Re: Hello and such

["S. Patrick Hickey" <hickeysp@nielsenmedia.com>]

OK, so I'm a looper.  After seeing Robert Fripp several times back in the
late 70's early 80's doing his Revox thing, I eventually purchased two
Trashcam 3340s and a TEAC Model 2 mixer to do the same.
        [ I still have these - one 3340s has about 100 hours on it.
          The other probably has quite a lot more.  
          They are for sale.
        ]
When I stumbled over the JamMan in the Audio Processing (studio gear) 
section 
of Sam Ash, I nearly fell off my stool.  I bought it, and the memory 
upgrade.
It completely replaces the two tape decks in the Frippertronics setup.
I use it with all 32 secs of delay with about 15 regeneration.
Sometimes I will invite some friends over, light some candles, and play
what I call "a meditation".

I should note that the JamMan doing Frippertronics is not identical to the
tape setup, because it does not have the noise of the decks.  This is both 
a
blessing and a curse:  a blessing, because the inputs do not tend to
get distorted and overloaded, and the sound remains exactly as placed;
a curse, because the decay characteristics are also very clean (the tape
sweeps the envelope into the treble more and more with each "loop", and
old inputs end up sounding like white noise "waves" coming in and out).

I have been frustrated by the JamMan in the loop mode.  It just does not
have enough memory to get a meaningful set of phrases together to do a
complete song.  I get about 3 very short segments (ABC), but they are
really short.  If they don't happen to line up in meter, I cannot duplicate
them to force them to line up, because the memory is gone.  I'd also like
to be able to control the phrase sequencing without having to remember
to step to the correct phrase in the midst of a wailing riff (yea, yea,
I know, I need a 'puter - more like, I need the *scratch* for a 'puter).

The memory for the JamMan looks like special purpose analog memory
(I'm guessing). Whatever it is, it's not SIMMs, and it's expensive,
and you can't put more than 32 secs into the box.
This all points me to the Echoplex.
Does it do loops/segments/regen'delays like JamMan?

I use the JamMan after my effects box (SGX Nitro) so that the effects get
on the loop.  Unfortunately, this forces the input levels on the JamMan
*really* low.  Sometimes I even need to limit the output of the Nitro
(which is at the factory setting of 50%, usually).
Is this an impedance mismatch?  Would a mixer help?

LooperrepooL
Pat Hickey                      ***SPH
brzrkr@nielsenmedia.com