People have been asking me for the past several years what looping software or hardware I use. And I say “I actually don’t use looping software.” Or they ask me if I’ve heard of such and such, most often Zoe Keating, and of course I have. I’ve found that these days there is this very common thing for string players to use looping software/hardware.

Looping is when you play a part, a little device (a foot pedal or a laptop) records that part and plays it back in rhythm. You can then play another part, and then another part, and then another part on that. It’s quite the spectacle, and I’ve seen one guy perform a whole big band piece by playing all the instruments one by one into the looper and having the sound build into one big unified sound. It works really well for string instruments, because, as in the case of symphony orchestras, the more the merrier, sound wise.

I’ve tended to avoid it, but now I’m in the belly of the beast, as I’ve finally thrown down for some Launchpad/Ableton Live action.

To make a long story short and to spare you the music geekery, with Ableton Live, you play your instrument into your laptop and on the spot you can chop it up and spit it out musically & rhythmically, the idea being that it is seamless and smooth.

So, for casual observers this post basically ends. I’m looking forward to adding this capability to my electro-cello sets and I want to tell you to look forward to it. Pretty exciting the possibility. Oh, and do check out Zoe Keating, and also, please drop me a line on any other amazing cello playin’ musicians you may have heard of that I might not know about.

For those more interested in the Launchpad, read on for my “first impressions” review.

Pretty much everyone seems to hype this thing to death, and when you get it out of the box and plug it in and all its pretty lights light up you kind of feel like you are going to understand why. It feels very capable, and is very compact.

Getting used to the basic basic functions takes approximately 5 minutes. Not even being a rabid Ableton user, I was able to get the gist and to see WHY people go apeshit over this thing. It does make a pretty clean translation from the software to the hardware.

My big question was and is, can I play it with my toes? (seriously). If you’ve seen me live you know I operate my current two drum machines (an Akai XR20 and an old school Korg Electribe) with my toes. I cue up parts that I’ve pre-writ and set them off when I need them, like when the chorus is coming up.

Tangent: Why not just set up the song and play along to the whole thing? The answer for me is that, yes, even though I do in the end tend to play the songs pretty close to the same length each time I play them, I really believe that the essence of music lies in its possibility. And so I must have the option to repeat a verse or to have the bridge go on for ten minutes as opposed to 30 seconds.

So back to the toes. I think I can play the launchpad with my toes. What I hope to use it for is to NOT replace my drum machines that I currently use, but to loop and shape sounds on the fly over the top of my beats. I think that less is more with this type of thing, so for the time being I’m working on being able to create a bass line for myself for a solo, as opposed to layering out the whole song.

With the Launchpad, though, you can preload your parts of songs (using your laptop as well of course), and I could in theory have rich textures live. I just don’t want it to ever cross that “karaoke line”, the place where you are just playing along to pre-recorded music, as opposed to creating it every time you go out there.

Back to my “review”. The only complaint I have is that there is a LOT that can be tackled by this thing, and I quickly found a plethora of youtube videos that demonstrated people tearing it up with them. BUT, there seems to be this assumption that you already know how to do some pretty basic stuff, like understand user functions, midi programming and even simple audio editing in Ableton. Also, Ableton claimed/claims to have a “whole chapter dedicated to the Launchpad” in its user manual for Live 8, but after searching around and downloading the newest versions of the manual, such a thing does not appear to exist. So there’s a little bit of assumption that you already know how great this toy is and thus we don’t need to spell it out for you.

Otherwise, I’m really happy for it. One of the main selling points for me, consciously or otherwise, is price. I wanted a few things for my live electronic set arsenal: a looper, some more effects, and another drum machine. With a $199 investment, I essentially get all those things and a LOT more.

The only thing I am trepidatious about is the notion of using a laptop live. The only folks I’ve seen really pull this off in a non annoying manner are DJs. Otherwise there tends to be, with laptops in a live performance, a lot of technical problems and a lot of noise posturing that is really, in my ever so humble opinion, not music.

Alright. Well. The point is you should look forward to some new sounds on the coming albums/live performances.

Also, if you are interested, and want to use Ableton Live, and have $200 burning a hole in your pocket, I give you permission to go out and buy a Launchpad. And also, I wish someone were actually paying me to endorse this thing.

Also, as a pre-emptive comment, I DO in fact feel strongly that a musician and an instrument (voice is instrument yes) is all you will ever need to make the most beautiful music ever. But if you are like me, and like to take many side roads off of that main road, using the modern worlds’ many technological bounties is not necessarily a bad thing…