BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

The Problem With Live Looping

Today was a pretty awesome day!  I slept 15 hours (see previous post) then got up early and took care of lots of little things on my to do list.  Then I decided to head to the local coffee shop and read.  I stayed in the coffee shop for a while enjoying a nice little caffeinated beverage.  On my way to the coffee shop I noticed that they were having a "party" of some sort on the next street over.  They had actually blocked off the street so I decided this must be worth checking out.

It turns out it was the Maine Line Jazz and Food Festival (http://www.mainlinejazz.com).  I got myself an alcoholic beverage from a nearby bar and watched a band called Hybrid rock out on the stage.  These guys were FANTASTIC!  Solid, well rehearsed, technically complex, and the songs had a beat that just made you want to groove.  After the jazz band finished up I decided to head back to the coffee shop I was at previously for a second beverage.  SO here I am.  There's a guy playing now and he's pretty good.  He's using looping technology because he's a one man show.  I've played around with looping technology and if done right it can really enhance your show.  But if done wrong it can drive people away.

This guy seems to have it for now.  There was one song that was in the red, but for the most part he's doing it up.

What is right and wrong?  Well, I'll keep this short since the coffee shop is closing soon, but here's the deal:

Right: short and sweet (like I said I was going to keep this post).

Wrong: long.

What do I mean by that?

Well basically people get bored quickly of hearing the same thing over and over without some kind of subtle change.  So it's tough to do live looping right.  You have to practice it a LOT.  In order to pull it off one should definitely build up the initial loops quickly and get into the song quickly.  It's best to have a "B" part of the song that breaks up the monotony.  If you technically can you should build up at least 3 different parts of the song in loop form and switch between those 3.  So loop "A" is the verse, loop "B" would be the chorus and "C" would be the bridge.

If an individual takes a long time building the loop and then lets the same loop run through the whole song it can sort of become annoying to a point where it's hard to appreciate the music.  The other part is if the looping technology is over powering.  If the artist makes a drum beat and it's excessively loud then it can be hard to focus on the lyrics.

So I'm going to leave with a video of a guy I think has the looping down.  His name is lucas carpenter check him out.  Notice how he starts with building the beat quick.  Then adding in layers of the beat instead of just letting the whole thing loop through out the whole song.  It makes it very dynamic and fun to listen to.