Modes and whammy loops

[beebs]

I've been experimenting with whammy loops a little lately and am amazed at how much freedom they allow me to mess around. Last night I made a simple pad by using the -2 octave setting and a few open strings. I started with the open E string at -2 and slowly raised it all the way up, then I added the small e string and b string in the same way. All were captured into a delay (2000ms) and then I turned on my looper to record a small sample (~2.5 seconds) and then I hit the overdub pedal to let the delays pour into the looper for about 5-10 seconds. You basically end up with a spiral of sounds where a lot of the highs cancel out and it sounds a lot like an ambient monk chant or something crazy... very nice.  Then I turn off the delay and start fidgeting.

The first thing I noticed was that the tonal center was e (go figure since I basically played an E5 with my loop), but things are very interesting. Since there's no 3rd and no other embellishments and even no beat, things are completely open for experimentation. It's basically like having a blank sheet of paper that reinforces whatever you decide you want to do.

Now the fun begins, I start off in E mixolydian mostly hanging around the 5, 6, and dominant 7 to kind of start things off nice and peacefully. Then since the 5, 6, and dominant 7 are all shared with the dorian, its really easy to start pedaling in the flattened 3rd to give it a dorian feel. As I make my way deeper into modal depths, I will add in some flat 6th's (nice tension) for a true aeolian thing, but I never really commit to anything. Aeolian and dorian lead quickly over to get to the phrygian (flattened 9th) which is a nice tension note. The phrygian naturally leads me either back to the dorian or to the harmonic minor. Once that door is open, then the harmonic dorian is primed and ready (A harmonic minor, also called the E spanish phrygian or romanian mode). To top it off I take it back to the original mixolydian and go back to some simple phrases that I opened with for a nice resolve, finally closing the pocket with some slowly arppegiated e chords (doesn't really matter what).

I guess what I find interesting is that I don't really like to add in to many 7ths (ionian or lydian) except when working with the harmonic minor. Something about that note just doesn't jive well in a major context (just too cheesy). I don't know enough about theory to even guess why. I also haven't played with it enough to naturally stumble into melodic minor stuff, but I don't know if my ear/mind/fingers make that connection yet. Most of these modes I just kind of naturally migrated to without thinking about what I was actually playing.

Now I can only imagine how much this could be enhanced with someone working a crazy dissonant synth and a bass to give the right modal tensions and some drums that are just all over the place while still creating a nice pocket. It's no wonder the guys work this so much... It's like meditative playing.

So cliffnotes: A simple E5 based whammy loop allows you to seamlessly switch through different scales and modes comfortably (E pentatonic major and minor, E blues, E mixolydian, E dorian, E aeolian, E phyrgian, E harmonic minor, and E harmonic dorian for starters).

[Walker done done]

Good write up beebs, I like how you walk us through your thinking here.  It was fun for me to imagine sitting here at work what that sounded like!  I purchased a DM2000 a few months ago off of raisinfreen and really haven't put the time into it that it deserves.  This write up was making me itch a little to get going w/ it and what you're describing here, so thanks!

[Brian27]

I think the advantage of the DM2000 over most other Delay units iis that the hold time is a set time of 1023.   I always set my DM2000 to 1023 cause thats mainly what i use it for is for the hold function with all the Modulation madness  to my desire. I set my line 6 M13's digital delay on 1023 and it matched the DM2000's set hold time. For some reason ibanez chose the set hold time to be 1023ms.

[beebs]

Are you guys setting a looper after your delay so you can sample/overdub delays?

[Brian27]

i do. I love for somethings to be played in reverse. Also i love being able to do reverse leads as well as spot delays with the Once