Different settings for SwitchQuant will affect the timing of switching between loops. When SwitchQuant=off, it happens immediately, as in this example.

The foundation of the glitch technique is using Unquantized Insertmode=Replace, to drop fragments of sound into the EDP in a momentary fashion. Because the Insert function in this setting only happens for as long as the button is held down, you can get very short fragments of sound; a lot of the sonic elements in this style of looping are only a few milliseconds long.

The length of the loops themselves are usually only a few seconds long; it's the combination of short loop lengths with a very high density of sonic information that helps give this style of looping its particular sound. Starting with short cycle lengths and multiplying them out helps the loops start from a very active foundation, and provides a more complex sonic basis for adding new material to. "Flux" and "Instant" take this idea to an extreme, using initial loop lengths of just a few milliseconds, thanks to Recordmode=SUS.

You may also notice that there's very little looping of entire phrases as they're originally played on the guitar. A big part of this technique comes from the turntablist school of thought: rather than just spinning a record verbatim, turntablism uses the actual mechanical elements of a turntable, stylus, and mixer to shape and sculpt the sound itself. If you think of the guitar as the record and the EDP as the turntable/mixer, you're on the right track.

To get the hang of this technique, try playing relatively long notes on the input instrument, and drop small fragments of those notes into the loop via the Insert button. Experiment with alternating between very short Inserts in conjunction with longer presses, and single button presses versus quick repetitions of two or three hits. There's a certain element of randomness in a lot of this, but it's definitely not just a question of smearing notes on the guitar and stomping indiscriminately on the Insert button as fast as possible. Because of the high textural density, the harmonic and melodic content becomes very important for grounding the loops in some tangible manner.

Loop Copying is a very big tool in a lot of these tracks; with the settings detailed above, hitting NextLoop will instantly copy the current loop contents into the next available loop. Using multiple loops serves two important functions; first and foremost, it allows the creation of a spontaneous compositional structure. The basic idea is that when you reach a loop you really like, you copy it into a new loop and develop it further, so that you can go back to the original loop later on.

The second important role multiple loops provides is as a means of varying the sonic content. Because SwitchQuant=off, you can instantly jump from one loop to the next, creating a lot of textural and rhythmic variety. Almost the entire final third of "Bookworm," for instance, is nothing more than me tapping the NextLoop button in different rhythmic patterns.

It's also worth noting that there's very little use of Overdub on a lot of these tracks. This is a deliberate musical issue: even though there's often an extremely high amount of information in a loop, the textures themselves at any given second (or millisecond, as the case may be) are generally very stark and thin. Using Replace instead of Overdub to add material to the loop helps prevent the perennial "building up to a massive wall of sound" syndrome. It also allows the content of the loop to change drastically and immediately, as opposed to the more common gradual approach of overdubbing to build up a texture, and reducing feedback to scale it down. Using Replace in this manner produces a very angular sound, of course, but that's the root of the whole aesthetic.

"Gestalt" is interesting in this case, because it was done leaving Overdub open for the first part of the track. The combination of constantly Overdubbing in conjunction with more active Replace action gives the loop a sort of three-dimensional sound; it has the density and smoothness of the ambient school, as well as the microscopic textural and rhythmic behavior of the glitch approach. After a couple of minutes, Overdub is switched off, and you can hear a change in the way the loop evolves from that point.

A different, but similarly "angular" technique (at least insofar as it's applied here), is Unrounded Multiply, which simply involves ending Multiply with Record instead of a second press of Multiply. This has the effect of completely redefining the length of the loop within the range of the Multiply and Record button presses. It's a very powerful tool, and has many different technical and stylistic applications; for glitch material, it's particularly useful for creating off-kilter, asymmetrical loops.

"Nervous Shakedown" is unusual in that the balance knob on the EDP was set all the way to "loop." As a result, you don't hear any of the original guitar; only the looped signal comes through.