Fripp States During Ad-hoc Loop Overdubbing

During Ad-hoc Loop Overdubbing, your ad-hoc sequence can extend through multiple iterations of the loop. For example, you may set an 8-bar phrase to playback in a loop, and improvise 32 bars over it. The ad-hoc sequence would include all 32 bars.

Then again, you might start and stop numerous different ad-hoc sequences while the playback sequence continues to loop. During Ad-hoc Loop Overdubbing, Fripp ends an ad-hoc sequence (and starts the next one) when you're silent for an entire iteration of the loop. It also ends an Ad-hoc Sequence when you stop playback.

The following diagram illustrates the various states that can occur during Ad-hoc Loop Overdubbing.

You begin playback with the Loop button toggled on, and Fripp enters the StartingAdhocLoopedOverdubbedRecording state. It creates a new sequence, and transitions immediately to the PendingFirstLoopedOverdubbedInput state. The start time of the sequence is the time that playback began. Fripp sets a timer to go off at the beginning of the next loop. If you don't play anything before the timer goes off, Fripp transitions to the RestartingAdhocLoopedOverdubbedSequence state, which resets the start timestamp of the sequence to the start time of the current loop iteration and transitions immediately back into the PendingFirstLoopedOverdubbedInputState. Another timer is set to go off at the beginning of the next loop.

Fripp remains in the PendingFirstLoopedOverdubbedInput state, and continues to reset the start time of the sequence, until you provide some MIDI Input. When you do that, Fripp cancels the timer, records that input, and enters either the PendingLoopedOverdubbedInputCompletion or PendingMoreLoopedOverdubbedInput state, depending on the input. Fripp records your subsequent inputs and bounces between the PendingLoopedOverdubbedInputCompletion and PendingMoreLoopedOverdubbedInput states, until you do something to signal the end of the current sequence.

The PendingMoreLoopedOverdubbedInput state is similar to the PendingMoreInput state during Ad-hoc Recording mode, with a twist. Both states try to infer the end of a sequence by measuring silence, but they calculate the length of the silence (the MaxSilenceInterval) differently. For the PendingMoreLoopedOverdubbedInput state:

MaxSilenceInterval = <timespan from now to the end of the next loop iteration>

So, upon entering the PendingMoreLoopedOverdubbedInput state, Fripp sets a silence timer to the calculated MaxSilenceInterval. If you play some more, Fripp cancels the timer, and enters either the PendingOverdubbedInputCompletion state or the PendingMoreOverdubbedInput state (depending on your input). However, if you allow the playback to continue through the end of the current loop and another entire iteration of it, the silence timer goes off, Fripp ends the current sequence with your last input, and transitions back to the StartingAdhocLoopedOverdubbedRecording state, to begin a new sequence.

Finally, if while in the PendingMoreLoopedOverdubbedInput state, you stop playback before the silence timer goes off, Fripp cancels the timer, ends the current sequence with your last MIDI input, and transitions back to the Coordinating Recording state.

Next: Fripp States during Explicit Recording