loop instrument

["Jan Pek" <swirlee@angelfire.com>]

**
>Hey,
>
>goofing around, I hit a note button on my Roland MC-307 and viola, >the
>Repeater INSTANTLY shifted the pitch of my loop at that exact >interval 
>(from
>a root note of C)  I knew this feature existed, but had not explored >it 
>yet.
>Within a few moments, I was playing my loop like an instrument.
>
>This thing is amazing.
**

repetition as trance focalizer
spontenaity as nagual connection
imagination as reality bedrock
ragas in your morning flakes
give healing voice and medicate

..
i feel that we are approaching a kind of instrument where sound is made 
from smaller vibrations of sound which spin and repeat. where time is like 
a disc around which these vibrations rotate. perhaps, we will be able to 
capture a slice of vibration into a loop, and have it triggerable by some 
movement of the body, motion of the mind, or press of some key. many 
independent vibrations of differing moods and lengths will be mixed, 
pitched and clocked together. the player of the instrument sits at the 
center of a rotating time pillar, conducting the flow of vibrations and, 
perhaps, channeling new ones through improv. 

the instrument will have memory, being able to store looping vibrations on 
the spot for retrieving back later.. in a very organic way, without 
disrupting the flow. we will be able to store multiple vibrations together 
as a larger package of vibration, allowing for total arrangements to be 
brought back from memory. the memory will persist and grow from session to 
session, pruning itself of old and unused vibrations, as does human memory.

the performer of this instrument will be able to give commands such as 
'bring looping vibrations 'gorillas smacking lips' and 'flywings beating' 
in 2 counts' or 'fade out this arrangement over 8 counts' and 'at the 
start of the next long count, bring all melodic vibrations down in pitch 4 
tones'. or 'track the rhythm in this audio feed and sync our count to 
it'... all as the pillar vibrations rotate around time without stopping.

the performer will also be able to shred up (ala ReCycle) existing 
vibrations, playing the slices live, perhaps on a keyboard. For example, 
here is 'shaman sings yak song: oo ka lay oh mani tar' repeating, lets map 
it key to key, so the rhythmic pulses are cut up. now we can play any 
rhythm with our deconstructed building blocks: oo ka lay oh mani tar ka 
lay lay oh mani oo ka tar tar, for example, which means o yak, we milk you 
for butter tea.

with this instrument, we'll be able to manifest and grow song structures 
live, beyond the basic tapeloop soundscape idea, by drawing from previous 
material we have created.

technically, i envisage a core software engine decoupled from interface, 
similar to EDP software, with fundamental differences;; multiple loops 
with varying lengths;; loops stored in frequency domain (PVOC 
implementation of pitchshift), allowing for pitch-and-timestretch and 
potentially freqdomain effects in future (perhaps SDIF format-- see 
CNMAT);; .. 

front end-- intuitive command macro system for conducting while 
improvising, multiple inputs and outputs, midi and audio syncronization, 
keyboard.

i wrote a basic prototype last year for MAXMSP, which is available as 
fripp~.sit on node.net/unmax  .. if others want to collect themselves to 
create something like this freely, we should join forces open-source 
style. this would free us to create only appropriate technology, and not a 
big machine to consume us. 

so

its coming, can you feel it descending from the Aastral?

slobbery kisses
-yon


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