Ed Sheeran on Later With Jools.

Bluesboy82 · May 2014

Fantastic performance by Ed Sheeran on Jools Holland last night.

I realy like to see the use of loops by an individual to create the sound of a full band.

I have tried many times to put a basic loop together and every time it sounds like two people who have never played the guitar have just decided to jam together!

How he pieces togther the loops is great but what on earth did his pedal board consist of? Looked like a large iPad with multiple pedals housed in a large box? Bigger than a BOSS RC-300 loop station!

Hats off to all you looper masters!

EdGrip · May 2014

I saw Ed Sheeran do this in the Birdcage pub in Norwich a couple of years ago; he fucked it up and had to start again.

I saw Thom Yorke do a looper track on stage at Glastonbury in 2010; he fucked it up and had to start again.

I have seen KT Tunstall play Black Horse live, twice (a song she seems thoroughly tired of). On one out of those two occasions, she fucked it up and had to start again.

What I'm saying is, the loop pedal is a cruel master - don't beat yourself up because you fuck it up and have to start again. ^_^

ThePrettyDamned · May 2014

EdGrip said:

I saw Ed Sheeran do this in the Birdcage pub in Norwich a couple of years ago; he fucked it up and had to start again.

I was there too!

I didn't like him that much then, either... Talented bloke, though.

Dave_Mc · May 2014

Yeah I got a loop pedal very recently. I was managing it ok but I'm not sure I'd want to attempt anything with it live. Granted I've used it about twice.

)

Antique_Guitars · May 2014

You have to be so precise and on time with your loops, I have an Rc20 and sometimes I really struggled to get stuff to work.

not_the_dj · May 2014

Haven't seen the Jools show this week, I'll iPlayer it later (ha ha).

I used to play in a duo with a few looping tracks, getting the first loop in time is key, if it's out you're f**ked and starting again is all you can do.

You really need to get the feel of the pedal, I found it important to wear the same shoes for each gig.

I've posted it here before, but check out this guy looping, including great use of the half speed function so he can speed it all up for the end section:

dindude · May 2014

I had a looper and was a bit shit with it.

I had fun copying this guy though........

http://youtu.be/229UFMadJ4A

jonnypioww · May 2014

Yeah, the timing is crucial, I've been mucking around for ages with the looper on my DD7 but I've hardly ever got that first loop absolutely bang on. If you get the first one right though, it's a lot of fun and great for practicing.

I really like this John Mayer looping vid:

Karlos · May 2014

I'm not gigging in a band at the moment (for some time to be honest) and I've been looking at loop pedals (even youtubed some today).

I need to do some serious research. I think a looper would be great fun since I'm just noodling at home.

There's a Boss RC30 going fairly well priced locally and I'm thinking of jumping on that but to be really honest I'm totally lost as which one to get. I like the Flashback as it doubles as a great delay although I'm set for delays really.

crunchman · May 2014

I've experimented with the looper on my Timline. It's great fun but as others have stated its a pain to get the first loop right. Do any of the dedicated looper pedals have any type of quantisation to help out?

Dave_Mc · May 2014

Yeah I think so but I didn't get that far. I thought I was doing well figuring out how to record loops.

freakboy1610 · May 2014

Anyone else think the guy in the video above looks like Sid Vicious? :-/

dano · May 2014

I think the key to great looping is the the footwear, check out Joseph Arthurs shoes

When I saw this on Jools Holland about 8 years ago I went a bought an RC20 the next day !

ChrisMusic · May 2014

I haven't seen the Ed Sheeran stuff yet, so I'm looking forward to that.

I believe that the Boss RC3 has quantisation, so I suspect their other will too, it also has basic drums. I expect some other makes do as well. The danger is that quantisation initially sorts the timing problem and then becomes a crutch if you're not careful, and you never sort the basic timing issue out.

Timing and rhythm is the most fundamental constituent of music, rhythm without notes works, notes without rhythm seldom do IMO.

I am facing a similar dilemma over getting a looper for practice, and maybe beyond. There are so many options, dedicated loopers, delays, multi fx etc, and I only want to spend the money once, so getting a handle on what works is difficult I agree.

Looking forward to watching Jools now, and catching Sid Vicious / Ed Sheeran

not_the_dj · May 2014

One of the key things I found when looping live is to play through the pattern you're looping first, then record it on the second pass once you're in the groove. It always sounded better that way and made the loop end/loop start transition neater.

menamestom · May 2014

I've never had a problem with the timing, it's really just tapping you foot along with the beat and the hitting the footswitch positively on the correct beat. I've never used a looper that quantises and rather would not. The difficulty I have found is love with other people when the music gets louder than the original loop and then everybody drifts from the loop. For that reason if there's a drummer they really need a click in headphones or good monitoring of the loop.

steamabacus · May 2014

I've been looping for about 10 years now and I've just started a project with 3 sync'ed loopers (Digitech JamMan Solo XT) with two other guys who are new to looping. While coaching them through all the usual beginner looper difficulties, I've realised a couple of things ..

Using a looper switch is time critical in a way that most guitarists haven't experienced before. It's actually more like learning to play the drums and having to learn to co-ordinate your hands and feet. Switching a looper is a bit like playing a kick drum. As @not_the_dj said, it's usually better to play through the part a few times before 'capturing the loop' and I've also found it helps to 'ghost tap' your foot over the pedal and then just extend that action to actually hit the switch and set the loop in/out.

I've used a Line6 DL4 for years but I now have a JamMan for this new project. I've found the different switches have different responses that your switching technique needs to be adapted to. The DL4 has momentary stomp-style switches whereas the JamMan has a Boss-style pedal switch - they feel very different to operate. Going back to the kick drum analogy, it's a bit like using different kick pedals - each has it's own feel and response that you need to familiarise yourself with.

So it takes a lot of practice to learn to both accurately judge where the beat is and also to 'play' the pedal's response accurately so that you activate it at the correct point.

Great fun and a really creative tool, though. With a bit of practice.

Karlos · May 2014

steamabacus said:
Using a looper switch is time critical in a way that most guitarists haven't experienced before. It's actually more like learning to play the drums and having to learn to co-ordinate your hands and feet. Switching a looper is a bit like playing a kick drum. As @not_the_dj said, it's usually better to play through the part a few times before 'capturing the loop' and I've also found it helps to 'ghost tap' your foot over the pedal and then just extend that action to actually hit the switch and set the loop in/out.

This^^... exactly the same process as looping tunes on a CD player when DJ'ing.

I'd be interested to know if there's a looper with tap tempo BPM and do loops that snap to 4/8/16 beat bars which works a bit differently to quantising.

steamabacus · May 2014

KarlosSantos said:

I'd be interested to know if there's a looper with tap tempo BPM and do loops that snap to 4/8/16 beat bars which works a bit differently to quantising.

Most of the latest generation of loopers will do quantising to their own inner clock (most have some form of beatbox, too). The new JamMan's have loop synchronisation between units which can be a multiple of the master loop.

For a fully featured looper that can do pretty much anything you might ask of it (not that I'm gassing for one, absolutely not, no way =P~) have a look at the Pigtronix Infinity.

Norwegian_Blue · May 2014

This guy is a looping star.... not usually a fan of the looper stuff but this guy builds some great sounds!

DiscoStu · May 2014

That Jarle Bernhoft vid is sa-weeeet!

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Ed Sheeran on Later With Jools.

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