Re: backporch of looping (was: forefront)

[Tom Spaulding <tspauldi@gibson.com>]

David-

Thanks for the extremely useful information. I have been searching for a
way to explain what the future could be (and share some of my new-found
excitement about looping) with some of the powers that be here at Oberheim.
It has recently occurred to me, (and I apologize for the naivete)that
looping is the "found link" between "live" and "recorded" music. It is a
truly "Live Recording". 

As you are well aware, the amount of interest shown in new technologies by
corporations consumed with "doing what it is we really do" is directly
proportional to the bottom line, and sometimes even the whimsy of
Management. That Lexicon bailed on the JamMan or that we at Oberheim have
been at a loss on how to market what is essentially a new instrument is not
really surprising, given the fact that every dollar spent needs to be
accounted for. 

Virtually no one that works here (Gibson)has heard of you, or Fripp, or DJ
Spooky, or any non-mainstream (whatever that means) artist, based on my
informal poll. That is not to say that we have ignorant, uninformed
dullards walking around here, merely that their realm of experience lays
comfortably upon the bed of the familiar names and faces we all know and
love. What Artist Relations person would walk into a Marketing meeting with
a Polytown CD and actually convince the group that this was the future and
that Slash and Ace and Joe and Jimmy and B.B were passe, or at least only
part of the picture? It does not happen.

 I am currently creating a "Looping Manifesto" to attempt to describe what
possibilities are out there for Oberheim/Gibson. This is a new world, one
that many will be certain is flat or at best temporary. It is now my
feeling that if we do not create a market for Looping, it will remain a
cultural, fringe anomaly. Eventually the visionaries will give up, sell off
their ideas or have them revert back to them undeveloped. 

The Echoplex is a powerful tool, still in it's infancy, I hope. I know Kim
is looking for Oberheim to get behind it, push it, market it or just
understand it. Your suggestion of giving clinics is wonderful. Who can do
them? I have been to/given many clinics that are basically a hot player
burning through a few tunes and taking Q & A afterwards. This is fine, for
what it is. The direct interface of fans to heroes is rare enough. However,
a clinic on Looping is akin to teaching a new language and asking for your
audience to look at the technology from a very different angle than they
may be used to. 

How do we do it so it works? A guitar can be seen as merely a triggering
device for the true instrument, the Loop. The Loop becomes the medium of
expression, the path from heart to head to hand to amp is interrupted by
this new brain, this new collector of multiple ideas. The guitar becomes
simply an appendage like the tongue...it helps to form words, but does not
communicate much by itself. Who needs any particular model anymore? This
will threaten companies who sell product based on the uniqueness of tone,
appearance, etc. Sure, a Les Paul or a Strat has it's own identity, but
what is Fender admitting when they sell a "Roland-ready" Strat with GK-9
pickup attached?

This all sounds a bit "deep", and I apologize to those who are bored with
it. I have to ask: Am I actually "getting it"? Is this what it feels like
to see the future? 

Thank you David, for what Jerry Maguire called a "Mission
Statement"...Things We Think But Do Not Say" indeed.

Tom