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I usually have two loopers on my board. Ct5 in the beginning of the chain and Digital Water in the middle. Allows for a lot of non-traditional uses and plenty of knob tweaking and layerings. Good for crazy drones or mellow soundscaping that sit far back in the mix. It does take a lot of practice and a shitload of trail and error, but when you nail it, nothing really compares. I suck at it, but I love looping.

Brandsmannen wrote:One way not to suck at looping (which I do to) is to record a few seconds of silence, hit overdub and let it run and then do swells and shit into it. That is, if you like ambient. I made a track that is exactly this, if you're interested

I used to do that trick with the RC20XL and the headrush, it is easier with a looper that can go from record -> overdub instead of record -> play -> overdub

Haven't though about that. When it's silence anyway I find that it doesn't matter

I loop at sucking.

Practice by looping beats to get your timing right, do 4 bars then 8 and 16 till you get it right... It's all about timing...

Brandsmannen wrote:Haven't though about that. When it's silence anyway I find that it doesn't matter

That's right, the problem is that unless you are using metronome and a timer or you are a robot, the "blank" layer is going to be at a random length every time. For improvising is irrelevant of course.

I still suck at looping, but I try sporadically to work with the tips in this article, which are pretty solid: http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/2 ... ing-lesson

The key to cool looping is (for me at least) is the play once function of the DL4 ala Minus the Bear. Also: CT5. But I like recording like a riff and then triggering it at double speed (octave up). Or laying down a weird funk and triggering it at half speed. Or recording one chord for one beat and using it like a sampler. Play once is my jawn.

But for the record I do suck at looping.

Article wasn't bad...

On the reals though, anyone loop non guitar stuff??? I was using the ditto in a loop to sample radio talk and mixing it with what I was playing or beats off tape or whatever...

Also I do the silence on first loop for a min or so with the 2880 and then just use the other tracks as sound on sound loopers... It's like and always recording deck of whatever leangth you want...

And I could talk about the various Kaoss Pads/Mixers and their awesomeness for looping... The KP3 lets you chop and divide in a way that is glorious with drones...

ramonovski wrote: it is easier with a looper that can go from record -> overdub instead of record -> play -> overdub

this this this this this

it's so hard to make clean loops without a looper that can go straight into overdub. i honestly think if a looper can't go straight into overdub, it's useless for a live setting, and it makes it way hard to get a cleanly cut loop with any type of time based effect.

bewatersound wrote:

ramonovski wrote: it is easier with a looper that can go from record -> overdub instead of record -> play -> overdub

this this this this this

it's so hard to make clean loops without a looper that can go straight into overdub. i honestly think if a looper can't go straight into overdub, it's useless for a live setting, and it makes it way hard to get a cleanly cut loop with any type of time based effect.

I won't say it's useless, Aidan Baker does pretty cool stuff with a Headrush E1, but most of his live performance sounds like free improvisation anyways.

ramonovski wrote:

bewatersound wrote:

ramonovski wrote: it is easier with a looper that can go from record -> overdub instead of record -> play -> overdub

this this this this this

it's so hard to make clean loops without a looper that can go straight into overdub. i honestly think if a looper can't go straight into overdub, it's useless for a live setting, and it makes it way hard to get a cleanly cut loop with any type of time based effect.

I won't say it's useless, Aidan Baker does pretty cool stuff with a Headrush E1, but most of his live performance sounds like free improvisation anyways.

i'm certainly prone to exaggeration.

the headrush doesn't go straight to overdub? mike sullivian from russian circles uses one for his live looping and they are always super clean cut. he must be a genie.

I mainly use the looper (Ditto X2) in the "couple seconds of silence then repeatedly overdub some shit in key" style. Full wet reverb helps. Playing with your fingers helps, cutting the attack of notes. The goal - for me - is to make a cool noise / tone that can brought in for a chorus or bridge part, something that isn't necessarily rhythmic but more atmospheric.