Re: Surriptitious Loop Building

[Dave Stagner <dave@spnz.org>]

On Wed, 2003-02-26 at 14:55, Paulzric@aol.com wrote:
> Question: since most loop building consists of a real-time operator, 
>hands-free, what are some options for building loops without the audience 
>having to track the entire process? That is, at some point, I'd suspect, 
>it would be nice to hit them with a fully developed loop that is 
>consistent with the theme played at the time, but one that wasn't 
>observed (or whatever word...witnessed, experienced) during its 
>development?
> 
> Any ideas, routing and gear and etc., would be appreciated. The lower 
>the budget, the better, but not necessary.
> 

These days, i do a lot of looping without listening to what i'm looping,
then bringing it up afterward to see what i got. My main looper is an
old Deltalab Echotron, which i usually max out at four seconds of delay.
It's in my guitar's signal chain with no mixer, so i fade it in and out
with the mix knob. Mostly, i loop guitar feedback, so percussivenes
isn't much of a problem. I also sometimes mix in the loop to help shape
the feedback, and use some analog echo to help soften the tone before it
hits the looper. When i like what i have, i just hit infinite repeat and
play over it, sometimes fading it in and out manually.

My other looper is a Lexicon Vortex, which i use for short loops.
Because it has tap tempo, it gets used for lots of percussive stuff. I
can also fade loops or fade its feedback with an expression pedal. Very
handy device for short real-time looping. Sometimes, i'll feed short
Vortex loops into the Echotron, and since they aren't synched in time,
odd rhythmic things can happen. 

Of course, this is an extremely random, improvisational approach, and
not at all suited for more composed looping. Really, it's more an
extension of my guitar than a separate thing. 
-- 

-dave

"...'cause she knows that it's demanding to defeat those evil
machines..."
 -The Flaming Lips, _Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt. 1_