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Looper's Delight
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Hi folks I have seen the vocal looping artist Martin O. about a year ago. I must say I was very impressed by his effective and seemingly simple use of looping. He really put up an excellent and entertaining show the whole evening. For me, it was a very good learning experience because he was the complete opposite of the stereotype looping artist hiding behind his rack and pedals, too busy to interact with the audience because he's constantly staring at the floor. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtdIQ8joO-E Here are my notes I took down on Martin O., in case you find it insightful: - Simplicity of Setup His very clear and simple setup gives him presence, vulnerability and accessability on stage. He communicates "hey, it's just me and a microphone". - Octaver for Bass lines in vocal fx chain. Used clever and very effectively. Octaver is added with a low pass filter (I presume), so you hear it only during bass lines. - Just ONE vocal setup, no FX tweaking simplicity, no 50 buttons/knobs, just 1 clever vocal setup used effectively - Keeps building layers interesting - and even entertaining! His strongest feature. Uses gesture/posture/comedy/interaction/different languages to keep building layers interesting or even entertaining, i.e. approaching different (imaginary) mic stands. Or mimicking different people when singing overdubs (i.e. italian macho, french insecure woman, american dominant chick (sorry for the stereotypes;-) ) Yes, he's using humor. - Uses the whole stage, showing presence Doesn't stand around behind his rack/pedal castle. Walks around relaxed _owning_ the place. - Visual contact with audience - no blinking screens, no distractions Actually looks at the _people_ - not on a pedal board or computer screen. He is in touch with the audience constantly. - Looping in mono only. But creates stereo impression with gestures/posture. I.e. " Autobahn" where cars are passing left/right (emphasized by moving head). Or two guys are having a conversation. So, he changes position left/right on stage, taking up the perspective of each guy. - Perfectly choreographed songs & looping For me, UNDO is the most important button. He didn't need it during the entire show (does he even have one in his setup?) - No multiply, only overdubs (as far as I could tell) First loop is laying the ground with usually bassline + beatboxing. Often 2 bars but sometimes even loops of ca. 60 secs. Amazing how precise his timing stays with long loops. Good beatboxer. - Uses stage monitors, no IEM Still, no bleeding on loops. - Aside perfect choreography, also very good looping improvisor. Picks random guy from audience and does vocal impro with him. Loops random person in audience and makes own overdubs on top of it, actually building a real story with the loops. - Clever, elegant & minimalistic midi controller box on stage A wooden(?) box with 6 buttons, I would guess, placed at waist height. You don't see the whole board with buttons but only a tiny box from audience perspective. From audience perspective, almost looks like he's pressing the same button the whole time. - 1-button controller box with long cable (all silver color) for off-stage looping He introduces the 1-button controller as his dog "fifi". Walks with it off stage, to the audience to loop them directly. - Also 1-button footpedal for Recording or stopping loop. Used it for playing violin. Didn't like his violin looping much, overdubs became too loud in sound mix. - Effective presentation of loop ends Presses pedal in advance (ca. 1 or 2 bar) and places himself away from the looper when the loop is finally ending. Looks nice on stage. - Setup EDP (x2 I think). Vocal chain with Octaver. Custom midi controller. Uses two parallel loopers in sync (mostly just one, presumably with NextLoop though). - Own soundman Talks with him occasianally. Sound guy pretty much doesn't tweak FX though. - Good entertainer and singer - also without a looper. Buzap. -- GRATIS für alle GMX-Mitglieder: Die maxdome Movie-FLAT! Jetzt freischalten unter http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/maxdome01