Re: Footcontroling of the Elektrix Repeater

[mark francombe <mark@markfrancombe.com>]

PER SAID:
Sometimes when playing with that rig I
imagined the EDP as the accurate professional and the Repeater as the
drunk but incredibly talented improviser rambling its way through the
score with a funny smile :-)  That's what I liked with its
imperfection; it sounded funny in an almost organic way.

Yes, I feel exactly the same way, its kind of what I meant. I dont mean that the sliding notes isnt pretty ok. Its fine if you are pitching your loops to create a .. er.. lets say 4 chord turnaround riff. or 12bar blues or basic backing. Where it begins to sound the same is when you sequence it. For a while I used it with a little 16 note analog sequencer, but i always got the same basic sound cos all notes were always with "Portamento" (the correct term I believe?)

MATTHIAS ASKED:
thats interesting! I guessed its in some big hand, unreachable?

Probably, I could try to follow up the connections I made, that were not negative, but not particularly interested either.

MATTHIAS ASKED:

if only the evoloop could replace both...

wow.. oh yes... please!! :)

MATTHIAS ASKED:

what do you mean: anal?

Maybe a better term would be More forgiving, musically. Like in EDP, you implemented many ways to END an operation. This was the genius behind EDP (if you didnt already know it?) that musical FLOW could be sustained, freely moving to the next segment of your song, choosing to go from Record straight into Reverse, or multiply or insert. If gives a feeling of freedom. Whereas the Repeater always needs you to end an operation properly. Maybe still not well explained... Its just a FEEL thing, of being at one with the machine. EDP has often been likened to a new instrument in itself, Not so Repeater, that feels more like the recording process in a studio. Record, change tracks, record more... etc. It gets alot better with a good foot pedal implementation however.

MATTHIAS ASKED:

sure… but how does this combine with switching them all on, how would you want to control this?
a mono- and a poly-track mode?

Well I realise you ask in relation to planning Evoloop, and therfore the implementation would have to follow Evoloops playing process. but on Repeater it would be obvious to follow the Repeater method, that is simply select which tracks you wish to record onto, 1, 2, 3, or 4  (or 1 and 3, or 2 and 4 or 2 and 3 etc) and hit record.
However, this is in opposition to the way it works now, as there is the STEREO functionality to think of.
Personally I don't use a stereo input on Repeater, therefore stereo operation is no use to me (except that I can record to 2 tracks at once) I have a loop from input 1 to input 2. But currently selecting BOTH tracks 1 and 2 (or 3 and 4) forces stereo operation.

Im interested in how many actually USE stereo INPUTS on the Repeater, as there are not many stereo send mixers (I keep looking for one, needs to be 1 U though) And Thru play on the Repeater is not wise, as the dry sound is then tainted by the less than perfect A to D converters. (or something like that)... anyway, there has been noticed a latency, not by me, cos I use it in a loop.

Mark

On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 1:05 AM, Matthias Grob <matilists@gmail.com> wrote:

On 22.Nov, 2013, at 3:13 PM, mark francombe <mark@markfrancombe.com> wrote:

> Late to the thread, but I must say to Oliver, the original poster, that the repeater is my favorite looper that I forget I have! Im so glad I have never sold it. Its sad tat dev on it has stopped, and for a while I was investigating the possibility of limited and authorised fan development. I managed to tack down the current owner of the pitch stretch software and had a few mails back and forth about how we might set up some license for one dev to work on upgrades. Not me you understand, I was just gonna project manage the thing. Anyway.. it fizzled out.

thats interesting! I guessed its in some big hand, unreachable?

>
> However, I still love the repeater, and have a number of ways of controlling it. Ive got the mini keyboard set out on foot pedals. Also I spent a hell of a long time making a set of preset "chords" that I can trigger from iPad (Oh I should say that Ive mapped all repeaters controls (and hidden controls) to iPad via the missing link box and TouchOSC.) So a simple drone, copied to all tracks can be turned into chords, but think what happens when its NOT a chord, but rhythmic input, and then changed via iPad.

hum, thats why you want to record on all tracks at once...

>
> If the EDP is the timing oriented chop and cut looper, the Repeater is the killer "ambient" looper. Its great to have the feedback quite low and use as an echo machine, where the echos are pitched, now with V2 software, you can press and hold a track to get individual play stop reverse of any track, so tracks can be brought totally out of synch.

if only the evoloop could replace both...
>
> It has its quirks, I wish I could record to all tracks at once, I wish the trim controls would have midi commands, then repeater would have true loop windowing, instead of the manual (also fun) knob grabbing version. I wish it would NOT take forever to get to new pitches or slips (some like this... Per I think? I think its a quirky effect, but would be more usable if it didn't!)

I always that the impression that this problem ultimately killed the whole company. it must be difficult to change speed quickly without causing distortions and the automatic adaption to sync again after a speed change must be horribly complicated... and the tiny DSP and the flash memory made it all worse… yet we cannot even say they wanted to much, its what we really need to feel free in terms of musical speed

thats a decent task for you, Jeff! :-)

> I wish I could end operations with alternate commands, be a bit less anal.

what do you mean: anal?

> For example, overdub on track one, then instead of stopping overdub, be able to go straight into track 3 and overdub there..

sure… but how does this combine with switching them all on, how would you want to control this?
a mono- and a poly-track mode?

--

Mark Francombe
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