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Looper's Delight
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Hi Friends, I've spotted some threads on foot controllers recently. And since I just recently posted about my research for a smaller ctrl setup I'd just like to add now that I have given up on that; my vision of having just one pedal and changing its functionality by additional hand control (laptop keys, MIDI hand button pad etc). The simplest and coolest solution I tried was a one-button glass mouse, from Apple, gaffer taped to the stage floor so you can place the mouse cursor with touch control on the laptop pad and simply tap the floor mouse with a foot at the correct timing. (I had the same wish for the EDP many years ago, using its programs to set different functionality setups for a given set of floor buttons) The direct reason I gave up on all this is that when I finally plugged in my FCB yesterday, I had such a kick simply by not having to plan my playing much in advance. Also by playing both the looper and the instrument at the same time. What blast that was - being able to decide on the spot where to go on the next downbeat! An example: I tend to work a lot with pitch. In loopers I constantly work the rate/speed to create melodies "in the loop" or just chord changes to accompany melody lines I play on top. I had noticed that there are only about a dozen "chord vamps" I usually improvise with in different combinations, so I thought I could pre program those changes to lift off the burden of tap dancing over the floor pedals. How wrong I was! It really IS not the same thing having a preprogrammed looper action sequence thrown at you as if you should play the looper with feet (for the very same action sequence) while you play an instrument by hand. So I was wrong, but I had some fun finding out about that. I'm finding the FCB pedal good enough for what I regard an optimal looping setup: Instant access to some few but powerful actions. Playable. -- Greetings from Sweden Per Boysen www.boysen.se (Swedish) www.looproom.com (international) www.myspace.com/perboysen