Hi Per,
Bill, Fabio, All,
I haven’t
contributed to these discussions in eons, so firstly let me wish you all a Happy
Holiday/Solstice/New Year!
This is a
valuable discussion which addresses one of the serious limitations/opportunities
to looping as a musical approach, one which I like many others struggles with
regularly. I hope that more of us can contribute to the thread and share approaches.
I will
sometimes use the EDP multiply and loop windowing features to move through
chord changes at varying rates and sometimes at random. What I do is set up a
short (say 4 bar) loop of a non-tonal or vaguely tonal nature, multiply it out
with a progression of tangy chordal or arpeggio stuff (say 4 chords, now a 16
bar loop), multiply it back down to 4 bars over one chord, then toggle and
window between the 4 chord segments in memory at longer intervals or at random.
It works most of the time, with enough random unpredictability to keep it
fresh!
I also
like to play around with modes. An example might be to set up a kind of Am pentatonic
arpeggio “wash”, reduce feedback, add some F# stuff, now solo in A Dorian,
reduce feedback, add some D stuff, now solo in D Mixolydian, etc. You can work
this way between the related modes of your choice. I’ve done this with
different pentatonic “modes” and some raga-type gapped scales as
well to an interesting effect. The modes of the melodic minor scale are really
wild, but I’m a little too much of a chump to be able to improvise with
them effectively…
Another
approach is to simply set up very long loops with harmonic progression built
in. Yet another is to simply loop non-tonal stuff and then play live
chord/melody or bass/melody over the top (if you are comfortable doing that).
Those two approaches are pretty obvious though of course.
Or you
can just say “screw it” and play live segments without looping
(what a thought!).
Peace,
~Greg
www.myspace.com/gregwilliamsguitarist
From: Fabio_A
[mailto:eterogenus@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008
6:00 AM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Fwd: here and now /
evolving loops
---------- Forwarded
message ----------
From: Fabio_A <eterogenus@gmail.com>
Date: 2008/12/26
Subject: Re: here and now / evolving loops
To: billwalker@baymoon.com
thanks for the...."feedback" ;-)
About the "speed rate" technic (answering to Per) is
something I dont' feel confortable with.
It's true that changing the speed rate can give different solutions in
rhythm, but it seems to me that it adds a bit of confusion about the
"real" rhythm that's going on (i mean: the perceived rhythm).
Ther's always a difference between what we are playing (or conscious to
play) and what the audience perceived...., but this is another
discussion...
I found interesting the technic explained by Bill about "variable
feedback" and grouping tracks with different lenght loops.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing this trick, Bill. I've
definitively to test it !
What remains unsolved in my mind is: what do you mean about "changing
direction" ?
Referring to tonality, it seems that a lot of people in this list play
on a "tonal centre" (you know what i mean....: playing and looping in
E minor, for example) This is no the case of Kris et alteri....I know, but most
of people here (including myself) play mostly "on" or
"around" the same chord.
It's rare to hear someone changing chords, when looping (i mean having
and evolving an harmonic structure, like: A minor/D minor/G major/D major and
back to the beginning ...just for example) and evolving that chords change into
a new one while looping.
So, sometimes i feel like live looping miss something about
"harmony". You can change rhythm, melodies, but it's difficult to
build in short time chords structures that evolve "while" looping.
Maybe that's why in most cases looping appears like
"painting" and not "telling a story" ?
I'm interested in what you think about my question.
2008/12/25 William Walker <billwalker@baymoon.com>
Thanks for the post Fabio,
More
and more I am exploring the use of variable feedback to keep my loops evolving.
My cc pedal assigned to feedback gets more use than my track volume
pedal, as I'll use it to quickly remove a note or portion of the sample
(dubbing by removal) , I love deconstructing a loop this way, and it seems to
create smoother less stuttery results than when I use replace for the same
purpose. Also, as I probably have mentioned before you can create dramatic
tremolo effects by rocking the feedback pedal back and forth, including tremolo
effects you can't get with an actual tremolo pedal. Expression pedals with the
fastest response work best. I use Roland ev-5's, they seem to work ok and I
like the range knob as you can quickly change the pedals response without recalibrating
my midi foot controller. I also use the feedback pedal to fade tracks out
gradually as I'm recording new material to replace them to keep the loops from
getting to static.. A strategy I've been using in this way, has
been to build up a group of tracks and apply feedback to all of them anywhere
from 40%-75% depending how quickly I want things to fade. Naturally the loops
of fewer bars will fade away more quickly leaving the longer loops playing. I
then start replacing the shorter tracks with new material as the longer tracks
continue to fade. Even if I'm staying in one tonal center and
replacing tracks with similar content, this use of feedback to morph
tracks helps keep the loops from getting too static and create more ebb and
flow to the music.. I'll use multiply when creating several tracks in
such a way that I might have track 1 be 1bar in length, track 2 be 2 bars ,
track 3 be 4 bars, etc, , Using this technique to end a tune, my last
track before bringing the music to a conclusion, might be a solo or long
melodic theme that might be several bars in length. Finally I will apply
feedback to all the tracks which I will vary starting at about 75% and
gradually dropping to 0%. I love that all that remains as the tracks are fading
away, is the long melody at the end that I can continue to play with and
support as I soften the dynamics of my playing, and the tune finally
fades. The analogy comes to mind of everyone in the marching band
continuing down the street and around the corner as the lone clarinetist stays
behind to serenade the crowd.
It's
a windy, partly cloudy, partly sunny, mostly rainy Christmas day so far.
A
fine day for looping, if you ask me.
Bill
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