Okay, let's get philosophical: Performance Theory time

[The Man Himself <altruist@shoko.calarts.edu>]

Paulpop@ssnet.com has a decent point.  I won't apologize for taking
advantage of access to other Plex users and members of the design team to
help answer questions about the unit and its problems, nor will I
apologize for singing the praises of the box in response to someone's
posted question as to why one would want to pick the Plex over the JamMan. 

But I agree that these are two topics that have been covered pretty 
extensively.  So here's my candidate for a new thread.

I'm wondering how you all feel about the sheer visual/performance aspect
of looping and tweaking in real time.  Looping of various forms is
well-established as a studio form, but live on-the-fly looping as part of
a performance is a much rarer scenario.  I've run into situations with
both looping and guitar synth where the first few seconds of a piece are
almost immediately greeted by laughter from one or two members of the
audience -- not so much as a result of the actual music (at least, I'm
hoping not) but rather at the sight of a solo performer with a guitar that
"plays itself" (a looping comment I heard) or that sounds like an
orchestra string section. 

What I'm more stymied by is the actual aspect of changing and engaging
sound via more overtly "mechanical" means (i.e. turning a knobas opposed
to, say, doing something on your input device to change the sound).  Does
the sight of a performer leaning over and tweaking knobs to process the
sound detract from the environment that the performance creates?  One
person on the Torn list remarked that seeing David play on his solo tour
supporting Trilok Gurtu was a bit like watching someone fiddling around in
his basement studio.

For that matter, does it have an impact on the actual music making process
for the *performer* as well?  One of the things I like about looping via
the Vortex more than the Oberheim is that certain patches will
automatically change the feedback setting; a loop will spin indefinitely
until more sound is put into the loop, at which time the feedback creeps
down a bit.  It feels somehow more "musical" than reaching over to turn a
knob or rock a footpedal. 

Then you have someone like Robert Fripp, who not only embraces the odd
visual aspect of looping performance but actually makes it a part of the
performance itself, going to the extent of putting the guitar down and
walking to the side of the stage where he files his nails while the loop
spins on.  One friend of mine who caught his first series of Soundscaping
shows in Argentina said he got a real kick out of seeing Fripp enter one
or two notes into his rig and spend then execute the rest of the
performance by turnig knobs and pushing buttons.  Some time later, when my
pal saw me playing background music for a party at school last year, he
laughed out loud when I set down the guitar at one point and walked around
for a bit, the loop still going. 

As I'm two weeks away from my own solo looping performance, I'm 
thinking about the sheer performance environment aspect, and how the 
visual/mechanical aspects of looping can affect the audience's perception 
of the music.  Anyone have any thoughts on any of the above?

If not, we could always compare notes on unity gain signal-to-noise 
ratios on the inactive internal compression unit on the pre-upgrade 
edition of the echoplex...  8-/

--Andre