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Re: hardware sequencers / feedback



At 12:13 PM +0000 3/23/98, Anthony Bowyer-Lowe wrote:
>Kim Flint on evolving loops using feedback:
>>Interestingly, this sort of effect is not readily available in the 
>typical
>>sampler, and it would be a bitch to manage in a sequencer. Consequently, 
>I
>>almost never hear people who primarily rely on sequencers and samplers
>>using this evolutionary approach to loops. They tend to have more abrupt
>>changes with their loops, where something immediately disappears and is
>>replaced by something else.
>
>Unless you're reprogramming something like a 606/707/808/909 drum box in
>realtime. Adding or removing triggers, moving accents, fading in and out
>certain sounds give a certain evolutionary quality to sequenced music.
>
>Also can be done with the SCI Studio 440 sequencer/sampler/drum machine
>where you can choose what sequence is played next, punch in and out of
>record at any time, have tempo slides (great feature), edit samples while
>the sequencer is running, mute tracks, yadda yadda yadda...

oh yeah! I completely agree. A lot of those old hardware sequencers can be
great instruments unto themselves, with a lot of cool evolving loop
possibilities just in the real-time way that the sequencer works. I think
that has a lot to do with why they are so popular now as "vintage" items.
Some of it is the sound, but I think the weird interfaces have a lot to do
with it and get overlooked.

Like the TB-303, which has a really odd interface. That probably had a lot
to do with why it was not very popular when it was in production. But I
think it just took people a few years to figure it out and figure what they
could do with it. And now you see people doing all sorts of creative stuff
with that box, and managing to get a lot of variety out of it.

I was playing with Rebirth a lot last night, treating it as a loop device
more than anything else. I had a great time with that. It has a loop
function that lets you set the start measure and the number of measures for
the loop. You set that to start looping somewhere during a song, and turn
the sequencer's record on. Then you start tweaking stuff, and it all gets
added to the loop, evolving it into something new. And when you've had
enough of that, you can turn the loop off, or set it's startpoint to a new
section, or change it's size. Tons of real-time, loop-evolving
possibilities with that.

I would say though, that it is a different sort of loop evolution than with
feedback. Not better or worse, just a different approach with different
results. With the sequencer, I tend to focus on specific parts and work on
modifying those, while other elements continue looping unchanged. With
feedback, the whole thing is gradually disappearing, so I am focusing on
what I am adding that fits with the stuff that is still there, but will
ultimately replace it entirely. Both ways are interesting, just different.


>Who composes like this? Well, erm, me, and, erm...

I'd like to hear more. How do you use those things, and what do you do with
them? What kind of loop evolutions do you get?

kim

______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
http://www.annihilist.com/  | Loopers-Delight-request@annihilist.com