RE: Learning How to use the EDP?

[Kim Flint <kflint@loopers-delight.com>]

Another post that I'm finally getting around to answering:

At 09:17 AM 7/13/2002, M. Steven Ginn wrote:
>Thanks for the insights into using the EDP.  Trying to decide how I will
>use the EDP can at least provide a starting point.  I guess I was
>thinking I had to have a good understanding of all the different
>combinations of parameters first so that I would know which combination
>would work best for what I want to do.  Sort of putting the cart before
>the horse.

right, if you tried to understand everything before you started, you would 
never start. Start simply, and grow with it.

I would suggest you start with the "getting started" section of the 
manual, 
which walks you through some basic functions. You don't need to worry 
about 
parameters when you begin. We set the defaults to be what we think is a 
good place to start learning the echoplex, so new users don't have to fool 
around with it, they can just start into looping. Later you can figure out 
which parameters matter to you.

Another good place to start is on the Looper's Delight pages. There is a 
nice "getting started" tutorial in the Tips section, written by Matthias. 
It was originally written for the old Paradis Loop/Delay, and updated a 
bit 
for the Echoplex. Probably a lot of it applies to looping in general and 
fits for any looper:

http://www.loopers-delight.com/tips/Plhints.html

Then there is Andre's new tutorial:
http://www.altruistmusic.com/EDP/

and in general, all of these things are linked from the echoplex section 
of 
looper's delight, where there are more tutorials and such:
http://www.loopers-delight.com/tools/echoplex/echoplex.html

as well as the tips section:
http://www.loopers-delight.com/tips/tips.html

>As for potential uses of the EDP, initially my thought was to create
>pad/drone textures which I could play over.  One example of a very basic
>use would be when I play a bagpipes where I start a loop of one or
>several notes for the drone and then I play the chanter on my EWI over
>it.  I can do this with my WX5 playing a single drone note, but felt the
>EDP would allow me to not only play my EWI (which doesn't have the same
>note hold feature of the WX5) but also create multiple note/chordal
>drones.

yes, that is a very straightforward thing to do. Just working with the 
Record and Overdub functions and the default parameter settings is a good 
place to begin. you can probably do basically what you want just right 
there.

Multiply might also be useful, so you can have a shorter loop repeating 
several times under a longer repeating section. that can give some more 
depth and variety to a texture loop, so it isn't just one short loop 
repeating endlessly. The nice thing about using Overdub and Multiply is 
they are very easy to use fluidly while you are otherwise playing, without 
requiring a lot of tap dancing to operate them. The Echoplex does most of 
the work, so you can continuously play and very quickly create a complex 
loop in real-time without much effort.

A nice feature of the Echoplex is you don't necessarily have to end one 
command to start another. when you are Recording for example, you can end 
the Record by pressing Overdub or Multiply, which stops the recording, 
begins looping what you have, and turns on the new function in one button 
press. This makes it very easy to move fluidly into a new function and 
begin overdubbing without any breaks.

Once you have the basic idea of using Multiply, one parameter you might 
want to experiment with in conjunction with Multiply is called RoundMode. 
This determines whether the Echoplex continues adding new material to the 
Loop after you have tapped Multiply the second time and it is rounding off 
the loop to the next cycle. The default is "off", meaning it does not add 
anything new that you play as it rounds off. This is how Matthias likes it 
since he plays very intuitively and just wants to know that anything he 
plays in between the taps is added as a longer loop, without focusing much 
on which multiple he is on or where in the cycle he is. On the other hand, 
I tend to think rather metrically while I play, and I like to know exactly 
which measure I'm in and what beat. I find it very useful that I can do 
the 
second multiply tap somewhere before the end of the measure while I am 
still playing, and the echoplex will neatly round off to the end of the 
measure and capture everything I play up to that exact point. So I put 
RoundMode = rnd.

 From there you may want to explore controlling feedback, which is a very 
important tool for evolving loops from one place to another. Feedback is 
very useful with drone type loops, in conjunction with Overdub. there is a 
ton of discussion about using feedback for looping on the site and in the 
archives, so I suggest you look there to learn more.

For textural drone type stuff, I would imagine reverse and half speed are 
more interesting functions than insert. You might want to use the 
parameter 
called InsertMode to convert the insert button into one of those.


>I also really like a lot of what Jean Luc Ponty has done with
>violin and looping from a rhythmic standpoint.  Also, I am not sure how
>I might use the EDP with my sax but maybe there might be some for it as
>well.

For rhythmically oriented stuff I find I like to use the parameter called 
quantize in order to keep things tight. With quantize any function you do 
will be automatically lined up with a rhythmically oriented spot in the 
loop. You might also find that Insert is a useful function rhythmically, 
as 
well as replace and substitute. Using multiple loops is also useful to 
create song structures, where you have different loops for different song 
section and switch between them.

The best thing you can do is just try the different functions to get a 
feel 
for what they do. Then think of what you actually want to do, and figure 
out what is going to get you there.


>As for audio routing, I am currently bringing everything into an Event
>Ezbus which gives me a lot of flexibility for my routing.  However, with
>only one effects processor (Eventide Eclipse) I have been going back and
>forth between deciding to use it during the creation of the loops on the
>EDP or processing the loops after the EDP.  I could actually see how
>nice it would be to select a preset on the Eclipse to process my loop
>creation and then change the routing and select another preset on the
>Eclipse that will process my overall sound and my solo playing over
>whats going on in the loop.  But doing this all on the fly during a live
>gig is where it gets complicated.


that sounds complicated to me. I wouldn't bother with all the configurable 
routing nightmare, I would just get two loopers and put one before the 
effects and one after. (or two effects devices, one on either side of the 
looper.) I usually find it more interesting to put the effects first, so I 
can have completely different flavors of things in one loop. If you build 
complicated loops and run it all through one effect you'll probably have a 
recipe for mud. It depends on what you want to do of course.

kim



______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                     | Looper's Delight
kflint@loopers-delight.com    | http://www.loopers-delight.com