Korg Forums

[Dikikeys]

Is it time to add a looper?

They are amazingly simple tools, yet powerful beyond the first impression...

Especially in combination with a Chord Sequencer, the ability to on the fly 'capture' an actual performance and loop it, to add it to the current performance is a huge step forward.

The problem for keyboard players is, it is very difficult (and you lose effects, etc.) to separate out one sound on the fly to send to separate outputs, so you can send it off to an external looper pedal. For guitarists, whose instrument doesn't output the backing as well as the live sound, these tools are amazing (and an integral part of many solo guitarists' current arsenal), but they are very problematical to integrate into a keyboard player's arsenal.

So, is it time to add the feature to an arranger internally? It's not actually that hard... Quite simple loopers are VERY cheap, it would add little to the cost. But a simple 'Live loop record' button on the front panel would make it easy to add ones ACTUAL playing (not some arranger track with preset 'rules' about chord behavior) to the backing. remember, music isn't JUST everybody or everything playing the EXACT same chords all the time. Dissonance, counter melody, passing lines, counter rhythm, so many things commonly used in real music defy being reduced to an arranger Part and a set of NTA behaviors.

Some WS's already have this feature, and it makes them very spontaneous, creative tools, but isn't that spontaneity the very guiding principle of arrangers? So, is it long past time this alternative way of laying down a backing makes an appearance on arrangers.

The icing on the cake could be that this could be done in two ways on an arranger... audio AND MIDI live looping. After all, what is the Chord Sequencer but a live 'capture' of the NTA section (whether LH or whole keyboard) and an immediate looping of it..? The same process, but to a whole, actually played part would be the beginnings of an actual MIDI looper...

And most of our arrangers now have a recording capability, so little needs adding but the synchronization of start and stop points with internal clock, and the ability to start the playback immediately the recording is finished. Basic stuff, apparently, when WS's can do it.

Now, imagine doing your Chord Sequence in real time (or loading one from the Songbook) and having the arranger actually record what you PLAYED to get it (or played on that first pass of the recorded CS) and be able to loop that... the uses are innumerable. A real bassline, a groovy syncopated comp, a hand played percussion line, a chillout pad, with different chords to the main CS.

It's a totally different paradigm to the rote repetition of the one set of changes. And the foundation of much of today's music. Is it time that this common way of making music for everybody ELSE makes an appearance in modern arrangers? The brutal separation of arpeggiators and loopers from arrangers is a totally artificial divide. Music demands ALL the tools, and the hardware of arrangers is fully capable of doing these things, if simply added to the feature set. Make some noise, show the arranger designers that you would like these things added to your arranger...

[Bachus]

I agree with you, i love the looper on mainstage, its a great feature...

There is so many great features from workstations i would love to see make it to arrangers, like the motif pattern mode with clip launching(adobe style). It would work perfectly well with a touchscreen, and open up the instrument to modern dance music...

Or a few encoders, free assignable...

And many many more...