Re: the magic act

["Emile Tobenfeld (a.k.a Dr. T)" <emile@foryourhead.com>]

At 2:49 PM -0800 12/30/09, Matt Davignon wrote:
>I'm glad you brought this up, Christopher.
>
>One of my frequent goals in looping is to try to not sound like I'm
>looping., or to blur the line between what is looped and what is live.
>I often get the impression of performing some slight-of-hand tricks as
>well. Some of the stuff I do:

....

>
>--Create loops of different lengths (on different devices) that are
>long periods of silence punctuated by only one or two notes. Play
>something live that these notes will change the character of when they
>appear.

Phasing is good. I've spent a lot of time working with analog 
sequencers and their digital equivalents -- e, g. on the Nord 
Modular. A little phasing can give the listener the feeling that the 
music is governed by a rule, but that the details of the rule cannot 
be pinned down.

>
>--
>Matt Davignon
>www.ribosomemusic.com
>Rigs! www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt
>
>
>Christopher Darrow <thedarrow@gmail.com> was like:
>>
>>  Looping is a juggling act, and a bit of magic. It takes a bit of 
>slight of
>>  hand to keep all the balls in the air.
>>  I think whatever is done with INTENTION to achieve this "counts."
>>  When I say that looping is a juggling act, I mean that (back when I was
>>  looping all the time) I found that something new must constantly be 
>added to
>>  the loop for it to remain interesting. (To me or the audience... I 
>make no
>>  distinction.) So I found the shortest possible means of "building" 
>each of
>>  my songs. (Not that I always chose that route, but good to have the 
>musical
>>  "straight line" on tap.)
>>  But sometimes, there is just some necessary space that has to happen...
>>  while switching instruments, letting a cycle finish, whatever. So 
>sometimes
>>  I would throw in a line of vocals or even something as simple as 
>smacking
>>  all the open guitar strings so they'd ring and fade, or perhaps an
>>  unnecessary momentary reverse. Anything to keep it feeling live.
>>  (I also found that the mix needed to be at about 60-65% loop to make 
>up for
>>  the extra energy and volume of the live inputs or else the loop would
>>  automatically feel stale and canned right away. But I can't fit that 
>into my
>>  juggling metaphor.)
>...


-- 

                Emile Tobenfeld, Ph. D.
Video Producer and Digital Photographer Image Processing Specialist
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