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Loop Scanning – the slow forward movement of a short loop progressing through a longer audio file with a subtle effect not unlike the transformational metamorphosis of Steve Reich’s ‘It’s Gonna Rain’, which is, technically speaking, the altogether different implementation of two loops played at slightly different speeds and the offset ‘difference’ between them producing the final result. Conceptually though, a similar ‘mono’ version of the mood ‘It’s Gonna Rain’ creates is realized with the scanning technique.
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Working somewhere between the ‘broken’ media aesthetics of Christian Marclay and William Basinski’s ‘Disintegration Loops’ with a big ‘tip of the hat’ to Jan Jelinek’s work, I present here some initial ‘loop scanning’ experiments as a test of concept and initial ‘probe’ as to source material suitability and settings. These are the more ambient-leaning experiments, an earlier rhythmic exploratory session still awaits some post production after which I will also post.
Prototyping the concept in several discreet applications running on the Mac desktop (until I can get a proper ‘loop scanner’ module built in software such as Kyma or Reaktor), I did this evening’s work using Roni Music’s ‘Amazing Slow Downer’, triggering it’s ‘frames’ (equaling a 1/75th of a second increment per trigger) via a seperate MIDI trigger (‘Rondo’). As both a polyrhythmic ‘master’ meter and camouflage to unintended glitches (as oppossed to the intended ones also present) several ‘vinyl simulation’ methods were then introduced into the live chain, either before or after a final ‘patina’ of guitar amplification/fx simulation to properly antique the overall mood. Each performance was captured live via Rogue Amoeba’s ‘Audio Hijack Pro’.
*Best experienced ‘indirectly’, in other words attentions directed elsewhere with track played in background.
102209 Shoe Finding Loop Grazing Player
I have since received some very interesting responses in the Symbolic Sound ‘Kyma’ forum which will hopefully lead to the next level of exploring this territory. Also in current ‘negotiations’ for a Reaktor realization with more flexibility.
All this night’s work was done on a Powerbook laptop in bed (while I recover from a minor back injury) .