 |
 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] This 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, effects processor, or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing.
Terrence Mitchell "Terry" 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 work became notable for its innovative use of repetition, tape music techniques, improvisation, and delay systems. His best known works are the 1964 composition In C and the 1969 album A Rainbow in Curved Air, both considered landmarks of minimalism and important influences on experimental music, rock, and contemporary electronic music. Subsequent works such as Shri Camel (1980) explored just intonation.
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 C is a musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964. It consists of series of 53 short melodic fragments that can be repeated at the discretion of the musicians. It is often cited as the first minimalist composition to make a significant impact on the public consciousness and inspire a new movement. The number of performers is unspecified. Riley suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work".
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.
The Roland Space Echo is a line of tape delay units introduced by Roland Corporation in 1974.
Howard Simon Bernstein 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, Marlene Kuntz and the Gift.
The JamMan is an audio looping device manufactured by Lexicon in the mid-1990s. The idea for the JamMan began with modifications Gary Hall had devised for the Lexicon PCM-42 that allowed him to play into a long, looping delay whose clock could be synchronized to an external source. Bob Sellon extended the concept considerably, starting with elaborate PCM42 modifications and eventually working with several others at Lexicon to arrive at the JamMan.
It's Gonna Rain is a tape composition written by Steve Reich in 1965. It lasts about 18 minutes. It was Reich's first major work and is considered a landmark in minimalism and process music.
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 Group, a holding company chaired by Uli Behringer.
(No Pussyfooting) is the debut studio album by the British duo Fripp & Eno, released 9 November 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.
Laura Sheeran is an Irish singer, musician, composer and artist. She was born in Galway and is the cousin of Ed Sheeran. She married Marc Aubele, keyboardist with Bell X1, in 2014.
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. The band has had their music synced via EA Sports, FIFA, SkySports/SoccerAM, Toronto Raptors, Apple and more.
TC Group was 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. TC Group was acquired by Music Tribe in 2015.
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 pop singer. 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.
"Toy" is a song by Israeli singer Netta Barzilai, composed and written by Doron Medalie and the song's producer Stav Beger, the song was released on 11 March 2018 along with its official music video clip, which was directed by Keren Hochma. It represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 held in Lisbon, winning the contest.
Marc Rebillet is a French and American electronic musician and YouTuber from Dallas, Texas, currently based in New York City. Rebillet is known for his improvised funk and hip-hop electronic music with free flowing, humorous lyrics. Rebillet distributes his work primarily through YouTube videos and Twitch live streams using a loop station, keyboard, vocals and percussion instruments to produce his songs in his apartment. He has released three studio albums under his legal name: Marc Rebillet, Europe, and Loop Daddy III; two extended play records, and three projects under his "leae" moniker: Pod 314, the Rattlebrain EP, and the week | ep.
The performer wowed audiences and the judges in The Next Star with her unique uses of sampling, beatbox and live looping of her voice …