RE: ZVEX LoFi Looper

[max valentino <ekstasis1@hotmail.com>]

Thanks for the responses...perhaps I was a bit more oblique than necessary.

I understand the laptop setup...as well as various delay lines/fx lines, 
but that is a direction I am not, at this time ,interested in going.  For 
the past several years I have been scaling back the amount of technology I 
use in my solo/looping performances.  Of recent I have scaled it back to 
just a looper (usually my modified  Lexi JamMan) and a reverb (my choice 
being my Demeter spring verb...but lately have been usig a TC M-One). Now 
I have even scaled that back to only a looper (one recent performance was 
just bass and the Akai Headrush).

This has been quite deliberate, and while I am neither "anti-digital" nor 
anti-fx, I have found, with great success, that the somewhat severe 
limitations I have placed on my own gear has increased the musicality of 
my solo performance (again, forcing me to make most use of what I 
have....).  The less I have to mess with, the more I make with what I 
have.......

Of course, I have a few hardware loopers (Headrush, DL4, JamMan, EDP) , a 
decent  laptop and some software loopers  (mobius...Live...) quite a few 
multi-fx processors (Lexicon, TC, Eventide) and a gaggle of stomp 
boxes...so the actually "mangling" of loops is totally possible.  But, 
what I wish to do is only use loops...no fx, no "treatments", no submixes, 
no complex routing assignments....no MIDI.  I want to keep the nature of 
the performance (and this is all about live performance looping) as a solo 
thing.  And, therefore am not all that interested in making more sounds 
"than would seem humanly possible" (have already gone that route...and I 
certainly enjoy all of you that do, but am looking at a different avenue 
for myself...).

I want to take the "solo bass and loops" description to its' most extreme 
I suppose.....JUST solo bass and loops.  Very direct, yet hardly 
"minimalist". Limiting the nuber of flashing LEDs, buttons, and 
footswitches with which I must interface.

I have drifted from doing 100% improvised shows to shows which were 70% 
improvisation and 30% "composed" to now doing things with looping where 
the pieces are 90-95% composed with only a little improvisation involved.  
The loopage is no longer the "attratction" but merely a component (albeit 
a very necessary one) of the composition which drifts in and out of 
"played" sections.  Often it is difficult to distinguish the looped parts 
from the played parts.

What I am looking for is a supplementary looping device which does not 
necessarily have pristine audio quality, and one which does just spit out 
what you put into it.  One which rather "does" something (this can be 
quite subtle or drastic) to the audio input; distorts it, warbles it, 
lowers the fidelity....so that it does not sound so much like the "played" 
section.  Also it would help it these behaivoirs were less than 
predictable--adding a little mischief to what are composed pieces.  From 
my understanding the Zvex "may" do some of this. I was wondering how 
anyone had used one in the real world.

Another thought has been tape loops...and devices like the Fulltone tape 
echo have crossed my mind.  But I was thinking, and perhaps totally 
offbase, that the zvex would add some lofi "vibe" to things to supplement 
the more featured loopers I use.

FWIW..in solo performances I do play quite a bit of chordal passgaes..as 
well as playing high on the bass neck (would that still be too low to the 
zvex modul. to make any notable warbles?)

Does this make sense to anyone?

Max
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