Live Performance Via Looping

Post by jb » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:34 pm

These examples are more of a club style, with repeating and layering loops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfBh3lZZi8Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kWRFwZPRuw

Brad is working on a set with more of a song structure. Maybe if he gets it up and running he'll put some video up.

Anybody else doing a live looping sort of "performance" deal? If so, what's your set up? Why did you choose that rather than just karaoke-ing to an iPod? I think State Shirt was looping like this right?

ken · Post by **ken** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:46 pm

He sure did. Built up the song by playing the different parts. There is a beat boxer named Kid Beyond here in the bay who also does this kind of thing.

Ken

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:51 pm

My friend George Demarest does this and participated in the Santa Cruz Int'l Live Looping Festival a few years. I used some of his live performance as the basis for my "It's Nearly Africa" GOM entry a couple years ago. He uses a whole rack of crap with his midi trumpet. I can't find links to their MP3s right now.

He was part of Looper's Delightas well.

Post by jb » Mon Jan 22, 2007 5:03 pm

ken wrote:He sure did. Built up the song by playing the different parts. There is a beat boxer named Kid Beyond here in the bay who also does this kind of thing. Ken

Note that the first video linked above is Kid Beyond explaining his setup.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 5:11 pm

I do a lot of live looping stuff, but most of that is either electronic or ambient (that is, I haven't done any with vocals). I usually use the Lexicon JamMan for making the loops. That's a one rack space piece of hardware. Dude in the first video is actually the same one ken mentioned, haha. One of the softwares I use, Audiomulch, also has a live looping mode. Starfinger also uses the software Ableton Live, and I know he's done this kind of thing with it.

I can link you a sample of something I did with the JamMan if you want. Ok, here's an example: Senzeni Na

However, I think the most inspiring use of looping that I've seen lately is the return of Thomas Dolby. His recent concerts have been solo endeavours, with him playing the instruments and recording the loops into his computer with Logic, then he sings with them. You can see some excellent demos of this technique on his podcast series. I saw his concert a few weeks ago and I thought it was amazing. Based on my experiences seeing him I would like to do a song with vocals in a live-ish fashion for Songfight, and perform it next time I make it to a show.
-bill

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 5:13 pm

Oh yeah, as for why not karaoke with an ipod, well, one: I don't have one; two: that sounds pretty boring and leaves no room for improvisation.
They're totally different things!
-bill

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:25 pm

HeuristicsInc wrote:However, I think the most inspiring use of looping that I've seen lately is the return of Thomas Dolby. His recent concerts have been solo endeavours, with him playing the instruments and recording the loops into his computer with Logic, then he sings with them. You can see some excellent demos of this technique on his podcast series. I saw his concert a few weeks ago and I thought it was amazing.

Friends have also seen Dolby recently and rave. He's a quiet genius, that man. I saw him in the 80s and then met him at various tech conferences in the 90s when he was developing Head Space and the ring tone stuff he's become a millionaire on.