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altruistmusic.com > echoplex analysis pages > ambient guitar (1997)
The material in this section was recorded in a single day (March 2, 1997), and falls pretty squarely into the "ambient" realm, although there's quite a bit of sonic and stylistic variety contained within that territory. Most of these tracks don't sound anything at all like an electric guitar, which is part of the concept I was working with at the time. The EDP is used here in conjunction with a few specific pieces of signal processing (a Lexicon Vortex, a Digitech Whammy II pedal, and an Ebow) to create these decidedly un-guitaristic sounds. These tracks barely scratch the surface of the EDP in terms of how deeply the unit's capabilities are explored. Because of that, however, they make good introductory examples of basic looping concepts, and give some indication of different ways looping can be approached using a few very basic techniques. The use of the EDP in these particular selections is fairly "static," in the sense that most of the musical interest and development comes from the notes that are played into the loops, and/or various adjustments to the parameters of the signal processing, rather than through changes made within the Echoplex itself. All of these recordings are live performances, played in real-time, directly to a two-track stereo recorder, with only occasional fades at the beginning or end of some selections in terms of editing done after the fact. They're also completely improvised, with very little (if any) idea of what they would sound like ahead of time. Being able to create such thick, dense, often unpredictable textures in a spontaneous manner - as a solo musician, no less - is one of the things that most commonly draws musicians to real-time looping in the first place. |
THE ECHOPLEX ANALYSIS PAGES Ambient Guitar (1997) Abstract, highly processed, textural electronic music. A good introduction to some basic concepts of looping in general, and the Echoplex in particular.
Studio Looping (1998-99)
Glitches and Grooves: Works In Progress (2001-2002)
Normalized (2003) |
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Azimuth RealAudio Stream Key functions: Overdub, Feedback |
This is pretty much a textbook example of "the ambient guitar-looping paradigm:" using an Ebow to play single lines which are gradually overdubbed upon one another to generate big, abstract, undulating waves of sound. The EDP technique here is extremely basic: there's one loop, of about 20 seconds in length, which is gradually added to with overdubs. (Overdubbing is simply the process of recording new material into the loop, and layering it on top of previously-recorded material. If Overdub is off, then material can be played over a loop without being added to it.)
At the 7:20 mark, you can hear the volume of the loop start to decrease, which is an indication that the EDP's feedback level has been scaled back from 100% (which gives infinite repetition to a loop) to a lower value (which causes the contents in the loop to gradually fade away). Feedback is an extremely important tool in looping, because it offers a solution to one of the most fundamental issues of the craft: Where do you go with the loop once you've built up a dense wall of sound? Scaling the feedback down to a lower level allows the loop to evolve and change, by causing the current loop content to fade out, and/or be replaced by newly overdubbed material on top. Feedback can also be brought back up to 100% in order to "lock" the content of the loop at a later state, and cause this new material to repeat indefinitely. You can hear this in "Azimuth" around the 8:00 mark, where a new texture (and tonality) is introduced, and feedback is brought back up to 100% to allow the new content to repeat without fading. The feedback value is attenuated between 100% and lower levels in this manner throughout the rest of the piece, to develop and evolve the texture until the final fade at the end, when feedback is brought down and nothing new is added to the loop, so that it eventually fades to silence. |
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Some Assembly Required RealAudio Stream Key functions: Overdub, Feedback |
In terms of the EDP technique involved, this track is essentially identical to "Azimuth," but the actual musical result is very different. We're dealing, once again, with a single loop of a fixed length, which develops in a very "linear" fashion (i.e. starting in one place and evolving through various different stages, without ever restating previously recorded material).
As with "Azimuth," you can occasionally hear the current texture in the loop fade out as it's replaced by new material; this is the sonic signature of feedback being reduced while overdubbing new material, allowing the loop to evolve smoothly from one state to another. |
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Inferno RealAudio Stream Key functions: Overdub, Reverse |
A similar EDP technique as in the first two tracks, but (once again) a completely different sonic and stylistic result. One thing which isn't present in either of the first two examples is the use of Reverse (which occurs at the 5:34 mark) and is, as you'd suspect, the act of playing the loop backwards. The EDP can instantly reverse the current loop at any point during playback, and can return to forward playback at any other point.
It's also worth noting that feedback isn't used very much in this track; the evolution and development of the loop occurs more through changing the signal processing and forward/reverse direction of the loop, as opposed to fading out old content and playing new material into it. |
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Dawn Over I-80 RealAudio Stream Key functions: Multiply, Overdub |
The EDP technique used here is slightly but significantly more sophisticated; it involves the use of the Multiply function. This is one of the most powerful and distinctive features of the EDP, because it allows the Echoplex to take a preliminary loop (or "cycle") and then multiply it out several times, thereby creating a new loop length (made up of several "cycles") which is longer than the original loop/cycle it began with.
You can hear, in the initial fade-in (which was applied to the recording post-performance), a basic syncopated figure; each repetition of that figure is one cycle in the EDP's memory. But the overall loop is four cycles in length, which you hear by virtue of a longer, higher-register phrase on top of the basic figure. That higher phrase takes four cycles (or repetitions) of the initial phrase (which you can hear underneath) to repeat itself. Building loops off of relatively small initial cycle lengths is a favorite technique of mine, largely because it offers a powerful and effective way of breaking out of a lot of the standard conventions (or "traps") of loop-based music: - it allows you to develop an idea beyond the confines of the original length of your preliminary loop; - It helps form a strong rhythmic foundation for a loop, particularly at the very beginning of creating it, offering an alternative to the arythmic, free-time sound that can crop up a lot in real-time looping; - it can create a complex initial textural foundation upon which additional overdubs can be added, as an alternative to the "start sparse and gradually build up the loop" formula (which you can hear in many of the other tracks on this page); - it's a distinctive sound which is unavailable in less sophisticated real-time loopers (in other words, almost all of them); - By mutliplying an initial cycle out and overdubbing longer phrases on top of it, you can create multiple loops within one another, so that several "wheels within wheels" are happening simultaneously in a single loop. |
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Transgressor RealAudio Stream Key functions: Multiply, Overdub, Feedback |
A similar technical approach to "Dawn over I-80," in the sense that the loop is built off of a small initial cycle, which is then expanded via the multiply function. As with the first three, the stylistic difference between this and "Dawn" is pretty severe, to say the least. |