Re: experimental >< successfull

[Matthias Grob <matilists@atarde.com.br>]

nicely put, Nick!

years ago we have been talking about why loopers dont seem to become 
popular.

>Re the rc50 video, I tend to believe the looping is more of a state
>of mind and an approach to creating music, rather than using the
>latest technology to show how clever you are.

as it looks, its recently developing into a third way:
a tool to support live music which does not sound so different from 
music without the tool.

>The guitarist in the
>video in question is treating the looper as a multitrack recorder to
>allow him to widdle to his own riffs. This is all well and good, but
>if you listen to true creative loopers, they are creating expressive
>and original music, not just jamming over a backing track.
>
>The majority of designers of looping pedals clearly have the
>multitrack mentality to the fore, but they kind of miss the point to
>my way of thinking. To this day, the most interesting and creative
>things I do use a 20 year old Powertran DDL that a friend added extra
>memory to. It has no click track, no quantise, no undo or flash
>memory and it wouldn't know what to do with a midi cable, but it's
>*musical*.

yes, but be honest: isnt it musical because it does something of its 
own to your playing, so it adds a character or expression that 
fascinates you and inspires to play what you would not?
if you use a simple multitrack looper, all you can do is jam over a 
backing track, so you have to do do it well.

Although there certainly is a public which becomes fascinated with an 
inspired interaction with a random or not quite controlled machine, 
it seems that there is much more public for a funky guy that jams 
well over groovy tracks.
After all, Rico makes a living on it and spreads a fresh energy. Thats a 
lot!

Right, there are also musicians who manage to do all of this and also 
present a unique sound and induce a meeting with a new spirit that 
may change the listeners lifes!
Any looping tool to some extent helps to make this happen.

most of us are a bit of all and in no way I want to break up into two 
kinds or line up musicians on a scale.
maybe its even useless thinking.
it took me over an hour to type this.
shouldnt I be working on it instead?
-- 


          ---> http://www.matthiasgrob.com