Re: Looper -> multitrack

[Alex Stahl <alex@pixar.com>]

At 4:01 AM -0300 5/18/00, Matthias Grob wrote:
>
>great! you are full of computers...

it was an accident, honest :-) and I really do have these recurring 
"setting up equipment in front of an audience" dreams. Maybe I should 
just accept it and call it performance art. Didn't Fripp do something 
like that when he was learning how to use the DSP4000? <duck>

<moreflamebait> Anyway, I have lost track of the difference between 
rack mount digital audio devices and computers. My reverb, tape 
recorder and harmonizer all crash and have to be rebooted sometimes, 
plus many new mixers, multitrack recorders and even reverbs take so 
long to turn on there must be Windows inside. Moreover, if I refrain 
from using a computer for anything but very specific music 
applications, it runs reliably enough. In fact it works better than 
using a tape splicer to open mail envelopes, know what I mean? 
</moreflamebait>


>I did not quite understand whether you rebuild the loops using the 
>external looper again (which is it?) or by mounting loops in the 
>mltitrack soft.

Both. Rebuilding through an external looper is useful if there is one 
or two clams which snuck into an otherwise happy loop.  Putting up 
recorded loops in multitrack software, and looping the loops, or 
rearranging fragments of them is often more interesting however, 
because it is like improvising in the recording environment-- you 
quickly stumble upon serendipitous surprises and are always working 
with something fresh. Presentation not representation and all that.


>What do you mean by "my own looping stuff"?

Well, for a long time I have been keeping a haphazard journal, 
designing an instrument to help break down the barriers between 
playing, composing, recording, sampling, editing and mixing. I find 
these distinctions highly arbitrary and for the most part side 
effects of technological habits.

About three years ago I "got it" that personal computers were fast 
enough to allow mere mortals to fool around with DSP coding, without 
having to worry *too much* about optimization and more arcane 
programming issues. I started writing a looper in James McCartney's 
SuperCollider, then migrated to Cycling74's Max/MSP since I happened 
to live down the street from the UC Berkeley Center for New Music and 
Audio Technologies (CNMAT). A lot of nice people at CNMAT have done 
wonders with Max and have been an inspiration to me.

So, "My own looping stuff" is a rather huge Max/MSP patch that I have 
mentioned here a few times before, plus a bunch of more traditional 
outboard gear and a digital mixer under MIDI footpedal control. I 
certainly appreciate boxes like the EDP but for my own purposes, I 
want a lot more flexibility in transforming loops on the fly, while 
continuing to play into them. "Live editing" is probably a better 
description of what I am trying to do than looping, not that I do not 
enjoy simple repetition and layering.

I will probably end up giving this stuff away since I am a terrible 
entrepreneur, but not until it works the way I want it to. Since I am 
unfortunately way too busy with a day job and a family to devote a 
lot of time to the project, it could be another year. But it is 
getting there slowly but surely. If anyone knows how to sell 
un-copy-protected software for a very fair price without losing more 
money on marketing than you make giving it away, let me know! I don't 
need to make money on it, it is a labor of love, but I cannot afford 
to provide fair tech support for free.

-Alex S.