Loops have gotten an unfortunate reputation as being a stand-in for real musicians or real musicianship – perhaps because, too often, they are. That’s why it’s always refreshing to see a discussion of how looping can incorporate musical technique. Like many electronic musicians, I have zero background in drumming; I’m a keyboardist and was trained in Classical Piano. But then, part of the gift of being a composer is getting inside the heads of musicians who play instruments you can’t. And when it comes to understanding rhythm, there’s a limitless supply of work to explore from around the world.

Ryan Gauss writes us to share a blog that’s all about rhythm and drumming. Blogging can be a distraction from music making, but in this case, he’s using it to help be even more disciplined in building technique:

Every day I record and post a new drum loop (with a link to the Logic session and .wav files). I organize the beats by category (rock hip hop, jazz etc) and try to change up the production style with every loop.

So far, there’s a terrific piece on “linear drumming” – a style in which you hit only one part of your kit at a time. (Now, this really inspires me in terms of some of the rhythmic sequencing ideas I’ve been thinking about – I’ll have to explore. Maybe I can build a linear pattern sequencer.) See notation at top.

Linear drumming for dummies. | ryangruss.com

There’s also a fantastic video from drummer Shawn Pelton, who to me really exemplifies the marriage of great drumming and sophisticated use of technology (Ableton Live, in this case).

Shawn Pelton’s studio | ryangruss.com

I’ll be reading this site, for sure. Thanks, Ryan.

http://ryangruss.com/ “Fresh Drum Loops Made Daily”
(question – are they best hot, as with Krispy Kreme?)

Looping and scratching audio is so familiar at this point that it may be hard to know what more can be done with the concept. But I like the looks of Touch the Wave, a new iPod touch / iPhone app. It gets back to basics with some fairly simple audio looping and repitching. The twist: it uses multiple, color-coded loop points, and has the ability (if I’m looking at this right) to download audio from URLs. The app is the work of Yuki Yasoshima, and it’s free.

Touch the Wave on iTunes App Store (in Japanese, but available outside Japan, happily!)

Touch the Wave developer page @ Objective Audio

Jordan Harris, who sent this in, writes:

I stumbled across a really awesome free application for the iPhone 3g called "Touch The Wave."  All of the information on the developer’s website, and on the iTunes store, is in Japanese.  But it’s a pretty useful application that allows you to loop and scratch audio with multiple loop points. It is in the iTunes store if you search for "Touch The Wave"  But you’ll have to play with it for a bit as there are no English instructions or descriptions…  It comes with one sample song, but supposedly you can upload your own tracks.  I’ve been playing with it a little off and on, but it’s mostly just trial and error.

So, I have two questions for you:

1. Anyone with Japanese language skills care to translate some of the instructions? (Even if just a simple excerpt!)

2. What might be some alternative ways of approaching sample playback, looping, and warping?

One interesting take on audio warping is the free Nintendo DS app repeaterDS:

repeaterDS Project Page

It’s a simple idea – repeat length on the vertical axis, playback offset on the horizontal access. In other words, you set the start point and the length of the loop, the two critical looping parameters. Doing that via a different interface changes the results, and, nicely enough, repeaterDS makes the whole affair glitchy and unpredictable.

Other interesting sample interfaces you’ve seen? Anyone with fun Max/Pd patches, etc., you’d like to show off?

Our friend David Battino has the solution, and while it’s a simple trick, it wound up being the deal-maker for buying Korg’s cute little “dynamic phrase synth”:

What loosened my credit card was a secret hack Korg revealed during fact-check: If you power up the Kaossilator while holding down the Tap and Loop Rec buttons, the loop memory doubles from two bars to four. That may not sound like much, but it gives you time to set up tension and release; I find four-bar loops just breathe better.

Video and step-by-step instructions at O’Reilly Digital Media. Now, how can I do polyrhythms and larger phrase cycles? Hey, where’d everyone go?

Got other Kaossilator tricks? Let us know in comments.

A big surprise announcement from Livid, the VJ software / boutique A/V controller maker: Livid Looper is a new, free audio looping tool, built in Max 5.

Click through for the full image; it’s quite lovely with … um, butterflies and such. (Strap that solar panel to your MacBook and take it camping!)

Built around the Ohm hardware controller from Livid, but certainly adaptable to the interface of your choice, the Max 5-based software has some very nifty features for live performance:

• Audio looping, slicing, dicing, and scrambling
• Built-in audio effects, plus VST support – and a built-in Granulator for time-shift / scrambling effects
• Instant audio recording
• Interactive waveform display for selecting loops (or chop them up automatically)
• Beat-synced, sequenced gesture recording – meaning effects can be added in performance and locked to the loop
• MIDI learn (in case you don’t have an Ohm)
• OpenSoundControl support, for easy networking of data to other laptops, or multiple apps / VJ apps on one laptop

As you can see below, it is Ohm centric – making that already very sweet controller this much sweeter – but is likewise generic enough that you own preferred controller should work just fine. Livid also promises that this could work well with a cheap laptop like the Eee (though for now you will need Windows or, at the very least, Linux + WINE).

You’ll need the full version of Max 5 to edit it, but once you do the patch is fully open source, so you can hack it do your own thing. (Max 5 is great, but I wonder if anyone will port to Pd for an end-to-end open source experience? Or perhaps there are some similar Pd patches to consider, dear Pd community? Pd would also give you instant Linux compatibility – at least until Max is available on Linux, ahem, Cycling ‘74.)

It’s too bad Ableton Live doesn’t support OSC, as these two would go together quite nicely linked via OSC (though you should be able to sync them via MIDI, I’d imagine).

Available now for Mac and Windows, fully free as in beer and freedom and beer freedom:

Livid Looper

Let us know how you like it when you give it a try!

Slicing, remixing, looping, "live performance-oriented features" … this is Digidesign we’re talking about, right? Digi’s Advanced Instrument Research (A.I.R.) unit, the fruits of the acquisition of Wizoo, may have a pretentious name, but they’ve been doing some pretty great work on new instruments. The new project, Transfuser, will have to enter some crowded waters. Loop slicing and handling already works pretty nicely in Ableton Live (especially with Live 7’s drum racks), in instrument form in FL Studio 8’s awesome Edison and Slicex, and in tools like fxpansion’s GURU. (Superficially, at least, Transfuser bears more than a passing resemblance to the latter in its overall UI layout. And then there’s the fact that the knobs look like they were lifted directly from Live.)

Of course, Transfuser isn’t for FL Studio users. As with previous AIR releases, the Digi-owned Wizoo now make plug-ins for Pro Tools only. And if you are a Pro Tools user, you don’t have to listen to me or try to squint at the screenshots: you can take Transfuser for a test drive free. Download the plug-in for Pro Tools (LE/HD/M-Powered) before June 25, and it’ll operate for three months, no restrictions.

Transfuser Preview [Digidesign]

I can already see from these shots that this isn’t quite the way I’d want to work, personally, let alone enticing enough to make me deal with Pro Tools as a host. But "groove-making" is different for different people, so I’d be very eager to hear what someone else thinks. If you’d like to write up a mini-review for CDM, let us know.

He writes:

used lloopp and jitter runtime to make this instrument that uses a firewire camera as a source for effecting sound generators. i like this shot because of the video feedback.

What’s lloopp? Glad you asked. It’s a live improvisation / looping / performance tool built in Max/MSP and totally open source. That makes it ideally-suited to use if you’ve found other live performance tools to be overly restrictive on their own.
lloopp

Speaking of free, unusual interfaces, Tommy also sends along this elegant image from ixi software’s spindrum. They have a whole range of free, Mac/Windows tools for music making, all with organic interfaces and strange, floating objects, a bit reminiscent of the design of instruments like ElectroPlankton.

ixi software

It’s all proof that not all music software has to look the same, and the future is bright for innovation in on-screen interfaces. Software has a major interface on traditional instruments, too, which is that the interface for playing, the sense of a musical score, and visualization/imagery for the sounds themselves can all be united in the virtual domain. There have always been echoes of that in instrument design: buxom, carved women on viola da gambas, the way a piano keyboard reflects a system of tuning and pitch relations, and fantastical landscapes painted on virginals and other instruments. But I suspect we’ve only begun to see how this area could be blown up with digital instruments.

The only danger: we’ll have to keep from getting overly distracted by eye candy!

Here’s how to set up your own system in a similar hands-free operation style, for about US$10, without having to solder anything. It’ll take you about an hour once you gather the parts required, or less. No joke.

You will need:

• A QWERTY keyboard, preferably with a USB connector. Otherwise, you’ll have to buy an adapter to fit your laptop, which costs extra. You can get one for $7.50 at AllElectronics.com, but you can find them even cheaper at your local thrift store’s “technology pile.” I got mine for $2.
• A flathead screwdriver.
• Ableton Live. Ed.: Live is a perfect choice here, but you may find this useful with other music apps, as well — or even in a VJ set. -PK
• A free keyboard-mapping utility called Autohotkey (if you’re running Windows). If you’re running Mac, the program to use is calledIKey.

  That’s it. Here’s how to make it go:

  
  

  Above: Steps 1-2. Simple enough.

  1. You’re going to remove a significant number of the QWERTY keyboard’s keys, leaving only those spaced far enough apart to operate with your foot. Identify which keys you want to keep with a magic marker BEFORE you go hog-wild with the screwdriver, otherwise you’ll lose track of which is which. I ended up with 12 remaining keys, in two rows. Your feet may be smaller or bigger, so experiment with it.

  2. Glue some squares of larger, stiff material to the keys to give your foot a bigger target. I used some plastic lenses (20 cents apiece at American Science & Surplus) and hot glue. Epoxy or a plastic welding cement might work better in the long run.

  3. Plug the keyboard into your computer and boot up Ableton Live.

  4. Download and install either Autohotkey (WIN users) or IKey (Mac).

  5. Here’s the almost-tricky part: In Ableton Live, you need to create a new project with six audio tracks. Arm recording on all tracks. Turn off monitoring for all tracks except one.

  6. Use the keymappping function (click the “KEY” button in the upper right hand corner of Live’s screen) to assign a keystroke to each track’s “record/play” button. It doesn’t matter which keystrokes you assign, because we’re going to be remapping them anyways. For this example, the keys I used were !,@,d,h,k, l.

  7. Create a new script with Autohotkey and enter something similar to what’s pictured below. The 12 keys left on your QWERTY should be put at the start of each line. The idea is that as each key is depressed, Autohotkey remaps those into a sequence of keystrokes.

  I chose to have my top row of buttons select the track, delete whatever’s there, and begin recording. The bottom row of buttons hits “play” on the corresponding track, which stops recording and begins looping on the corresponding track. You can re-trigger loops this way also.

  Here’s an image of my keymaps in Live and the AutoHotkey script I made. Pretty simple, all things considered. I would be happy to share my blank Ableton set and accompanying AutoHotkey script to any windows users who need a little help getting started.

  
  

  If you’re running Mac, here’s an idea of what you’ll have to do using IKey. It’s very similar but slightly different. For instance, we permanently glued the shift key down, to skirt some of IKey’s trigger-key rules.
  

  8. Save the script, activate it (you’ll see the AutoHotKey icon appear in your taskbar), and you’re good to go. It’s that easy.

  The end result? Not too shabby:

  You can hear a track recorded by myself and bandmate Cameron Moore using two MIDI-linked Ableton Live setups here.
  Note: Cameron runs Mac and I run Windows, and we had no issues.

  Check the forums for a more in-depth discussion, and feel free to ask questions. Also, if you decide to undertake this project, please post your results!

  ]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/08/02/get-loopy-with-the-diy-10-ableton-footcontroller-no-soldering-required/feed/ 60 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/05/23/maker-faire-giant-bicycle-part-dj-looping-reel-to-reel-tape-deck/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/05/23/maker-faire-giant-bicycle-part-dj-looping-reel-to-reel-tape-deck/#comments Wed, 23 May 2007 15:48:45 +0000 Peter Kirn http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/05/23/maker-faire-giant-bicycle-part-dj-looping-reel-to-reel-tape-deck/

  Reel to Wheel is a massive sound-making device built from bicycle parts and a dismantled reel-to-reel tape deck. Move around the absurdly over-sized controls, and its analog inner workings groan and creak their way through recorded sound. Move the wheel at the right speed, and you get an effect quite like scratching — or, since it’s tape, it’s really “scrubbing.”

  Reel to Wheel Project Page, with wonderful hand-drawn illustrations featuring Hank the Dummy.

  The project, shown last weekend at the Maker Faire, is the creation of Sasha Leitman, Steven Backer, Jesse Fox, and Jen Carlile at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), which had their own booth full of musical interfaces and goodies. Like an equally Biggie-Sized string instrument, Reel to Wheel delighted adults and terrified children with its elegant impracticality. If it seems like sculpture, that’s because it is. In the installation version of the same work, the hardware is part of a Rube Goldberg-like configuration of bikes on mannequins and full-sized stationary bicycles.

  

  This work also suggests that this site has stumbled upon a really bizarre, evolving musical meme. Look at the elements:

  Bikes. Our friend Flip Baber created a new arrangement of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in December, recorded on bike parts. Much to our surprise, this story landed on Digg and launched to the most popular CDM story ever (promptly devastating our server), and Flip wound up on television and national radio. As it turns out, quite a lot of our readers are interested in music made with bikes, including bike ensembles, symphonies, and bikelophones, and bikes that control music and graffiti and inspire a young Frank Zappa.

  Reel-to-Reel DJing: Because no one can beat-match on reel-to-reels like BBC Radiophonic Workshop wizard Delia Derbyshire.

  So, I’m a little terrified that we’ve hit upon some strange statistical anomaly that seems to be tapping us directly into a musical world entirely based on tape and bicycle technology, but I’ll go with it.

  ]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/05/23/maker-faire-giant-bicycle-part-dj-looping-reel-to-reel-tape-deck/feed/ 9 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/07/03/flyloops-in-development-live-looper-phrase-sampler-tool/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/07/03/flyloops-in-development-live-looper-phrase-sampler-tool/#comments Mon, 03 Jul 2006 16:49:58 +0000 Peter Kirn http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/07/03/flyloops-in-development-live-looper-phrase-sampler-tool/ Loopers and phrase samplers can be fun tools, but odds are you’ve wished a hardware or software looper would work more musically. Aaron Leese has designed a prototype system, combining a piece of USB hardware, wireless USB pedals, and Windows software, that intends to do just that:

  Imagine seeing a musician who could play a bit of music, loop it, add another bit, loop that ….then add a longer loop …… then some drums and a solo … maybe change the volume on that second loop …. turn the first one off … then play the third one backwards … speed it all up …. Scratch the third loop as if it were on a turntable …. Then add a couple more loops …. Delete a few ….. speed this one up …..add effects to a couple loops ……. Wherever you imagination takes you .. this device will let you do it. If it won’t … send me an email, and I will do what I can to change the code.

  

  There are some demo videos on his site that look promising. Also interesting: he plans joystick compatibility (for scratching) and open source code (so you can create your own plug-ins).

  Apparently, he’s hoping for a fall release, and is still looking for feedback. Head over, let him know what you think, and give him some encouragement:

  Fly Loops

  Thanks to Kevin from The Nettles for this one! Via the looper community, Looper’s Delight.

  For other takes on software looping, definitely check out Looper’s Delight, and see also Zone Mobius on Windows, and my personal favorite, Musolomo on Mac. Both are free. Ableton Live is also capable of some, but not all, of these functions, and Native Instruments Guitar Rig has a simple but excellent hardware-style looper plug-in. Ultimately, it comes down to how you work. I think there’s room for more development in this area, as many people wind up forgoing the computer entirely and sticking to the classic Boss LoopStation hardware for its simplicity.

  Looper’s Delight also has a wiki page with looper reviews. It’s further evidence that people’s needs are quite individual. Thanks to everyone for the comments.

  ]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/07/03/flyloops-in-development-live-looper-phrase-sampler-tool/feed/ 11 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/02/17/musolomo-free-sampling-instrument-mac/ http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/02/17/musolomo-free-sampling-instrument-mac/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2005 05:00:00 +0000 Peter Kirn http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/02/17/musolomo-free-sampling-instrument-mac/

  A new audio software collective called plasq
  has released Musolomo, a free Mac OS X AudioUnit instrument. It's
  designed for sampling, playing, and manipulating audio from a MIDI
  keyboard — so you can work from the keyboard instead of staring at
  your computer screen. That's right, finally your audiences will know
  you're doing something musical and not just chatting on IM.

  Congratulations to CDM reader Cris 'Atariboy' Pearson, who's on the
  plasq team! Cris tells us the best host for Musolomo is Ableton Live –
  and the streamlined MIDI interface means you can tuck Musolomo into the
  effects for a track and control the rest of the Live interface with
  whatever other clever controllers you have. (Meaning, if you're
  Monolake or Sasha, your own custom controller!)

  plasq does plan to port this for Windows, but "how fast" is dependent
  on how many Windows users bug them about it. (Wow, this is a reversal
  – usually that's the Mac crowd. Okay, Windows lovers, get cracking!)

  I'm really excited about this instrument, so expect more soon.

  Cost: Free
  Compatibility: OS X AU
  Windows users: Hit the forum on plasq's site and let them know you want this on Windows VST, too!

  ]]> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/02/17/musolomo-free-sampling-instrument-mac/feed/ 2