Re: How does Schon Sync?

[kflint@annihilist.com (Kim Flint)]

At 12:17 PM 11/19/96, Andre wrote:

>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.

I meant to reply to this some time back, but as always, no time....

There are a couple of other things you can do to keep your loops in sync in
a live playing situation.

One thing you can do is restart the loop from its beginning, at the
appropriate musical point. So if you notice that your loop has drifted a
bit from the rest of the band, you retrigger the loop so that it at least
is starting from the right point. This isn't ideal if the tempo has changed
slightly, but at least it gets things reasonably close together again if
the loop (or the band) has drifted way off. In most rock contexts, you
probably aren't going to have the loop repeating all that many times
anyway, so a few readjustments of a bad loop will get you through a tight
spot. I don't know if you can do this with other loopers, but with the
echoplex you just hit Mute-Undo. (when you are in mute, Undo unmutes and
starts the loop from the beginning.)

Another idea is to rerecord the loop. Obviously, this only makes sense if
the loop is simple and doesn't have overdubs. Its a pretty easy trick to go
back and forth between the looper playing a part and you playing it live.
When you notice the loop has gone out, just find a way to break out of your
heroic guitar solo for a moment of rhythm playing with the record function
on, and then get back to it with the new loop. Probably easier than you
think, and could done with a reasonable degree of finesse to make it
musical.

kim

______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
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