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Re: RC-50 Fade Out
Bill,
You're on the right track with feedback. Indeed, for a looper to loop
indefinitely, feedback would be at unity gain or 100%. However, if
you want the loop to slowly change over time as you add new bits and
old bits fade to nothingness you'd want feedback set at something less
than 100%. If feedback is set at 97% for example, it takes so long
for the old stuff to fade out that a listener may be ignorant of the
subtle changes until a half-hour later they find the loop is
completely different from where they started. Conversly, if a
musician wanted to quickly get rid of a section they may set feedback
to something like 50%, where the next time around the existing
material will only be half as loud and new stuff will easily cover it.
Being able to control this feedback level (usually with a pedal) is
obviously a major boon to loopers. It turns the loop into a living
entity, growing and changing over time versus a static loop with
overdubs (and perhaps undos).
Todd
On 2/19/06, Bill Fox <billyfox@soundscapes.us> wrote:
> Perhaps I'm a bit dense. I totally understand the concept of feedback
> in the world of delay units. Without feedback, a delay happens only
> once. With feedback of less than unity gain, there are repeats that
> decay over time. With feedback at unity gain, you have a delayed signal
> repeats forever... like a loop. With feedback greater than unity gain,
> the volume builds up on each repetition. But a loop, by any definition
> I know, doesn't need any feedback in order to, um, loop ad infintitum.
> Being the owner of only a Boss RC-20 and an Akai Headrush, what am I not
> understanding? In the world of looping, what is the purpose of
> feedback? A tape loop does not have feedback. It is a length of tape
> that has been spliced into a loop and plays as long as you desire. It
> will not change in volume over time. Perhaps loopers such as EDP, etc.
> are different than the tape loop analogy and are closer to the delay
> concept, à la three head tape machines, analog and digital delays? Thus
> making the looper appellation a slight (but not total) misnomer?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bill
>
>