Who uses a Looper?

Roland

My neighbour fancies a Looper for multi-layering at live electro-acoustic gigs. Who uses one? Which pedal do you prefer? Any tips for using it?

frankus

2880

I've used that as it's a fat-ass pedal and all the buttons do one thing only - the rc2 and rc30 are great but frankly it gets a bit confusing as the buttons are dual purpose.

Paul_C

I've got an RC-50 which I've learned the basics of, but it's possibly a little OTT

GavRichList

I use a TC Electronic Ditto. Incredibly basic, but crucially sounds great and is idiot proof.

citizen68

Ditto's great but the double tap to stop takes a bit of getting used to for live work - the 'hold button to wipe' also a bit footery - great pedal though

Fazer

i upgraded it to the ditto x2 for that very reason

shady

Not that I've used it that much, but the Boss RC-20XL is fairly idiot proof.  The auto quantize thingy comes in handy when you ain't quite on the beat with your stomping.

Shark_Eyes

I use the looper on the DelayLab, but thinking of picking up one of the hotone mini things, so I can loop while I loop.

Or so I can loop and delay my loops. Unsure which will make the biggest sound yet.

citizen68

Getting the drummer to stay in time with the loop isn't much fun either ha ha - no offence intended to tub thumpers - I have to tell our drummer what songs I'll be trying to trigger loops in, so he knows to listen out for them - think I'll open up the back of my cab again so he can hear me better - a work in progress!

MoANjAm

Ditto the comments on the Ditto.

...someone had to say it.

littlegreenman

Thritto for the Ditto

not_the_dj

Depends how deep you want to get. The Ditto is great, but limited (that was the idea). The Ditto x2 adds a bit more with backwards and half speed, plus the ability to save/export/import loops. I've got both of those now on different boards.

There's a Boss RC20xl in the classifieds now. I used one of those live for a few years. You get auto start, reverse, and a really useful fade out option. 

At the high end the Pigtronix Infinity Looper is awesome...then there's the boomerang (never tried on of those though). 

Boss have also just announced a new Ditto rival, the RC1. 

Handsome_Chris

@Roland, your neighbour needs an AF2.  You know I'm right.

RaymondLin

I broke away from the mould and got a Wally.

What?

I am a Wally No not really.

Fretwired

I have three looper pedals and use them all the time .. Boss have just released a £79 looper pedal that looks cool.

Roland

Handsome_Chris said:

@Roland, your neighbour needs an AF2.  You know I'm right. afford an rc-30

He's a post grad student, and needs to find a bar job to afford an RC-30. Even my Ultra is out of his budget, besides being far too complicated for his needs.

not_the_dj said:

There's a Boss RC20xl in the classifieds now. I used one of those live for a few years. You get auto start, reverse, and a really useful fade out option. 

I noticed, and will pass this on

Fretwired

@Roland .. look at a £79 Ditto looper .. Boss has also launched the RC-1 at £79 ...

http://www.tcelectronic.com/ditto-looper/

frictionfraction

Got a ditto and an rc3. Ditto is easy to use but has a couple of drawbacks for live use mentioned above - double switch to stop and hold to delete which is annoying for the second our two that the loop plays while you are clearing it. Rc3 is more of a Swiss Army knife and I would go for this for solo gigs. The ability to save tracks in advance is useful for when you need to start a song with two parts.

Drew_TNBD

None of the loopers on the market particularly interest me. They're all made with performance* (and I use that term incredibly loosely) in mind and not composition. There needs to be an Ableton Live style looper for guitarists in pedal format, one we can use to compose on the fly with, and export to our DAWs later on in order to re-learn the epic jams we just made.

I shouldn't really have to screw around with laptops and iPad's in order to build a composition orientated looping rig.





* Most guitarists doing looping work live utterly suck

EricTheWeary

Drew_fx said:

* Most guitarists doing looping work live utterly suck

I have seen pub band guitarists use them and I've not enjoyed the experience. I also watched ( couple of years ago now, mebbe) some of the youtube clips of the world looping championships ( called something like that). Quite a lot of that sucked. I think the problem is that there is a tendency to do a looping thing - so you get a 5 minute demo of what looper can do rather than them incorporating it into their own style.

Having said that a few years ago I saw Gwyn Ashton doing his duo ( something like Seasick Steve meets Rory Gallagher as a frame of reference) and he used a Boss looper ( the original single sized one) a lot, but really just keeping a riff going under a solo for a few bars here and there. As I recall it there were no 'looper demo' moments, he just used it to keep continuity. For me that was a model of how to use one without going into ambient soundscapes or having a let's see if I can sound like KT Tunstall moment.

I quite like the late Rainer Ptacek who was a keen looper in the days when it was bits of tape and there are plenty of others who have done interesting things with looping but I think loopers should carry some kind of Govt health warning Attempting That KT Tunstall Thing or Ambient Soundscapes in Public May Endanger Your Status With An Audience  ( the Govt PR people might come up with something snappier).

Whilst I'm wittering on - @Kebabkid gets credit for saying you can use a looper to soundcheck ( ie walk out front whilst the looper is still playing), possibly the best idea for having a looper on your board.

In terms of actually answering the question - if it is for very limited use then some delays have a looping function and on a limited budget that may be a more versatile buy. The Hardwire DL 8 is currently £85 on amazon for example. Has 20 seconds of loop - short by modern standards but probably fine if @Roland 's bud wants to create some John Martyn moments on his electro-acoustic. Then it also works as a perfectly good delay ( I found the knobs a bit fiddly for live use but that's my aged eyes).

Paul_C