A Loop's A Loop's a Loop's A
Inspired by the audio loop work of Charles O'Meara (then CW Vrtacek)
Programmed by Nick Didkovsky in JSyn and JMSL
Dedication
This piece is dedicated to and inspired by the sound looping work of CW
"Chuck" O'Meara. Besides composing for and playing guitar in his trio Forever
Einstein, CWO has released a number of CD's of solo work. His latest
solo CD came to me a few weeks ago, and the use of audio loops on this
record made me think about how masterfully he's
used loops for 20 years since his first LP came out. Chuck's use of
loops became an inspiring metaphor for the interactive instrument presented
here.
Description
"A Loop's A Loop's a Loop's A" provides you with up to 8 tracks of independently
looping sound. The sounds are generated by user-selectable synthesis instruments.
The metaphor goes something like this: you grab a reel of tape with one
of these instruments on it, cut some to a desired length, splice on some
leader tape for silence, and start looping it. If you like what you hear
you can keep listening, add another, etc. If you don't like it, you can
discard it and try again.
I decided to keep the interaction very simple, rather than provide massive
sound design opportunities. Like real tape lying around in a well-used
electronic music studio, these are found sounds that you simply keep or
toss. Exploring slowly and listen carefully; you will get into some rich
and deep places.
Read Nick's technical reflections on
this piece.
Read CWV's comments on loops.
Play
Now perform A Loop's A
Loop's a Loop's A....
Contact
Nick Didkovsky: Nick.Didkovsky@mail.rockefeller.edu
Chuck: contact Nick above
JMSL and JSyn
JSyn is Phil Burk's realtime music synthesis
language. JMSL is an experimental music programming language by Nick Didkovsky
and Phil Burk, which is based on HMSL. Both JSyn and JMSL are written in
Java, which allows for pieces to be presented on the Web.
For JSyn info, please visit www.softsynth.com
For JMSL info, please visit www.algomusic.com
Thanks
Thanks to Phil Burk for JSyn, and of course to Chuck Vrtacek, and to the
New York Foundation for the Arts who awarded a Computer Arts Fellowship
to Nick Didkovsky in 1999, making this and the other pieces presented here
at Punos Music possible. (see link below).