus.mp3), and doing occasional solo 
performances in a more free-improv vein.


Anyway, on to the dilemma! My current gig setup is Guitar -> Pod Pro -> 
Mixer -> Loopers (DL-4 and Repeater) -> Mixer -> PA. My problems with 
this are twofold:

1) Pod Pro is a versatile box, but unfortunately a bit too sterile for 
my taste. I'd like to use something that responds more to the changes in 
style of play, preferably without lugging my trusty Rivera around.

2) I'd like to minimise the amount of equipment I have to haul. A rack 
is an easy solution, but lately I've been trying out Ableton Live and 
have pretty much been floored by it. (At this point, special kudos to 
Per Boysen, whose work with the software has been absolutely stunning.)

So. I've been thinking about switching to an all-laptop setup. I'll 
probably get a Powerbook, since the hefty pricetag does reflect on 
stability and performance. Them's the breaks.

I would prefer not having an amp at all and just settle for running the 
guitar signal through a DI into a laptop running a modelling amplifier / 
Ableton Live, controlled with the FCB1010 and possibly a BCR2000 as MIDI 
controllers. Would any of you folks have experiences with software-amps? 
A second solution would be a Vox Tonelab SE, which seems to me to be 
more responsive than the Pod. The downside would be the real estate it 
takes up on stage as well as the need for extra tapdancing.


Oh, if any there are any loopers in Finland looking for collaborators or 
such, feel free to give me a holler.


Pax,
R.