“…So where are you?…”
Inspired by Christopher Nolan’s 2001 film “Memento”.
The core of the effect is two pair of always on loopers and user-selectable polyrhythmic options. The playback of the loops emulates the way “Memento” is edited & presented on screen. That is, the slices of one set of loopers (the “numerical set”) is played back in chronological order… 1-2-3-4-5…etc. The playback of the second set (the “alpha set”) is played back in *reverse chronological order*… Z-Y-X-W-V-U…etc. The playback of the two looper pairs alternates. So at regular clocked intervals (more on that below), you get playback of the two timelines that mirrors the presentation of the film…
1 – Z – 2 – Y – 3 – X – 4 – W – 5 – V… etc.
To be clear, the content of the ‘alpha slices” is not reversed… “Z” is played forward, “Y” is played forward, etc.… those alpha slices are just played back in reverse *order* (although you do have the option to play the content in reverse too… see Control page 1). At regular clocked intervals (the default) you get a ping-ponging of slices from one pair to the other… but here’s where it gets really fun… you can also have the slices played back polyrhythmically. Each looper pair has its own clock divider that can be adjusted on the fly (control page 2). The loop slices are always 1-second long, but the opening/closing of the VCAs through which those loops are routed is controlled by you. And then it gets weird, because inevitably the 1-second segments are going to get out of sync with the buffer & rhythmic subdivisions you choose. It’s never acted the same way twice for me. Which is what I love most about it.
Regarding the demo – I used an ascending scale to try to emphasize what’ spossible with this patch.
*Note that in the first 30seconds, *I only play an ascending scale*… then listen to the resulting *descending* patterns that emerge.
This. Is. The Point.
Description of controls follows.
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Stomps:
– Right stomp = sends the input directly to loopers – BLUE indicators ON. When off input is NOT sent to loopers directly.
– Mid stomp = sends input to the buffer. ORANGE indicators ON. When off input is NOT sent to buffer.
– Left stomp = freezes the audio buffer. RED indicators ON. New input ducks the existing buffered audio.
Control page 1, the signal routing, pitch and reversing bits:
Rows 1 & 5 = stopswitch indicators
Row 2, Columns 1-4 = pitch biasing for each looper
Row 2, Columns 6-7 = pitch randomization of probability adjustment
Row 3, Columns 1-4 = looper audio output indicators
Row 3, Columns 6-8 = master clock, buffer length adjustment, and dry/wet adjustment
Row 4, Columns 1-4 = reverse toggle for each of the loopers
Row 4, Columns 6-7 = reverse randomization and probability adjustment
Control page 2 – the polyrhythmic bits:
– Rows 1-2 = live signal and buffer delay line 1 numerator & denominator respectively, 1-8
– Rows 4-5 = live signal and buffer delay line 2 numerator & denominator respectively, 1-8
– Row 3, column 7 = reset clock dividers
– Row 3, column 8 = one-shot randomization of the clock divider numerators/denominators. Values are held until button is pushed again, at which point values will revert to previously manually adjusted values. (good for alternating between the randomized and manually chosen values at regular or irregular intervals/bars).
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“Now… where was I?…”
