Re: an interesting Loopping technique

["Jimmy George Band" <jg@jimmygeorgeband.com>]

as well seamless looping requires practice practice practice! not unlike
knowing your exact torque of a wrench as a mechanic by feel.

seamlessly yours,

jg

----- Original Message -----
From: max valentino <ekstasis1@hotmail.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 5:20 PM
Subject: an interesting Loopping technique


>
> Several threads ago, there were some questions raised as to any 
>techniques
> members of the list might have developed to help make loop points (the 
>tap
> in and out of a loop) more "seamless".
> I accidentally stumbled upon just such a technique, which has greatly
helped
> the rhythmic quality and "seamless-ness" of my looping and so thought I
> might share it.
>
> I might point out, that usually I consider any "glitch" in the loop to be
> "incidental" rather than "accidental", and thus can incorporate it into
the
> loop, even though it might be a garish "error" with an obvious skip to 
>it.
> The trick there is to make the skip part of the piece..
> ..but mostly I am referring to small timing errors which, although the do
> not seem as obvious as "jumps" still are enough to annoy and frustrate.
>
> Probably the biggest point is to play through the end of a loop.  That is
to
> say, that as you punch out, play along with the part and into the looped
> part.  This helps lose any noticeable "pops" in the loop points.
>
> To aid in the timing of your loop tap ins and outs, you need do develop
your
> rhythmic acuity.  One way I have found to be a great help is to hook up a
> drum machine along with whatever is your primary instrument, in my case
> bass, to separate channels of a mixer and put the looper into the aux 
>send
> and return.  Be sure to return the looping device to the aux return and
not
> a separate channel.  The idea here is "record" the drum machine along 
>with
> whatever you are looping.  If your timing is perfect the drum parts will
be
> flawless, until they start to drift do to lack of sync(yes, btw, don't
sync
> the looper and drum machine as that will defeat the purpose of the whole
> technique).  That is to say there will be no audible "flam", glitch or
other
> audio inconsistency.
>
> If your timing is just a hair off, something like 10-20ms, you will get a
> phasing effect from the looped drum part and the original sequence being
> slightly off.  With practice you can lose this phasing effect, and gain a
> newfound "tightness" to your loops. If your timing is further off, there
> will be obvious flams, and glitches and other audio ugliness.  I use this
> technique as a regular practice for my looping, and it has helped 
>greatly.
> It has made it possible for me to really the hear the loops as a sort of
> audio landscape, and with a higher degree of accuracy in setting the loop
> points I can proceed with real-time playing or overdubs just as the loop
> begins to play.again greatly benefiting a "seamless" quality.
>
> Of course, with any loop tap, MIDI or otherwise, there is a slight
latency,
> and what you are doing is learning to compensate for this.  This is not a
> performance technique, but rather a practice technique which I have found
> has greatly improved the rhythmic quality of my loops.
>
> Max
>
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