What's in the Torn video?

["T.W. Hartnett" <hartnett.t@apple.com>]

>has anyone here on the list seen the david torn instructional videos? i'm
>still pretty new at looping but have a fairly firm grasp on signal
>processing; would these be of worth ($69+) to me? what do they cover, and 
>are
>they more theory based or just the "look what cool sound i get out of this
>cool box" type thing?

I've got both of the Torn videos.  
How useful they are depends on how much experience you already have with 
signal processors, effects and looping.  The looping sort of stuff 
doesn't really kick in until the second tape.  The first tape has a nice 
walk through of David's rig--the Klein (including demonstrations of how 
each pickup setting sounds, the range on the tone control, the Transtrem, 
etc.),  the many footpedals he has before the front end of his amp 
(including TWO auto-wah's), a demo of the Rivera combo.  He stresses how 
many useful sounds you can get without having a rack full of gear, from 
cheaper footpedals.

The second video introduces some of his looping hardware.  At that point 
he was using the modified PCM-42, a Digitech Smartshift, and a PCM-70 or 
80 for reverbs.  There's also a demo of using a rackmounted mixer to 
control the signal flow for the looping rack.  He sets up a few loops, 
explains the control he has over each of the processor, and walks you 
through three (I think, it's been a while since I watched the videos) 
loops, explaining the whole time exactly what and how he's doing it.  
Then he solos for a while over the loops.

After that there's a quick demo of the Ithaca Guitar Works acoustic, and 
he does some quick looping in a tuning that he makes up on the spot.  
Then there's a couple more examples of extended technique (preparing the 
guitar, putting in a second bridge to divide the strings into two 
playable lengths, some stuff with an E-bow).

In my opinion, the video is of the greatest use to somebody wondering 
exactly what and how all this looping stuff is about/done.  By the time I 
got a hold of the videos, I already had an extensive looping rig and a 
fair amount of experience in hooking up tons of pedals to make weird 
sounds, so there wasn't the "Revealing of the Masonic Secrets of Looping" 
that I was subconsciously hoping for.  However, it's still very, very 
informative to see someone else explain exactly what's going on while 
they loop before you.  

The videos also include a diagram of the rig Torn is using at the time, 
which did prompt me to add a mixer to my rack.

Travis Hartnett