Tech Log
Loop Pedal
Originally starting with the tape loop, involving magnetic tape used to create a repetitive musical pattern looping continuously, now comes an evolved version of the tape loop called a loop pedal.
A loop pedal is a digital sampler built into a foot switch-operated pedal which allows musicians (mainly guitarists) to be able to make their live performances more interesting by layering melodies and riffs over pre-recorded chords.
During my first year of college, I learnt how to use a loop pedal for my 10 minute solo performance where I performed Stevie Wonder's song Isn't She Lovely on my bass guitar. I recorded the chords first on the loop pedal then proceeded to play the bass line and afterwards the main melody.
There are a few limitations to a loop pedal when it comes to a live performance. A few of those limitations include the amount of loops that you are able to create. For example, if you wanted to create a song from scratch and your pedal is limited to 3 loops, you would have to prioritise what parts of the song would be most important to record. Another limitation is that although recording the loops in time is crucial for the song to sound good, it also makes the music sound somewhat robotic, the recording loses the 'human' element that would normally give the music life.
There are many ways to use a loop pedal effectively in a live performance. For example a solo musician/artist (e.g. Ed Sheeran), who can sing and guitar would be able to record vocal runs, guitar riffs, licks and melodic lines and play them at will over the original performance all with the push of a button on the pedal. Another way of using it effectively, which is very similar to the first reason, would be for a singer to record each element of a song acapella to create the a piece of music through just recording different sounds with their voice.
The link below shows an example of creating a song from scratch acapella:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z5eAW3rvRA
Roland V-Drums TD-15K V-Tour Series
"V-Drums is a variety of electronic drums, drum brain modules, and related electronic percussion product manufactured and trademarked by Roland Corporation."1
Although I have not used the V-drums in a live performance, my classmates have played them in a few of the college performances and the drums have given a good sound to many of the songs including music of different genres.
The limitations of the V-drums are quite obvious, the main reason being that it is electronic and lacks the 'human' element as opposed to an acoustic drumkit even with all of the different added drum kit sounds.
There are many ways for an electronic drum kit to be used effectively in a live performance. For example, if there is a set list of songs of different genres, you are able to switch to different sounds on the drum kit (e.g. Latin drums, Djembe, Steel pans etc.) to cater for different genres of music.
Another way of effectively using the V-drums in a live performance could be to create your own sounds, sample songs and assign the sounds to different parts of the drum kit to create your own song from scratch.
The link below shows an example of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR43J-Xb3AE
1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_V-Drums
