Re: Looping with other musicians

[Larry Cooperman <coop@newmillguitar.com>]

> Looping is a wonderful way to accumulate sound.  I haven't had much 
> success
> using looping with an ensemble.  I find the same thing with 
> sequences--live
> performances seem to be stifled by "following" a track.  If loops could
> follow live performances--but they can't!  They have no cognition; 
> they are
> the past, brought into the present.  Sympathetic fellow musicians can
> accommodate this; but generally this caliber of musician can play
> brilliantly using a cardboard box.
> I know that others use multiple delays to process their instrument in 
> an
> ensemble setting.  Mostly though it isn't looping; it's DSP.  That's
> probably the ticket in ensemble playing--requiring less rhythmic 
> accuracy
> (IMHO the real killer).
> Let's nobody hold our breath--let it flow!
> Gary
>
>
>

The old listening is very essential into looping a whole band.  The 
individual player need to know when either to shut up or how much to 
move away from shut up.

I just find, at this point, the loop to be a little restrictive.  I can 
see a point where, when I learn the Echoplex, to loosen up the natural 
restrictions with the power of the unit.  This is where the manual 
stands in the way.  I can't get to what I need to know in a very direct 
way from the manual.  Otherwise it is a delightful read and I am very 
much into how the protagonist learns how to operate in a place and TIME 
with an alien culture and the holy writ of a culture who worships 
re-runs.

I found the concept of structural dissonance to be the key to this kind 
of free improvisation with loops and without.  I have my music, you 
have yours.  Charles Ives.  No chords, a loose structure to rhythm and 
even a strict adherence to the same thing in the sense that it is 
highly disregarded as it is being disregarded.  Same with pitches.

Larry Cooperman
New Millennium Guitar
http://www.newmillguitar.com