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At 11:15 PM -0800 12/14/02, Paul Weissman wrote:
>great ideas, richard. sounds like you've got a bit of a combination of
>ableton's live and the little plug we're working on.
I've looked at Live but haven't worked with it. Most of my
suggestions come from things I've either done with a variety of
systems or are things I've wished I could do. For instance, the
"windowing" effect of sliding start and end points around is
something I've done with Max control over a pair of TC2290 delays.
The same program allowed saving of presets on the fly.
>i personally dislike using the mouse for live performance... it
>just seems to slow/inefficient.
Some tasks are appropriate for the mouse. For instance, my TC2290
controller allows quick and easy selection of a time point without
having to either pre-assign a time value to a key or without having
to slide through intermediate values. For example, suppose I'm
looping a portion of a captured recording by setting start and end
points (and further, suppose that the end point is linked to start
point so that the "window" has a constant length). I can then jump
from one time point to another with the click of a mouse:
From here:
[..................................................]
^----------------^
to here:
[..................................................]
^----------------^
I could save each of these into a preset memory and then later recall
them quickly. This is what I did on "Two in the Hand":
http://thompsonresidence.com/audio/wsh/2001/02_zvonar.mp3
>i'm hearing the following features:
>- input monitors
>- visual overview of samples
>- loop marker creation
>- loop marker manipulation (sliding, changing length)
>- independent loop start/end point manipulation (almost the same as the
>last)
>- multiple loops (only doing one per instance right now)
>- keyboard loop triggering w/optional quantized trigger
> (this is almost in there already, only via midi though)
>- loop sequencing
The creation and manipulation of the loop markers are the interesting
parts.
I've usually implemented an assortment of interrelated methods for
setting and controlling these parameters: 1) graphic time line that
can be clicked on with a mouse, 2) numeric value that can be directly
entered from the computer keyboard, 3) MIDI continuous controller
addressing each value.
It's possible to introduce automation into this scheme, as I've
sometimes done. For instance, a time point can be controlled by an
LFO or other function. I've sometimes even used a random number
generator to move a delay tap around, either jumping wildly trough
the entire delay range or jiggling around in the neighborhood of a
particular time point.
I was doing most of this stuff about 10 years ago when my main
looping device was the TC2290. Most of the time I was restricted to
just a single channel, though in one collaborative project I had use
of a second one that belonged to by partner. There's a necessary
tradeoff that happens when you start adding channels, so you may
choose to limit the variety of control methods used per channel.
Let's suppose you're able to wrap your brain around a dozen
parameters at once. You could do a lot a fancy manipulation of a
single loop or you could do a simpler range of manipulations to four
of them at once. Where do you want to put the complexity?
BTW - Much of what I was doing with Max and the TC2290s can be done
quite easily with a computer system such as Max/MSP or Kyma. Carl
Stone is doing some marvelous things with Max/MSP and a lot of this
is available on CD or on his Web site
<http://www.sukothai.com/v.2/CSMusic.html>. Check out "Flints."
--
______________________________________________________________
Richard Zvonar, PhD
(818) 788-2202
http://www.zvonar.com
http://RZCybernetics.com