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).

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