Let's Talk Loopers.

[PeteeBee]

Fade out is a game changer. I've never had a looper with that, but it would solve my qualm with the ones I've had. You stack a couple loops and it's huge and glorious, and it inevitably has to end abruptly. I have an RC-1 now and like it. It does everything I want and the display shows you where you are in the loop which is nice. I'd like a little more max time for massive drones, but this kind of forces me to be more clever with how I'm doing stuff so it isn't a real complaint.

[goroth]

Timebender.

It is crazy easy to get timing right. Gotta get to work. Will write more later.

[UglyCasanova]

For droney noises I don't see why you wouldn't just get a simple looper like a Ditto.

[D Rock]

For droney noises I don't see why you wouldn't just get a simple looper like a Ditto.

I agree, you could always fade out by doing a volume knob turn?

[resincum]

For droney noises I don't see why you wouldn't just get a simple looper like a Ditto.

I agree, you could always fade out by doing a volume knob turn?

.. no bro you need midi for that

[fcknoise]

Timebender.

It is crazy easy to get timing right. Gotta get to work. Will write more later.

What I miss is half-speed, reverse and longer recording time. But for everything else timebender is a great looper. The filter, pitching and the indication of how long the loop are good features

For droney noises I don't see why you wouldn't just get a simple looper like a Ditto.

Then again this right here makes a lot of sense to me as well

[karmablock]

EHX 720 = Gaps. Until you master the weird offset until the recording starts.

Best bet at that price point is Ditto X2. I would stay from the X4 (at least used ones) as they seem to be hit or miss quality wise.

[dubkitty]

my x2 broke when i tripped over it in the dark. when i can afford it, i'm thinking about the Pigtronix Infinity. the loop time on the DL4 is too short...14 seconds isn't much longer than the Head Rush i have now.

[fcknoise]

my x2 broke when i tripped over it in the dark. when i can afford it, i'm thinking about the Pigtronix Infinity. the loop time on the DL4 is too short...14 seconds isn't much longer than the Head Rush i have now.

I thought the headrush was 16 secs? Not that the difference is huge

[cherler]

I've been thinking about the infinity too but I feel like I remember hearing about quality issues?

[adamajah]

For drone to make noise over I prefer more of a freeze than a looper. Stamme[n] is perfect for this, or get a EHX Freeze for keeping in your budget.

Also Ruiner sez:

http://www.instagram.com/p/BfPTxi7HJR_/

[t-rey]

Stay away from older Boss stuff. I don't know if the RC-3 and 30, etc., fixed the timing issues, but the loopers of the RC-20 era were very difficult to time properly.

I know it looks intimidating, but it's realllly easy to use. The first two switches are exactly the same as each other, but are for two different loops, which you can use in conjunction or separately at your discretion. You hit once to start recording. You hit again to stop recording and immediately playback. While playing back you hit again to overdub. It couldn't be easier. The third switch stops playback, or stops recording without automatically playing back. Holding down either of the first two switches deletes its loop, holding the third down deletes both. The fourth switch engages whatever effect you have the dial set for. Other than that, there are a few well-explained dipswitches on the back, one of which (if I remember correctly) lets you choose between forcing your two loops to sync or letting them each remain autonomous, and I think one of them gives you the option of engaging the pedal's buffer. Ignore the MIDI ports. I haven't been able to do anything useful with those, even with MIDI clock. The USB port is for saving either of your loops to a computer, or importing to either loop from a file. That's it.

Again, I definitely don't think all loopers are created equal here, but can vouch for TC, Strymon, and Line6. I have no experience with EHX, but I'd stay away from older Boss.

Dude! Thanks for the detailed thoughts. So with the TC loopers, you can export loops to your computer? Will it hold it in memory if I unplugged the pedal and took it over to the computer, or do you have to maintain power to keep it stored?

To my knowledge most loopers that allow you to immediately enter overdub mode from record mode also allow you to choose whether or not you want it to work that way. So you can select between rec-overdub-playback or rec-playback-overdub. If you're playing long sustained sounds and you want to create a loop without a jump in amplitude at the loop point, being able to immediately enter overdub means you can let the trails fade naturally into the loop. It's definitely a useful feature for droney business.

However, I'm not sure which loopers in your price range do that. I'm pretty sure there is at least one that is <$150 used that has that feature, but I can't remember what it is.

Touche - so entering overdub mode might make it easier to keep a seamless loop? And I can just delete/undo the overdub without deleting the whole loop right?

In my experience the more buttons on the looper the better. Single button loopers like the little Ditto or RC-3 are a hassle to use live when compared to something like a 720 with separate REC and STOP buttons.

I have a 720 and really enjoy it, it's easy to use and a fade out option for stopping is pretty nice to have; reverse and 1/2 speed are fun to play with too, though not a strong selling point for me personally.

Do you find the storage useful for keeping a few things around to noodle with, or does the novelty of storing loops wear off pretty quickly?

EHX 720 = Gaps. Until you master the weird offset until the recording starts.

Best bet at that price point is Ditto X2. I would stay from the X4 (at least used ones) as they seem to be hit or miss quality wise.

Booooo gaps and timing trickery. Does the x4 have more problems with quality than the x2?

For drone to make noise over I prefer more of a freeze than a looper. Stamme[n] is perfect for this, or get a EHX Freeze for keeping in your budget.

Also Ruiner sez:

http://www.instagram.com/p/BfPTxi7HJR_/

Never hear dof the Stamme[n]. I'll have to give that a look.

Wanting a Freeze is how all of this started, but I figured I'd only do douchebag penatonic noodles over the drone. Which isn't a bad thing, I'd just get bored of that pretty quickly. So I didn't get one and bought the Bloodmoon instead, and then I started wanting to have spooky bladrunner space ghost sounds all the time and then play stuff over it.

[adamajah]

Wanting a Freeze is how all of this started, but I figured I'd only do douchebag penatonic noodles over the drone.

Just get a used Freeze and to the Dorian mod.

[Ugly Nora]

I've been thinking about the infinity too but I feel like I remember hearing about quality issues?

I may be partially responsible for that mostly incorrect rumor.

I currently have 3 of them. I thought 1 broke which is why I bought the 3rd one. It seemed like random layers I recorded did not save. But as it turns out, it was just because however I was currently recording stuff. Once I realized what was causing it, I stopped doing that, and haven't had any issues since.

But I do have a problem on my 2 oldest ones upgrading the firmware. But that could very well be a problem with my computer for all I know.

In summary, I recommend it readily.


Hope that helps.

[t-rey]

Wanting a Freeze is how all of this started, but I figured I'd only do douchebag penatonic noodles over the drone.

Just get a used Freeze and to the Dorian mod.

But then I would have to face the reality that I can't actually play guitar that well and don't know any of the other scales/modes.