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Looper's Delight
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In response to Matthias' question: Primeiro: Muito obrigado para as boas perguntas (Desculpe, I just *had* to toss in some Portuguese!) I'll answer your second question first >Do they [Indian musicians] use any electronics exept for straight >amplification of their traditional work? Currently in North Indian classical music I've not seen anyone use electronics in the sense of changing tone color, extending an instrument's range, etc. About the only real use of sound processing is adding artificial reverb both to live performances and studio recordings to enhance the overall sound. Unfortunately this tends only to make things muddier. If it's used sparingly it can be a nice effect but more often than not both the main instrument (or vocalist) as well as the tabla accompanist are drenched in reverb and this winds up ruining the music (for me at least). I have recently heard a sample of a young Indian classical musician playing synthesizer. You can listen to this at http://www.neelam.com I always dreamed about the possibility of synthesizers, midi, etc. within the realm of ICM (Indian classical music). It seemed that if someone had good knowledge of the music that almost anything would be possible in terms of sound sources. From the clip I heard, this particular recording seems rather one-dimensional as far as texture, etc. The playing is correct and good, but the "piano" sound seems trite. To be fair, though, I remember seeing Sun Ra many times in the early and mid 80's playing entire concerts using just one setting (and a cheesy ball-park organ sound at that!) on a synthesizer that was the "multivoice" state-of -the-art at the time, and he always sounded fantastic. So it's not just the equipment, it's what the guy sitting behind it does with it. Another use of electronics which is becoming extremely widespread is the recent invention of "electronic tanpura" (also spelled tamboura) replacing the traditional string drone instrument. This has really taken off in the last ten years where almost every performer I've seen recently - vocal or instrumental - has used one, either alone or in combination with a "real" tanpura. To my ears it doesn't sound as nice as a genuine string tanpura, but I can certainly understand the portability, the comparative sturdiness, and the wider tuning range. (A string tanpura only sounds good within a very limited range -- for instance C to D, but not above or below). Yet another increasingly popular device is the "electronic tabla." I must admit guiltily to using one of these myself. It can never replace a live tabla player, but it's great for practice since you can work with about a dozen common "taal-s" (rhythm cycles) and vary the tempo as well as the pitch (to tune to your instrument). Plus, it doesn't "give attitude" like a real tabla player, and you can turn it off when it becomes too annoying ;) (My apologies to tabliyas worldwide!) >How do you think the indians would receive the looping tools to >simplyfy/extend their music? Excellent question! One common aspect of Indian music and looping is that ICM is largely repetitive to begin with, but part of the allure of a good musician is that s/he will take even the most frequently repeated phrase and slightly alter it each time, making it new and exciting. But as far as serious classical performance goes, I couldn't really forsee looping being widely accepted, except possibly for replacing the tanpura drone, which is already being done electronically. However, the Indian sense of tolerance and absorption from other countries and cultures is legendary. For instance, the sitar, sarod, shehnai, and harmonium were all developed from "foreign" instruments, and today there are many performers playing modified "slide" guitars and electric mandolins. So anything is possible! I'd love to see it happen. James Pokorny Ate logo, Matthias!