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Hi again Lorenzo (and all you groovy loopers all over the
globe, and especially the physical contingent representing at the 10th
anniversary festival) -
I would seriously consider the DD-20 for
your music, perhaps even two.
I will hereafter use the term "virtual
sync" to describe the DD-20 being set to a specific delay length equal to, or in
a whole-number ratio to, another unit without any MIDI or other clock
information being sent/received between the two units. Two DD-20s will stay in
virtual sync with each other for at least a half-hour. I've not yet let mine run
more than that, but someday maybe I'll put on a rhythmic loop and see how long
they stay sync'd before an audible mismatch creeps in.
One of the very practicaal benefits of the
DD-20 is its numerical readout for delay length: up to 9999 milliseconds (9.999
seconds), then hundredths of a second (centaseconds?) from 10.00 up to 23.00. I
used my DD-20s in virtual sync with the click of my Korg D1600 recording
workstation and with my Bodd GT-3 multi-fx pedal to record the excerpt of "The
Long Dance" that is on the Looper's Delight Compilation Vol. 3 CD. Neither the
DD-20s, the GT-3, nor the Korg required any tweaking of their time
parameters to remain in sync for the entire recording process. I often use my
DD-20s with a drum machine these days (a Zoom RT223) and while this machine
*does* require a slight tweak to get in sync, I can find its "sweet spot" pretty
quick and my two DD-20s, my GT-3 and the RT223 will groove away for fifteen
minutes or more in virtual sync. I suspect the mismatch between the DD-20s and
the Zoom are due to different clock pulses; the Zoom runs about 1% faster than
the DD-20s. I'm looking forward to getting a Boss DR-880 in the near future, and
I'll bet the entire Boss family will run in exact virtual sync.
You described your music this
way:
I let electronic rythmic parts run on the background, and add layers
of guitar loops: very simple and generally brief arpeggios, or chords, on which
I add solos (sometimes with my ebow), or just very spacey soundscapes (lots of
reverbs etc). That is why I need perfect timing control over my loops: they need
to be perfectly synchronized with the drum track I run in the background. I
guess you could say what I do is somewhere in between Lali Puna/the late
Radiohead, Labradford, with a kind of ambient touch to it.
With one or two DD-20s (and/or a drum
machine or two, as I just described), you can create a background rhythmic
pattern, add as many layers of live-in-real-time guitar textures as you wish,
set one or more of your DD-20s to "infinite feedback" to capture your loop, then
press the On/Off stomp switch on the left. This turns the *recording* of
material off, but allows the loop/delay to *play back* at whatever feedback
level it is set at. And if it's set a "infinite feedback," the loop will loop
endlessly with no degeneration, no fade, and you can solo to your heart's
content. Let's say in the midst of your soloing you play a melody, chord or
texture you'd like to add to your loop. Just hit the On/Off
switch again (turning the pedal's "record" function on), play your new material,
and hit the On/Off switch when you're done. Your new melody/chord/texture is
added, and you can continue to solo atop the loop.
For my taste, a delay-based looper like the
DD-20 is superior to a "true" looper like the Boss RC-20 because, in addition to
being able to end a loop suddenly, the DD-20 can fade out over as long or short
a period as you like by adjusting the feedbck level. Currently I'm playing
around with groove-based textures that either drift (i.e. the groove slowly
dissipates) or leap(i.e. the groove suddenly disappears) into non-rhythmic
oceanic soundscape-land.
Hope this helps y'all,
"Life! Life!
Clouds and clowns! You don't have to come down!" - Sly and the Family Stone |