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Looper's Delight
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Hey Daryl, I am new to this whole looping art form... so bear with me, here. I like your comments about your experience at the Looping Fest... I am a sitarist of about 24 years and want to take that and my percussion to the next level. I like live, but I want to do more. I have been in a tradition of Indian music-- studying and learning from my own teacher Roop Verma, a student of Ravi Shankar and himself a great performer. I have been out playing percussion with a latin band for a long time, but also play sitar in a different setting and accompanied by a wonderful didgeridoo player plus lots of hand percussion! So here we go... I discovered Boss's loop station and a digiverb. So these are my first tools of the trade. Any help along the way would be appreciated. I think I like this whole loop-age. Best, Dr. Bhangra Das ----- Original Message ----- From: "Daryl" <highhorse@mhorse.com> To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com> Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 1:54 PM Subject: review of Looping Festival / much looping comment > > So last night I went to check out the Looping Fest in Palo Alto, > featuring Rick, Goddess, Andre and Jon. As it was the first time I've > seen an improvisational multi-looper performance, and one of the first > times I've seen such heavy use of an EDP and Repeater, it was kind of a > clinic in contemporary looping techniques for me personally. > > I had a great time, first off! I loved seeing different combinations of > players, as well as percussion instruments - I realized how boring a > standard trap kit can be when compared with all the possibilities of a > clay pot, a steel saucepan, cymbals, tablas, or frisbees (!). The > EDP-mangling was really entertaining, especially when combined with > Rick's facial expressions and Andre's subtle hip-swaying. The high > point was a screaming duet between Goddess and Andre, as the EDP's > provided an evil dub bassline and a ghostly whine, while Jon and Rick > synced up on 32-second note hi-hats and cymbals. Yeah! Each of the > solo sets was also particularly enjoyable, everyone involved clearly has > developed a really unique interaction with their little magic boxes. > > The glitching and repeating was really nuts, to hear and to watch. > Still, as wonderful and musical as it was to hear Rick turn > throatsinging into a children's chorus, or Andre turn a bent harmonic > into god-knows-what, I had to think about the question posed earlier > this week about the difference between an instrument and an effect or > processor....and I came out of this event feeling that looping equipment > isn't really an instrument. An instrument is something that generates a > tone, by definition. And though the EDP can do insane things with any > tone fed to it - you could probably snap your fingers once into a mic, > then entertain a crowd all night with warpings of that initial tone - it > doesn't actually generate a sound. I think this is important, for me at > least, because that initial tone is SO crucial, even after twisting it > every which way. The most interesting and musical things last night > that happened with loops were interesting and musical because of the > source; tweaking it made it exponentially more so. But when a dry or > flat sound was fed to a loop (which happened rarely, I have to say), > processing didn't really take it anywhere, in my opinion. > > I guess my point is that to make good loops with your instrument, you > gotta be good on the instrument. Even if that instrument is a piece of > Tupperware (Rick!), you have to know how to get a good sound out of it. > > For those who feel that an EDP actually is an instrument, I'm curious > whether a turntable would also fit the definition...? > > thanks to Jon, Rick, Goddess and Andre for a wonderful time! I'm bummed > I had to dash off to catch a train and couldn't meet each of you > afterwards. > > Daryl Shawn > highhorse@mhorse.com > >