Re: why do people think looping is just for guitar?

[buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)]

>For instance, Fripp sets his different delay lines to specific
>mathematical ratios with the intent of creating evolving textures
>that repeat in a long, yet specific amount of time. I
>don't know what the numerical significance is to him (if any) but it seems
>like he often uses prime number ratios, like 31:7 or something. Now how is
>it that I know that and none of you Fripp fans ever brought it up?

Umm, well, where would we go to learn about stuff
like technical looping tricks like that other than
Looper's digest?  I for one _listen_ to Fripp.
How the heck could I know anything like the above?
So, for me, the answer is "because you knew it and
I didn't".  Maybe it's common knowledge amongst some
community, but I'm not sure who that would be.

As to the "significance" of such numbers, surely
it's not numerology.  The two numbers must be
"relatively prime" (share no factors) for
consistency: 4:6 is the same as 2:3, so you
say 2:3.  Allowing the two numbers to be
close together (e.g. 30:31) obviously makes
the loops slowly shift off from one another,
and presumably he wants something more dramatic.
Why can't he use 8:31?  Good question.

For any ratio (I'll use numbers here so I won't
scare anyone away, but you could substitute any
relatively prime ratio) say 31:7, the 31 will
repeat 7 times in the same time the 7 repeats
31 times.  Assuming these are in seconds, the
length before they repeat is 7*31, or about 3.5
minutes; enough that no repitition will be obvious.

However, you can have "almost" repetitions.  If
you use 31:8, after the 8 repeats 4 times, it's
5th will start at 32 seconds, one second into the
31's second repeat.  (8*4+1 = 32).  Thus, it
might be audibly "almost repeating".  7, however,
doesn't come "close" to repeating the first 31...
it starts at 28 and at 35, so it's halfway through
the 7 loop when the 31 loops, instead of (as in
the 8), being close to the loop boundary.

However, after _two_ times around the 31, you
get an "almost" repeat.  This is hard to avoid
unless you make both delay times long, which
he presumably wants to avoid.

Personally, I don't have the luxury of using
multiple delays in parallel.  Ah, if only the
mythical polyphonic jamman upgrade had happened!

Sean Barrett