Re: Backing tracks: A confession

[tEd ® KiLLiAn <tedkillian@charter.net>]

Hi there Mark,

Well if you were just playing to mere canned backing tracks (sort of  
in in effect a instrumental "guitar karaoke" thing) and doing covers  
of of other peoples' boring pop songs you might get a ribbing or two  
from some folks here.

But the conceptual use of looping as "backing tracks for something  
else doesn't bother me at all.

I've been on the list since early October of '96 (it began only a  
couple of months before that in June or July).

And while I have heard some people express minor disappointment from  
time to time here that so-and-so used "canned" loops as opposed to  
"real" live looping, it hasn't, as far as I know, really been a major  
axe to grind for hardly anybody.

I've been doing live tape-loop, analog and digitalL looping a long,  
long time.

But I have also been involved in so-called avant-garde music longer  
than I have ever been doing "normal" music.

In modern "art music" the concept of "music concrete" has enjoyed a  
long and wholly accepted tradition.

And, a little closer to mainstream, a good deal of Pink Floyd's  
recordings and performances would not be what they were if not for  
generous use of all sorts of pre-recorded material (most of which  
along the lines of "music concrete" or ambient/environmental sounds,  
or the signature cash register sounds of "Money").

At some point in the mid '80s I thought it would be cool to acquire a  
Roland sampling keyboard (even though I'm the worst keyboardist in the  
world) simply so I could perform with some longish canned loop samples  
from from various sources - along with my "live" looping.

I've been doing it all along.

After the arrival on the marketplace of various kinds of desktop  
"phrase" or "groove" sample players  (first from Akai then from  
Roland) I switched from the awkward keyboard hardware to that format  
to augment my live looping.

I never hid it, and I even sometimes brought that sort of setup to  
some of the early Y2K fests with no complaints from Rick.

Though I have largely NOT used canned loops for the past few years, I  
am about to begin doing it again in my MaxMSP laptop setup.

I have an eight track sample player in my new rig that can link to a  
folder with literally hundreds and hundreds of sound files in it and  
automatically pick and play a new random sound file every few  
seconds . . . or every tiny fraction of a second if I so chose.

I have all sorts of other controls over that content too, but that's  
beside the point.

Is it "music" . . . ?

Is it "live looping" . . . ?

Am I playing it like an instrument . . ?

I don't know but I sure the heck like mucking around with it and will  
continue to do so.

And let's face it, I (like yourself) am a guitar player.

Most of what I do with loops (canned or live) is to create a "context"  
for my primary mode of self-expression on my primary instrument.

I use and have always used those tools as "backing tracks" for my  
guitar playing when other "contexts" (a band of other musicians say)  
has not been available, or capable of providing a compatible one for me.

Though I like to perform with others (it does get lonely sometimes  
when you live in a cultural backwater) and will ditch the loops and do  
so at almost any opportunity that presents itself, I've always rather  
enjoyed being self-sufficient too.

I have never been ashamed of that.

I don't lay in my bed at night dreaming of different new ways to push  
buttons, and what those button pushes might do.

What I dream, if my dreams are musical at all, is about stuff I might  
play on the guitar.

If folks have a problem with that, it's their problem, not mine.

The Keller Williams mode of doing live looping is fine.

The "looper as another instrument itself" mode of thinking and working  
is just fine too.

But I'm with you on this (I think), I'm not really "there" in either  
of those ways of thinking about looping.

And I am certainly not "there" in being a purist as to what's live or  
not or what is a better way than another way or not.

Musically, it's all just stuff.

We do what we do.

Hopefully we'll keep doing it a little longer before the universe  
tells us to pack it in.

The point is, do you enjoy it?

Does it make your soul soar?

Anything that doesn't is a distraction or a waste of time.

Do what works for you, don't be ashamed of it or feel like you must  
make excuses for it.

Life's too short.

Tell the critics to get stuffed.

:-)

Ted