Re: Andre EDP Loops

[Marklar <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

I spoke about Mark of the Unicorn's POLAR (not an add on to Digital
Performer 2.5 or higher, but a free part of the program itself.  It's a
RAM based real-time loop recorder) and I feel it's a good time to talk
about it in this light.  I've barely scratched the surface of it, but so
far it seems like an amazing tool for creating evolving loops Each pass
can be saved as a separate file, "printed" to the hard drive from the
loop that resides in RAM.  Now this is why I've got a gig and a half of
RAM!  You can control the volume of each pass in real time, but there's
no feedback control per say.  I'm going to go back and figure out if you
can automate the volume of each pass to simulate feedback, but with
having all the old passes still there, but eventually hitting a level of
0.  Has any POLAR user tried this?

If I can get it to work this way, I think POLAR will be one of the most
useful looping tools on the market and a great way to "save" your loops,
but to at the same time have the evolution that Kim spoke of.  I love the
Zen like nature of dispersing my little moving electrons back into chaos,
but my wife always says, "That was beautiful.  Did you record it?"
Consequently, I do not have much recorded material.  This might be a way
to get the best of both worlds.

So what I'm basically saying is this:  If you're a looper looking for a
Hard Disk recording system (mac only, sorry PC guys), take a serious look
at MOTU's Digital Performer 3.  I bought it because it seemed the only
game in town (for the Mac OS) where you could get robust software, high
end audio hardware and MIDI hardware all made by the same company.  I
still like it for that, but now, I've got a software based looping system
that could very well change the way I record music.  For no additional
cost!  They're also working on an OSX version, so it can only get better.

Mark Sottilaro