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RE: Dennis Taffee and backing tracks... PERFORMANCE VALUES...



At or around 02:14 PM 3/6/00 -0500, Taaffe, Denis G wrote:

>       WELl, that is a lot too think about. Zendrum (man, that's a 
>synthax,
>looks the same anyway or at least oginally was a syntha x no?0. Well,
>anyway, he may be playing the thing, but reallyt what is he doing?
>triggering samples,no? so I don't see too much difference between the two,
>personally. 

My preferred partner in crime when I'm in Chicago for any sort of
experimental or looping music plays a drum machine, with the key word being
"plays", rather than lets the pattern slam away in MIDI sync.  There's a
world of difference between a machine played by a human being and the
synthetic "rhythm" of letting a machine just go on its own..even if the
human being is just triggering samples.  That human triggering samples can
compensate for time differences, go off-beat to achieve a particular end,
or even choose not to trigger one at all for effect.  

I haven't seen a machine that will do that.

> I saw
>Joe satriani years ago do always with you always with me live. He had this
>clean guitar part on tape /sample which played in the background. 
>Normally I
>would have frowned on that, but it wasn't the focus of the song at all.the
>lead guitar part was I suppose.

The difference here is whether one looks at the song as a "total" package
versus simply a vehicle for lead guitar work.  Personally, I'm not into the
latter at all, and this coming from a guitarist.  I remember seeing various
guitar gods throughout the 80s trying to perform with drum machines or
similar tape backups, and walking away feeling cheated and unimpressed.
Interestingly enough, my original criticism of the drum program rushing the
tempo applied to much of the performances I saw then as well; to create an
"uptempo" feel, they'd rush the drum machine and add some hokey artificial
sounding "I am Guitar God" drum track in the background.

>So I didn't pay much attention to it at all,
>but would miss it if were not there. That is the way I view my drum 
>machine
>when I play live (solo). 

To play the devil's advocate, that's in the same vein as muttering to the
audience, "Well, my tone sucks tonight because I didn't feel like bringing
my gear, and I'm going to hum the solos to my songs", and expecting them to
ignore the subpar experience.  Whether it's dismal drum machines or badly
sync'd industrial music or some kid whose Marshall is turned way too high
and feeding back to ear-splitting levels, it's a bit much to expect a
listener to ignore whatever deficiency might be present.
==
the Reverend Rob      ICQ: 1280871  
http://www.realm-of-shade.com .`. .`. .`. .`. http://www.qblh.com
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