Sounds

Note: These sounds are copyrighted © by Bernhard Wagner, 2004-2007.

Some loops recorded with Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro Plus.

These were recorded as first steps using a multitrack digital recorder. I plugged the output of the effect board directly into the recorder.

lpx.mp3 03:22 (3.1 MB), April 2003
Two Guitars played live: Lars Peter Kruse chiseling the melody over harmonies/bass (octaver) played by me.
myCountry.mp3 02:30 (2.3 MB), April 2003
Two Guitars overdubbed and digitally delayed
BluesyThin.mp3 00:24 (380 KB), April 2003
The essence of "BluesyFull.mp3"
BluesyFull.mp3 00:24 (378 KB), April 2003
My first recording with the Roland VS-880 8 Track harddisk recorder

Echoplex Dump Utility

For downloading the loops from the Echoplex I programmed a little Max application for Mac: epgs.clc.app.gz (268k). (You need MacGzip to uncompress the application.) The downloaded loop will be saved in Sound Designer II format.

This Max-program displays continuously and accurately the remaining time to complete the dump (screendump). Thus, when you follow Kim Flint's instructions, you now know when exactly to return from lunch. Additinally, it puts the Echoplex into "Load" mode via MIDI, so you don't need to reach for the front panel buttons to invoke the dump. Beware though, this program has only been tested on a stone age PowerBook 540c with System 7.5.3 and OMS 1.2.3!

While putting this together, I stumbled across two minor inconsistencies in the Echoplex software:

  1. The sample rate is indicated as 44100 in the MIDI dump sysex header, while I believe it actually should indicate 41500.
  2. If you put the Echoplex into "Load" mode it is not possible to bring it back to "Play" mode via MIDI. You need to do it via the front panel. What a pity. Eric Obermühlner, the programmer of the Echoplex Loop Software, told me, when the Echoplex is dumping SysEx it is not listening to MIDI messages other than ACK, NACK. Hacking trivia for geeks (like me): Apparently the SysEx dumping part of the Loop Software is the only not written in assembler but Modula-2!

I refactored a windows command line program (sources) to convert Sound Designer II to Microsoft WAV. Since the information about sample rate and bits per sample is not stored in the Sound Designer II file, you need to provide those parameters on the command line, e.g. 
	sd2wav -b16 -r41500 loopAsSoundDesignerII.sd2
 will generate a WAV file named loopAsSoundDesignerII.wav.

Links

Musings
about my gear, for whoever cares.
Conveyor Belt
An endeavour combining audio loops and visual art.
Mark Woodman
has some samples of compositions on his site.

Contact

questions/comments: