I put this post together a while back when my loop pedal was acting wonky and I had to pull off all the data before bringing it into the shop. In that process I had re-discovered some old loops that actually weren’t too bad. I made a quick attempt at improving the sound quality in an audio editor and then gave each of them a quick name — literally the first words that I thought of when I heard them again. I have no idea why I never posted this, so I figured…why not bust it out in the new year?

Like my previous audio posts, there are definitely some mellow, lullaby-like sounds going on here. But there are also a few other cool themes like a Western/desert thing and other more psychedelic sounds. It certainly ain’t hi-fi but it’s not bad considering the low-budget equipment and that all of these were recorded on-the-fly, completely as improv (the one exception being track #1, the “Drift Away Instrumental,” which was actually my attempt at capturing the groove from the original loop in track #2).

Take a listen…

Desert Flyway by whitperson

Drift Away Instrumental:
Drift Away instrumental 2.5.11 by whitperson

Drift Away – original loop w/ vocals
Drift Away original loop by whitperson

Looping Lullaby:
Looping Lullaby by whitperson

Dripping Icicles:
Dripping Icicles by whitperson

Fade into White:
Fade into White by whitperson

Drunken Cowboy:
Drunken Cowboy by whitperson

Tumbleweed:
Tumbling Weed by whitperson

It’s all pretty amateur and — as my buddy Justin says — I could definitely use some drum and percussion in the mix. That said, I like to think that I’ve hit on some cool sounds and themes. Who knows, maybe someday I can actually pull some of these together as actual songs?

Check it out:

These guys put together a nice mellow style of instrumental music using drums, double-neck bass/guitar, a loop pedal and lots of effects. In that way, their music is actually somewhat similar to some of the mellow, lullaby-esque sounds I’ve been laying down on my loop pedal lately (though mine aren’t nearly as good and don’t include drums, double-neck guitar or nearly as many toys).

Side note: I like to think that if my blogging buddy Justin and I ever started a band, we’d probably play something like this.

Here’s an example using one of my favorite tracks off of White Denim‘s latest album. Hover over the image to get the black and white dots where the links are embedded:

Here’s another approach using a personal photo from my travels in Hawaii:

It’s tagged with a link to my twitter handle as well as one of my own random musical creations, dubbed “Desert Flyaway” (which was created in a single take on a Digitech loop pedal).

And here’s yet another example using an album image from Brothers Past‘s latest release, Everything Must Go, Volume 9:

With this version, we’ve got the following:
1) a Souncloud audio player for “Bitches and Candy” (the main track from the new release)
2) a link to where you can download that track
3) a live video of the same tune via YouTube
4) and a tag for the band’s official twitter handle

Overall, it’s a little packed, but I think it proves the point that there’s a lot you could do with this plugin, including some interesting ways that bands can put it to use (especially if they’re already using Soundcloud).

Fun.

I started digging back into some old loops I created earlier this year on my Digitech Jamman loop pedal. I’d forgotten some of the cool thematic/melodic stuff I put together, so I thought I’d post a couple sample tracks.

Unfortunately, on these samples, the lead guitar tone doesn’t get the much-needed reverb from my amp and the mix isn’t exactly perfect. But for simple one-time loops that were created on-the-fly, I think these are pretty solid and have some decent potential for full songs:

On Our Way

Golden Slumber

Someday, I’ll finally get this home studio set-up properly and give these themes more of a full-song treatment.

By the way, both loops have a bit of a lullaby feel, hence the name of the post.

Justin just clued me in on this nifty Yahoo Media Player plugin that converts all your mp3 files to playable tracks and includes an overlay media player on the bottom left of the site. I thought I’d update this old post with the new player. Good stuff, check it out:

The Grey Green

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I thought I’d test out this audio player plugin with a little ditty from my loop pedal. I put this together on-the-fly a few nights ago.

let me know what you think.