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Re: what a loop has to say



My wife once told me that when I sit down with my acoustic guitar and just play freely, that what she hears sound more creative than anything else I do with my gear, looping, etc. I find that sort of interesting (sometimes discouraging)...makes me start to question what is really necessary for me to express myself artistically, vs. hiding behind the gear. Heck, if I can sit down at a gig with just my acoustic, and satisfy both myself and others artistically, I'd probably be retired right now with all the money I would have saved!  :)
 
But I just love the effects, and I openly admit that "sometimes" they do substitute for true, raw creativity. I would be surprised if anyone on this list who uses a lot of gear thought or felt otherwise.  It would take quite a artistic genius to ALWAYS, 100% of the time, have effects acquiesce to one's talent and creativity, rather than the other way around. Either an artistic genius, or a complete liar.
 
Kris
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2006 2:39 AM
Subject: Re: what a loop has to say

i do find the clean acoustic guitar to be my muse.yet ill mangle it with reverse and speed control.varible delay times seems to keep the sound pure.maybe just a phase im goin thru but nothing beats a good ole acoustic source into a looper.
                                    my best regards,
                                                              scary visionary.

Kris Hartung <khartung@cableone.net> wrote:
> Yep, to me a loop says, "Freedom."
> G

Speaking of which, does anyone find it easier to freely improvise when you
aren't using layers and layers of effects, tone mangling devices, etc? I've
found this to be the case with me. I love all the cool effects at my
disposal - the Boss VF-1, hundreds of VST effects, LXP5, etc - but they
sometimes produce artificial restrictions or boundaries on my creativity. I
tend to be more intentionally and genuinely creative, and less enamored and
influenced by technology, when I just play with a clean guitar sound with
just a touch of reverb and delay for ambiance. You have nothing but the
notes, basically, no window dressing to distract the creative process. I'm
sure this is quite subjective and relative, but I'd be curious what others
think of this. I guess just the simple sound of the guitar forces me to
think more out of the box, rather than relying on the box. For example, you
have a effect patch that has two octaves and panning delays that go on
forrrrrrrever....you play one "note"...just one human data-point of
interaction, and the gear takes credit for the rest of the interesting sound
for the next minute. And I start to think to myself, what is really creative
about that? I could play 10 notes in 3 minutes and produce a song that
requires very little creative energy. It would be interesting to take all
of our looping songs and strip every single cool effect from them, resulting
in just the initially, humanly generated notes and natural sound of the
instrument...what might we discover? How much of the intrigue of the song is
generated by the gear vs. human creative energy? These are just open
questions for discussion. I'm not necessarily making any categorical point
here.

And in this regard, I really respect a lot of the work of Derek Bailey,
where its just him and his hollowbody guitar...quite amazing what a guy can
do with just a guitar and amp.

...I'm off to bed now. It's been a long day.

Kris




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