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Looper's Delight
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I am really enjoying this thread on the power of limitations (in gear).
And
it is ironic that I am going through on of these "gear-downsizing" periods
right now.
Sometime ago I read an interview with Eno where he was discussing he
rather
simple and out-of-date set up. He said that the tools he uses he knows
very
well, and while they may be limited, he would rather work within a limited
but known universe than the infinite. In other words, he would rather
have
a couple of boxes he knew very well, and have just a handful of tricks or
tones than a gazillion options....
I found this true with my set up also. The more processors I threw into
the
mix, the more I used...or should I say tried to use! This would bring
upon
a terrible state of option anxiety ("hmmm that's cool, but what if I
changed
this, and added that, and then tweaked this other thing?")
After going through a bunch of rack and floor processors and pedals, now I
am back to a fairly easy to manage setup: Godin A4 bass, Raven Labs
Mixer/DI, Raven Labs Inst. Pre, Lexicon Alex, Lexicon JamMan,and sometimes
tossing in a DL4 just for fun. The Raven stuff is used mostly for it's
transparent sound quality, and the two aux loops. The Alex is way out of
date: single effects, 16 bit, NON-MIDI...but it has a quality which is
unique and musical. And the JamDude...well, we all know about this! It
is
a simple, albeit limited setup, which challenges my creativity in
ingenuity
(and it sounds better than a lot of stuff all hoked up!). I find I am
creating effects "manually"..that is with my hands: mutes, false
harmonics,
playing drums on the bass,(...alright I am still sticking aligator clips
all
over the bass and using an Ebow, but...) and combining these manual
techniques with sometimes subtle,sometimes extreme electronic treatments
(yes, have been able to write some fairly extreme patches with the
limitations of the Alex). For loops the JamBoy works superbly, in a
simple
way. No I can't do crossfades, or undo functions like the EDP, or any of
the cool stuff on the 'peater, but I have found I can make seamless
atmospheric loops (no clicks) by just relying on my snse of time, my
abilities, and this rather simple setup. And I am able to do some really
incredible "song form" loops without MIDI or a drum machine (just the faux
drums played on the bass).
And it is alot easier to cart around (1 4space rack!).
Since I unburdened myself from all the other processors and pedals my
signal
is cleaner, tone is better, and I am enjoying looping and music making
even
more.
It's all about creativity...not gear! But having said that I do envison
an
EDP sometime soon.....
Max
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