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RE: looping with other musicians
We came up with an interesting way of using the EDP in a quartet a couple
of weeks ago. We used a drum machine to send a MIDI pulse to my EDP...then
we sent the pulse to the drummer who could listen to it in the form of a
click using headphones. But the bass player and keyboard couldnt hear the
click, so they just play to the drummer. So the EDP and the drummer are
married using the MIDI pulse, but no one else in the band knows the
difference, since we all just play to the drummer. This resulted in a
great gig of completely improvised loop based jamming. The result was loop
accuracy combined with the human element of the band members still playing
off each other and not to the machine...
-----Original Message-----
From: jondrums [mailto:jondrums@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 3:04 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: looping with other musicians
> EDP is the most "playable" looper I've come across so far. One EDP, foot
> controller and instrument is my dream set-up for ensemble looping.
My favorite trick with the EDP (when playing with other musicians) is to
use
the mute/insert combination to retrigger the loop. This will start the
loop over at the start-point and play it once through. If you use
mute/undo
combo, then it retriggers it and keeps it playing. I actually have my
fcb1010 set up with three very crucial buttons: set-start-point,
retrigger-once, and retrigger-continue. These are direct-midi commands in
loop IV.
I typically will set up a 1 bar loop, and use the retrigger-continue
button
on beat 1 whenever the other players start to wander, and that usually
locks
them right back onto it. If they're following the 1 bar loop well, then
I'll multiply it out and be fairly certain that the'll be able to keep
following it. If things speed up or slow down I have to use
multiply/record
to redefine the length of the loop, or just record-record to start a brand
new identical loop at the slightly faster tempo or whatever.
Want to know the secret to playing loops with groups? I contend that its
all in your state of mind! To many times I hear people ask how they can
get
the bass player or drummer to follow their guitar loops. WRONG. If you
want to make loops while playing with other musicians, you have to find a
way to be able to **follow the other musicians**. There is a subtle
balance
between musicians when everyone is "in the groove." No one person is
determining it, and everyone is working together to create it. IMHO, Its
just plain selfish to interupt that balance with your forced mechanized
looped groove and ask the other musicians to blindly follow you.
I would be interested to hear how other people are using looping
techniques
to **follow** other musicians tempo and groove. Is anyone using realtime
tempo adjustments (ie. repeater) with success (much like an expert DJ can
beat match) to play with live musicians or records? This is something
I've
tried but not had much success with just yet.
Jon