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Looper's Delight
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In my 35 year professional career as a studio drummer/percussionist/producer I have played with hundreds of click tracks, drum machines and sequencers. I've played and recorded with musicians with 'great time' and with 'truly terrible time'. I've been blessed to play in different cultural paradigms, rhythmically speaking (the Brazilians feel time differently than the Algerians or Southern 'fat back' R&B players) with many different master musicians (and drummers) from around the planet.
I can say, categorically, that I have learned more about the concept of TIME and TIMING from performing and recording with live looping devices than
all of those experiences put together.*When you loop (unless you have quantized looping that is triggered by another midi instrument) you ARE the loop. You are the TIME. If you have any minor amount of timing problems they will appear instantly in your loops. I call them the 'lumpy loops' and they can be the bane of our existence when playing live or in a recording studio.
There are, of course, strategies for how to practice making one's loops sound 'better', rhythmically and there are strategies for how to survive a lumpy loop in the middle of a concert (it still happens occasionally after 18 years
of digitally assisted live looping) but that's fodder for another thread.Every single musician that I know who has time problems, I highly encourage to buy an inexpensive live looping stomp box pedal.
Rick Walker* which is not to denigrate all that I've learned from those wonderful experiences and master musicians.
On 11/10/2013 11:12 AM, William Walker wrote:
I play with 3 different keyboard players in various settings, one of which is seriously in to looping. Guess which keyboard player has the best sense of rhythm and is the most fun to play with because his timing is so solid? That would be the looper guy.