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Re: mini review: BOSS SL-20 SLICER/LOOPER pedal
thanks Rick...
do you think it will respond to incoming midi clock?
Teddy K
http://teddyjam.com
On Aug 24, 2008, at 1:46 AM, Rick Walker wrote:
> I'm so fascinated by taking unusual wave forms
> and slicing them into grooving patterns that
> I ordered the new BOSS SL-20 Audio Pattern Processor
> pedals before they had even been released.
>
> I've been very busy lately so it came a week ago and
> tonight I finally sat down with it.
>
> What major fun!
>
>
> This pedal will generate different rhythmic slicing patters from
> any input (and some slice patterns will just sound great with only
> the noise of a guitar inputted).
>
> I don't know it well yet, but there are several salient features
> (Including a simple onboard looping function_!_) that I thought you
> all might want to read about it.
>
> The pedal boasts 50 different rhyhtmic approaches but I haven't been
> able to get through more than 3 or 4 in the last hour and a half
> because they sound so good.
>
> The pedal can also be used in latch or momentary mode which is
> fantastic for
> jamming with yourself (especially if you are running , as I was
> tonight, through
> a digital delay).
>
> It has an onboard tap button and a cool lit metronone light that shoes
> a red flashing light on the downbeat of the rhythmic pulse and three
> green lights
> on the down beat (wouldn't if be cool if loopers came equipped with
> such a cool tool?)
>
> No only are there multiple rhythmic patterns , including some cool
> ones that generate harmonics
> and form very musical rhythmic patterns and some ones with evolving
> filters, but
> you can control the envelope of the pulses width, and attack and
> decay times.
>
> There are no progammable rhythmic patterns which could be cool and
> the machine is
> set to 4/4 with 16th notes for the most part (I did find one triplet
> shuffle feel as well
> and there may be more amongst the 40 or so rhythms I have
> experienced yet,
> but I'd be nitpicking to say that this bugged me.
>
> Essentially, with a simple fretless guitar (I just had my frets on
> my hideous pink strat
> removed today) and playing really simple single and double note
> melodies and chords, I was
> able to generate interesting grooves that would fit anywhere in
> electronica.
>
> This thing is just a dance composing machine as the simplest kinds
> of ideas can generate a lot to work
> off of and the sounds are great.
>
> I especially loved using harmonics and bar harmonics with the
> combination of the fretless and
> floyd roses whammy bar that's on this guitar
>
>
> With the looper included, you can hold down the on/off button for
> the rhythmic slices for 2 seconds as you play
> and then, the next time you hit the button, it will record a fairly
> long loop that seems to be automatically
> synchonized to the rhythm pattern (you have midi control too,
> though I did not play with that tonight)when you
> truncate the loop with another press of the on/off button.
>
> The next time you turn off the effect, it immediately erases the
> loop so it's great for improvising and
> playing with the grooves going and not going.
>
> I wouldn't use it as my only looper but the ability to loop
> something is awesome for me as a multi-instrumentalis.
> Several times I broke my neighborhoods sound curfew because I got a
> loop going that made me leap onto my drum set
> to groove with it.
>
> It is effective enough that it replaces the need for arpeggiated or
> sequenced synth lines that are so often associated with
> electronic music. I could concieve of myself hitting the stage
> with this, a guitar, bass, drumset and microkorg
> synth and playing a really covincing set of dance music for a party
>
> I'll write more as I know more about it, but I'm very, very happy I
> got it.
>
> Check it out if you get a chance.
>
> Rick Walker
>
> ps it also has cool stereo modes though I did not use them tonight
> pps it also an expression pedal to control several functions which
> I also haven't tried out yet.
>