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Looper's Delight
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On 11 maj 2006, at 17.47, S V G wrote: > How many > different ways do YOU find MIDI sync useful? There are different kinds of MIDI sync. The one I like to use for live looping is MIDI Clock. MTC (Midi Time Code) is too "advanced" for my taste, since I like to chop stuff up on-the-fly and not depend on where the downbeat used to be some moments earlier. I don't always run loops synced, but I like to have the option at hand. I really like to play in a free flowing meter and to bring it all in and out of a steady beat. MIDI Clock provides the underlying grid that makes it possible to morph between chaos and rhythm. This also applies for jamming with other musicians. But the looping style all depends on the function of the EDP and Mobius to immediately redefine the tempo by chopping a loop after the tempo you play in - instead of having to adapt your playing to a tempo. During the last years I have constantly minimized my looping rig and now it's only an external TC Electronics FireworX effect processor and a laptop running the eight track Mobius looper. Mobius does generate a MIDI Clock signal for the tempo of my first created loop (like the EDP also does). The sync signal is fed into the FireworX so I can use dynamic effects that relates to the tempo I'm playing in. This does not mean that "effect's is stuttering in a static way", since I have taken care to program expression pedals to "sweep" the tempo relation (effect vs main tempo, manipulating the tempo relation coefficient while busy playing). The idea is to extend the music instrument with an effect system that can create poly rhythmic movement so the musician can play two lines in one go: the source line and the effect line. Just like the piano player concept, where you do two pars simultaneously; one line with each hand. But here I use the MIDI expression pedal for the complementary part. This would not work without MIDI Clock. On the next level this mangled sound goes into the looper and well inside Mobius I have many scripts (assigned to pedal buttons) that do similar stuff to either the live input signal, the recorded loop or both in combination. Another use for MIDI Clock is to synchronize different software applications. One example is when looping in Augustus Loop using Ableton Live as the host application (the looper opened as an AU plug- in). Then I may want to set the tempo from my playing (as opposed to playing to the tempo) and the way to do this is to let Augustus Loop generate a MIDI Clock signal, according to the tempo indicated by the loop length, and have the host application sync to this MIDI Clock signal (done all inside OS X). The same goes for running Mobius as a VST plug-in and having it follow the tempo you play in (then you have to use MIDI Yoke, since Windows XP doesn't support system MIDI streaming). When using an EDP to set the tempo for other loopers, MIDI Clock is also essential. As you see MIDI Clock is the technology that makes it possible to free your playing from rigid tempo definitions and still keep the option to create a tempo grid from your playing. I do not understand the argument that "sync calls for pre-recorded stuff". Greetings from Sweden Per Boysen www.boysen.se (Swedish) www.looproom.com (international) http://tinyurl.com/fauvm (podcast)