------------------------------
Content-Type: text/plain

Loopers-Delight-d Digest                                Volume 97 : Issue 15

Today's Topics:
  Re: oberheim echoplex used with midi  [ Ed Drake <ejmd@erols.com> ]
  Please be careful with dashes         [ cwb@platinum.com (Clark) ]
  Re: Please be careful with dashes     [ Paolo Valladolid <pvallado@wayneswo ]
  Re: Please be careful with dashes     [ Dave Stagner <dstagner@icarus.net> ]
  Re: creative isolation                [ matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias  ]
  Re: Creativity and Technique          [ matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias  ]
  Re: New Lex ad                        [ matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias  ]
  Re: Creativity and Technique          [ matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias  ]
  Re: Creativity and Technique          [ matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias  ]
  Re: creative isolation                [ matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias  ]
  Re: Creativity and Technique          [ nyfac <nyfac2@nyfac.com> ]
  Re: Creativity and Technique          [ Paolo Valladolid <pvallado@wayneswo ]
  Re: oberheim echoplex used with midi  [ James Reynolds <tritone@dsp.com> ]
  Re: re:Re: Jamman with Midi Fade      [ PMimlitsch@aol.com ]
  Morphing into a loop (Was: Re: slide  [ John Pollock <johnpollock@delphi.co ]
  Re: Creativity and Technique          [ John Pollock <johnpollock@delphi.co ]

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------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 14:22:58 -0400
From: Ed Drake <ejmd@erols.com>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: oberheim echoplex used with midi foot switch
Message-Id: <l03010d00af0eac891f99@[205.177.146.144]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Kim,
 Here is something about the MFC 10 MIDI foot controller by Yamaha. Maybe
from the specs you can tell whether it is usable with the Plex or not.
There is a picture at
http://yamaha.com:8000/cgi-win/webcgi.exe/DsplyModel/?GUE00004MFC10
I don't like the LED readout as it's small and only allows for numbering
your patches not naming them. I think it lists for about $350.

                           Ed

SPECIFICATIONS  /  MFC10

[--------------------------------------]

[*] Program Change Mode

     By operating the foot switches, you can transmit 128 different
     Program Change and Bank Select messages from memory. Bank Select
     MSB: h'Bn, h'00, 00-127; Bank Select LSB: h'Bn, h'20, 00-127;
     Program Change: h'Cn, 00-127.

[*] Function Mode

     By operating the foot switches, you can transmit 100 different
     Control Changes etc. from memory. Note Off: h'8n, 00-127, 00-127;
     Note On: h'9n, 00-127, 01-127; Control Change: h'Bn, 00-127,
     00-127; Program Change: h'Cn, 00-127; Start/Stop/Continue: h'FA,
     h'FB, h'BC; Song Select: h'F3, 00-127

[*] Markings on the Foot Switches

     The number (0-9), F, and x10 markings on the foot switches are
     always illuminated by a green LED, allowing operation even in a
     dark location. Of these , the numbers (0-9) change to red when a
     memory is selected, and "F" lights red in Function mode.

[*] Control Changes

     Control Changes etc. can be transmitted using the build-in foot
     controller (pedal) or an external foot controller. Control Change:
     h'Bn, 00-120, 00-127; After Touch: h'Dn, 00-127; Pitch Bend: h'En,
     00-127, 00-127

[*] MIDI IN Connector

     A MIDI IN connector is provided and its input is merged and
     transmitted from MIDI OUT.

[*] WX-IN Jack

     A WX-IN jack is provided, allowing controllers such as the WX11 to
     be directly connected. (A switch allows you to select between this
     and MIDI IN.)

[*] Function Select Switch

     The Funcation Select Switch lets you choose to use the Program
     Change mode and Function mode together or independently. This
     allows 25 memories (5 banks x 5 memories) to be used as program
     changes. However, by pressing the [Function] foot switches [1-5],
     you will be able to use 25 program changes and 100 functions.

[*] Program Change or Function Mode

     The Function Select Switch allows you to use the
     previously-described Program Change mode and Function mode
     independently. In this case you will be able to use 128 program
     changes and 100 functions.

[*] Program Change/Function Mode: Used Together

     Program Change mode and Function mode can be used together. Foot
     switches [6-0] are fixed as Function switches, and foot switches
     [1-5] are used for program changes.

[*] Controls

     Three 7-segment LEDs, 27 LEDs, Panel switches x 5, Function select
     switch, Foot switches x 12, Foot controller x 1, MIDI IN/WX-IN
     select switch

[*] Connectors

     MIDI IN (WX-IN)/OUT, Foot Switch or Foot Controller inputs (FC5,
     FC7, etc.) x4, DC 12V IN: 12V/700mA

[*] Power Supply

     PA3B or equivalent AC adaptor

[*] Dimensions (WxDxH)

     608 x 210 x 57 mm (24" x 8-1/4" x 2-1/4")

[*] Weight:

     3.5 kg (7 lbs. 11 oz.)

(Features and Specifications subject to change without notice.)

[ Features ][ Accessories ][ Search by Model ][ Return to Beginning ]

[--------------------------------------]

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 14:56:41 -0500
From: cwb@platinum.com (Clark)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Please be careful with dashes
Message-Id: <199701241956.OAA03036@octopus.ab.platinum.com>

There was recently discovered a problem which i think everyone
here should be aware of.  The digest version of this list is
sent as a collection of attachments each separated by a series
of dashes at the left margin.  If your post or your signature
contains two or more dashes at the left margin some mail readers
will get very confused ant not display any of the digest after
that line.  If you must use dashes at the left margin of a post
please insert a single space or some non-dash character before
the line.  This will allow those of us with stupid mail readers
to read the entire digest.

Thank You

Clark

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 12:09:45 -0800 (PST)
From: Paolo Valladolid <pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Please be careful with dashes
Message-Id: <199701242009.MAA29937@waynesworld.ucsd.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

> There was recently discovered a problem which i think everyone
> here should be aware of.  The digest version of this list is
> sent as a collection of attachments each separated by a series
> of dashes at the left margin.  If your post or your signature
> contains two or more dashes at the left margin some mail readers
> will get very confused ant not display any of the digest after
> that line.  If you must use dashes at the left margin of a post
> please insert a single space or some non-dash character before
> the line.  This will allow those of us with stupid mail readers
> to read the entire digest.
> 
> Thank You
> 
> Clark

I'll also add that one should not leave a "." on a line by itself.
This caused a problem with the Digital Guitar list.


Paolo Valladolid
 ---------------------------------------------------------------
|Moderator of Digital Guitar Digest, an Internet mailing list   |\ 
|for Music Technology and Stringed Instruments                  | \
 ----------------------------------------------------------------  |
\ finger pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu for more info             \ |
 \ http://waynesworld.ucsd.edu/DigitalGuitar/home.html            \| 
  -----------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 17:14:23 -0600 (CST)
From: Dave Stagner <dstagner@icarus.net>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Please be careful with dashes
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.93.970124171041.30693B-100000@icarus.icarus.net>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

It should be noted that a small number of dashes on the left margin,
before the signature file, is considered "correct" software behavior
on the Internet, and many mail programs (including Netscape)
automatically add them.  So any software that's dying because of
dashes in the signature is incorrect, and ignoring a widely-used
informal standard.

-dave, professional unix programmer and occasional Internet consultant

By "beauty," I mean that which seems complete.
Obversely, that the incomplete, or the mutilated, is the ugly. 
Venus De Milo.
To a child she is ugly.       /* dstagner@icarus.net */
   -Charles Fort              

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 21:34:42 -0300
From: matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias Grob)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: creative isolation
Message-Id: <v01520d01af0ec0101034@[200.254.32.122]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Thank you, Emmanuel for this extremely long post.
It blocked my mailbox for three days, but its worth it!
I try to answer only to the most important points of it, although there
would be a lot more to say.

>The topic of creative isolation is striking a chord with me: probably
>with many others.  Somewhat off formal list topic, but nonetheless central
>to all of us who want to create.

Agreed. We grow together about some music, so if we exclude these questions
we limit the groops value.

>My main point is that I've never witnessed really potent stuff coming
>from someone who did their thing in isolation (doesn't mean it can't happen!).

I am not sure whether I started the idea of isolation. If so, I did isolate
from musical influences during that period, but not at all personally. I
even invited groups of friends and we watched slides or meditated while I
was playing, so I did have that necessary return, "someone to babble to".

>There is no "tabula rasa", but neither is there some
>autonomous, congenital, pure, "inner voice", in my opinion.

I was not looking for tabula rasa either. The blues licks did not disapear,
but started to sound different in the new surrounding.
I do believe in that "inner voice", and that it is easily overheard because
of the constant input of (louder, produceder) sounds through the ears.

>I don't
>think we can ever escape our musical and tonal conditioning any more
>than we can escape the meanings and nuances generated by the knowledge
>of our mother tongues.

Perfectly agreed, nice comparison. The "inner voice" speaks that language.

>Can we change
>the way we organize our thoughts, perhaps even our personalities, by taking
>up a new language?  Perhaps.

I changed a lot in the portugese ambient. I started to understand things
german speaking people are not aware off. Usually there is no word in
german for those things. Now, I do not know whether there is no word
because they were not interested or whether people have not been able to
become aware of a "thing" (rather emotions, concepts...) because there was
no name for it.

>So I think some of this discussion about "going beyond" and expanding
>horizons has a lot to do with the analysis/synthesis process that we
>all go through when we *learn* something new.  No two of us hear and feel
>the same way.  No two of us have the same hands, the same joints for
>fretting or pressing the keys.

This goes for language, for content, it takes more.

>The best way we can love and honor our influences is to make them our
>own.  I think when we bring the music home, deep into ourselves, that this
>is when we innovate ... this is when the synaptic connections are made.

nice!

>For me, that inner "pure" voice is something that is sought via a process
>that is dialetical in nature.

So ther is this voice? What does "sought" mean (infinitif?)

>do is then some kind of synthesis of all these factors, many of them common
>to what is out there in the world and some of them unique to you.  Some
>people will be able to cultivate more of what is unique within them.

I would not valorize the unique that much. I highly admire musicians that
are able to interprete a piece the way the composer intended it. I admire
even more, when they can do it with any kind of style. We need such
professionals, at least to back up the ones that only do their unique
thing.

>Once you have
>the right primordial soup, all the conditions for life (or music) are
>available, and all you need is the right spark to get some combustion
>going.

Right! And this might be the moment you do not want external influences any
more.

>a lot of preparation for making music.  Everybody has to go through this.

It seams that the effort is extremely different. Some just listen once and
then do it the same. But we also observe that the difficulty makes more
creative. The one that has everithing at hand may have less motivation to
find HIS solution.
Since I never will be able to play a piece of composer corectly, I need to
create mine and really profit from all the ingrediants there are available
for my soup.

This is how Pizza and Fejoada (famous brasilian bean dish) had been invented:
By the poor who had to create something eatable with what they has access to.
In the case of Fejoada its tail, ears, nose... what the rich left to the
slaves and generations of big black mamas put all their love into their
fire places...
Once its created, the rich take it over (and they are smart in copying and
marketing!) and sell it expensive in the speciality restaurant.
With many musical styles grew the same way.

>Maybe the rest of creativity is intuition, talent, black magic, luck,
>stubbornness, willpower.  Some people just have to work something over,
>compulsively, till they get it to where it makes sense to them.  There
>is a lot of processing going on.  Maybe a lot of it is going on even away
>from the instrument.

Very agreed!


>As a final note, it is interesting that this line of thought has
>evolved among this group of loopers.  As a looper, is one not
>creating some sort of creative isolation, in so far as one is
>bouncing their ideas off the wall/mirror that looping devices provide.
>Might not a lot of looping experimentation be likened to the game
>of solitaire, in which one is forced to react to the choices that they
>have made in the previous play.

Nice!
Another interesting comparison. What is this game like?
Looping could not be compared to a chess computer or patience, I think.



Matthias

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 21:35:15 -0300
From: matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias Grob)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Creativity and Technique
Message-Id: <v01520d00af0d8513b3e0@[200.254.32.101]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

John said, some days ago:
>Only when you have mastered your instrument can you
>play from
>your inspiration.  ...
>Many music students give up before they develope the
>technique
>to play inspiring music because of said frustration and lack of patience
>or disipline.

There is a critics I had for music lessons, at least in switzerland.
They suggest that the pupil knows a lot of technique before he starts
knowing inspiration.
I think "the channel" should be tought soon. I never gave lessons, but I
would try to make a pupil feel he is able to play music, even with just a
few slow notes.
Could that work?

I guess the problem comes from there: Many of the teachers are musicians
with a limited talent, little knowledge about inspriation, rather
discipline to get the technique to pass the diploma...

Matthias

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 21:35:30 -0300
From: matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias Grob)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: New Lex ad
Message-Id: <v01520d04af0d8e84ebb2@[200.254.32.101]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>I read that, when he was a pilot, Steve Morse would practive while driving
>to/from work - put the car on cruise control, and play whilst steering with
>his knees....

Oh yeah, I had I friend like that, too! A brilliant Jazz guitarist and
pianist called Teddy Baerlocher. He used to have the cavacinho on the knees
and the partitura on the steering wheel.
We thought it was crazy, until he died on the high way, stepping out of the
car to help another cars self accident!
Then we had a hard time to understand or even accept destiny...

But my point was: Its possible to practice without actually playing an
instrument.
Other posts confirm that very nicely! Thanks.

Matthias

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 21:35:22 -0300
From: matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias Grob)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Creativity and Technique
Message-Id: <v01520d03af0d8be14d38@[200.254.32.101]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Out of Coffin:
>I think you can go further and assert that technical limitations are never a
>barrier to expression. If the need to express, or the content, is demanding
>enough, it finds a way. When technical freedom is met with great inspiration,
>it makes for a sublimely entertaining experience, but not necessarily more a
>compelling one, merely because of its brilliance. We'd love to have
>everything, but it's not really necessary.

I agree somehow. Otherwhise Bob Dylan never would have sold records.
But I observe that in the heavy competition, more and more it IS "necessary
to have everything". Its not enough to have something to say and find a way
to express it, you need to play and dance well, be beautyfull and speak
well and and and...

This is for the ones that look for success.
And they do not make all of the culture, I hope.

Matthias

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 21:35:43 -0300
From: matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias Grob)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Creativity and Technique
Message-Id: <v01520d00af0ed12e159b@[200.254.32.122]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Dave Stagner said some days ago:

>Technique is only necessary to the point where you are capable of
>expressing the idea in your head.
and:
>Look at Neil Young.  "Technically", he's not a very good guitarist.
>But as someone once observed, you can't slip a piece of paper between
>what he feels and what he plays.  His technique is sufficient for his
>expression.  He's no master of his instrument, but he's a master of
>the technique of channelling his emotions musically.

Interesting example. Do you think he is able to "expressing the idea in
your head" or: play what comes to his mind? I hear it does not pass through
his mind. Thats why you cannot slip a piece of paper between.
His technical limitations influence his style strongly and make it strong...

>Too much
>technique shifts the art away from expression.  Insufficient technique
>prevents the art from being realized.

right.

>Perhaps even "balance" is a poor term.  Technique must be sufficient
>for expression, but excessive technique is unnecessary.  And the
>temptation to use excessive technique detracts us from expression.

No, stronger: The lack of technique is expressive, turns into a language.

Zappa is another one who plays very long solos, and I am convinced that
about one third of the notes that come up in his tremendously formed mind
do not make it to the string, because he does not pluck it right (I cared
to observe this on videos), because he is not as fast as he would need to
be to express what he has in mind.
But the solos are brilliant and unique also due to the pl... notes!

Matthias

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 21:37:39 -0300
From: matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias Grob)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: creative isolation
Message-Id: <v01520d02af0ed4ceefbd@[200.254.32.122]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

David definitally came out and wrote so beautifully what I believe:

>practicing, noodling, composing, excercising, sound designing, whatever,
>they're all really just what I need to do while waiting for the angel to
>appear behind me, the spirit to descend, the clouds to part, the present to
>unfold itself into an infinite NOW of no possible wrong notes, when every
>gesture is appropriate, and every influence is revealed to have simply been a
>reminder of an all-ready heard and longed for beauty. When this DOES happen,
>only then does all the everyday work make sense...so I keep it up, no matter
>how it feels, as much as possible, trying not to judge it, or myself for
>failing. (And thus the recordings, when I'm lucky enough to have a tape
>available, seem to improve, as artifacts, at least. NOTHING can improve on
>the experience.)

>After all, if you're not out standing in the road how will you know when the
>bus comes by?

Wow, I will never forget that sentence!
How about getting your own car?

>...I seem to remember somebody saying "...in art the most important thing is
>to just show up."
>...may the unseen world send blessings upon us all!

Maybe we do not *really* need a living beeing  "to babble to"...

Its belief, its personal, no doctrine...
Matthias

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 19:59:02 -0500
From: nyfac <nyfac2@nyfac.com>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Creativity and Technique
Message-ID: <32EAAC56.41C6@nyfac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

> >Look at Neil Young.  "Technically", he's not a very good guitarist.
> >But as someone once observed, you can't slip a piece of paper between
> >what he feels and what he plays.  His technique is sufficient for his
> >expression.  He's no master of his instrument, but he's a master of
> >the technique of channelling his emotions musically.

You know, maybe this marks me as a talentless hack or idiot savant, but
it seems the times that I play best are when my mind shuts down and the
music just seems to come from somewhere else, surpising me as much (if
not more) than the next guy.

It's these times that I am freed from all the licks, scales and theory
(although, admittedly not that much) and what comes out is just pure
expression.  My best tapes frequently have me scratching my head and
saying 'Now, how does that part go again?'

BTW, I am a big NY fan.

Trevor

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 17:41:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Paolo Valladolid <pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Creativity and Technique
Message-Id: <199701250141.RAA04518@waynesworld.ucsd.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

> >Too much
> >technique shifts the art away from expression.  Insufficient technique
> >prevents the art from being realized.
> 
> right.

I partially disagree.  What shifts one's art away from expression is
_not_ "too much technique". It is the over-reliance on habits.  Playing
the blues box is a habit for some players.  Playing a favorite
3-octave harmonic minor scale pattern is a habit for others. Playing
a favorite diminished arpeggio up and down the fretboard is a habit
for yet others. And so on.

A major component of self-expression is being in control over one's
habits rather than being controlled by them.

A possible analogy is a conversation.  I notice that when I am genuinely
interested in the conversation, I participate in a way that is, for
lack of a better term, "non-rehearsed".  When I am getting bored, I
begin to act in a rehearsed manner, which is smiling and nodding.
This is a habit I have.

[Matthias's excellent comments on limited technique forming a language
deleted]

Paolo Valladolid
 ---------------------------------------------------------------
|Moderator of Digital Guitar Digest, an Internet mailing list   |\ 
|for Music Technology and Stringed Instruments                  | \
 ----------------------------------------------------------------  |
\ finger pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu for more info             \ |
 \ http://waynesworld.ucsd.edu/DigitalGuitar/home.html            \| 
  -----------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 17:48:52 -0800
From: James Reynolds <tritone@dsp.com>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: oberheim echoplex used with midi foo
Message-Id: <199701250148.RAA02398@dsp.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

greg wrote:
>If the reason that the Ground Control is unacceptable is because it will not 
>send the same program change message twice in a row DMC has fixed this 
>problem with a software upgrade!

still, (as i mentioned earlier in this thread) the echoplex unfortunately
doesn't respond to program change messages.  it needs either note messages
(non-zero velocity followed by zero) or continuous controller (non-zero
value followed by zero).

james

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 21:02:45 -0500 (EST)
From: PMimlitsch@aol.com
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: re:Re: Jamman with Midi Fade
Message-ID: <970124175432_1825877740@emout17.mail.aol.com>

In a message dated 1/24/97 1:44:45 PM, you wrote:

<<Having just received my Jamman, without a manual, I also have a fade 
question.  Can the feedback level be controlled (reduced) on the Jamman 
without using this Midi fade?  I would like to fade loops, but do not have 
midi controller.>>

Do your looping in echo mode with feedback set high. When you want to freeze
a loop turn the feedback dial to 16==infinite feedback--Paul

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 22:12:55 -0600
From: John Pollock <johnpollock@delphi.com>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Cc: michpres@erols.com
Subject: Morphing into a loop  (Was: Re: slider for a vortex)
Message-id: <32E98847.5B62@delphi.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

In a previous post, I mentioned morphing into a loop, and Michael
Preston wrote via private mail:

>I bet the whole loopin' crew would like to read about the Vortex 
>parameterization for morphing into a loop. I haven't found that special 
>morphing pattern yet. I'll be looking for it.

Look no further than Deja Vu A and B.  Select B, set Envelope to 1. 
That's it!  (I was misremembering that it was more complicated than
that.)

A description of how I use this trick may be instructive... or it may be
boring, but here it is anyway: ;-)

There's this Thing I Play in two sections, fingerstyle, at a medium
tempo (the only one I know), with a Latin feel (accents on the first,
fourth and seventh eighth-notes).  I've been trying to find a way to
make it into music (as opposed to just a pleasant-sounding Thing I Play)
for years.  It's in the key of A.  The first section is basically three
chords, though they're all extended or altered, in what amounts to a
24-bar blues format; the second section is essentially an etude I worked
out to drive the sound of m7b5 chords into my head (worked very nicely,
too.)

The first section sounds OK by itself, _once_, so I play it with the
Vortex in Deja Vu B.  With Envelope set to 1, input to the delay line(s)
is cut off, so the guitar sound comes out dry.  I tap the tempo in-- a
full measure.

At the beginning of section B, I tap the A/B switch, bringing in those
delightful ducked echoes (something I'd never experienced before the
Vortex), which combine with my playing to make a melody that was never
there before.

The last measure of the second section is a V chord.  I tap the A/B
switch on the downbeat, and play just three notes:  E dotted quarter
note, F# dotted quarter note, and a muted string slap.

What the Vortex gives me in return is much more complex.  There are one
or more sounds on just about every eighth note in the loop, with
percussion from the string slap audible on the fourth and prominent on
the seventh.  There's a stacatto A bass note on the down beat, in
addition to both the E and F#.  And the doubled or alternating E and F#
combine very nicely to my ear with all of the following chords.  "My
playing, but more of it"--Yes!

Obviously, the Morph parameter values are the foundation of this
process.  Since Deja Vu B accepts no input with Envelope set to 1, what
goes into the loop can only be what goes into the Vortex during the
morph, plus what's carried over as echoes from notes played right before
the morph.  Preset Morph value for both A and B is 21.  Tweaking either
or both could significantly alter the nature of the loop.

Another obvious avenue for exploration is morphing into Deja Vu B from
a more prominently effected patch, especially one with modulation
occurring before the echoes, _especially_ if the echoes are
polyrhythmic... :-) :-)

Of course, with an expression pedal assigned to Envelope in Deja Vu B,
the loop can be added to after creating it in this fashion.

I suspect I'll be laboring in this particular trench for quite a while,
since the Vortex is my only looping device (still haven't heard whether
I'm a winner in the GC JamBro lottery).  
-- 
John Pollock
mailto:johnpollock@delphi.com
http://people.delphi.com/johnpollock (Troubador Tech)

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 22:53:17 -0600
From: John Pollock <johnpollock@delphi.com>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Creativity and Technique
Message-id: <32E9917E.5FF7@delphi.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

Trevor wrote,

> You know, maybe this marks me as a talentless hack or idiot savant, but
> it seems the times that I play best are when my mind shuts down and the
> music just seems to come from somewhere else, surpising me as much (if
> not more) than the next guy.

Yes!  I think what underlies this entire discussion is how best to
prepare oneself to allow that to happen.

The closest I've ever come to a formula for cultivating getting into
"the zone" was when I was gigging regularly, and playing a song I knew
well and played frequently (usually pretty much the same way).  I would
make a conscious decision to do one thing differently than usual-- start
a solo on a different note, for example, or try a much slower tempo.  Of
course, it didn't always work-- but sometimes it did. :-)

My technical ability on any instrument is very limited, but this magic
has occured frequently enough (with verification from listeners and
recordings) for me to realize that more sophisticated technique is not
necessary-- only helpful.  What matters is the ability to play without
conscious thought, as Trevor points out.

At this point, looping seems to be so cerebral that I'm not sure I'll
be able to reach that level.  Discuss?
 
John Pollock
(removing the Netscape-imposed dashes, and hoping I can figure out how
to send this only _once_)
mailto:johnpollock@delphi.com
http://people.delphi.com/johnpollock (Troubador Tech)

--------------------------------