Looper pedals. Any experience or wisdom to impart?

Cirrus

Couple of weeks ago I took my L6 helix rack + control to an open mic to try out acoustic looping. It was fun, I liked it, but considering I could have done the same thing with a pedal that fit into my guitar bag I've been thinking about getting a standalone looper for that kind of thing.


I don't really trust the single-stomp ones because they seem to involve pressing & holding and double taps etc to access different functions as an integral part of their workflow, and that's a degree of precision I probably don't have when I'm also singing and prancing round on the stage.

So, any opinions about, say, the Boss RC30 vs Digitech Jamman Stereo vs EH720 vs anything I might be wise to consider, for acoustic looping? Mic input is an optional bonus, I suppose.

SRich

There are some bewildering Loopers out there that can outperform my capabilities.......

Ask KT Tunstall about the Akai Headrush 2 (or the 'wee bastard as she calls it)....I've had one for bleems and it is bombproof. One proviso is you absolutely have to have great timing as this doesn't quantize etc.........oh and no saving loops. 

DiscoStu

I had a Headrush and whilst it was great fun I found it limiting in as much as you can only overdub on top of what is already there and you can't have different loops/layers for different parts of a song.
My mate does a couple of solo gigs a week and swears by the Boss RC20, over the RC30. He says the way the RC20 is set up for recording and playback is more intuitive than its replacement.

StanleyAccrington

 I use a Digitec Jam Man at home. I'm probs not getting the most out of it as I only use it for nurdling solos over chord progressions or downloaded backing tracks. Don't think that I would be confidant in using it at a gig. One wrong step on the pedal can delete tracks.

english_bob

SRich said:

Ask KT Tunstall about the Akai Headrush 2 (or the 'wee bastard as she calls it)....I've had one for bleems and it is bombproof. One proviso is you absolutely have to great timing as this doesn't quantize etc.........oh and no saving loops. 

I like her story about the night she thought she'd messed up recording her initial loop and shouted "bollocks!" in to her microphone, then decided that she'd done it right after all, only now the loop included her shouting "bollocks!" every couple of bars.

joetele

The Headrush V2 seemed to lose sonic fidelity after a few loops stacked, so I tried the Ditto which was good but a tad fiddly. Have been using a Ditto X2 which is a godsend with the second footswitch as well as things like reverse etc. You can get them for £70 second hand. I'd love something that had quantize but have no experience with other loopers at present. 

victorludorum

I use a Boss RC-1 with a tiny auxiliary stop switch, which stops the loop with one click. It's a compromise, but works for me as I like to keep things fairly simple.

davros

I've got an RC-20XL, which I've used for a few open mics. It's good for live with the 2 buttons, and the ability to add in both a guitar input and a mic input - even if you don't sing it's good to add purcussion, etc.

If you fancy a laugh, here's my first foray into looping live!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7WC_byRyZE

I have a ditto for home use, which I use all the time, but I wouldn't use it live for the reasons you outlined.

I've not used the RC-20 in a while as I've not been to any open mics and haven't used it with the band. If you're interested, it's for sale (I live in Brum).

benmurray85

I’ve tried a few over the years. The two main ones I loved are the Line 6 DL4 and the TC Ditto X2. I still use the Ditto now, they are both really intuitive and do everything that you need. 

I’d steer clear of the boss offerings. Not sure on the model numbers but I found the single one is just too daft with its press and double press setup and the double one seems overly complicated - maybe that’s just me. 

If I had some cash I’d go for the infinity one as I’d love a do with one of those but for now the Ditto does everything I need. 

Fretwired

For live work I'd go for a two pedal. I have an old Boss two pedal looper which I've used live and with a bit of practice it was easy to use and sounded great - the newer ones are much better. Boss kit is rock solid so maybe start there. I have a Ditto X2 in my little studio which is great for recording - not for gigging solo IMHO.

Legionreturns

Trio+ is incredible. 5 song parts, 12 songs stored and with the extra footswitch you can bring drums and bass in and out and do all sorts of clever things

IntoTheRough

I have an RC20-XL which fared reasonably well when I did solo gigs with it for a while.

I always lamented that I could not add parts on the fly and switch sections. So I had to lay down a beat, chord progression and then play a live melody over it. But I couldn't switch the chord progression or anything really, so it got a bit tiresome.

I never used to tap the tempo or anything so also found the timing required a lot of focused practice (I wasn't gigging in a band at the time, so it's understandable that side of my skill was rusty.)

Thankfully I never bollocksed up a live loop but it was always my great fear and I often do this at home.

smigeon

joetele said:

The Headrush V2 seemed to lose sonic fidelity after a few loops stacked, so I tried the Ditto which was good but a tad fiddly. Have been using a Ditto X2 which is a godsend with the second footswitch as well as things like reverse etc. You can get them for £70 second hand. I'd love something that had quantize but have no experience with other loopers at present. 

I’d second the comment on the Ditto. I had a Digitec but it compromised tone in a subtle way. Hated it. I now have a Pigtronix Infinity, which sounds great and does everything you could wish. Only I hardly ever use it because it’s big and complex and needs 18v. I also have a little Ditto v1 which sounds great also but is at the opposite end of the complexity spectrum. Lo and behold, I use this all the time and hardly miss any of the Pigtronix’s fancy features. The only thing I miss is a dedicated stop button (to stop, you need to tap twice which is impossible to do accurately. So I’m on the lookout for a Ditto x2, for that reason only.

rivercider

I'm interested in an EHX Grand Canyon delay, which also has a 16 minute (way more than I need!) looper and has two footswitch buttons.  I have a Boss RC1 at the moment but want to make room for a delay on my board without losing a looper, and the RC1 is the prime candidate to make way. 
Was thinking about squeezing in a Ditto, but if I can justify buying the EHX for all the reasons I want it for, I'm hoping the looper part of it will adequately take the place of my RC1. Can't see any other really appealing combined delay/looper options, most are single button with about 20 secs loop time, for example.  The single EHX Canyon has 62 secs, but the Grand Canyon allows you to integrate the delay effects into the looper, plus has speed and reverse options, so I hope its a decent substitute for a dedicated looper. 

WiresDreamDisasters

I quite fancy that newer version of the Ditto. The one with the microphone built in so it can sync to a live drummer.

crunchman

rivercider said:

I'm interested in an EHX Grand Canyon delay, which also has a 16 minute (way more than I need!) looper and has two footswitch buttons.  I have a Boss RC1 at the moment but want to make room for a delay on my board without losing a looper, and the RC1 is the prime candidate to make way. 
Was thinking about squeezing in a Ditto, but if I can justify buying the EHX for all the reasons I want it for, I'm hoping the looper part of it will adequately take the place of my RC1. Can't see any other really appealing combined delay/looper options, most are single button with about 20 secs loop time, for example.  The single EHX Canyon has 62 secs, but the Grand Canyon allows you to integrate the delay effects into the looper, plus has speed and reverse options, so I hope its a decent substitute for a dedicated looper. 

Another option would be the Strymon Timeline.  No quantising or fancy features, but does all the basics.  Also has multiple footswitches for control.  It has the benefit of being a great delay pedal as well.

I've not tried any of the ones with quantisation, but if you don't have that, you have to be really accurate with your timing on the first loop.  It takes quite a bit of practice.  You need to play in time and then, most importantly,  you have to step on the footswitch at exactly the right moment at the end of the loop.

Cirrus

I was worried I'd get loads of Ditto reccomendations - my worry with TC stuff is that the footswitches eventually fail, and when they do you throw it in the bin. Or offer it to Drew.

Cirrus

How does quantising actually work in this context? Do you need to tell it a tempo or does it listen to what you play and make its own decision over where the end point of the loop actually falls?

benmurray85

Cirrus said:

I was worried I'd get loads of Ditto reccomendations - my worry with TC stuff is that the footswitches eventually fail, and when they do you throw it in the bin. Or offer it to Drew.

I’m sure that’s a historic thing? I’ve had many TC pedals with no footswitch issues and I’ve certainly had my Ditto for a good 3 years now with no problems. 

I know there was TC footswitch issues but I’m sure that’s a throwback to quite a few years back 

Cirrus

I thought it was a problem with all the (relatively) recent TC pedals that they use a proprietary switch that can't be replaced without changing out the whole circuit board, and that they do have a high failure rate. Perhaps I'm wrong!

rivercider

Isn't TC in a state of transition too? Tore finally parted ways with them and they have all those rebadged cheapie pedals now, plus the prices seem to be tumbling on stuff like Flashback 2, HOF2 etc.  Not sure what any of this means tho...
Personally my Ditto was never an issue, when I had one, switch was fine. 
I actually worry more about the quality of EHX switches and components. Have had a couple of their Muffs and been a bit put off spending big on the Grand Canyon as I'm not sure the fundamental construction matches the feature set of their gear, although that's speculation mainly.