Re: RC-50 vs. Repeater?

[Zoe Keating <cello@zoekeating.com>]

For a while I had some patches programmed to do that. For example,  
Mute some/all tracks on RPTR1 and meanwhile start recording on RPTR2.

But in the heat of performance, it was too hard to keep tabs which  
tracks are muted or unmuted. Because...and this is something I've  
explained at great length to Elextrix...the Repeater gives you no  
visual feedback whatsoever as to what tracks are muted!  In some  
songs, I often do things exactly the same, but I need to stay  
flexible in case accidents happen (and some of my favorite songs I  
deliberately leave open to the element of chance).

Also, at the end of a song I often get absorbed in what I'm  
performing (the ends of songs are always different and I'm  
concentrating on silly little things like musical phrase...;-)...). I  
quickly forget what is muted and what is not. Meanwhile, I'll start  
the next piece, and the old loop will be erased, but the mute  
settings are still from the previous song! The only way to "reset" is  
to turn the power off. Often I'll turn the power off between songs  
for this sole purpose, because I just can't remember what I muted or  
unmuted. Add to this the fact that sometimes a foot press might not  
have been "forceful" enough, and maybe I didn't unmute? No way to  
know...

Try it, you'll soon see how complicated it can become if you have  
songs where you already mute and unmute tracks on a regular basis.

Then we get into the issue of space within each patch on the  
FCB1010.... The FCB1010 allows you to send 2 CC messages and 5 PC  
messages per patch. I have one CC spot  and 2 PC spots controlling  
RPTR1 and the same for RPTR2. So really I'm limited to one 1 CC and 2  
PCs message per Repeater per patch (the 5th slot controls the drum  
machine). Combo muting (ie 1&2 and 3&4) is accessible only via CC, so  
the other 2 tracks have to be muted with 2 separate PC messages.  
That's 2 CCs + 4PCs to mute/unmute all the tracks on the two  
Repeaters. And then no room left for anything. It's easier when there  
are only a couple tracks running on each. But I eat up tracks pretty  
fast...!

Instead, I started various combos of simultaneously stopping RPTR1  
and starting RPTR2. But I'm midi synced and the Repeater "ramps up"  
to the tempo when starting from a full stop.

Sigh.

So now I've resorted to this: combination of stopping RPTR1 and a  
volume pedal on RPTR2. I can start a Repeater with the volume down so  
it has time to ramp up to the clock, then I'll bring up the volume at  
the right moment. I've had a hard time operating 2 volume pedals and  
the FCB1010, so I've arranged the songs to make use of just one  
Repeater coming in and out with my feet. And the other Repeater I'll  
start it before with my feet, let it ramp up, and turn volume knob up  
on the mixer in a "breath" when I 'm not playing the cello...


On Jun 10, 2006, at 1:36 PM, mark sottilaro wrote:

> I've never tried it, but I imagine that with the
> fcb1010 you could also do mute track shananagans to
> achieve the same effect.
>
> --- Zoe Keating <cello@zoekeating.com> wrote:
>
>