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So last week I tried out a Stereo Memory Man (With HAZARAI!), and for the first time ever was intrigued by the possibilities of a looping pedal. I really dug the SMMWH's approach to the interface (and the fact that it retained the loop even when the pedal was bypassed), but am currently fighting a multi-front war on GAS. Trying to decide if it's worth getting the SMMWH even though I have redundant features in my PodXT.

Are there cheap but good options for loopers? What are your faves & why?

The digitech jamman solo looper can be had cheaply on the secondary market. It can use a flash card and store loops up to 10 min long. You can also upload .wav file onto it for playback and looping.

Dude, the Jamman solo looks super sweet.

.... and now I miss my old 2880. : (

i've been in the cheap/useable looper/fake-tape-loop market for some time now, given my obsession with Frippertronics-style constructed loops. it seems that anything that's affordable has major limitations (well, duh!)...in general, affordable boxes that loop won't save loops after the box powers off, don't have any kind of UNDO capability, and don't allow you to manipulate the loop in any way other than playing it back, i.e. you can't fuck with the speed the way you can with some expensive dedicated loopers. the other thing that's problematic about many small/inexpensive boxes that loop is that they're built to a Boss stompbox form factor, which means that they're really difficult to operate because all the controls are crammed into that tiny space at the top of the enclosure and there's only the one switch treadle.

lately i'm into the Akai Head Rush, which i bought used in the b/s/t. it's got a pretty decent loop length, i can punch in/out silently, and it's a large box with two switches that's simple to operate. its major drawbacks are that it's less than totally hi-fi since it's intended as a tape echo emulator of sorts (which isn't a problem for me, but may be if you're looking for uber-crisp digital repeats) and that the momentary tap switch you use to stop overdubbing is also the play/stop switch, and if you linger too long on the switch when turning off your overdub you can turn the whole loop off by mistake, which would leave you standing onstage with your dick hanging out. it does keep a loop in the memory while the box is powered up and bypassed.

For what it's worth I love my SMMH. The looper is pretty basic but does have some coooool features like changing the speed+pitch to +/- an octave and reversing loops(!) and starting the loop again every time you turn it on is sweet (I'd imagine most thing do that though?), I love it for jamming and soundscaping stuff/weird noise and it's awesome that you can make loops while using any of the delays (except one) so each layer of a loop can have different delays on which gets pretty amazing/insane. It's a nice delay pedal too. If you want to do complicated looping stuff it's not a great choice, it can be hard to time the loops and it probably lacks some features for that. I've never actually tried a dedicated looper so I have no idea how it compares to any.

i've never used a SMMH; my general experiences with the quality of E-H gear over the years have led me to avoid their stuff. maybe i should try one.

SPAM WARNING!

My Jamman Solo is loitering in B/S/T now if you go that route. Top notch, intuitive looper with a HUGE amount of storage capability. I'm planning on using the Timeline as my main looper (eventually...) so if you're looking to get your jam on, solo-style, hit me up.

If you can find one at a decent price, those boomerangs look pretty cool.

Holy Schnikes wrote:SPAM WARNING!

My Jamman Solo is loitering in B/S/T now if you go that route. Top notch, intuitive looper with a HUGE amount of storage capability. I'm planning on using the Timeline as my main looper (eventually...) so if you're looking to get your jam on, solo-style, hit me up.

Hmmmmmmmmmm... I fear not your spam, good sir... I need to think on this, methinks...

If you've got the pedal real estate, the older Digitech Jammans have dual footswitches and better controls, and are as cheap as a decent loop box gets.

Headroom is generally good as well, it doesn't puke out if you hit it with a wall of pedal-synth ebow from hell.

I have an old Digitech PDS8000 -- it sounds great but it ties my head in knots using it -- maybe I'm just stupid but I find it really confusing to use.
The DL4 is dead simple and not bad
I really just want another lo-fi loop junky though.

I've been really interested in getting one of the new vox dynamic loopers. Might be a bit more than you're looking for, but they seem cool as hell.

I've used BOSS RC-50 for years. Hardly a cheap sample looper BUT I like how everything has a dedicated foot switch. BUT can't handle much input, so forget about feeding it Fuzzhugger, Devi or Dwarfcraft pedal noises. And to add insult to injury, it has the infamous BOSS buffer, and no true bypass, so placing it before the picky fuzz pedals isn't an option either. Next I'll try placing it in a fx loop with a small attenuator or a DI box doing the same in front of it, and we'll hope for the best.

i just got a boss RC-20XL and im digging it, really simple, and its one of them boss twin pedals so having a dedicated start and stop/tap tempo foot switch is neat, i got mine used for under 150

When I had my SMMH I never used it for live work, it's really best used as an ambient looper, at least in my hands. I loved creating soundscapes that were reminiscent of Legend of Zelda levels. I tried using it in my own song writing at the time and it was a bit tedious. But the fact you could use whatever delay mode and loop it then select another delay mode and loop over it. Pure ambient awesomeness. Just not the best for looping solid phrases in my opinion.