Loop (music)

The term loop (English: loop ) originally referred to a cemented at both ends of a piece of tape. Today it is used by musicians synonymous with a sample that is cut so that you can play it without breaks several times in succession. In the popular music that are particularly drums samples and accompanying rhythms and bass lines, but also short melodic phrases.

Definitions

Loop refers to a temporary sound event that is usually played repeatedly by technical means. Achieving similar effects through arrangements that are interpreted by musicians (for example, in American Minimal Music ), is to be distinguished from it. Here we speak rather of repetitive, arrangements.

Loops that consist of pre- recorded material (including the work with records, especially in the styles of hip- hop, techno, drum and bass, trip-hop and avant-garde jazz), can of loops, whose material is recorded during the performance itself ( own instrumental playing, ambient noise and the like. ), are distinguished. For the latter established itself increasingly the term live looping.

History

Early forms of loop music had its roots in contemporary classical music. John Cage and Conlon Nancarrow music boxes and player pianos and used machines for church bells. The flexibility of the options use of electro-acoustic recording media (such as tape), which has also enabled real-time looping ( live looping ), saw pioneering work by Bebe Barron and especially Edgar Varese - the Poème électronique is a composition for a number of tapes, in the pavilion of the Philips rang at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958 on a system of 300 loudspeakers. Should also be mentioned Karlheinz Stockhausen in the studio of the WDR in Cologne and Eliane Radigue, the field recordings and tape loops joined together. In parallel, also experimented musicians from the environment of minimal music like Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros with the possibilities of real-time loops. Outstanding tool here was the Terry Riley attributed Time Lag Accumulator, which was also used by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno under the name Frippertronics: two tape recorders used a common tape; the second output of the right ( reproducing ) tape was connected to the second input of the left ( recording ) tape. Due to the spatial distance between the recording and playback on the tape and the tape speed, the loop length resulted.

The late 70s was found for the first time by the work of Grandmaster Flash, the use of loops in the burgeoning rap / hip-hop culture. Grandmaster Flash took advantage of new operating techniques for turntables to use recurring Schlagzeug-/Rhythmussequenzen as a basis for the work of the MCs. Some became famous in this field, which naturally meant a strong questioning of the applicable laws on copyright and still means the piece Dub Be Good To Me by Beats International, in which a sample of the bass line of Guns of Brixton by The Clash as a basis was used.

The genre of the Live loops is stronger from the musical mass market. Since realtime looping a single musician offers the possibility to build very complex and complex sound structures are very many of the artist or solo musician. After early works took place on the basis of the Time Lag Accumulators, use today's artists either long digital delay effects or special loop devices. Some allow this in addition to the recording, playback and overdubbing loops also further playback and processing steps such as reverse playback, half or double speed, Paste, parts, doubling and give the possibility to create complex musical structures.

Styles

Basically, there is no direct relation between musical styles and the use of loops; Looping is itself not a separate style. The continuous function extension of samplers as well as the further integration of computer technology made ​​it possible to work with loops in all-digital systems in the 1990s. This created the technical basis for strong loop-based music styles such as Techno, Trip - Hop, Drum and Bass and Big Beat. It was the choice of the loop base material to a very integral activity for the musicians; many musicians used now clear genre foreign sources as the basis for their titles ( eg Safe From Harm by Massive Attack on the basis of the album Spectrum by Billy Cobham and the use of samples from the so-called serious music in the pieces of Amon Tobin ).

The majority of the pieces is attributed to the environment of the hip-hop and electronica. When you live looping rather acoustic or semi- acoustic instruments, voice or found sounds ( sounds, voices, tools ... ) and experimental electronics are used. Often musicians put Loop concepts also for the work as a solo singer-songwriter to inferior, for example, a solo with a pre -established Begleitloop can.

Ways of working and Kompositions-/Interpretationstechniken

Working with Loops allows different approaches and uses for the corresponding tools. Below are listed some examples of the possibilities.

Looper as real-time Overdubber

A Looper allows the musicians to sound more impossible or difficult simultaneously playable parts simultaneously. Thus, the use of other instruments in quite a performance by a solo musician is possible, which can then be played simultaneously. From the operation corresponding to the overdubbing of the studio technology, the low technical effort and real-time performance in a liquid is possible.

Example: The musician begins a song with the sung stanza, which he accompanied on the guitar. He can then, for example, a guitar solo part for the previously played accompaniment play, and thus attain the effect as if two guitarists.

Famous musicians who use live looping in their performances, Jarle Bernhoft are, Rick Walker, Jason Mraz, The Australian Dub FX, Briton MC Xander or the German Konrad chef. Even with many artists from the area Math-/Post-Rock Looping is an integral part of their performance, such as in Battles, Minus the Bear or Russian Circles.

Looper as a tool for sound design

Since loops are not working at the level of musical parameters such as tone duration and length, but to record audio information, loops can be used as sound design tools. By changing the playback speed ( pitching and time stretching ), pitch ( pitch shifting ) and direction of play can be recorded audio material can be given an entirely new sound character - a way of working that (< 1 s) shows, in particular for very short loops effect. These opportunities will be further enhanced by use in combination with other electronic audio effects, the sound way this will change partly strong ( eg reverberation is in reverse play before the original signal a ).

Looper as an electronic notebook

Newer Looper and laptop-based solutions often provide the ability to capture the recorded loops in non-volatile memories. The practical interpretation in particular of dedicated hardware loopers (eg a small effect pedal with a special guitar input and headphone output, and option for battery operation) this results in the possibility of an uncomplicated way to outline spontaneous ideas and retain for later processing.

Looper as a structure-forming elements

Particularly with the use of sound sources with static or unregulated character ( ambient noise, electromagnetic interference and other audio technical artifacts and interference sources, quasi- random tone sequences, in particular of modular synthesizers - " Noodles " ) loops can be used to make these sound events an ordered structure.

Example: The sound source is a quasi- static noise and melody of a modular analogue synthesizer or virtual analog synthesizer. This sound event has no clear tonal center and no discernible rhythmic structure. By recording a short loops ( "half to a clock " - 0.8-3 s ), the play repeatedly given acoustic event receives a rhythmic structure - a pulse. This can be supported, that after seven Loopdurchgängen four times the first quarter of the loop is playing ( stutter effect), resulting in the effect of a cadential phrase. In these new MetaLOOP (8 Loopdurchläufe long, of which the last stroke stutter effect) the pitch will be varied, eg clock 1.2: 0; Clock 3.4: 5; Clock 5.6: 7, clock 7: 0, clock 8: -2 (in semitones ). Thus, the effect of a harmonic cadence, which is further supported by the stutter effect.

Looper in sound installations

Particularly with the use of loops relatively long duration ( 30 s or more), optionally in combination with shorter loops to loops are also ideal as elements in sound installations.

Example: located in a distributed installation in two rooms in each room, a microphone and a speaker. The microphones and speakers are interchanged with two loopers ( different or identical loop length ), which in the " dub" are operating. Such installation produced a strongly time -delayed " echo " between the two spaces, as it would represent "older" events for a long time. About the numerous loop runs and the continuous playback and recent record of the transmission chain speakers → space → microphone this transmission chain is an essential sound -shaping element of the installation.

Tools (selection)

  • Dedicated hardware loop: realtime Oberheim / Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro ( EDP)
  • Electrix repeater
  • Electro Hamonix 2880 Super Multitrack Looper
  • Boomerang Phrase Sampler
  • Line6 DL4 / JM4
  • Boss DD -7 / DD-20 / RC -20 / RC - 20XL / RC -30 / RC-2 / RC -3 / RC -50 / RC-300
  • Digitech JamMan
  • Lexicon JamMan
  • Looperlative LP-1
  • Akai Headrush
  • Dedicated hardware loop: not realtime Akai MPC Series
  • Roland MV -8000, MV -8800
  • Roland MC -909
  • Yamaha SU -700
  • Loop Software Solutions: Real Time Mobius
  • AugustusLoop
  • SooperLooper
  • AngstroLooper
  • LoopyLlama
  • Lloopp
  • Loop Software solutions: non- real-time FL Studio
  • Ableton Live!
  • Loop Vinyls Endless House Tools Part 1-9
Repetitive music Hip hop music Delay (audio effect) Sampler (musical instrument) Math-Rock Battles (Band)
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