Re: Prerecorded Loops

[Steve Sandberg <stevesandberg@earthlink.net>]

I suppose I could say  the reason I got into looping in the first place
wasn't because of an interest in looping per se, but because I fell in love
with playing wind synthesizer and was looking for a context to play it in.
Noone seemed interested in hiring me as a wind synthesizist in a band, and
my own band somehow didn't seem the right context for what I wanted to do.
The first thing I did was record a CD on Digital Performer (Alaya) using
lots of live and programmed percussion stuff and MIDI keyboards -- it came
out well, but I realized that since this was something I was doing for my
own artistic satisfaction, I didn't want to be  working at the computer --
it was too left-brain oriented, there wasn't enough organic musical flow to
the creative process. Bottom line, it wasn't enjoyable enough for me.
That was when I discovered Matthias's writings about looping, and got my
first EDP.  The looping process satisfied my desire to create a context for
my wind synthesist stuff (and vocals) that was fun and organic for me to do
in the moment.
So -- prerecorded loops.
I gave some concerts based on the Alaya CD where I actually played and sang
along with tracks.  I burned a CD without the wind synthesizer and lead
vocals, added a live percussionist -- and people loved it.  The only people
who objected to the tracks were musicians who knew what was going on.  The
general public had no problem with it, and was especially responsive to my
percussionist, who played lots of toys and was very dynamic and visual.
The person who had problems with it was me.  I felt kind of dead up there 
--
it was depressing to think that there were to be no structural surprises in
performance, that everything was predetermined.
So I moved on to live looping.  The most exciting concerts I have given are
the ones where it's all spontaneously created.  I do use some prerecorded
rhythm loops from my MIDI keyboard, but after looping something I
immediately start to overlay it with vocal percussion and other samples,
perhaps chop it up or reverse it, to create something new.  So no
prerecorded loop ever sounds the same after about 10 seconds.
But the majority of rhythmic loops I create are not prerecorded.
Sometimes I do songs as part of my concerts, and I did an experiment for my
last show -- I brought back the prerecorded tracks for the songs only.
Frankly, I was a little tired of the pressure of the high-wire act of
looping -- I mean the pressure to be constantly spontaneous and creative
with an audience watching -- and thought it would be a relief to have some
prerecorded stuff to rely on that I wouldn't have to think about.  Well, I
hated it.  The contrast was so clear -- the live stuff was vital, the stuff
with tracks felt dead.  This time, most of the audience agreed.
So I guess my current aesthetic is to go live with no prerecorded tracks 
and
only use prerecorded loops that can be altered immediately to something
unique to that performance.