Re: Laptops, Drum Loops, etc.

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Andy asked:

"Isn't Tuareg supposed to be good for beat creation?
http://www.brambos.com/archive.html these days it's free"


I've used (and love) Tu2 (formerly known as Tuareg) an awful lot in the 
past.
Very cool that it's free now, but I think it was worth it when the pro 
version was
$25.    Still couldn't hurt to send Bram some dough for all the time he 
spent
in putting it out to the community.

I would say it's very good for beat augmentation but not for beat creation
specifically.

It's a loop slicer, essentially and it has a lot of very hip 
randomization algorithms.

One trick I love to use with Tuareg is to take a fairly non rhythmic 
ambient track
that has more movement than a mere synth pad and then slice it into a 
rhythm
that may be reiterated by a syncopative hi hat track or rhythmic/melodic 
ostinato
pattern.

If you take the resultant Tuareg track,   render it and then bring it in 
under the
ostinato part you want to emphasize but so that it is barely audible 
against
your main track  it gives  'flava'   to the track.

For me, this is a really clever way to create hip new feels.   One can 
take fairly avant garde
sounding processing but make it so quiet that it is felt more than it is 
heard overtly.
Then it just has a patina of 'the new' without overtly challenging a pop 
audience.

rick walker