in praise of EDP

["William Walker" <billwalker@baymoon.com>]

 Dear List,
 Those of you who have seen me play know that I have been a Repeater user
and advocate for some time. If it hadn't been for my brother Rick's
generosity, I might never have started using one, as he bought me one as a
result of a friend of his gifting him some money. Just recently Rick gave 
me
his broken white face EDP, telling me I could have as long as I got it
fixed. Well I got it fixed, and with the help and generosity of Andy 
Butler,
I was able to side step the midi programming learning curve associated with
getting the EDP to work with an FCB1010. I must say, all of the rumors are
true :) The EDP is an amazing tool, that makes spontaneous flow and
composition so much easier than what I have experienced with the Repeater. 
I
still love the Repeater, and all of the cool pitch shifting, time
stretching, and great midi implementation, but it is not nearly the
spontaneous creation machine that the EDP is. I think one of the reasons I
avoided getting one, is because every one else and his or her dog was using
one, and I was trying to steer clear of everyone else's looping 
methodology,
but I realize now more than ever that, it aint the tools, its the mechanic
(so to speak). I am also realizing that some of the things I avoided about
the EDP don't really bother me at all, its mono operation, the sampling
rate, etc... yes it would be great to have better band width, and headroom,
and full stereo operation, but with Looperlative just around the corner,
that will be a reality soon enough. But even then, I think the EDP will
stand on its own, because it is a very deep machine, and it has its own
personality, and its own set of functions. It also works wonderfully in
tandem with my Repeater, and lately I have been creating loops on the EDP,
and then resampling those loops with the Repeater for some truly amazing
sounds. I'm having a second renaissance with looping, after having gone
through a period of boredom, where I felt like I had exhausted every loop
strategy I could think of, and had run out of ideas. So thanks Rick and
Andy, and to all the folks who had a hand in designing the EDP, its helping
me to recapture the joy of looping.
Bill