Re: laptop-loopers (guitar)

["Krispen Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>]

You just found the gray area, Rainer. I knew you would. :)   Okay, here we 
go....

I admit, it's not black and white, and when it comes to some effects, 
there 
is a lot of "fuzziness".  As you say, there are effects where some 
parameters will just start taking a life of their own, independent of the 
guitar.  Another example in addition to yours is that when you play one 
note 
on the guitar, and the effects takes over from that point, allowing you to 
tweak parameters, manipulate the tone, and so on.  So you play one note on 
the guitar, and add some infinite delay...then you take the output of that 
delay and start adding pitch, filtering, feedback, modulation and until 
you 
are basically creating your sound with nothing but effects....and in fact, 
at that point  you may very well have set the guitar down after you used 
it 
to play its single contributing note.  Yes, I would consider the effect 
the 
instrument at that point, because you are actually tweaking the effect to 
generate new sounds.  The guitar becomes secondary.

Now let' take that sound clip I provided a while back, which was a sample 
of 
all the VST effects in my laptop system. For that clip, I did no effect 
parameter tweaking. I played the guitar the entire time and just switched 
from one VST effect to another. I let the effect do its thing to my 
guitar, 
but the whole time I was in control of my guitar and providing 100% of the 
raw input to be mangled by the effects. In that case, I do not consider 
the 
effects as an instrument. I was not touching or manipulating anything on 
my 
notebook. I was not using the effects, as in hands on manipulation to 
produce new sounds, which is what we typically do with instruments, right? 
Rather, the effects were window dressing around my initial guitar tone. 
Maybe some would call pressing a button to switch from one VST to another, 
using the laptop as an instrument. I dont'.  That's just button pushing 
for 
the sake of colorizing my guitar.

I do not regret using this window dressing, but as an artist, I do have to 
admit that I feel that window dressing diminishes the creative purity of 
my 
work. Again, this is a value statement of my own subjective perspective 
here, but it's authentic nonetheless.  I am not going to take artistic 
credit for all the cool sounds my VST effects produce (this goes to the 
developers), rather I will only take credit for the playing behind those 
effects, the actual notes, articulation, dynamics, creative note placement 
and choice, etc These things come from me, not the VST effects. If I strip 
away all the effects, what I end up with is pure "me" and guitar. There is 
no hiding at that point.  Hypothetically, if I cam a crappy guitarist who 
has only played my instrument for a year, I can no doubt use VST effects 
and 
looping to produce some seemingly professional ambient sounds and tones, 
and I have seen this done. But it doesn't change the fact that I am an 
amateur guitarist with a limited grasp of my instrument as a creative 
tool. 
Nothing can change this but hard work and time.

Out of desperation as an artist and someone who has been reading, 
teaching, 
writing, and playing music for almost 30 years, I cling to the idea that 
talent and hard work at learning a traditional instrument still has value 
and worth amidst this world of technology and gadgetry.  Call me a 
traditionalist, but I still hold (based on feeling) the traditional 
instrument and chops in high regard.  That example above, where I could 
play 
one note and then let the effects and my parameter tweaking do the rest. 
That is interesting and impressive to me, but it does not gain my respect 
as 
an artist, nor does add to my own integrity as an artist. That's just my 
opinion.

Kris


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill" <rs@moinlabs.de>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 10:08 AM
Subject: laptop-loopers (guitar)


>
>> not....I am somewhat neutral on this for now, but one part of
>> in me wants to reduce effects to non-instruments when a
>> traditional instrument is the primary sound generator, but
>> consider effects (laptops included) inststruments when they
>> are stand-alone music/tone generators.   This is just a
>
> Ok, let's see where this will lead us...let's say you got a DL4 with a 
> sweep
> delay, or a laptop with OhmBoyz. There is a setting on the depth/feedback
> (vs. resonance/feedback) knobs where the effect will do nothing on its 
> own,
> just react to your guitar (or whatever). Then there is a setting where 
>the
> effect will start to generate huge washes of noise all by itself. And 
> there
> is the range in between where by the tick of a knob it will turn from a
> "tame" effect into something which will start to self-oscillate by just a
> tiny increase in brownian motion. And you're telling me this tick of the
> knob removes the "non-" from "non-instrument"?
>
> ;-),
>
> Rainer
>
>