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Re: Mathematics, Prime Numbers, & Looping with the EDP



On Jun 21, 2005, at 16:17, Hartung, Kris wrote:

>> How about creating a looped piece by using the multiply function on
>> the EDP and the series of prime numbers (only numbers that are
>> divisible by themselves or 1).  For instance, you hit Record and lay
>> down a 1 measure groove, then hit Multiply and record a 2 measure
>> harmony over that groove from the beginning of the measure....hit
>> Multiply to play the sequence, then hit Multiply again and record a 3
>> measure texture part, again from the beginning of the first measure,
>> and repeat this process with 5, 7, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, etc measures
>> adding various textures, melodies, etc. After a while you might have
>> to write the song out on paper to keep track of the loops.


As usual a very interesting post from Kris ;-)   I have been thinking  
about such matters too but never succeeded to use  anything similar  
in praxis. In the early eighties I happened to record a radio piece  
of Iannis Xenadis (Sandré) that brought me under the spell of numbers  
in music. I used to calculate different tuning systems and melody/ 
scale patterns with pen and paper while traveling but nothing sounded  
good and inspired me to really use musically. I only had instruments,  
imagination and a four track cassette tape porta studio to try things  
out, though. Maybe the mistake I did was to implement the series  
tonally? I see Kris is referring to timing in his post.

Anyway, since Echoplex, Repeater and recording software came around  
the world has changed quite a bit! I must say that today I like hands- 
on experimenting in real-time much more than mathematical  
experimental thinking ;-)  When recording live into looping software  
on my laptop, I like to create midi sequences that re-pitch the loop  
according to certain number series. This praxis can easily become  
overwhelming in complexity, since what you play will be doubled in  
harmony and if you are brave to layer a second line you will soon end  
up with four different paths to relate to in your performance. That  
is too complex for me, so I usually restrict the real-time  
transposing scale to something simple like a quint note circle,  
simple octave jumps or a diminished chord (is that how you say it in  
English? The chord like for example C, D# and F#). I also have a  
whole note scaled pattern, i.e. creating a whole note scale if I  
should loop a long single note. What it would throw back at me if I  
dared to record a chromatic scale, I don't even dare to think  
about!!!  ;-)

It was David Torn that, on this list, inspired me to start  
researching how to play with dynamically transposed live loops. You  
could do that with a Repeater, but starting out with MIDI cc#'s  
according to the manual I did not get it right until Bill Walker told  
me that it also works with plain MIDI note messages (a tip for you  
Repeater owners).

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.looproom.com (international)
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
--->  iTunes Music Store (digital)
www.cdbaby.com/perboysen