Hi Michael,
I went to see the Belew Trio when they played here last winter, and afterwards spoke with the drummer and asked that question. He has in ear monitors with a click track also a midi controller pad (or two) to his left. I am not sure how he uses that, he may be using it to switch the tempo of the loop to fit his tempo. I can say the end result seems seemless, everything was pretty synced for the performance.
It was an awesome show, they were having a lot of fun and Belew really plays some nice loops.
Eric
From:
Michael Peters <mp@mpeters.de>
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Sent: Sun, October 31, 2010 3:33:42 PM
Subject: Looping with a drummer
Maybe I'll find out on Nov 8th how Adrian Belew's drummer copes with the
loops that come from Adrian. Does he have a click in an in-ear monitor, or
something like that, or does he simply listen to the loops on the monitor
box, and that is enough to keep him synced?
What are your experiences of rhythmic guitar looping in a band - what is the
best way to keep the drummer synced to the loop that you create? do you use
a predefined click, something like a Ableton backing track - or do you set
the loop timing by foot and leave it to the drummer to stay synced with it?
do you give him headphones or just point some speaker towards him?
I have this fabulous bassist and drummer and we're just starting to develop
material. It is not sure if we will find a suitable keyboard player - we
might stay a power trio for a while, and I'd like to find ways to enhance
this situation by using loops. Not sure how
though.
-Michael