Ribloop began as a sort of “Frippertronics” patch (to the extent that I understand what that is, since its definition seems a little mutable). The idea was to replace loopers with delay line buffers, which allows for tapped tempos. Delay lines are quite stable and clockable, so they have some advantages over loopers, even if you can’t do things like reverse the audio or change its speed.
So, there are six loopers/delay lines, each with controls for TIME, FEEDBACK, LEVEL, and PAN.
Most of those controls are self-explanatory, but I will take a minute to explain how “TIME” works: the TIME control is designed such that .1 = 1 tap. So, .4 = 4 taps = 1 bar. You can go up to 1.0 on TIME, which would be 10x taps’ length. The idea was to make it quick to dial in multiples of the clock.
Then, I decided to add an element that I’ve used in some of my generative patches, namely a sequencer to move the audio input between different buffers. When all the buffers are set to the same length, this can create some disjointed repeats (depending on things like the pan and level setting); you can use the feedback amounts to have a repeat that fades at different speeds in different portions.
When the buffers are set to different lengths, the audio gets re-arranged in temporality, taking on a sort of granular feel. (This is generally how I use it, as a composition tool/live performance tool to take some simple sounds and turn them into overlapping, polyrhythmic loops.)
The sequencer has its own TIME setting, as well as a FADES parameter, which allows you to move from choppy switches to more smoothed out/faded in switches between buffers. There is also a RANDOM button that changes the order of the sequencer from “forward” to “random.”
The RIGHT STOMPSWITCH controls the tap tempo for the patch. You can also tap in a tempo using the tap tempo display. The LEFT and MIDDLE STOMPSWITCHES move between different buffers (left = moves between 1 and 3; middle = moves between 4 and 6).
Each buffer’s selection light modulates in time with its buffer length. When a given buffer is selected, there is an expanded view of the buffer located on the right of the control page.
On the second page are pixels which display the contents of each buffer, as well as a button that allows you to erase the content of the selected buffer. You can use this to remove elements from the sound, piece by piece. (You can also use the level parameter to do this non-destructively — fading/muting channels — whereas it is important to note that this process permanently erases the contents of the delay line buffers.)
Stereo input is summed to mono before it enters the delay lines (dry audio remains stereo throughout).
