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Looper's Delight
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At 03:34 PM 10/27/98 -0800, you wrote: > >Rebirth has a delay function that I am dying to emulate with my other >gear. >Basicly, you can set up a 100% feedback delay, 1 bar in length and then >feed >one of the drum machines (I suppose it should work other instruments, as >long as they repeat) in to it. If you put the 'delay in' level at a low >level, like 20%, and repeat the drum sequence over and over, and over the >course of several bars the delay sound builds in to this phased and >chorused >out percussive loop. > along those lines.... something that used to annoy me, and now I think is pretty cool, is when you take a drum sequence and run the audio out of the sampler into an audio looper (like echoplex or jamman). Sync the sequencer and looper with midi clock, loop the sampler output with the audio looper (so they are the same length), and play the two simultaneously. (so the sequencer and looper are playing identical things....) Midi clock is not nearly precise enough to maintain phase between two audio signals, so each repetition of the loop will have a different phase relationship between the two! It's great, you get these tinny, completely out of phase sounds one time, solid, in phase drums the next time, something in between another. It's usually pretty random in the way it shifts with each repetition. And there is the ever-popular, boring drum loop sequence reviver trick....play your sequence, and have the audio looper grab a different length with some metrical relationship, and let them loop. (for example, a 2 bar sequence, and 15 8ths in the looper, or 27 16ths, or whatever...) They shift against each other each time through, making the boring sequence suddenly much more dynamic and interesting. Carefully controlling the mix lets you bring one time signature or the other into dominance, with the other becoming more of an accent. You'll waste days playing with this, I guarantee it. Another thing I like is sampling the drum groove into the looper and reversing it, while the original continues normally. Then do dj-like cross cuts between the two to throw in reversed drum bits every now and then. Hip-hop people do this a lot now though, maybe it's gotten a little cheesy. (but that should be an encouragement!) On the echoplex you can do the cuts with just the mix knob, but a dj mixer would be better. Last favorite trick is not really with loops, but micro length delay times. I use the sustain mode on the echoplex record function, and lightly tap the record button to get loop lengths around 10msec. Turn overdub on and leave it. play the drum sequence into the looper. Adjust the feedback and mix and you get a whole variety of wild drum sounds. The delay times are short enough to be tones themselves, which is part of the effect. Repeatedly tapping the record button while the drum loop plays gives you slightly different delay lengths, with different tones. You will waste at least a week doing this...... And since I'm playing percussion quite a lot more than guitar these days (albeit with considerably less skill :-), i'm really interested in how some of you manage loops with live percussion playing. Up to now I've always used the loopers along with sampled/sequenced drums.... kim ________________________________________________________ Kim Flint, MTS 408-752-9284 Chromatic Research kflint@chromatic.com http://www.chromatic.com