A life of its own (was Re: Vortex Loops Using Deja Vu B)

[kflint@annihilist.com (Kim Flint)]

Todd said:
>Ever have one of those experiences where one of your loops takes on a life
>of its own and becomes this THING that sounds like it was put together by
>decisions you guided, but is now its own THING?!?!?
>

[Todd's description of a cool loop from the ether]

Yes, I love that sort of thing! This used to happen to me sometimes at
g-wiz while testing new soft versions in the echoplex. Usually meant the
testing got delayed a bit while I enjoyed the loop!

A couple really stand out:

One time I looped a little sound made by scratching the sixth string of a
Les Paul with my fingernail, then letting it ring a bit. I reversed it, and
suddenly it was a completely beautiful, mesmerizing noise. Hard to describe
it. Sort of a cross between the om sound for meditating and a digeridoo.
People walking by my office were transfixed, stopping for a listen. I let
it go for a couple of hours while I did other work. Amazing how something
so simple could sound so perfect.

Another time I was testing midi sample triggering. I had a max patch set up
which randomly triggered one of the nine loops in the echoplex at some
defined interval, which was sort of a stress test to see if pops would
appear or anything would go awry after lots of triggering. I played a note
into each loop and started the patch off. Trouble was, I forgot to set the
delay between triggers, so MAX was sending the triggers at its maximum
rate! The mac totally locked up and I couldn't stop the damn thing. I think
max clocks every millisecond, so that's probably how fast the triggers were
going.

And then I noticed the sound.....

It sounded like some strangely harmonic storm, with wind blowing and rain
on the roof. Always evolving, yet always in a similar sound space. Really
extraordinary, yet totally unexpected and quite beautiful. I'd like to try
that one again, but somehow I think it won't come out so well. Maybe its
better as a memory....

In case you're wondering, the 'plex survived all this. When I finally
stopped it, all the loops were fine, and nothing bad had happened. It
probably switched loops several hundred thousand times....

kim

______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
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