2010/9/7 Per Boysen
perboysen@gmail.com
If looping with an EDP or with Mobius there is a good and fun exercise
you can do. Set the "8ths Per Cycle" to 5 or 10 and start doing
"Substitue Stuff" (replacing quantized slices of the loop with your
live audio input). I prefere 10 for playing in 5/4 because that makes
you substitute 8th notes - if one Cycle equals one bar, that is.
In my looping setup I keep a bunch of fast commands to switch "8ths
Per Cycle" for the particular reason of moving between different time
measures when improvising. But I restrict my options to these five:
- "8ths Per Cycle = 16" for playing normal four-on-the-floor music.
- "8ths Per Cycle = 10" for playing in 5/4.
- "8ths Per Cycle = 12" for playing in 6/8.
- "8ths Per Cycle = 14" for playing in 7/8 (this one I like very much).
- "8ths Per Cycle = 9" for playing in 9/8 (this is pretty new to me).
I made this setup configuration in Mobius:
track 1 for playing out of synch
track 2 for playing in binary time signature where 8ths Per Cycle = 4
track 3 for playing in 3/4 where 8ths Per Cycle = 3
track 4 for playing in 4/4 where 8ths Per Cycle = 4
track 5 for playing in 5/4 where 8ths Per Cycle = 5 .
track 6 for playing in 6/4 where 8ths Per Cycle = 6
track 7 for playing in 7/4 where 8ths Per Cycle = 7
track 8 for playing in 8/4 where 8ths Per Cycle = 8
I can also change the 8th Per Cycle setting on the fly, but it is useful for me having dedicated tracks, 'cos I can easly access to each of them, without having to recall in my memory which track is playing in 5..
A bit different from yours, Per, 'cos I tend to consider the pulse as 8th.
In other words, I dont' think to the 4/4 as a bar of 16th, but as a bar of 4 pulse.
It's like having a metronome going super-fast, but I think the final result is the same.
For each of these five alternatives I also have a special "fast
button" to set the grid to 64th note duration. This is for creating
glitchy granular loops that will nevertheless lock into the odd groove
as they evolve.
7/8 is a favorite of mine. This groove tends to give any noise you
play a mesmerizing rhythm. A simple but very rewarding trick. To learn
it quickly you can use the finger tapping method and imagine each bar
as "4 fingers + 3 fingers". A different approach to 7/8 would be "3
fingers + 4 fingers" per bar.
Or you can also think the 7/8 like:
- 2+2+3
- 2+3+2
- 3+2+2
or :
- 5+2
-2+5
Fabio