Re: loop instrument

[Elio DeLuca <elio@telepathyrecords.com>]

men, brother.

But if it were up to me ... no software: instead, a digital brain with an
analog body ... imagine pumping the vortex of your cerebral cortex
through, oh, maybe six or seven dozen FET's!!!

Brainscapes? Soulscapes? Cyclotronics?

Put Matthias to work on this!


On Mon, 29 Oct 2001, Jan Pek wrote:

> Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 17:03:26 -0700
> From: Jan Pek <swirlee@angelfire.com>
> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: loop instrument
> Resent-Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 19:04:48 -0500
> Resent-From: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.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
>