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Re: Improvisation = fast Composition ?



On Friday, May 30, 2003, at 09:07  AM, Jim Palmer wrote:
>
> looping devices allow for some editing during improv.
> so i guess they can take the place of paper memory?

Right!  I tried to talk about this last time we had a thread, and a 
bunch of people got irate when I suggested that what we call "Looping" 
has advanced in many ways beyond the word's initial meaning and maybe 
the term has outgrown its use.  I shit in half the time now, as I was 
torn a new asshole.

To use a looper is to use external memory, no matter how you slice it.  
Like all machines Loopers extend our capabilities.  When you have a 
tape loop, you have a pretty simple affair.  Out more or less equals 
what you put in, plus time.  However, the EDP (especially) has become 
so much more.  It an behave like a tape loop, but in the hands of some 
people it becomes more akin to live audio editing.

When I first saw a real DJ play up close (DJ Spooky), the first thing 
that came to my mind was how similar what we were doing really was.  
The only difference was that his raw material was vinyl and mine was 
the output of my instrument.  What I'd really love is for someone to 
manufacture a device like the Pioneer CDJ-1000 that would let you use 
live input instead of a CD as the audio source.  Seems totally 
possible, no?  The CDJ-1000 takes data from an optical drive and puts 
it in a RAM buffer.  Why not fill that ram buffer from the output of an 
A/D converter?  Anyway, it doesn't exist...yet.  I can kind of get 
similar stuff from my KAOSS pad and AirFX, but it's not quite the same.

So... where does it go from looping to live audio production?  In my 
brain, I see what most of us doing as live audio production that 
happens to use loopers.  Similar in a way that we can say heavy metal 
is a type of music that happens to mostly use guitars and drums.  Does 
all music that uses guitar and drums equal heavy metal?  Of course not. 
  That's why I disagree with the people who feel that "looping" (or 
whatever term floats your boat) is a genera of music.  To me it's like 
saying people who use Digital Performer play a genera of music.  Silly.

Having said all this, I'm fine with calling what I (and we) do as 
"looping."  Why?  Because, in marketing terms, it's got a lot of good 
qualities.  Short, fun to say, looks good in a logo.  Has some popular 
definition that suggests repetition.  Also, if I say I do, "Live audio 
production" that sounds DRY as hell.  When I get an odd look after 
having said, "Looping" I usually follow it up with, "...it's kind of 
like what a DJ does with vinyl records, except the music doesn't come 
from vinyl, I'm playing it live."  This seems to satisfy most people, 
even though it's not a great explanation.  Vinyl is a type of machine 
memory, and so is the Smartmedia card in my Repeater.  Good enough for 
me.  Most people at this point are somewhat familiar with the term DJ, 
so even though I'm not really a DJ, it's a good term to latch on to.  
Where I go from there is up to me.

Mark Sottilaro