Re: How does Schon Sync?

[The Man Himself <altruist@shoko.CALARTS.EDU>]

Good points from all regarding the hazards and odds of successful
un-synced looping in a live context.  Certainly, I'm willing to credit the
Journey crew with being among the more professional and accomplished
musicians out there today, regardless of my personal use for their music
(although I really dug the tune of theirs on the "Tron" soundtrack
thirteen years ago 8-] ), and I've no doubt that Schon has a killer sense
of rhythm. 

The main problem that I see with trying to do an in-time loop live with a
band is that the loop obviously isn't going to adjust to accommodate what
anyone else is doing, so the band needs to play to the loop.  If the
drummer can't hear the loop clearly, then there's a big problem.  But as
Kim pointed out, the band is consumately professional, with thousands of
arena and studio hours under their belts, and are privy to
better-than-average monitoring systems, so it's reasonable to assume that
they can pull it off.  I guess I just assumed that a band as slick as
Journey would want to make sure all bases are covered for that sort of
approach. 

Eric Cook's ideas about deliberately asynchronous loops are also very 
acute, although they raise some issues of sonc aesthetic that, again, I 
wouldn't associate with a group like Journey.  Pretty much all the loops 
I've used with bands have been of the 
rubato-soundscape-free-time-atmosphere variety.

--Andre