Re: Loop Survey - Summary

["radio radio" <radiotelevision@gmail.com>]

Great survey Rainer! That's a lot of work, so it must have been a labor of love...It also got me thinking - I have very little to add to discussions on this listserv because I am so new to looping (less than 1 year), and I have received some helpful feedback on basic questions in the past. The looping survey caught my eye because I actually spend a lot of time running statistical analyses of data, sometimes involving surveys like this one, and so if people would be interested (and Rainer doesn't want to do it and and sent me the raw data), I could look into questions like Rainer's "Is age associated with preference for hardware vs. software," and whatever other questions that people are curious about, and using the same sorts of analyses that researchers use when they want to know whether something looks like a difference but could actually be attributable to chance alone (versus, for example, to age or something else), or they want to know "how much" of a difference there is in some meaningful metric (although 'meaningful' again is subjective and would likely involve to some extent more 'statistics'). It would be relatively simple enough on my end, but could definitely be more technical than most people who don't typically deal in statistics would care about, even if I explained it in non-statistical terms. So, if anyone cares enough, let me know. Otherwise, I will spare the glazed eyes that I usually get when I talk about statistical research with people who aren't used to it.

Eben

 

On 9/30/07, Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill <rs@moinlabs.de> wrote:

Hi everyone,

first of all, thanks to all who took my online survey regarding looping and
loopers. With 89 answers, at least some of the answers will bear some
statistical relevance. Please find below some of the results summarized. All
values are percentages of the total answers. In the "looper rating"
category, the results are averaged to a percentage value as well (with
++=100%, +=75% and so on up to --=0%). Some rounding errors may result in
percentages not adding up exactly up to 100%. In some questions, multiple
answers were possible so the total percentage exceeds 100%. Some people
skipped some questions, so the total result may also below 100%.
No analysis regarding relationship of the answers has been done (e.g. are
the older people more oriented towards hardware).
Indexes in parentheses indicate a ranking. For the ranking of the loopers,
only loopers which got at least 10% of the available answers were
considered.

Again, thanks to all who participated - and on with the results!

       Rainer

1. SUMMARY:
Regarding demographics, the biggest groups are age 35-50 (55%) and more than
ten years of looping experience (42%).
The biggest use for an ensemble setting is in solo performances by a huge
margin (97%). The most important applications for looping are layering
different parts from the same instrument (85%) and structuring
improvisations (72%). The second item makes sense, considering that 79% use
looping for freely improvised material - only 21% use it in entirely
composed material.
For the majority of 52%, looping is used in most of their current work.

80% of the loopers prefer hardware loopers over software loopers. As for
explaining a looper to someone with basic audio tech understanding, the
majority would describe it as some kind of delay (36%), followed by the
sampler analogy (30%) and a completely different explanation (27%).
(Question: what are these "other explanations?")

The statistics regarding use and ranking of loopers have been done
separately for SW and HW. Yet comparing both results, the most-used software
looper would rank place 5 in a total ranking of the most-used loopers.

The HW top3 usage-wise are the EDP (54%), followed by the DL4 (42%) and the
Repeater (40%). Ranking-wise, the best ranking for a hardware looper goes to
the Looperlative (94%! - hats off, bob!), followed by the EDP (89%) and with
a little more distance the Repeater (79%).

In the software domain, the top3 used looper software packages are a draw
between Mobius and Ableton Live (31%), followed by SooperLooper (17%).
Rating-wise, it's Mobius with 90% in the front, followed by MAX/MSP (88%)
and AugustusLoop (83%).


2. DEMOGRAPHICS:
Age Categories:
       <20     : 0%
       20-35 : 19%
       35-50 : 55%
       >50     : 26%

Loop Experience (years):
       <1      : 5%
       1-3     : 15%
       3-5     : 19%
       5-10    : 20%
       >10     : 42%

3. ENSEMBLE SETTINGS/USE OF LOOPING:
Ensemble Setting:
       solo                    : 97%
       ensemble                : 51%
       process others  : 16%

Use of looping:
       layer same instrument   : 85%
       layer different instr.  : 52%
       sound design            : 55%
       process others          : 15%
       structure improvisation : 72%
       structure noise sources : 58%

Improvisation vs. Composition:
       free improvisation      : 79%
       composed w/ improv part : 54%
       entirely composed               : 21%

How often do you loop:
       all of current work     : 38%
       most of current work    : 52%
       only occasionaly                : 9%

4. LOOPER TECHNOLOGY:
Eplanation of a Looper:
       delay           : 36%
       sampler : 30%
       DAW             : 6%
       other           : 27%

Preference hardware vs software:
       hardware        : 80%
       software        : 18%

5. HARDWARE LOOPERS:
Usage of HW Loopers:
       EDP                     : 54%
       Repeater                : 40%
       Looperlative    : 10%
       Boomerang               : 21%
       Lexicon Jamman  : 30%
       Lexicon Vortex  : 36%
       Headrush                : 17%
       2290                    : 6%
       DL4                     : 42%
       Boss RC series  : 30%
       Boss DD20               : 21%
       Digitech Jamman : 10%
       Digitech RDS/PDS        : 17%
       EH 2880         : 3%
       Frippertronics  : 12%
       Eventides               : 7%
       Tape Delay              : 19%

Rating of HW Loopers:
       EDP                     : 89%
       Repeater                : 79%
       Looperlative    : 94%
       Boomerang               : 63%
       Lexicon Jamman  : 70%
       Lexicon Vortex  : 66%
       Headrush                : 62%
       2290                    : 50%
       DL4                     : 70%
       Boss RC series  : 72%
       Boss DD20               : 64%
       Digitech Jamman : 56%
       Digitech RDS/PDS        : 65%
       EH 2880         : 67%
       Frippertronics  : 75%
       Eventides               : 79%
       Tape Delay              : 66%

6. SOFTWARE LOOPERS:
Usage of SW Loopers:
       Ableton Live    : 31%
       PSP delays              : 11%
       Mobius          : 31%
       AugustusLoop    : 15%
       SooperLooper    : 17%
       LloopyLlama             : 11%
       Radical         : 4%
       MAX/MSP         : 12%

Rating of SW Loopers:
       Ableton Live    : 64%
       PSP delays              : 48%
       Mobius          : 90%
       AugustusLoop    : 83%
       SooperLooper    : 65%
       LloopyLlama             : 58%
       Radical         : 50%
       MAX/MSP         : 88%