Looper's Delight Archive Top (Search)
Date Index
Thread Index
Author Index
Looper's Delight Home
Mailing List Info

[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Date Index][Thread Index][Author Index]

Re: Literature - articles - movies - comments and regarding Live looping



rune fagereng was all:
> Hi !
>
> I want to learn more about looping and live-electronic
> - both the history and the technology.

Hi Rune,

I'm actually going to take  crack at this the best I can, and try to be 
brief.

First, I'd say my responses to more than half of your questions tend
to be things like:
"It depends who you ask," and "Well, that's up for you to decide" soft
of answers. So other than that I'm going to pick and choose ...

> Is it linked to Debussy? or Ambient music?
>
> Are there a link from looper delight to - lets say
> musique concrete?
>
> The tape looping in 60`s what impact had it on the
> sampling and DJ culture?

the earliest looping piece I've heard was "Poppy Nogood and the
Phantom Band" by Terry Riley. That's from 1968. It's pretty likely
that Terry Riley and his friends were influenced by Terry Riley. Also
many modern ambient musicians are influenced by both the 60's
minimalists like Terry and earlier stuff like Debussy. From what I
hear today, I think the most influential stuff was late 70's music by
Robert Fripp and Brian Eno.

> Is there a musical genre (live looping)?

Yes and no. Literally, it's a technique that could be applied to most
genres of music, but you will find that many looping musicians go in
enough of a similar direction that you could call it a genre.

> What are the musicians missing in the technology of today?

My personal opinion is that technology is currently at a point where
people can do pretty much anything they imagine. It's actually at a
point where the technology can be a distraction, or easily confused
with creativity.

> Why aren`t more attention paid to live looping - by musicians - 
>comsumer`s and manufactures?

I think the manufacturers are finally coming around. I've seen a lot
of new or reissued looping boxes in the past few years.

> What sets live sampling apart for other genre?
It's rarely done! I honestly can't think of a song I've heard on
popular radio that used live looping or real-time sampling. Anyone?

> The leading music academy of music in Norway teaches
> in live electronics? Does this mean it has become
> mainstream? What is there to learn?

As far as I can tell, Norway is one of the best countries in the world
when it comes to supporting new and cutting edge art forms.

> How does a concert with a musician with
> live-electronic look from the audience view?
>
> What are live looper`s actually doing on stage -
> regarding what the audience can see?
>
> What can be said about the interaction between man and
> machine - when the player must turn/move around for
> pushing buttons for making music?

Usually what you'd see onstage is somebody playing an instrument,
except when the musician starts doing something different, the sounds
he was making before simply continue. The first time an audience
member sees this, they're often confused, or they think the musician
has backing tracks on cd. Most of the time, the actual sampling and
playback is controlled with foot pedals.

> Is there - in looping - a fine line between repetition
> and boredom?
> How does good looper - artists and composer deal with
> this technically and in building a composition?

...but of course! Modern music has people used to the idea of phrases
that repeat exactly. Most pop music on the radio is constructed out of
samples of live instruments, rather than letting the instruments play
live from the beginning of the song to the end. The trick is to know
when to move on to a different sound.

There are ways to layer sounds so it sound like a new one rather than
the one you've been hearing the entire time. Sometimes it's like a
synthesizer combines sine waves to get something that sounds like a
single note rather than a bunch of sine waves.

Or if you have two wheels (loops) spinning at different speeds, the
sound of the wheels together will take longer to match up exactly, so
it doesn't sound repetitive.

All right - that's all for now. It sounds like most of your questions
would be answered after working with a looping device for an hour or
so. It's a really simple concept to work with - you record something
and it instantly plays back - but there's lots of stuff you can do
with such a tool.

Matt