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an interesting Loopping technique




Several threads ago, there were some questions raised as to any techniques 
members of the list might have developed to help make loop points (the tap 
in and out of a loop) more “seamless”.
I accidentally stumbled upon just such a technique, which has greatly 
helped 
the rhythmic quality and “seamless-ness” of my looping and so thought I 
might share it.

I might point out, that usually I consider any “glitch” in the loop to be 
“incidental” rather than “accidental”, and thus can incorporate it into 
the 
loop, even though it might be a garish “error” with an obvious skip to it. 
 
The trick there is to make the skip part of the piece….
….but mostly I am referring to small timing errors which, although the do 
not seem as obvious as “jumps” still are enough to annoy and frustrate.

Probably the biggest point is to play through the end of a loop.  That is 
to 
say, that as you punch out, play along with the part and into the looped 
part.  This helps lose any noticeable “pops” in the loop points.

To aid in the timing of your loop tap ins and outs, you need do develop 
your 
rhythmic acuity.  One way I have found to be a great help is to hook up a 
drum machine along with whatever is your primary instrument, in my case 
bass, to separate channels of a mixer and put the looper into the aux send 
and return.  Be sure to return the looping device to the aux return and 
not 
a separate channel.  The idea here is “record” the drum machine along with 
whatever you are looping.  If your timing is perfect the drum parts will 
be 
flawless, until they start to drift do to lack of sync(yes, btw, don’t 
sync 
the looper and drum machine as that will defeat the purpose of the whole 
technique).  That is to say there will be no audible “flam”, glitch or 
other 
audio inconsistency.

If your timing is just a hair off, something like 10-20ms, you will get a 
phasing effect from the looped drum part and the original sequence being 
slightly off.  With practice you can lose this phasing effect, and gain a 
newfound “tightness” to your loops. If your timing is further off, there 
will be obvious flams, and glitches and other audio ugliness.  I use this 
technique as a regular practice for my looping, and it has helped greatly. 
 
It has made it possible for me to really the hear the loops as a sort of 
audio landscape, and with a higher degree of accuracy in setting the loop 
points I can proceed with real-time playing or overdubs just as the loop 
begins to play…again greatly benefiting a “seamless” quality.

Of course, with any loop tap, MIDI or otherwise, there is a slight 
latency, 
and what you are doing is learning to compensate for this.  This is not a 
performance technique, but rather a practice technique which I have found 
has greatly improved the rhythmic quality of my loops.

Max

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