Re: AW: musicianship for solo loopers? (was OT NINE INCH NAILS)

[Chris Sewell <midifriedchicken@comcast.net>]

Keller Williams is very entertaining. He must be as he sells out  
theatres every night. But he's a player and not a tweaker.
I've seen a lot of loopers who arent very good players, they just  
tweak effects to try to make it interesting. Thats cool and all, but  
they are at a big disadvantage (imo). There's been some recent videos  
posted of players focused 110% on there pedalboard. That to me is  
certain death onstage. If you are going to use effects as  
instruments, they should be as natural to control as a Stratocaster.



On Sep 15, 2008, at 6:42 AM, Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill  
wrote:

>> So what are your thoughts regarding how you approach making
>> your solo looping gig more visually engaging?
>
> A few thoughts in no particular order (without defining a clever  
> and easy to
> follow concept I might add):
>
> *  As a looper, you have the advantage that the music keeps playing  
> (or can
> keep playing) even when you're not playing your instrument.
>
> *  Adjusting parameters/settings on some kind of effects processor  
> (which
> includes a looper) can look very unappealing - see the following  
> thoughts.
>
> *  Someone adjusting parameters on a big synth with lots of knobs  
> and an
> immediately audible result for the audience can look cool (think  
> somebody
> tweaking knobs on a Waldorf Q while an arpeggiator pattern runs).
>
> *  Diving through sub-menus on a multi-fx device always looks stupid.
>
> *  This is only surpassed in its nerd factor by someone looking at a
> computer screen and working with a mouse.
>
> *  Using something like a kaoss pad is normally accepted by the  
> audience.
>
> *  Move around on stage. Make eye contact, more generally engage the
> audience!
>
> *  Play an instrument that looks cool.
>
> *  If possible, try to create a relationship between the device- 
> operating
> things the audience sees you do and an immediate effect on the  
> audio output.
>
> *  Good lights and good video projections are good.
>
> *  I would rather not have somebody sit in mainly for optical  
> appeal - but
> there may be exceptions to the rule.
>