looping in GR

[steve <dawerks@tampabay.rr.com>]

i did my first solo looping gig last night
i did it using my instruments, my G5 running Guitar Rig
and a pair of EV SxA100 powered monitors
(+ one SM57 into sx202 into one side of GRs stereo in)

not in any way recommending this as an ideal setup or anything
but i had a good experience and i thought i'd share it

my background with looping;
i made an extended tape machine once a very long time ago
but it was unstable and i didn't really get into it
i picked up a dl-4 a few years ago but didn't do much with it and let  
it go
so while of course i use looping in my normal composition and recording
i've not been a real time or live looper but ya know always aware of it
and recently keenly interested in trying it again
(hence i rejoined this list a month ago)

i have some friends that are local la leche league leaders
and they hear me noodle/practice alot at family park get togethers  
and such
they asked me if i would play for the summer art show gala
and i figured it would be a great time to give live looping a go

i started looking around at looping devices with 4-500 being about  
all i was willing
to spend on the project, there where several options that seemed  
appealing and
among them was the loop machine in GR, i have used GR and like it,
GR is on sale with the controller and all for $350 so i jumped

out of the box i had loads of pop and crackle and such but by using  
the suggestions
on NIs site and working the G5 specifically for GR it worked fine

my orig idea and long term approach would not be to use GR  
exclusively for sounds
but it sounded good enough that for this project i did
for the most part on this night i would be using simple acoustic guitar,
clean bass and jazz box sounds plus one guitar synth patch i couldn't  
resist
instruments used where a guild acoustic F-45, a custom headless 5  
string fretless
bass and an ibanez GB-10, i also had a mic setup and was able to  
build a couple
patches in GR that had the mic brought in and processed independently  
of the
guitar signal and then mixed, i ran an EQ, light comp, and a little  
room verb to the mic
and it sounded very good, i sang thru it on a couple songs, they did  
some anouncements over it even
i was impressed

the loop machine does not have advanced sound mangling tools
what it does have is a clean and just stoopidly easy to use simple  
looper
there is a mapping function for most any parameter in GR and the loop  
machine
was easy to use with rec/play/dub, stop and undo mapped to 3 switches  
on the FC
for the purpose of recording and repeating parts live is was fantastic

i was doing "music for the masses" as its been put here recently
mostly improvised and working over themes of mine
a few songs but for the most part just playing background instrumentals
most of it done by starting with a guitar pattern or phrase, looping it
jamming on fretless till i find a pattern, adding that to the loop
then playing over that on the guild or GB-10, i also did some pieces  
with just
2 bass parts and didn't realize just how much i would like that!  big  
fun!
music was well received and a gent that was watching me pack up  
marveling
at the computer was humming a melody i had played in one of my better  
pieces

i had no glitches, no pops and cracks that i heard during the entire  
2.5 hours
i only had to touch the mouse a couple time to adjust vols and with a  
better controller
that wouldn't be an issue, i realize i didn't put the demands on it  
some might
but the whole thing went smooth as could be
caveats:  i had to pull my MOTU 424 and driver out of the G5 to get  
GR to function well
with its built in audio on the controller, the controller is sluggish  
and apparently NI
has trouble making drivers that get along well with others (sim issue  
with kore)
so i'm pretty certain that i will not be using the audio I/O or the  
controller.
and if i continue to do real time looping(and as much FUN as i have  
been having....)
i will explore superlooper and other SW options but i was very  
impressed with GRs
loop machine for this sort of basic and i would imagine common  
looping app

i'm sold on using the computer live, it just went so smooth
simple set up elegant look, easy to use with a midi controller
made it a really great night, UUC dome art center is a beautiful space
really great people and a wonderful organization
my first live looping experience was a joy