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Looper's Delight
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Hi all, I know this is probably stale news and old-hat to all of you reigning masters of the midi, but I am hoping that this will open up a dialogue that can further my knowledge. I've been looking into sync'ing my edp with an external source for some time now, and I've been a little shy on the sheckles lately, so I had to get creative. I was looking at purchasing one of the redsound microsync bpm counter hoo hoo's, but they're a little steep, and I keep thinking about the Miles Davis reference: "Miles had the same 12 notes to play with, it's just the way that he put them together that made it Miles." So, digging around in my gear box, I found a spiffy little casio rotary dial (rheostat-like in nature) metronome. I bought it about 5 years ago for about 10 bucks. Hooked it up to the edp, and away we go. Some discoveries in this expedition: Clipping and barraging: Depending on your bpm, you can get some cool clipping on your loop, i.e.: Loop= "1, 2, 3, 4" The higher bpm you set it to, the shorter it clips your loops. Loop at 40 bpm = "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4" Loop at 60 bpm = "1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, " Loop at 80 bpm = "1, 2, 1, 2" Loop at 100 bpm = "1, 1, 1, 1, 1, " Loop at 200 bpm = "111111111111111111" You get the picture, it allows you to shave down your loops, albeit, not with the granular control that some efx processors give you, but it's a good start for me. What I like, is that I can have the metronome set to no beat, and the loops runs normally "1, 2, 3, 4" and I can vary it up a bit by stymieing it's length or stretching it out a bit, and working around where it clips it, I need to see where I can go with this for retards and accellerandos, perhaps nowhere, or perhaps somewhere..... I can also dial it around to throw in a "1111" fill at arbitrary spots <Hopefully within the bounds of musicality..... ;-) > by swinging the dial from whatever bpm I'm at around to a mathematically comparable bpm for a barrage of "1's" Then right back on track with the groove of the normal loop. I can also do more....uhhh...what shall we call the procedure....inserts per second (IPS) with the metronome, since I can have the metronome flying away at 260bpm, and hit the insert key on the footpedal to throw in some syncopation or accents or whatever. Moving in and out of beat sync mode: Starting with the metronome on at <whatever> bpm loop is muted Hit insert. Edp sync's with metronome Mute again Turn off metronome Hit mute again, loops runs normally. Metronoming in reverse is a lot of fun: depending on what type of sound your are working with, I still love those cymbal sizzlers in reverse, it's such a nice build up to the WAP! This is also fun with the bpm set low (mine only goes down to 40 bpm) and then throw in your accents where you please. Changing the length of the loop: <Please tell me if I was just really high when I found this one, or if this is an actual function> Trying really hard to remember the key sequence for this, perhaps someone can augment my shoddy memory. I know there was an insert, multiply and mute involved.....sorry for bringing it up and not having full empirical data on this one....damn my eyes! This is how I think it went: Record loop "1, 2, 3, 4" Multiply "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2" End with insert Your loop is now "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2" "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2" or could be "1, 2, 1, 2" Questions I have: Sometimes it's possible for me to overdub while sync'ing off of the metronome, I think it's only when the loop is shorter than the length of the bpm cycle. Am I wrong or right? I should stop being lazy and answer this one on my own...nevermind. Other interesting implementations of beatsync? Anyhoo, I'm still working out the semantics with the metronome, but it opens up another avenue of edp-love. I will update and share as I encounter more antics and hijinx. Be well, D Thanks and best regards, Dylan DeAnda dylan@loudcloud.com 703-653-6883 "What is it men cannot be made to believe!" -Thomas Jefferson