Re: looping with other musicians

[Per Boysen <per@boysen.se>]

Hi,

I've seen this interesting thread passing by my inbox for a couple of 
days now and finally though I should throw something into the 
discussion. From my experience the number one trick to loop good with 
other musicians is to listen and make sure that you can hear and 
consciously follow every instrument line that is playing in the 
orchestra.  My own capacity to simultaneously listen and react stops 
somewhere at three or four different orchestration components. These 
may be living musicians or looping machines. So if I'm playing with two 
other musicians I will not bring a rack with four looping machines, 
because I will simply not be capable of any meaningful musical 
interaction with that much stuff going on in the monitors (four 
loopers, my own instrument at hand plus two other musicians).

Then my rule number two is to keep my equipment smooth to handle. The 
EDP is the most "playable" looper I've come across so far. One EDP, 
foot controller and instrument is my dream set-up for ensemble looping. 
I make sure to always have the feedback function at hand by an 
expression pedal (you don't say "have by foot", do you? lol) and I also 
make sure that I'm using EDP presets that will let me cut the loop 
length immediately, if needed. This is for changing tempo in one cut 
(like ending a multiply with the rec button). It's perfectly possible 
to not being synced to the others. If your loop is drifting, then just 
create a new loop and cut it exactly to the new tempo. Then you can cut 
them further to make counter rhythms.

All the best

Per Boysen
---
http://www.looproom.com (international)
http://www.boysen.se (Swedish site)