AW: Research Paper Introduction, any thoughts?

["Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill" <rs@moinlabs.de>]

> and Looping Technology. If you have the chance to read this 
> and have any corrections or suggestions please send them my way!

Hi Darren,

as you requested:

(nota bene: I also suggest others correct me if I do err somewhere!)

> essay I will use the term Live Looping to refer to the use of 
> looping technology in live performance rather than the genre 
> or movement associated with it. Looping Music, Loop Based 

I would suggest to further specify the term "live performance" here, for 
the
following reason: I believe the main difference between Live Looping and
Dead Looping *g* is that the former is something you perform in realtime 
(be
it in front of a live audience or direct to 2bus recording (or 5.1bus, in
case of some of e.g. André LaFosse's work).
More specifically, I believe the delineation should be more specifically
about whether it's realtime use (as opposed to offline processing), not of
the performance format, and using the term "live performance" might give 
the
impression that it's  only valid if performed in front of an audience.

> The early loop was a physical loop of magnetic tape(3) that 
> passed continuously over the play/record head of a tape 
> player, explored by Pierre Shaffer and Pierre Henry in the 
> 1950s. The 1960s San Francisco Tape Music Center spawned the

There had been arrangements using wax cylinders and rotating magnetic
cylinders, used among others by Edgar Varèse, and I believe (please check
that!) he had something like that on the Philips booth at one world fair in
the 1920s.
 
> development of looping largely with his Frippertronics system 
> developed out of Eno’s tape delay system and through working 

"Eno's tape delay" was presented to a wider public by Terry Riley, who got
it from an uncredited engineer. Eno got the idea from Riley and Fripp got
the idea from Eno.
(reference: http://www.loopers-delight.com/history/Loophist.html)

> the last two decades. The 80s saw Fripp develop his solo work 
...and then called it "Soundscapes"

> (LoopersDelight.com, Ableton.com). A number of current well 
> known Looping artists include Andy Butler, Andre LaFosse, 
> Rick Walker, Kid Beyond, Amy X, Per Boysen, Zoe Keating... 

Perhaps include Imogen Heap (of Frou Frou fame) as well?

> hardware looping device around even today. A survey in 2003 
> looking at the technology used by loopers ranked the Jamman 
> and the Echoplex in the top ten in popularity along with the 

>From a survey conducted in (fall) 2007:
"The HW top3 usage-wise are the EDP (54%), followed by the DL4 (42%) and 
the
Repeater (40%). Ranking-wise, the best ranking for a hardware looper goes 
to
the Looperlative (94%! - hats off, bob!), followed by the EDP (89%) and 
with
a little more distance the Repeater (79%).

In the software domain, the top3 used looper software packages are a draw
between Mobius and Ableton Live (31%), followed by SooperLooper (17%).
Rating-wise, it's Mobius with 90% in the front, followed by MAX/MSP (88%)
and AugustusLoop (83%)."
And "80% of the loopers prefer hardware loopers over software loopers."


        Rainer