Re: FeedBack tricks

[matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias)]

Kim gasped:
>Constantly evolving textures and all. Of course you know
>that I'm going to go on about how the echoplex does this. I've got a big
>mail backlog and don't really have time so just pretend I'm saying it and
>we'll move on here. [blah, blah, blah]

May I help?

>>> Dave Stagner said:
>>> >prefer to just use its delay function.......    Turn the feedback up 
>high
>>> >and start looping.  At 16, you effectively have infinite repeat.  As
>>> >things build, you can turn the feedback down and let a loop fade, then
>>> >turn it back up and add more to the loop while the older material 
>floats
>>> >in the background.  This makes for a much more dynamic and rewarding
>>> >looping improv, I think.

On Tue, 17 Sep 1996, Ed Drake wrote::
>>> Dave- I tried it and loved it but as Jon Durant pointed out it is a 
>bummer
>>> that you can't loop it and play over it without adding what you are 
>playing
>>> to the echo. Thanks anyway because I had not thought of using the 
>Jamman
>>> like that and it does give a different approach to the looping.

Kim agreed:
>That is a bummer. I didn't realize the jamman couldn't do that. It's 
>really
>a very useful technique to have the feedback turned down a bit while you
>continue playing.

I agree more even:
As said before, the point where looping really started for me.

The Plex uses a 256 step value and filters it almost evey sample so you can
smothly and quickly change it. I strongly suggest a pedal.
In longer loops you maybe want to grow only a part of it:
For example: Open +Overdub+ and reduce Feedback while opening the volume
pedal so the sound you hear from the Loop will be replaced next time around
by the one you fade in now. Not very difficult to imagine how it will
sound.
Then as your note fades, you open Feedback again and have a phase of the
loop as it was before.

+Replace+ is a function we have for this, but is to hard for most
aplications because it chops off/on. With the FB pedal, you do it more
creative and smooth.

Sometimes in long loops (like 25sec) I start increasing the dynamics every
turn around, rather taking back one part and then crescendo in to the full
part...

As it does not make sense to infinitally increase the content of the
memory, we reduce automatically the FB a little while +Overdub+ is on. This
prevents from the worst noises when somebody forgets  +Overdub+  on.


When you reduce FeedBack, **reduce loop time, too!**
(Million times executed experience - how it works for me):

Most music (and stories in general) has its static phase (contemplation,
solo) and its dynamic phases (walking, discovering).
Obviously, FB open is for the static and reduced for the dynamic phase.

Since in the static phase you have time, you will multiply and increase
loop time to make the loop more interesting, maybe less obvious.
Then, when you enter a dynamic phase, its a drag, because changes take to
long, or take a too radical reduction of FB which cuts the flow.
So you reduce FB little, but also reduce loop time! If the loop is rather
an educated one with a harmony sequence, built with +Multiply+, you will
aply +Multiply+ by 1 or 2 when the basic harmony comes back. The loop stays
on this base, maybe 4 or 8 times shorter, which gives you the chance to
change it gradually and then build (use +Multiply+ again) a new harmony
sequence.

If the loop is rather of the anarchistic/ambient kind, you can reduce it
with +Unrounded Multiply+, which is called by the RECORD following the
MULTIPLY key. This way you can cut out any bit, as short as you want, mayb
even aplying
+Unrounded Multiply+ 2 or 3 times in a row, to really chop up the worm
before the part with the heart grows again with more heads even... urgh,
ahem,,,;-)


Dave again:
>>Someone here suggested trying to put my Vortex into the feedback loop
>>of the JamMan manually, using a mixer.  I tried it and it was
>>interesting, but hard to control.  I couldn't get a good balance
>>between looping and feedback, and distorting the input on the JamMan
>>is NOT pretty.
>>
>>I'm hoping to rewire things tonight to split the output from the
>>Vortex and send it to the mixer and the JamMan separately, then mix
>>the JamMan back in at the output.  That way, I could control the
>>JamMan's delay feedback without always sending signal into it.
>>Ideally, I'd like to do this with a couple of stereo volume pedals, so
>>I can control both the input to the JamMan and its output.
>>
Kim again:
>I've been meaning to try something like this for a long time. I really 
>want
>a looper to have an effects loop in the feedback path so I can have my
>loops change in some way with each pass. It occured to me some time back
>that this could probably be done with two loopers (jammans or echoplexes I
>suppose, and I'm sure there was a reason for why I thought I needed two to
>do this rather than one, but I'm not remembering it now). The feedback 
>path
>could be set up externally and effects easily patched in. The downside is
>the unintentional effect of passing the loop through A/D / D/A conversions
>repeatedly.

I did not try this and do not even feel like, right now. Just thinking:
I think you will use this external FB path only every now and then, and
keep the loop going with its internal FB. So once you set up the mixer
conection with the Looper feeding the effect and the effect feeding the
looper, you can use the +Replace+ function to switch to the external FB
path.
With +Overdub+ it will grow, which might be usefull sometimes in such a
context.
To load the loop, you would have to disconect the effect, either with its
+bypass+ function (if it mutes the effect) or by closing the effects
channel or Aux knob.

Enjoy
Matthias