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Looper's Delight
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Rick Walker kindly loaned me his Repeater last night for a few hours. I tried putting it through some of its paces and had the following reactions. (Some of this is probably already covered on the list. I apologize for the repetition.) The configuration I was testing was HandSonic into the Repeater with a Mo-FX in the effects loop. * The tempo stretching and pitch shifting is cool, but I didn't feel I would have a lot of use for them other than perhaps using the tempo stretching as a work around for other issues. Pitch shifting just doesn't seem to be my thing. * I felt like the sequences of button presses were at least as complicated as on the EDP, but then again I was playing with multiple tracks. * Threshold/trigger recording is more awkward than on the EDP since you have to explicitly invoke it every time. * Once two tracks are locked together as a stereo pair even erasing the loop seems to leave them locked together. Did I miss something? * What's with this running out of memory after doing lots of overdubs? It's not like it lets one walk back through the overdubs (beyond the single level of undo). So what's it doing with the memory? Did I miss something? * The effects sends are fun, but I might actually shift to just having the Mo-FX connected after the HandSonic and using an EQKiller in the effects send. That may in part be because... * The thing I found most useful was using two tracks to lay down a basic rhythm pattern and then going to the other two tracks, turning the feedback way down, and playing an evolving loop over the static basic loop. To do this with the EDP would take 4 EDPs. * On the other hand, the MIDI clock output problems on the Repeater definitely crimp this process. The best solution I found was to record the basic loop, look at the tempo display, set my HandSonic to send clock at that tempo (as closely as possible), and then sync everything to the HandSonic. That much tweaking rather breaks up the flow. (I didn't actually attempt to reproduce the clocking problems since my goal wasn't to try to find problems. I'm taking people's word for it.) * Another work around might be to record the initial loop onto an EDP and then dump it to the Repeater. I didn't try this because I was trying to minimize the amount of rewiring so I could return Rick's Repeater reasonably promptly. How easy is this to do? It still feels like a kludge but it might be better than the previously described kludge. * Bouncing was a bit more awkward than I would have expected. It works like a tape deck so I shouldn't be too surprised, but what I was really looking for was "print the current data to a track or tracks and erase the other source tracks". What the Repeater does is more powerful, but it's more inconvenient to do what I just described since the erase is a manual follow on step. Also, what happens if you leave Record on for more than one loop length. The manual talks about what happens if you run for less than a loop length. * Even playing mostly percussion sounds, I was able to encounter the issues caused by the Repeater not going straight into overdub mode. * I can believe that you can do a fair amount with the Repeater and a good MIDI foot controller, but it definitely feels more like a hands-on instrument than the EDP. To sum up with some questions (while I decide whether I should try to go track down one of the remaining Repeaters in Santa Cruz or look for a used one or just get an EDP or...): * What's up with the memory limit thing? * Can anyone think of a better approach to maintaining an underlying loop while doing stuff over the top and keeping everything sync'd together? (If the Echo Pro would just send MIDI clock when being used as a looper, it would probably meet my needs in conjunction with the EDP.) * What are people doing in terms of EDP/Repeater interaction, clock sync, etc.? This question keeps coming up, but the answers always seem to be a bit vague. In any event, thanks Rick. Mark P.S. Quite frankly, what I think I really want is a looping savvy OS for my SP-808.