technique described

["Lance Chance" <lrc8918@louisiana.edu>]

Hi all,



I wanted to share a technique that I've been developing for looping live
spoken word.    It involves myself, my buddy Aaron, and a poet named Skip
Fox, and a looping rig.   The rig is primarily comprised of a Digitech RDS
3.6 Rack Delay, an Electrix Filter Factory, and an Electrix Repeater, plus
an 8 channel mixer and some secondary effects like verbs and mic preamps 
and
such.

I would like to make particular note of one of the pieces of gear.  The RDS
3.6 is an old 80's rack unit which basically encompasses all of the time
based effects including delay, as well as flange, chorus, something called
"double" and it has a "hold" button which provides up to 3.6 seconds of
loop.   It's old 12-bit tech but the sound is quite warm.   The thing that
it offers, that no modern unit seems to, is a smooth delay time control
knob.   When a loop is on "hold" you can not only turn the delay knob to
produce very smooth pitch changes (I mean, not a single click), but you can
switch up to flange and chorus and produce a rich tunable saw wave.  I know
that it is a contradiction in terms but the people who have heard this
effect describe the unit as being very "analogue-ish".   Most of the people
here know what a Repeater does, but I'll just mention that it is a 4 track
looping device with a lot of other features.   The Filter Factory is an
analogue filtering device with the usual suspects like low, band and high
pass and different oscillator choices.   I think that the only really
specifically needed unit would be the RDS 3.6 or maybe it's big brother the
6.2.   I'm sure software based multi track loopers would be fine and filter
boxes are everywhere.

The technique is comprised of the following series of processes.    Skip
begins to read, the signal is split and one signal feeds a dry channel on
the mixer and the other feeds into the RDS 3.6, which I control.  I choose 
a
word or phrase to "hold" and start the loop.   In a way that is perceptible
and apparent to the audience, I tune the captured signal up and down, then
after I am sure that it is obvious to the listener what is happening, I
modify the signal beyond recognition.   As per the description of the RDS, 
I
can make not only low garbled bass pulses and chipmunk sounds, I can create
tunable tones and stutters.   The delay signal feeds into the Filter 
Factory
and there I can further sculpt the sound, creating nice "Moog-ish" tones or
buzzy bleeps and scratches.   I enable the filter only part of the time
allowing for the dry delay loop to be extensively featured.    The filter
out is split, one out to the mixer the other to the Repeater which is
operated by Aaron.   During the my performed modification of the RDS, Aaron
is catching loops and remixing them, tuning them, time stretching them,
creating rhythms from stutters and generally modifying the hell out of 
every
thing.   The Repeater then feeds into the mixer. What results is a
multi-timbral, orchestrated sound bed where I create low, mid, and high
frequency signals which Aaron then places in context with each other on
different channels.   The really exciting thing is that Skip has been
reading the whole time and is by now responding to the tempo and mood of 
the
sound Aaron and I have created, which in turn makes capture that much more
interesting.   There is no "feedback at 100%" and the whole thing is
constantly changing and moving.

A couple of notes about performance: Usually after Aaron captures my
modified output, I "de-morph" the signal in a manner that is obvious and
pronounced to the listener till the original loop is apparent, then I kill
the "hold" and catch something else.   Skips original voice is on it's own
channel and is always distinct and audible with the rest of the sound back
behind it.   I also have a separate track for my mods.   The point is to
insure that the listener can hear the transition, so that it is obvious 
that
the whole raging mess is coming out of Skips live voice, before their very
ears.   The experience is incredibly jazzy and the improvisation and artist
interaction is beyond anything that I have ever experienced in a looping
project.   It's like live spoken word remix.

It is a very performance oriented project and we have to rehearse and
practice our "instruments".   We are going to do a show in early November
and I'm going to bring my DAT, I'll put a sample up on my page then and 
I'll
probably come begging for feedback.   I'd enjoy comments now, even.



Getting Loopier,

Lance