Re: Live Looping without "organic" instruments.. is it live looping, "MUSIC" inside (regarding a recent debate)

[Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com>]

I would call that "Live Sequencing", which would be different but similar to live looping. The difference would be that in live looping, the "loop" is an actual audio signal, where in "live sequencing", the actual loop is a set of trigger instructions. 

Similarly, programming a drum machine in real time would also be "live sequencing". (I do that occasionally in my band Tiny Owl.)

Of course, you could then run audio output of the sequence into a looping device. In that case, it would be live looping. 

So here's the big question - how important is it for you to call it "live looping"? I think live sequencing can be just as interesting. 

It occurs to me we could get into a fine line of argument here. When you write audio into a digital loop, you are literally saving a set of instructions for rebuilding the audio signal. So where live sequencing would say, "At this moment, activate this sound with these parameters", live looping would say, "At this moment, the waveform should be at this voltage." To me, they are different because they present different sets of possibilities of how you interact with the loop. To most listeners, the difference is probably much more subtle than that of playing guitar with a pick vs with your fingers. 

-- 
Matt Davignon
mattdavignon@gmail.com
www.ribosomemusic.com
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On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 11:55 AM, Anders Bergdahl <anders_e_bergdahl@hotmail.com> wrote:

SO, i have now tried to do live looping with only canned samples. This piece of music (and noise):

http://soundcloud.com/anders-bergdahl/canned-sonic-evolution

is it "live looping" it's four samples on a step sequencer sampler played live, some times i "live" trigger the samples sometimes I use the sequences. Also - this machine (Elktron Octatrack) allows you to "record" live triggering of samples and the effect and changes in playback speed, re-triggering, pitch, length of samples etc that you perform "live"... 

Why do I think this is live looping, well... every run through the sequencer is a loop, I can record live all that is captured in the sequence. I try, as I do with ordinary looping, to tweak all the time so that there is development and there is NO way I could ever do this exact recording again. I could stat with the same sounds again but something else would be the result..

(and I use the delay on the octatrack to loop as well... =)

So do YOU consider this a a form of Live Looping.. Enjoy the discussion.. 

Anders