Re: How does Schon Sync?

[Eric Cook <ecook@conch.aa.msen.com>]

> >It seems to me that getting a perfectly in-sync loop of a
> >rhythm guitar part that the drummer (and the rest of the band) can
> >reliably play to is an extremely dubious proposition.
> >
> >Playing a rhythmic, strictly in-time loop, and triggering the start/stop
> >points manually from a footpedal, is a quite demanding task.  Take all 
>of
> >the possible rhythmic quirks that could crop up in that process, and 
>then
> >compund that with the entire band having to groove to the loop, and what
> >have you got?  A potential train wreck.

Rather than a wreck, you also have the possibility of something exciting
and unexpected happening.  We've used a lot of live guitar loops (mainly
from the digitech 8-second sampler pedal), both live and in recording, and
I've been consistently surprised and pleased with the results with both
in-sync and out-sync loops.  The in-sync loops provide all of the points
you would expect (statement of the riff under a solo, bass line
approximations -- we're a bassless trio, so this has been valuable, and so
on), but the truly exciting parts for me have been the out-sync loops.
You can wind up with just truly bizarre counter-rhythms, strange
"accidental" harmonies, all sorts of essentially non-reproducible results,
which add both a "seat-of-your-pants" excitment for us as performers, and
new compositional elements that we literally could not have planned out
before hand.  And all of this, for me, is a very good thing.

[I suppose I should mention that this is all filtered through the context
of playing in a semi-improv noisy psych/space rock band of sorts, so my
biases should be apparent as to _why_ I consider this to be a good thing.
But I do believe that accepting the "accidents" of looping material has
value and application even outside of that immediate context.]

I can discuss particular techniques that have worked for us as a whole, as
well as methods that I use as a drummer for dealing with playing against
non-synced loops if there's any interest.  Heck, I may blather about it
even if there's not. :)


Accept the accidents -- there is value in them.

--Eric Cook                 ecook@mail.msen.com
  Gravitar-Guy              http://www.msen.com/~ecook/gravitar.html