Re: quad looping

[Chris Chovit <cho@newdream.net> (by way of Kim Flint)]

I do quad looping, in a sense, in that I use both a stereo PA and stereo
tube amp. This way i can loop non-guitar signals, thru the PA, and guitar
signals thru the tube amp.  I usually just devote a looping device to each
channel though -- I have not used a joysttick or other type of panner.

A fellow named Carl Malone, who used to live down here in the LA area, but
moved up to Seattle area a few years ago to work for Mackie (and has since
left Mackie to market his own hardware...) used to have a matrix type
device, which he installed for large theatre productions.  (I think he did
the Starlight Express production in vegas).  Using his hardware and
software, you could:

1.  Program the physical positions of all your speakers (up to 48, i 
think).

2.  Use a joystick to have a signal come from some physical location in
space.  I think you could also process up to 48 individual signals in this
way.  The software would determine how much signal to send to each speaker,
so as to create the effect that a particular sound would seem to come for a
particular point in space, even if there wasn't a speaker there.

This is pretty slick, but as you can imagine it was not cheap.  I think he
sold the hardware in units of 8 x 8, and you could link 6 of them together
to get the 48 x 48.  I'm not sure about this, though.... And I don't know
if he is making them anymore...he has a new product now, which is a
mixer-controller to be used as an interface with automated software
mixers....

Anyone know of any 8 x 8 matrix VCA units (preferably midi controlled..)?

- Chris






>Stockhausen went as far as "Octophonic Looping" performed
>live in a custom-equipped "theatre of the round" auditorium.
>I've read that it was quite an experience - the added
>dimension of motion giving a narrative power to the music.
>
>>Can anybody recommend some kind of joystick MIDI pan-pot?  (What do you
>call a
>>quad pan-pot, anyhow?)
>
>Regarding Joystick control/panning, your best bet is a
>CV-controlled X/Y mixer for your four inputs, and a joystick
>controller. I'm not familiar with an off-the-shelf solution,
>but there are modular synth manufacturers such as
>MOTM www.synthtech.com who make modules that allow this
>type of control over audio and voltage signals.
>
>Basically, you want to set-up a four-quadrant control matrix.
>
>Anyone else got experience with this?
>
>Regards,
>
>Larry
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dennis W. Leas <dennis@mdbs.com>
>To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
>Date: Monday, November 01, 1999 10:06 AM
>Subject: quad looping
>
>
>>Anybody doing quadraphonic looping?
>>
>>A combination of postings (to paraphrase - "Look into the 
>SwitchBlade...",
>"What
>>kind of music would you make if you had all the equipment you wanted...",
>et al)
>>has made me start to spec out a quadraphonic looping system.  It will
>probably
>>be years in the making. :(
>>
>>Defn: Quadraphonic looping - RT Looping played back through a system with
>four
>>independent power-amps/speakers.
>>
>>
>>Dennis Leas
>>-----------------------------
>>dennis@mdbs.com
>>
>>
>>