Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
>From: matthew hahn [SMTP:esker@mail.utexas.edu]
>Sent: Thursday, March 26, 1998 10:58 PM
>
>You said that you found improvisation a key to your music after you had
>heard Emerson, Lake and Palmer. I've heard other bytes of conversation
>here about improvisation and looping, and I'm wondering how you feel about
>looping and improvisation. What do you find in looping that relates to
>that
>feeling you had with Emerson Lake and Palmer.
>Is it the unknown of where loops may move that makes you feel strongly for
>improvisation, or is this improvisation more in line with actual musical
>playing not experimentation? In other words, do you use loop equipment as
>a side element or focal point for improvisation?
>Mjh
a clarification:
>From: matthew hahn [SMTP:esker@mail.utexas.edu]
>Sent: Saturday, March 28, 1998 9:30 AM
>Subject: Re: ProjeKct 2 (ELooPs), Marshall
>
>Marshall
>
>, with regard to this, I did not mean: what was Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
>doing, what I was asking, and I admit full well it is seemingly ambiguous,
>is: what is it in your own looping that relates back to the feeling that
>E,L and P gave you? I may have to rephrase this question again, but I
>think that is the just of it. To explain more, the question links feeling
>from an experience to someone looping in a perhaps then radical manner, to
>taking that and trying to translate that feeling into one's own loops.
[snip...]
Whoa boy, what a way to speed-shift the list's loop poop into
conversational
high gear! Bunch o' posts bustin' fat with questions. (Were you one of
those
little wide-eyed "What's this? Why that?" five-year-olds loaded on
Evereadys?
:-) I'm teasing you with a big smile, you know...I hope you were,
:actually,
cuz those inquisitive little kids are amazing, little/big minds traveling
who
knows where... Seriously, not everyone is so able to translate their
curiosity
into meaningful, perceptive questions. Cool.
I hope I've understood and addressed what you have asked. I did take the
liberty of filling in some background that I hope might provide a context
for
my responses.
So: do I use loop equipment as a side element or focal point for
improvisation?
(I really had to think about all this for a coupla days. The brain's in
perpetual Undo mode...:-)
What I *want* to do improvisationally with loop equipment and what I'm
presently *able* to do are two different things! That gap will hopefully
begin
to narrow, now that various pieces in my recently expanded looping rack
are
actually talking to each other, more or less, and my plex foot pedal has
finally arrived. So I'm just beginning to really dig in on improv loop
stuff
instead of endlessly replaying "Patch Cord" and "Hissin' In The Backseat"!
The
loop approach is still pretty rudimentary, while I'm learning which knobs
to
twirl (got that Tom L?); drawing endless confused routing maps leading
heaven
knows where (wallpaper for aliens); and wondering if I should just dump
tomato
sauce and parmesan on the maze on the floor and have it for dinner instead!
My background has, for the most part, been one of
bass-as-rhythmic-and-harmonic
backbone (lotz o' loopz without the toyz) both in structured and
improvisational performance settings. However, with the loopers, I try to
stretch out and introduce more ambience, texture, and free flow. I look
for
new sounds and techniques so the bass functions more effectively as a
multi-timbral solo instrument -- looping toyz really afford that freedom
and
inspiration. I'm also getting more seriously into other instruments
(shekere,
berimbau, didjeridu, etc.), now that I can easily build real-time improv
layers
and, uh, play with myself! The one-chick-band thang.
Which leads to what I think is the substance of your questions, Matthew:
my
longer term goal is to learn and exploit the plex's enormous capabilities
as a
synergistic improvisational instrument in itself. Right now I'm mostly
under-utilizing it as a not-so-cheap thrills real-time recording and
playback
device with cool memory trix. Even so, I definitely see interaction with
the
equipment as central to much of my improvisation, and the "unkown of where
loops might move" as a *primary* catalyst. The loopers are most certainly
co-creators in the process - and I anticipate this will only become more
the
case as I develop skills with those tools.
However, I think an honest response to your question ("do you use loop
equipment as a side element or focal point for improvisation?") is: both.
Depends on what I think is called for at the time, or where I feel like
going
with the music at any particular moment. I would feel no less committed
to
improv as a direction if I had no looping toyz, but hey, they're Big Fun!
They
open up a dimension that reels me in, the musical equivalent of an
animated
Moebius Strip. Gotta serious loopjones, ya know? Isn't that why we're
all
hangin' on this list? :-)
It seems that the more technical and experiential mastery one has over
various
loop functions and parameters, the greater the vocabulary for setting up
these
destination-unknown "mystery" loops. -- Like overlaying different time
signatures and seeing what happens, then going with that, etc. Or setting
up
silent loops on the fly and then popping them in, surprise! I really
appreciate it when you guys who are facile with this stuff go into it in
specific detail. It becomes my road map, and therefore an area where the
list
is most valuable to me.
Kim, you mentioned groop looping a few posts ago. (Should we be
discussing
safe loop habits? :-). I'd love to hear more about what people are up to
doing improv collaborations. Any thoughts, tips, trix, war stories,
whatever?
So Matthew, I'm not sure if I've answered what you were asking. But I do
have
some questions for you in return! Sampling and computer looping are areas
I
would certainly like to learn more about. Your list from the "Q's Ova
Here"
post had some meaty ?'s. Care to take a stab at a few? What have you
been
working on the last few weeks? What would you like to do with bird songs,
if
anything (besides sit back and enjoy :-)?
thanks for asking, for being interested, and if you're still awake, for
reading
all this!
laurie
>From: matthew hahn [SMTP:esker@mail.utexas.edu]
>Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 1998 8:03 PM
>Subject: I Got Gear Judgement and Expression Qs Ova Here!!
>
>QUESTIONS FOR THE INTELLIGENTSIA/ANTI-INTELLIGENTSIA OR NEITHER OF LOOPDOM
>BELOW!!(;
>
>>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.
>>
>Kim,
>There were other computer interface possibilities when MIDI became the
>standard, did we sacrifice anything, and do you think MIDI can be
>improved?
>>>So, let's hear some weird ideas, eh?
>>Oh boy oh boy, just wait til I git me edumacated...
>
>QUESTIONS:
>note: these questions may be rhetorical to some but try answering them,
>you
>may find it harder than you thought or that something new might come up...
>
>In general why loop or sample at all? I mean so what?
> (;
>Who has access, that is, look away from yourself and ask yourself why do I
>do this? Why don't other people? Is it just that they don't know? Or is
>there some differentiation you might like to take on?
>
>When you loop etc. what instruments or sounds do you tend to use and why?
>What's so special about your guitar, your synth, and your loop/sample
>product? Why is it relevant or why is it just slack? I mean really so
>what?
>(;
>
>On the Echoplex what are your favorite choice knobs and what types of
>sounds do you find most exciting? I hear all kinds of talk about how
>exhilarating it is, does this live up to it's calling? What does
>specificaly does the Echoplex do that rivets you to the Loopdom!? If you
>don't use the Echoplex, why? and what do you use?
>
>For DAW users, what specific benefits in pre or post production do you
>find, and do you think there is a certain sterility in that medium? If
>not, is there a compensation for it, or is this idea moot?
>
>For Jamman users, what recently excites you so much to spend more than
>half
>of the recent discussions tooting your loops/delay? How long can you loop
>as compared to the Echoplex, and how does it rate up for you?
>Why or why not do you think it gives you an edge over other
>guitarists/musicians?
>
>You can state that these topics just give you extra maneuvers by which to
>travel, but you use them for a reason, why?
>
>Almost lastly, is there a sampling looping culture? This kind of reflects
>earlier, but here we sit typing email to a list, this implies something of
>our nature. Also the locale of most of the individuals, and numerous
>other
>issues unbeknownst to me. What might typify loopers/samplers? Is that
>everything does, "hell we could be anybody?!" And further is there a
>certain communion experienced?
>
>Lastly, what do you want to see for looping or sampling
>that is lacking now? Do you want something more intuitive that
>anticipates, or responds more in line
>with you? Is there a danger to the "detente" (; or easing of relations
>between complexity and simplicity?
>Or do you think that intuitive systems might continue complexity, new
>avenues?
>And dead lastly, while you may want looping or sampling to go a certain
>direction, where do you think it is headed and why do you think it is
>positive or negative?
>
>These are issues that I hope will socialize us into cheeky and mind
>stimulatin' dialogue. Please try to log an answer for at least one of
>these
>as they may show consensus and creativity where before may've been missed!
>And hey who knows maybe you will learn something? Eh?
>Mind-bending concept@!
>(-;
>Mjh
>From jungle@fdgroup.co.uk Mon Mar 30 01:00:36 1998