Choosing and using a loop pedal

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I recently caught a solo guitarist play a couple of gigs whilst I was on holiday. He used a loop pedal (BOSS RC-50) to build up his songs, he really nailed the approach. To make it more impressive he was using a cheap Tanglewood acoustic which he'd fitted a cajon snare to along with a mic, and an electric pickup, as well as the piezo the guitar came with. He then plaited the 3 cables together to keep it neat and then split it into various bits of kit and then into the BOSS.

So, he'd start by laying down a bit of percussion a la Ed Sheeran and then loop that whilst strumming a simple chord pattern and adding that to the loop, then he'd add some texture before getting onto the singing.

I'm quite intrigued to have a go at something similar, though I'd probably not go to all the bother of modifying my guitar so I'd maybe use an actual cajon, or just some percussion instruments through a vocal mic. I could even add vocal layers where songs might have synths or harmonies.

Let's simplify my needs down to 1 vocal mic, and 1 guitar input, I'd like to be able to record and layer up 2 of each of those, and possibly subtract each one separately maybe.

II don't want to spend too much money, so I'd rather lose some features to keep the cost down.
TC Harmonics Ditto X2 is about right on price - https://www.andertons.co.uk/tc-electronic-ditto-x2-looper-guitar-pedal

What options are out there? What are the pros and cons?

What advice can you give to someone new to looping? Should I start by recording on my MacBook and playing over the backing that I make, which will then give me an idea of what works and what doesn't?
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Comments

  • Paul7926Paul7926 Frets: 227
    edited November 2018
    Don't know how helpful this will be for you but I just picked up a TC Electronics Ditto from the classifieds on this site (which has less features than the one you list I think).

    Now I'm only using it for noodling but so far I've found it a lot of fun.  It's the last pedal in the chain.  My approach at the moment is this.

    Start by laying down some sort of Blues base line with power chords.  I'm keeping it really simple as I'm a noob!
    Then over that I'll add a layer of actual chords on the first beat of each bar to give it some sort of rhythm.  
    Then I'll just use that as a backing to try some licks and solo's over the top and noodle about for ages.

    You can keep adding layers, as many as you want and if you muck up a layer simple delete it without deleting everything. I don't think you can remove anything but the last layer but then for what I do that's not a problem.

    It will store what you have between sessions or you can just delete the lot and start from scratch.

    Nothing I do is worthy of other people listening but it's been a lot of fun and well worth getting.

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  • deanodeano Frets: 622
    edited November 2018
    There are a couple of video's on YouTube where KT Tunstall goes through a very detailed breakdown of her playing "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree". They are worth looking at because she shows how she uses her looper (it's an Akai Headrush if I remember correctly). Really good and really watchable. I don't care for her music to be honest but she comes across as a very nice person and not at all "rock-starry".
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  • mixolydmixolyd Frets: 826
    The Dittos of this world can be used as an introduction to live looping but they are very limited and work better for noodling, practising and songwriting than live performance.

    If you got into it you’d find yourself want something more serious with multiple tracks for verse-chorus structures like the Boss RC50 or a Boomerang iii.

    If you fancy looping on your MacBook try zenaudio ALK, it’s specifically designed for the kind of song based looping you are talking about.

    https://zenaud.io/

    https://youtu.be/-n_zqjqF9zs
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