RE: Pachabels Canon

[jimb@ehmail.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: scott kungha drengsen [mailto:kungha@earthlink.net]
> Sent: Thursday, October 07, 1999 2:00 PM
> 
> I just dusted off this old chestnut and it made me curious if 
> anyone on
> the list was playing it or any other similer compositions.Canons seem
> like wonderful studies for looping.

This reminds me; I did a version of that piece (at least the first eight 
bars, which is as far as I managed to figure out - I'm not a "reader"), 
using the sound of a keypunch machine as a rhythmic base - this was back 
in the mid-'80s when such things were still clinging to life. There was a 
feature on those beasts that allowed for multiple copies of the same card, 
by wrapping the original on a drum which would then rotate against a row 
of contacts, and when there was a hole it would punch a corresponding one 
on the copy card. I had to make several hundred copies of one card, and 
after hearing the pattern "played" when it ran through the first stack, 
decided to record it with the new walkperson I'd just bought. Later, I was 
playing around on my Mini-Moog while the tape was running, and decided to 
try the old Canon. The bass line fitted fine, but when it came to the 
melody, things didn't quite work after the first four bars. I then 
discovered that by augmenting the beats so that!
 accents came on every second note, it was perfect. It just meant that 
instead of being a canon, it now more closely resembled a waltz.

Go figure.

Has anyone else done things with "mechanical" loopers?

Jim Bailey


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