Re: RC-50 Fade Out

[Bill Fox <billyfox@soundscapes.us>]

Todd Pafford wrote:

>Bill,
>
>You're on the right track with feedback.  Indeed, for a looper to loop
>indefinitely, feedback would be at unity gain or 100%.  However, if
>you want the loop to slowly change over time as you add new bits and
>old bits fade to nothingness you'd want feedback set at something less
>than 100%.  If feedback is set at 97% for example, it takes so long
>for the old stuff to fade out that a listener may be ignorant of the
>subtle changes until a half-hour later they find the loop is
>completely different from where they started.  Conversly, if a
>musician wanted to quickly get rid of a section they may set feedback
>to something like 50%, where the next time around the existing
>material will only be half as loud and new stuff will easily cover it.
>
>Being able to control this feedback level (usually with a pedal) is
>obviously a major boon to loopers.  It turns the loop into a living
>entity, growing and changing over time versus a static loop with
>overdubs (and perhaps undos).
>
>Todd
>
Ah ha!  So I am suffering my usual problem with semantics.  Here, I 
thought that a looper had no need of feedback since it was designed to 
repeat a sound forever.  Perhaps we should call that a  "pure looper."  
All it does is loop.  That's it.  Nothing else.  This perfectly 
describes the RC-20.  It either plays a loop, or another loop or is 
idle.  It also describes the Akai Headrush in loop mode when the 
feedback knob has no effect.  These two machines are not digital 
delays.  (Well, the Akai is, but not when its mode switch puts it into 
loop mode.)  A delay, be it tape, analog electronics, or digital 
electronics, can be made into a looper only when feedback is 100% 
(unity).  But it is not a "pure" looper since you have to set it up into 
a special case in order to achieve a pure looping state.  Since I own 
the RC-20 and Headrush, these have shaped my view of (pure) looping.

So when the rest of the looping community talks about looping and 
includes delay systems (like a pair of Revox machines separated by many 
feet but sharing tape, or any number or analog and digital delay units), 
I guess that I had better get with the program.

Cheers,

Bill