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 A floor-based Boss RC loop pedal. | |
| Electronic instrument | |
|---|---|
| Developed | Late 20th century |
| Related instruments | |
| Musicians | |
Live looping is the recording and playback of a piece of music in real-time [1] using either dedicated hardware devices, called loopers or phrase samplers, or software running on a computer with an audio interface. Musicians can loop with either looping software or loop pedals, which are sold for tabletop and floor-based use.
By the late 19th century, jazz and blues had heavily influenced popular music, encouraging musicians to experiment with rhythm, repetition, and musical improvisation. [2] With the advent of sound recording on gramophone record, invented in 1887 and first marketed in 1889, came the tape recorder and the development of pure electronic music.
On 1 October 1947, Bing Crosby became the first American musician to release music via tape broadcast. In 1953, Les Paul demonstrated live looping on the television show Omnibus. [3]
In 1963, musician and performer Terry Riley released an early tape loop piece called “The Gift”, featuring the trumpet playing of Chet Baker. It was the first piece ever based on a tape delay/feedback system with two Revox tape recorders. [2] (Riley used to call this system the Time Lag Accumulator. [4] Unsurprisingly, the name did not catch on amongst other performing musicians.)
Digital delay systems in the 1980s were experimental and not intuitive, but the equipment's limitations inspired innovators of the technique to find creative applications. [5]
Even by the early 1990s, when dedicated loop machines first went on sale, the term "live looping" had not yet been coined. The first dedicated loop device was the Paradis LOOP Delay. [6] The Paradis and other models had volatile memories, forcing composers to develop fresh loops live in front of their audiences — and thus, live looping came into existence.
Roland and DigiTech loop pedals entered the market in 2001, around the same time DJ mixing gained popularity. When the 2002 Repeater introduced real-time studio looping, looping devices became affordable enough for aspiring at-home composers to enjoy.
As laptops gained popularity in 2004, computer software began to emulate the 1990s effects of early looping devices.
Live looping has become increasingly popular in recent history[ when? ] as it offers the ability for a single musician to create multiple layers to their live music, resulting in a sound close to that of a "full band" experience. Notable manufacturers of looping devices include Boss, DigiTech and TC Electronic.
In a 2012–13 poll of 1000 singers, 11% stated that they used live looping while 51% did not know what live looping was. [7] Artists known for their use or advocacy of the technique include:
An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing.
Musique concrète is a type of music composition that utilizes recorded sounds as raw material. Sounds are often modified through the application of audio signal processing and tape music techniques, and may be assembled into a form of montage. It can feature sounds derived from recordings of musical instruments, the human voice, and the natural environment as well as those created using synthesizers and computer-based digital signal processing. Compositions in this idiom are not restricted to the normal musical rules of melody, harmony, rhythm, metre, and so on. The technique exploits acousmatic sound, such that sound identities can often be intentionally obscured or appear unconnected to their source cause.
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for its innovative use of repetition, tape music techniques, and delay systems. His best known works are the 1964 composition In C and the 1969 LP A Rainbow in Curved Air, both considered landmarks of minimalism and important influences on experimental music, rock, and contemporary electronic music.
In music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections can be repeated to create ostinato patterns. Longer sections can also be repeated: for example, a player might loop what they play on an entire verse of a song in order to then play along with it, accompanying themselves.
In music, tape loops are loops of magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound when played on a tape recorder. Originating in the 1940s with the work of Pierre Schaeffer, they were used among contemporary composers of 1950s and 1960s, such as Éliane Radigue, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, who used them to create phase patterns, rhythms, textures, and timbres. Popular music authors of 1960s and 1970s, particularly in psychedelic, progressive and ambient genres, used tape loops to accompany their music with innovative sound effects. In the 1980s, analog audio and tape loops with it gave way to digital audio and application of computers to generate and process sound.
Howard Bernstein, professionally known as Howie B, is a Scottish musician, producer and DJ who has worked with artists including: Björk, U2, Tricky, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Soul II Soul, Robbie Robertson, Elisa, Mukul Deora and The Gift.
A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform.
"Mofo" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track on their 1997 album Pop, and was released as the album's final single on 8 December 1997. The song was partially written about lead vocalist Bono's mother, who died when he was 14 years old. Other songs which Bono wrote about his mother include "Lemon", "I Will Follow", "Iris " and "Tomorrow". Andrew Unterberger of Stylus Magazine considers the song to be "the only legitimate evidence" of U2's supposed dance-orientated direction on the album. He said the song was "Underworld-esque house frenzy."
A Rainbow in Curved Air is the third album by American composer Terry Riley, released in 1969 on CBS Records. The title track consists of Riley's overdubbed improvisations on several keyboard and percussion instruments, including electric organ, electric harpsichord, dumbec, and tambourine. The B-side "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band" is a saxophone-based drone piece featuring tape loops and edits, drawing on Riley's all-night improvisatory performances in the 1960s.
Delay is an audio signal processing technique that records an input signal to a storage medium and then plays it back after a period of time. When the delayed playback is mixed with the live audio, it creates an echo-like effect, whereby the original audio is heard followed by the delayed audio. The delayed signal may be played back multiple times, or fed back into the recording, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.
TC Electronic is a Danish audio equipment company that designs and imports guitar effects, bass amplification, computer audio interfaces, audio plug-in software, live sound equalisers, studio and post-production equipment, studio effect processors, and broadcast loudness processors and meters. In August 2015, the company was purchased by Music Tribe, a holding company chaired by Uli Behringer.
EOTO was an electronic band consisting of Michael Travis and Jason Hann. On July 22, 2021 the band announced via social media that they would no longer be performing, due to irreconcilable creative differences. The post indicated that the decision did not impact The String Cheese Incident, which they both play in.
(No Pussyfooting) is the debut studio album by the British duo Fripp & Eno, released in 1973. (No Pussyfooting) was the first of three major collaborations between the musicians, growing out of Brian Eno's early tape delay looping experiments and Robert Fripp's "Frippertronics" electric guitar technique.
Gerry Leonard is an Irish lead guitarist and solo artist, known for his harmonic and ambient guitar style and for his work with David Bowie. He has lived and worked in Dublin, Copenhagen, and Manhattan.
Keys N Krates is a Canadian electronic music band formed in 2008 out of Toronto, Ontario. The group consists of drummer Adam Tune, keyboardist David Matisse and turntablist Jr. Flo. The band started as a live hip-hop act reliant on rough a cappella loops on top of heavy bass-driven beats.
TC Group is a Danish multinational corporation specializing in audio related products for musicians, installers, producers, engineers, broadcasters, audio consultants and contractors. Its individual brands include Lab.gruppen, Lake, Tannoy, TC-Applied Technologies, TC Electronic and TC-Helicon. Overall, the company organizes itself around four market verticals: Musician, Install & Tour, Broadcast & Production, and Residential.
The BeatBuddy is a digital drum machine made by Singular Sound which is housed in the form of a stompbox unit. The floor-based format and pedal footswitch enables musicians to control the device "hands-free" while they are performing an instrument with their hands.
Cedrik Fermont is a vegan artist, academically trained musician, DJ, singer, composer and drummer. He is a former student of electro-acoustic composer Annette Vande Gorne. In 2017, he was co-awarded the prestigious Golden Nica Prix Ars Electronica in digital musics and sound art.
Netta Barzilai, also known mononymously as Netta, is an Israeli singer-songwriter, musician and looping artist. After winning the fifth season of HaKokhav HaBa, she earned the right to represent her country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. On 12 May 2018, she won the contest, held in Lisbon, Portugal, with her song "Toy", marking Israel's fourth win in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Marc Rebillet is a French-American electronic musician and YouTuber from Dallas, Texas, currently based in New York City. He is known for improvising electronic songs that feature comical lyrics. Rebillet primarily distributes his work through YouTube videos and Twitch live streams in which he uses a loop station, keyboard, vocals and percussion instruments to produce his songs in his apartment. He also has released three studio albums and two extended play records.
The performer wowed audiences and the judges in The Next Star with her unique uses of sampling, beatbox and live looping of her voice …