Audio Examples
Some of our users have provided excellent audio samples showing off their use of the new features of LoopIV. We hope this gives you some idea of what LoopIV is capable of, and we hope you enjoy the music as well!
Please consult the LoopIV Upgrade Manual for details about any given feature that you hear being used. It may help you to read along while you listen.
Do you have a recording of yourself using LoopIV?
Send us a note and we will consider it for inclusion on this page.
Jump to the examples:
Andy helped test LoopIV and provided us tremendous feedback and new feature ideas. He provides this track demonstrating FlipMode, one of the new InterfaceModes that Andy invented. Take a look at the LoopIV Manual to learn more about FlipMode. In the track Andy has his direct guitar playing on the left channel, and the results in the EDP on the right channel. He uses FlipMode to create a pulsing loop out of the sustained notes of his guitar.
Andy's FlipMode Example (mp3)
Andy Butler
www.andybutler.com
Andre LaFosse - Turntablist Guitar
Long time Echoplex user Andre LaFosse stunned the looping world with his incendiary drum and bass influenced "Disruption Theory" album in 1999, showcasing his remarkable looping skills. He has released numerous internet recordings since where he continues to break new ground in live looping. Andre pushes the limits of the technology in his music, bringing modern electronic music production techniques into real-time performance - sampling himself as he plays, chopping it up, and reconstructing it. All live, all in real-time. And all with just an Echoplex. You should definitely visit Andre's website and check out this amazing and gifted musician.
Andre has also created an online Echoplex tutorial.
LoopIV has given Andre a whole new set of looping tools that fit in with his style, giving him even more ability to do real-time manipulations of his loops. Andre calls the following series "Turntablist Guitar", because he uses new features in LoopIV to reconstruct his own guitar playing on the fly and turn it into something different, similar to the way turntablists construct new music out of the fragments they scratch off vinyl.
Listen to Andre's LoopIV tracks, read his technical notes below, and check out the related sections of the LoopIV Manual to understand the features. You will learn much from this man. We'll let Andre take it from here:
Asana (mp3)
Glitch Learns to Dance (mp3)
Insinuation (mp3)
Reaction Formation (mp3)
Relent (mp3)
Strange Invader (Parts 1 and 2) (mp3)
One Ton Twitch (mp3)
Umbra (mp3)
Generator (mp3)
Alignment (mp3)
Way of the Wok (mp3)
Continuous Mix #2 (realaudio)
Continuous Mix #3 (realaudio)
Technical Geek Notes
Everything's live, improvised, no mid-song edits, no overdubs... but you knew that already. Every sound came from the guitar and/or EDP, and the only "effect" used was the spring reverb in the amp I played through.
Each individual track uses a new quantization mode called 8th, which allows you to quantize functions to the nearest 8th/beat subdivision. And since the EDP now automatically subdivides any loop by the value of 8th/beat (even when not syncing to an outside source), there's a ton of fun to be had.
The value for the 8th/beat setting flashes in time, providing a visual readout for the rhythmic subdivision of a rubato loop, which was awfully helpful at the beginning of "Insinuation."
Pretty much every individual track used a new insert mode called Substitute. It's very similar to Replace, except that you don't hear the actual change in the audio until the next repetition. So it's quite subtle and sneaky.
Multiple loops, half-speed, reverse, and retrigger functions were all triggered via MIDI; these are all available independently of the front panel settings. Some tracks (particularly "Glitch Learns to Dance" and "Alignment") use these commands in rapid succession for "scratching" effects.
"Glitch Learns to Dance" begins by engaging half-speed in the middle of overdubs, to produce octave jumps in the middle of a single note.
"Insinuation," "Generator," and each of the Coninuous Mixes use an Interface Mode called Stutter Mode, and an Insertmode called Sus, to extend the length of sections within a single cycle. It's sort of a granular manul timestretch thing.
Every year or so there's a thread on the Looper's Delight list to the effect of, "Are DJ's musicians?" These tracks invert that question, and ask, "Can a musician be a DJ?"
Hope ya dig.
Andre LaFosse
www.altruistmusic.com
Armatronix creates modern electronic dance music, and does it all live and improvised. Hans created this slamming drum and bass track using his collection of analog drum machines, synths, and an Echoplex with LoopIV. He did it all live, in one take.
Resident Evil (mp3)
Here's the play-by-play from Hans:
0:07 I placed the EDP in HalfSpeed mode, and then started the drum machine with the EDP's Sync=In.
0:40 As I finished programming the beat, I placed the EDP in SyncRecord, and after recording a couple of measures of drums, dropped it out of HalfSpeed mode (and Record), which in effect brought the looped drums back doublespeed.
0:53 Then I overdubbed a test tone sweep from vinyl (chopped up with a turntable mixer and with delay added).
1:49 Overdubbed some bass.
2:01 Dropped back into HalfSpeed to add another layer of drums (with delay) into the loop.
2:37 Mute.
2:54 Came out of Mute using HalfSpeed followed by Overdub.
3:02 Back to FullSpeed and out.
Hans Lindauer
Armatronix on Myspace