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Looper's Delight
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> I find it amazing that some players are incredibly secretive about > the technology and techniques involved in their performances, as > though that's where the magic is... Clearly, that's total balls, as > anyone who's witnessed one of the half a million 'weekend warrior' > bands around the globe with the most incredible equipment thanks to > well paid day jobs still not being able to play a decent version of > Mustang Sally, let alone generate much of substance in terms of > original music. I have mixed feelings on this topic, but ultimately I think the question it broils down to is 'who is your audience?' For my own work, I receive a steady stream of criticism for not doing enough to showcase the technology, and 'that's where the magic is' is a statement I've heard on more than on occasion. This kind of comment however comes from technology oriented people, who only make up a small part of my audience. As I'd like to think of myself as a musician, rather than a 'Laptop DJ' (and there are way too many of those around), the approach I take is simply play my music and let the technology demonstrate itself. Technology oriented people can and will take an interest and figure out for themselves what makes it tick - other people proably arn't that intetested to start with and will just listen to the music. Technology to me has a more important role to play - my requirements are for a system which is highly portable, easy to setup and very reliable. My setup time is now down to about 2 minutes, down from 1/2 hour in my early days, I just chuck the rig on the floor, plug the power in and go. I'm well aware that and hiccups from the technology will have a negative impact on my concentration and ability to perform - technology needs to just work and not get in the way, and lets even leave aside band/stage/sound engineering politics from the equation My set now has a number of phases with the tecnology involvment from 'none' to 'insane', I think this helps to satisfy the tecnology, musical, and general beer drinking oriented segments of my audience: Insane - live looping with foot control, vast variety of instrument control from one guitar, including octave shift (bass), MIDI triggering (rhythm and synthersizer control). No backing tracks - all live Midway - sequenced backing track, generally with drums and bass, maybe a splash of extra keyboard parts. Looping controlled from sequencer, as are patch changes for my guitar processing. Lets me play a respectable cover of 'Nothing Else Matters' always goes down well None - put all technology aside, pick up guitar and play classical - makes a great interlude Jacob http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY_m1WMMZg http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/guitarworkstation http://www.keystoneframework.org/