Analog loop destruction refers to a method where a tape loop is physically destructed over a period of time (using razors and/or other abrasive tools).
There is a new video up from Hainbach where he shows a digital variant of loop destruction using an iOS app which applies bit reduction over and over again:
While (sorrily) away from my Octatrack for some time, I wonder how to best set up the master of sample mangling for doing something similar.
Maybe using two track recorders which alternate feeding each other? First half of a pattern recbuf1 gets played with reduced bit depth and recbuf2 is recording and the second half of the pattern the other way around?
Without hands on the machine it’s not that easy to figure it out in all details. Someone interested?
Maybe even a little end-of-the-year challenge? Destructively fade out some 2020 audio like voice snippets referencing corona (it’s time to get that fading, right )?
Overdubbing flex machine with filter or lofi which degrades audio with each overdub?
Filter and lofi will degrade the sample even with default settings slightly, turn down cutoff, turn up res/filter dist or dial in some SRR/BRR to exaggerate the effect.
I wouldn’t go for overdubbing (combining the original audio with another one), but recording over. Otherwise you may get phasing effects which isn’t really the goal of a destruction loop.
Definitely yes for the lofi FX with BRR and slightly reduced volume each time. Filter? Yes, why not? As I said, without the OT at hands it’s hard to guess how the result sounds …
Whatever you want. I’m just brainstorming here …
Indeed this was even my first thought. A physical feedback loop at a low volume and amplify it digitally afterwards again (simulates bit reduction, because it uses not all available bits of the converter).
The throwback here is that this will raise the noise level which each pass drowning the signal in noise after a while (which isn’t really what loop destruction is about).
Maybe the word “challenge” is quite a misfit, because it implies a race to win. It was more meant in the sense of “challenge yourself (if you want)”.
fuck. this made me weep.
thank you.
made me want to make a music out of the voices in my head that speak negatively about me.
which we all share to some extent…
right?
I just spent an hour curiously playing with this.
Each track recorder records the track before it. Flex play their own recorders
Start with a one bar sample to get it going. Solo the track.
Arm record.
now solo the next track, while that is happening swap the sample on Flex1 to play recorder 1.
Arm record on the next track. Then solo that track once the new loop is sampled, repeat ad destructum.
Each track as a bit of Bit riduction, a bit of filter movement, and a slow LFO to pitch.
Interesting to hear the loop slowly degrade into a bass nightmare of low frequency static, I thought I was damaging my speakers at some point… go easy!
will return to this idea for sure. Long form digital audio grime… very long form
regardless of who came first…
the great idea that i took from this is to record myself saying all the things that i feel are my worst properties.
(thats pretty fucking heavy)
record that onto a TR on OT and set some recBuffs up to constantly rec and re-rec over and over and over these voices until they are destroyed by resampling/effects/ etc, but mostly by repetition and degradation…
i feel like this is a very powerful exercise in identifying your negative self and exposing it to the harsh light of repetitive sampling, like a vampire to the rays of the sun.
and then sample that shit.
and make a tune. or a dirge.
these feelings run through us very deeply, i dont care who you are…so setting them free may take some letting go. of a lot of things.
blessings.
)?
