Recorded yesterday: a new studio performance of “Quarter to Five.”
I recently bought some new gear, and now I am able to run two independent loops. My first application of this facility is to create what I call “lenticular clouds”: using an overdrive to create a rich, sustained tone, and a volume pedal, and working in a loop of arbitrary duration, I create multiple layers of notes that fade in and out, overlapping at random times and in random combinations of harmonious and dissonant intervals.
Having created a cloud layer, I switched to the other looper and started a piece called “Quarter to Five” and developed two or three distinct sections, using different guitar tones and effects.
I recorded the entire mess into the Microtrack and then loaded it into the Sonic Solutions digital editing system, where I was able to edit out the boring/sloppy/distorted parts and then build the final composition by crossfading between the two main sections of “Quarter to Five” (one simpler, with more discernable “acoustic” guitar and the other fuller, with several layers of legato guitar melody). I also made multiple copies of the cloud bed and arranged them on four tracks, out of sync, creating new areas of dissonance and complexity.
Now I’m trying to decide if I’m going to schlep all this gear over to the Larkspur Cafe for tonight’s show – which has to do with whether I feel I’m ready to use it in public after only one day of rehearsal at home.
Here’s an example of the “lenticular clouds” form, recorded earlier in yesterday’s session.
And here’s another piece, created yesterday using the same double-loop setup: Looking Into the Next World
Wow, sounds like rocket science, bro!
We chatted about this briefly prolly about a year ago, you may remember; well, I finally got me a loop station (after getting really psyched watching you with yours) and am having a lot of fun with it. I’ve had it for about 6 weeks now, and I’m finally getting comfortable with it.
Once in awhile though, I still hit the loop pedal to record a rhythm, and realize – to my shock and horror – that I neglected to delete the track from the last tune, so it starts playing that instead of recording! Ugh…
Still hoping to find the time to read up on how to attach a second pedal so I can switch from one loop to another. Of course, somehow I have the time to spend 45 minutes reading David Gans’ blog… Go figger.
By the way, I clicked to check out “Quarter to Five” and the link didn’t work for me. Look forward to checkin’ it out.
The “Quarter to Five” link is fixed – thanks for catching that.
The Loop Station requires close attention! Good for your mental discipline.