Re: Live Gig Rig Logistics

["Ken Melms" <wgold@mecasw.com>]

How did you solve the latency issue? What OS? What
hardware?

I asked a question about this kind of setup a while back and
was pointed towards a few sources, but their latencies were
all 100ms or more... Almost useless.

I'd love to know more about your work.

Ken

wgold@mags.net / wgold@mecasw.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Stahl <alex@pixar.com>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Date: Thursday, October 28, 1999 4:57 PM
Subject: Re: Live Gig Rig Logistics


>Hi,
>
>I don't play out all that much, but I've done theater sound design and
>toured for several years as the Kronos Quartet's sound guy. So I'm spoiled
>with load-in times measured in days rather than minutes.  The last time I
>performed with my looping setup I had a hand-truck which I prewired
>offstage then rolled on.  This made it possible to start playing into a
>loop even before getting up on stage; even though the dolly held two 12
>space racks, plus a Yamaha 03D and a Powerbook.  For interconnecting the
>racks, I've made wiring harnesses which bring everything from each rack 
>out
>to Elco connectors, like the ones on the back of ADAT's.  Then I have a
>bunch of fat Elco 16-pair patch cords; so I can unplug the processing 
>racks
>from the Elco-ized patch bay rack in my home studio, and plug them 
>directly
>into each other and into the mixer for live use. I cut little doors in the
>back of the SKB rack covers, so the back doors can stay on and the racks
>look pretty clean.
>
>As well as that worked, it sure doesn't fit under an airplane seat, which
>is my criteria for a good live rig.
>That's why I've spent the last three years working toward replacing the
>whole rig with a laptop or two.
>I've solved the latency issue as far as looping is concerned, and 
>completed
>a few features which I have always wanted but never found in dedicated
>hardware boxes: reverse-offspeed playback while continuing to overdub,
>graphic timing display for multiple different-length loops, multi-level
>undo, and sampler-style random access to fragments of a loop.  I have all
>this working, but yeah, it still crashes enough that I wouldn't be doing
>anyone any favors by posting it just yet.
>
>I just joined this list a couple months ago, prior to that I had no idea
>there were so many other people still playing with long regenerant (or
>degenerate?) delays. The first looping concert I gave was in 1977, playing
>my just-built electric upright bass with a pair of Ampex 1/2" four track
>decks 30 feet apart behind a curtain. The curtain caught and broke the 
>tape
>as it went up, so I've enjoyed the risk factor of live looping from the
>beginning. Perhaps that explains why I think a software solution will be
>viable. (That, plus the idea that if you try and enter your datebook into
>your echoplex, it doesn't work so well either:-)
>
>-Alex S.
>
>