RE: RPTR issues

["William Walker" <billwalker@baymoon.com>]

I suggest that your compression issue with the rptr may have as much to do
with the pickup you are using  as the rprtr itself. Sounds like what you 
are
describing is the performance characteristics of piezo pickups, somewhat
thin, compressed and one dimensional what kind of pickup are you using? and
does it have a proper buffer preamp between it and your rptr?

 the CFC click you refer to can be worked around my always reformatting the
card before recording directly to it. I discovered the click noise came 
from
a cfc card that had been rerecorded over a bunch a times, try reformatting
before performance and see if the tick goes away.

 regarding hiss and peaks, are you running the rptr in a parallel effects
loop with the input mute engaged?  you should be for optimal sound

 You have got to hit multiply on the down beat of a loop or else it will do
the slow down ramp up thing, I feel your pain, but I've gotten more 
accurate
and am having less problems.

Hope that helps.
Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: Zoe Keating [mailto:cello@zoekeating.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 11:01 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: Looperlative LP1 - sample rate


The problems I've always had, on both my RPTRs:

- Compression of the cello tone. It always sounds to me as though the
upper layers of harmonics get "stripped" once it is recorded. The
more layers I add, the more "squashed" and un-cello like it sounds.
Sometime this is good and I like to play with it, but increasingly I
want more control over my sound. What worked for small gallery shows
is not working so well in large theaters.

- Hiss vs Peaks. I've learnt a lot about impedence matching since
starting with the Repeater, and I think I'm running the cleanest way
possible. However, every way I've ever patched (and I am continually
trying new routings to try to get a better sound) I am stymied by the
hiss. The obvious solution, increasing the input, is dangerous
because I run a serious risk of peaks (and the RPTR sounds horrible
when distorted). The cello is a very dynamic instrument, I move
quickly from light sounds to heavy ones and I don't like to overly
compress  pre-RPTR.  I like to have a lot of headroom to work with. I
find that I am so nervous in performance about possible peaks, that I
"hold back" in my playing style and that limits me musically and
expressively.

- CFC ticking. A few of my pieces rely on long loops. During
performance, I need to record them onto the CFC, rather than internal
memory or I will quickly hit the memory limit. The CFC ticks and it
ticks loudly and I find it embarassing and unprofessional. Stephen,
from this list (who I had a lovely meeting with in Seattle last month
where we talked all things RPTR) told me about someone in Seattle who
can fix this. As soon as I get back from this tour, I intend to get
that done.

New audio problems that I expect are from age:

- input knob crackles.
- left output is lower in volume than the right.

New software problem:

- The RPTR gets "locked" and I cannot stop, play, record, or do
anything, via midi or any amount of button pressing. Only way to get
out of it is to power down.

Old software problems that still bite me during performance (someone
suggested this might be the FCB1010 causing my troubles. Possible. I
have it on my task list to locate comparable midi controller that has
he same wide, flat buttons as the FCB1010. I tried the Ground Control
but I have problem using those little metal buttons while sitting at
the cello) :

- loops speed up when I hit multiply (occasionally)
- stereo record becomes engaged on tracks 3 + 4 when I hit advance
track (occasionally)

Old interface problem that messes me up at least once per show:

- lack of feedback as to what tracks are muted! only way to "reset"
is to power down. Rather than risk a track being muted as I start the
next song, I always power down between songs.

  Fun!


On Dec 13, 2005, at 10:07 PM, Travis Hartnett wrote:

> By "various sound quality issues" do you mean that it's started to
> malfunction, or that it always had these issues?
>
> TravisH
>
> On 12/13/05, Zoe Keating <cello@zoekeating.com> wrote:
>
>> Wow. Exciting!!! I REALLY, REALLY hope it materializes. I love my
>> Repeater and rely on it heavily, but it is just not holding up very
>> well in public performance because of various sound quality issues.
>> I'm ready for a replacement and have given up on waiting for my MK2
>> to arrive.
>>
>>
>
>
>
>