Directness in Simplicity

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

On 1/23/2013 5:21 AM, Jeff Duke wrote:
> I just noticed that my Line 6 M9 has a button for undo/redo, never 
> noticed it before!
That's hilarious, Jeff.

In my own work (and I own an M-9 and use it live) I'm so used to the 
architecture
of the LP-1 (and now the LP-2) that I got really into creating seamless 
overdubs so that if
I ever UDNO a loop (or five) I am also thinking ahead of the game and 
ready to re-record something
quickly.

That said and done, the single RE-DO on the M-9 is useful if you are 
playing a second instrument
in a performance and you suddenly want to bring in that part that you 
eliminated with an UNDO
to suddenly fill things out.

Another thought about UNDO is that I rarely use very many layers in my 
looping anyway,
so I actually don't use a lot of UNDO in my playing, though glad Bob put 
that feature into
the LP-2.

With the exception of ambient music where lots of smeary layers are a 
plus,   I think that a lot of
loopers forget that everyone in a sextet has to play commensurately less 
and simpler parts
to make an arrangement really powerful than in a duo or trio.

So many loopers at the festival,   Lili Lewis and Jerry Barnes come to 
mind immediately
played pieces of music with a single loop and then played over it , 
beautifully so
there's a lot of potential in minimalism whilst looping.

It, of course, is not the only way to go, and all forms of expression 
are , of course, valid,
but I find that if I keep my loop count down that there is directness in 
the simplicity.