Re: love, vision, and the Reel Echo

[Douglas Baldwin <coyotelk@optonline.net>]

    I have several looping jams I've used while making love, but no more. I
found it too distracting - I kept going "into the recording," finding 
myself
being where the recording took place and not in the moment with my partner.
On the other hand, I sent one C90 cassette of sexy loops to my nephew who
said it was really good for him - he had no "other experience" to distract
him.
    I visualize loops as painting. Frippy violin-like slow-rise slow-decay
sounds are water colors; precise rhythmic Steve Reich stuff is Mondrian;
non-sync'd rhythmic stuff is Cubism; bright tones are yellow; G major is a
healing green. And I visualize loops as traveling. High feedback is like
rising over a landscape, low feedback is like travelling along a road. Fast
repetition is like fast motion; slow is like slow motion. Deliberately
overlaying a new sound upon an old sound is like turning a corner and 
having
a tree obscure the view of a lake...
    ...and the Reel Echo from Danelectro might be a fun toy for loopers of
all stripe. I just reviewed it for the December issue of GuitarOne. It
really does the "tape echo" tone excellently, although the "warble" is more
like a chorus effect than a wobbly motor. Increase the speed range and,
instead of getting slowed and dropped pitch, it leaves a hole in the sound.
Decrease it and the end of your echoed sound gets cut off. Decrease it
enough and you get a tiny fragment of noise like a motorboat stutter. Max
out enough knobs and it will generate internal feedback. Built like a tank.
All in all, lots of hands-on fun and lots of Stockhausen fifties sci-fi
tones for $199 list.