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Bill, Greg, Steve, et al . . . Yeah, the main reason I decided not to perform at this year's Y2K7 fest was (similarly) the prospect of having to face schlepping a mountain-o-gear to play a half-hour set and feel abjectly miserable afterwards that it didn't all go well (or hardly got going before it was over). I've been paring down for the past several months too. My 16-space rack-o-doom is no more - half of the contents are gone (sold on Ebay or elsewhere). I am still trying to find a home for the rack itself, various cabs and a plethora of pedals. But lets put things in perspective. To me, paring down has meant going from a big, 200+ pound 16-space rack on casters (totally full on the front and then half-way up the back side too) and a heaping pile-o-pedals to just a couple of small rack bags and a half dozen EV-5s. It'll still be a lot of stuff with a lot of options. But, when I'm done I will be able to pack it all in the back of my PT Cruiser (with room to spare) and complete my loading and unloading in just 2 trips max - hopefully never even breaking a sweat. Most of my playing for the last half dozen months or more (since last March) has been non-looping with just a resonator guitar, fingerpicks, slide and an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal with a little 85 watt combo amp with reverb. It's been a challenge to get back to basics like that . . . to NOT to be driving 3 synths with my MIDI'd guitar, have 3 or 4 synced or unsynced loopers going, all kinda of FX pre- and post-loop, 3 separate dedicated reverbs (for gosh sakes), 2 ebows, 2 Vortexes, phrase sampler, amps, cabs and other crap to compete for my attention . . . but, also, as you might surmize, it been a real pleasure too. I've been learning to play a whole new kind of music (for me) as well! I've been playing (on a weekly Sunday basis) old-timey hymns in a similar old-timey Christian church (109 years in the same location) to mostly grey-headed retirees and a few college students. Tomorrow I plan to spring a little DD-20 and ebow on them for some **contemplative** instrumental music during communion service. Funny, I have never been more nervous in my life - but I am looking forward to it too. Not to worry though, I am still going to do the same old weirdo "Flux" stuff as I always have for my "creative" music gigs. I bought a VG-99 and FC-300 together back in October and I've never owned a **deeper** piece of kit. And the sounds . . . oooooooooo . . . waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much fun. Ad that to the rack bags and if there are any looping or experimental fests lining up for 2008 I'll be more than ready. I'll be loaded for bear. Cheers, Ted On Dec 15, 2007, at 10:39 AM, greg williams wrote: > AARRGGH! Why do you people have to bring this stuff up while I’m > trying to get my head around new gear and pedalboard controller > moves?! Cruel, cruel loopers! J > > Yours, > ~Greg > > > From: William Walker [mailto:billwalker@baymoon.com] > Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 7:23 PM > To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com > Subject: TC Electronics G Sharp, and LESSISMORE > > For the last few years I’ve been pairing back my effects usage while > my Looping has continued to become more complex. With my move to the > Looperlative and its 8 track and bounce capability, I’ve found less > and less need for complex effects processing, and I’m sure it’s also > a matter of my tastes changing as well. I used to be a chronic chorus > and modulation abuser. [snip] > Ah this has happened before...wasting energy setting up a mountain of > gear only to not use half of it. The other revelation that is somewhat > obvious is that in pairing back the gear I end up playing more music > and spending less time tweaking and thinking about sound design. > Bill