Re: ebow, tamboura & accoustic looping (mikes?)

[Tim Nelson <tcn62@ici.net>]

I did something like that at a jam once; the drummer's young stepdaughter
insisted on singing, and I knew she wouldn't go away until we let her, so I
set her up with a mic plugged into my looping rig and snagged a few quick
layers that sounded rather unearthly. I faded the mic out and we built some
surprisingly cool parts around the loop, but at the end of the piece the
recording is marred (or enhanced, depending on your perspective) by the
gradeschool diva's screech of "HEY! You cut my sound off! Right in the
middle, you cut my sound off!"

Along with live instruments, I often mix in looped recordings of
environmental sounds such as birdsong, treefrogs, bees, etc., as well as
the ubiquitous babbling baby that's appeared on countless sound effects
recordings. (I swear the same one keeps showing up; you'd know it if you
heard it!)  They come in handy in smoothing transitional parts; changing
instruments, setting up patches on the fly and so forth...

I'd like to try hanging a mic over the audience to grab and loop little
bits of chatter. Haven't tried it yet, though; I wonder if I'd get more
signal or howling feedback! Hmmm, must try this...

Tim

At 03:08 PM 5/24/00 -0700, Stephen wrote:
>priceless.  makes me wonder what other sorts of
>impromptu audience participation / environment sounds
>one could loop, run through effects and incorporate
>into a piece - a baby's babble, applause, that damn
>espresso machine....