Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
At 01:44 PM 3/25/98 +1000, Jamie Lack wrote: >I am often suspicious of statements like the one below. you should be, so am I. [snipped out a bunch of stuff I wrote to irritate gearheads like me] >I don't understand the purpose of such generalised public statements. In my case its usually to provoke people because I've gotten bored with the other threads going on. Usually I just say things to see what will happen. Anything to relieve the monotony of another day full of long-winded fripp posts. (note --> :-) [snipped out a bunch of Jamie's thoughts that I agree with and have said in various ways many, many times before so let's just move on] >AND NOW FOR SOMETHING ELSE > >Does any other loopers out there feel that the arrival of more >expressive control devices is overdue? way, way, overdue. Mostly because it's really, really hard to get new ideas out into the general world of musicians, who are mostly a lot more conservative than they would have you believe. I've got more than a few battle scars to show for it, and plenty of old-dog war stories to tell. You have to get me into a dark seedy bar before I'd be willing to tell them, though. I need atmosphere. >If you think about it, the volume pedal is a very simple thing. >Can't we do better? > >Instead of being able to control one parameter with one appendage, we >should be able to achieve a higher resolution. >Like, the flexion of each joint, say? >Or maybe contraction of muscles. > >The most promising thing I have seen to date is the Ribbon controllers >and scratch pads, or the Korg wavedrum. actually, ribbon controllers are an old idea that was recently revived. They were used a lot on synths a couple of decades ago. The most important question there is, why did people ever stop using them? How come synth companies stopped putting them on synths? And how long do we have before they disappear again? And the wave drum is just a drum head with a mic feeding a dsp, which has various interesting algorithms for processing the sound, either transforming it completely or effecting the original in some fashion. So while it's an interesting instrument, it's not a new control interface, it's "just" a drum! And despite the general popularity of drums, the wavedrum has not been a very successful product for korg. I'm actually surprised (and happy!) that they still have it in their catalog. Now if Don Buchla ever gets HIS drum-like controller out into the world, then you will see a glimpse of the future. >The "mastery" of these complicated electronic toys will be assisted, I >think, through better means of control. well, that's the problem, isn't it? The sound making devices on the end far surpass the control devices in the front. Part of the reason is that designing a good musical instrument interface is much, much harder than writing dsp code. You have to spend a lot of time thinking about human ergonomics and psychology and creative impulse. You have to study popular instruments to try and ascertain what makes them popular. And you go through a whole lot of trial and error. Anybody can wire up a switch or a button or some sort or sensor to a sound generator. Going from there to a musical instrument is a whole other ball o' wax! Takes a bit of genius-like inspiration and a will of stainless steel to stand patiently in the face of financial disaster for years while waiting for musicians to even give your idea a try.... And of course the other problem lies between the front and the end. My old friend midi. If you actively tried, you would not be able to design a worse networking protocol for musicial instrument control than midi. That alone has hampered a lot of potential innovation in musical controllers. And god forbid that you should suggest a midi replacement! The heavens will rain fire upon your noggin then! so it's hard. BFD, it's worth the trouble I say! How might musicians help make it become less hard? - Notice that there are many, many, many brilliant musical instrument innovations out there. - decide to take a Big Chance. - go out and find one you think is interesting. - learn to use it, create some great musical stuff with it. - go out in the world with your new instrument and show people the great stuff you created with it. - inspire them with your stuff, so that they might want to create stuff like that. - patiently answer their questions and show them the wonderful new instrument that helped you create your inspiring musical stuff. - rinse, and repeat. If the innovative types have some success with their ideas, they will continue to create innovative new instruments. If not, the new ideas whither and die. We're all part of that community, and need to put something into it to get something out. right? >So, let's hear some weird ideas, eh? so c'mon everyone, what sort of new musical controllers do we need? and since this is Looper's Delight, what sort musical loop controllers do we need? kim ______________________________________________________________________ Kim Flint | Looper's Delight kflint@annihilist.com | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html http://www.annihilist.com/ | Loopers-Delight-request@annihilist.com