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Looper's Delight
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Hi all, (I wrote the email below before remembering to check the list archive. So I've added some changes into it as I read through the archive, so it might be kinda jumbled.) I've recently got into playing my midi guitar (strat with Roland GK-2A and GR-33 module) and the part I love is that I can switch sounds very quickly, from bass to pitched bell to helicopter. The part I don't like is the just-barely-perceptable delay between hitting a note and hearing the sound. I usually mix the actual guitar sound in with the synth sound so that there's something making sound immediately, which seems to make the synth delay easier on the ears. I'd love to get a Starr labs guitar controller some day when I can afford one. In the meantime, I've been looking at the Yamaha EZ-EG training guitar, which is all midi with buttons on each fret and six metal bars for strings ala some of the Starr labs controllers. I played it once and it was surprisingly responsive. The best thing is it's only $300. Anyone out there tried it out for real? I'd like to find (or buid myself if necessary) some midi looping software, since I'd like to lay down different loops of different lengths with my midi guitar while I play along with a couple percussionists. I might make it a part of the tempo-tracking software I spammed you all about a few weeks ago, or I might keep it separate - not sure yet what makes most sense. Is there midi-looping software out there that anyone's tried? I found "Smart Monkey MIDI" which says it does live midi looping, but I haven't tried it out yet. I saw the archive post that mentioned Numerology, so I checked with the Numerology people and they don't do looping, but hope to add it in the future. They mentioned that MOTU DP does live midi looping, but offered no details. Anyone tried DP for looping. I'd like to find (or build) something with features along these lines: - multiple loop cycles going at once, e.g. 4, 8, 16 and 32 beat cycles. These would be defaults, with other values easily set. Easy switching between cycles to choose which one you want to record into. - ability to record a loop/passage without the contstraints of a set cycle length on the fly, and have a new cycle (or somesuch) added as appropriate, or the new loop/passage added to the most appropriate cycle by default (e.g. if you hit record, then play a 7 beat phrase, then hit stop-record, the looper automatically adds what you played to an 8-beat cycle loop). - midi trigger to toggle between loops/cycles and add new playing to the loop, or disable/enable - option for all enable/disable actions to be delayed to take effect on the next cycle onset, ala Ableton Live. e.g. you press a loop-enable trigger for the 4-beat loop when you're at the 5th beat of an overall 32-beat cycle, and the 4-beat loop waits to toggle its state until beat 9. - automatic harmony/key adjustment for all melodic loops. Enter a key/harmony progression (possibly with # of beats for each key/harmony) and the looper will transpose each melodic loop when the change comes. Would be nice if the key/harmony change could be triggered manually, so I could jam and improv in each harmony until I wanted to change. Better yet, how about if there were some key/harmony values that only changed when a trigger is activated, and some that can be designated to last only a certain # of beats. The latter type could be used for regular chorus or changes or breaks that will always have the same duration. - ability to group different loop cycles for easy management and designation of options that effect all members of the group. e.g. a group could have one loop of each 4, 8, 16, 32 beats and could be easily enabled/disabled. - ability for a group of loops (or individual loops) to activate only in certain keys/harmonies. So, you could setup different sections of loops that would automatically toggle on/off as you changed key/harmony. - ability to record all loops and all control/state changes so that a performance could be precisely reproduced. - ability to write out whole performance as midi file, or individual loops or loop groups to a midi file Phew! I realize now this is looking like a kind of live/interactive composition tool as well as a performance tool. Any ideas of midi looping software that can do this? I'd rather not have to program it myself, because frankly I'm completely sick of programming. But I think I will do it anyway if I can't find something good enough, since I'm excited to play around with this accompanied by live percussion. Cheers, Michael