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Looper's Delight
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At 05:15 PM 1/15/98 -0300, Matthias Grob wrote: >Does anyone use the Quantize feature of the Plex? (I understood there is a >equivalent on the JamMan with a name I do not remember) >I guess Q level it mainly interesting to work in planned "organized" >music, >where you treat bars and measures. I use the quantize function a lot these days. Originally I liked it because it helped me execute functions more accurately while playing guitar. I don't play guitar with loops so much these days (or much at all actually), I'm following some muse into more percussively oriented electronic dance music. It's organized in the sense that you are often concerned about maintaining a beat and keeping things aligned according to measure and section, which means a heavy use of midi clock for syncing. In my case the planned aspect mostly ends there, as I'm experimenting with taking a more improvised approach to it rather than sequencing every last millisecond. But I still want to keep the tempo and beat steady, and not have those things fly out of my control. For this, quantized loop functions are great. It's very easy to record things played in real time and get a loop sync'd with the sequence and aligned with the first beat of the pattern. Since I'm also manipulating the mixer or effects parameters, or triggering drum samples or something, it's incredibly handy to be able to press the record or multiply or whatever function when it is convenient, and know that it is going to come in exactly when it is supposed to. I can finish the function in the same way, by pressing when it is convenient, and the plex ends the function quantized to the end of the sequenced patterns. I can then go about manipulating this loop, effecting it, mixing it in and out, generally terrorizing it, but keeping it in time the way I want. As an example, I have the loopers on aux sends of the mixer, synced to midi clock from a sequencer. I like to take a loop of the drums and reverse it, mixing the reverse in and out with the original. First I start the sequence and then record a loop of its output, which is very convenient because everything is sync'd and quantized to the first beat of the pattern. I just hit record any time, and it starts at the right moment. I hit it again when I've got as much as I want, and it waits to end of the measure to end for me. Easy! The two are sync'd, aligned, running along next to each other. Then I hit reverse on the echoplex. The quantizing waits to the end of the measure before reversing the loop. So now the reversed drums are going, still sync'd to the original and aligned to the measures. Then I go nuts with the faders, bringing reversed drum hits in and out, using quick crossfades between the two, or whatever, creating a new pattern of reverse and forward drums. I might then use multiply to add some real-time playing to the loop, put it back forwards, and mix between the new loop and the old pattern. Or change patterns, or whatever. I'll use NextLoop to record several different loops like this, and it's all quantized and in time with the clock and lined up with other echoplexes and the sequencer. I can do quantized switches between all the loops, while mostly concentrating on the mixer, effects, and playing, and it all stays in time where I want it. There's tons of possibilities, and I'm only just beginning to explore it with a rather rudimentary setup. Without quantize I would never be able to execute the loop functions perfectly enough to keep it all together. With quantize it's a snap, and I can concentrate on doing other things while the looper does it's job on it's own. As a more advanced technique, I also like to set the echoplexes to time signatures different from the sequence and each other. Then I capture the drum pattern from the sequencer in different time signatures, and run it next to the original. So I might have the original in 4/4 and the loop in 13/8. Running them next to each other gives a constantly shifting rhythm pattern that can be very interesting. By controlling the mix you can easily change which one dominates, effectively morphing from one time signature to another. Quantize is again a life saver here, because I can execute loop functions without the beat getting out of whack. What's also interesting is the quantize point changes against the original sequence. It's still in time, just at a different beat each time through. So you can keep things evolving. so anyway, I'm a quantizing fan! now back to the boring work.... kim ________________________________________________________ Kim Flint 408-752-9284 Mpact System Engineering kflint@chromatic.com Chromatic Research http://www.chromatic.com