Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Looper pedals.?


bubinga5
 Share

Recommended Posts

Can anyone school me on loop pedals. How they work, what's the best, how much etc etc. ..  Yes I'm an effects dumb donkey. I really would like to have a good amount of drums to play along with.

 

Thankyou for any info.

Edited by bubinga5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

Can anyone school me on loop pedals....

There are two types, both called loop pedals. Those that allow a sample to be played whilst adding another (and another, and another, depending...), and those that allow 'ordinary' pedals to be part of a 'loop', in parallel to the rest of the signal chain. I suppose you mean the former, though, to create 'sound on sound' performances..?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got one of the jam man ones, the basic old version, you can play a sequence, phrase, etc doing a bit of rather awkward foot tapping on the pedals to start and stop "recording" your riff or whatever.. You can then play over it, and record more layers if desired.

I've just used it very occasionally, more just to try ideas out over a basic sequence/pattern type of thing, tho folk do some very impressive stuff with them.. There's lots of YouTube vids going into these in depth.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I understand how loop pedals work but not exactly the tech behind how the multitracking syncs up.  I've always thought of these units as limited in that you can only add loops; you make a mistake and that error is there until you stop.

I think the first time of seeing these things in action was seeing KT Tunstall on Later... (for the record, she played Black Horse and The Cherry Tree Even against her label's order, the rest is history, I suppose). 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 03/07/2021 at 22:45, bubinga5 said:

Can anyone school me on loop pedals. How they work, what's the best, how much etc etc. ..  Yes I'm an effects dumb donkey. 

 

Thankyou for any info.

I definitely need to follow this thread because I've just started tinkering with a TC electronics ditto looper :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd recomend going with one with built in drum loops.

I use a boss RC30 a lot as a sort of sketchbook to quickly build up different song parts on guitar and bass and see how well they fit together.

The weakness of the RC 30 is that is has, i think, 10 basic drum patterns, all of which sound like they were lifted from an early 1980s beginners keyboard.

I also have a couple of other multi FX type pedal units that have a much better selction of drum tracks, but using these with the RC30 is where the problems start

If you use the RC30s own drum function then the drums stop and start to repeat when you press the pedal to close the loop. With an external drum machine that doesn't happen.

The drums that you've already recorded will start to loop while the drum machine carries on and the 2 sets of drums will now be out of sync with each other and any tracks you've already put down.

It's not a huge problem for the way I use it because all I need to do is stop the drum machine and then carry on building the loop with the recorded drums. But it's more of a faff than it needs to be and if you were trying to do any kind of live 'one man band' thing where you needed to seamlessly build up the tracks then those moments where the two sets of drums are out of sync is not pleasant to listen to.

As I understand it with a unit with a good selection of built in drum loops like the RC10 none of that is an issue.  You just put the drums on at the point you want whilst building up the tracks and that's it.

I hope all that rambling makes some sort of sense.

Edited by Cato
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a few loopers - Boss, Zoom etc but the best one that I have found is the Donner Circle Looper. Good price, intuitive to use and really versatile.

 

 

 

Edited by Carl G
typo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 06/07/2021 at 19:56, Bassman68 said:

Can’t vouch for the Boss unit but the Zoom B3n has a looper & drum rhythm section that can be used together.

I have a couple of patches set up for practice purposes, work a treat 👍

Same looper and drums also available on the Zoom B1-4 which work nicely together - Zoom have made the drums a bit easier to access on the newer, cheaper and more compact B1-4. I personally find the loopers on multifx (Zoom and Helix) very limited as they are typically limited to 30 to 60 seconds and one loop, but maybe that's all you need? Helix doesn't offer drums. 

In terms of dedicated loopers, for me:

  • Best value: Lekato Looper Pro (no drums, but combine with a Zoom B1-4 and you're good to go)
  • Intermediate: Nux Core Deluxe
  • High-end choice: Boss RC-5

The Nux and Boss give you hours of recording time and 99 loops. The Lekato a more modest 40 mins and 9 loops but still a massive improvement over your typical multifx.

All three allow multiple layers of overdubs should you you want (again another plus over Helix / Zoom). 

The RC-5 is currently sitting on my board with an additional footswitch, which the RC-5 allows, giving me two extra stomp buttons: one to avoid needing a double press to stop recording and one to start the drums. I previously had the bigger RC-30, but the RC-5 is a really neat update of that older sibling in more compact form.

PS @bubinga5 if you fancy updating your thread title to "Looper" pedals to avoid confusion with Loop pedals, that would be great! :) 

Edited by Al Krow
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

Like Bassman68 mentioned. Any experience with the B3n.?  Seems it has a lot of drum patterns.

Yes, plenty. Please refer to my post immediately above yours :) 

But you're getting an absolute ton of other features on both the Zoom B3N and B1-4 for very little outlay, particularly used. So if you want something basic in terms of looping, you won't go too far wrong.

The drums are a lot easier to get to on the Zoom B1-4 as they don't have to be accessed within a patch (which is the case for the B3N): there's a separate switch for both the drums and the looper on the B1-4.

Edited by Al Krow
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yes, plenty. Please refer to my post immediately above yours :) 

But you're getting an absolute ton of other features on both the Zoom B3N and B1-4 for very little outlay, particularly used. So if you want something basic in terms of looping, you won't go too far wrong.

The drums are a lot easier to get to on the Zoom B1-4 as they don't have to be accessed within a patch (which is the case for the B3N): there's a separate switch for both the drums and the looper on the B1-4.

Ah ok, thanks. Just a question. When looping can you switch between patches on the fly.? So layer a clean sound then switch to maybe a synth sound while looping.?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

Ah ok, thanks. Just a question. When looping can you switch between patches on the fly.? So layer a clean sound then switch to maybe a synth sound while looping.?

I think you can on the B1-4, but maybe not on the B3N. I've got a couple of dedicated loopers (the Lekato and Boss RC-5) so I don't really make use of the loopers on the Zooms for the reasons I set out above. 

@Woodinblack has both the B3N and B1-4 and maybe able to advise, and I know @stewblack is a big fan of Zoom loopers. 

Edited by Al Krow
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

Ah ok, thanks. Just a question. When looping can you switch between patches on the fly.? So layer a clean sound then switch to maybe a synth sound while looping.?

You can do this with the B3n if you build a patch with the looper near the end of the chain but you can only fit limited fx in before as the looper & drums take up nearly half of the signal chain?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

After lots of research I decided on the Zoom B1 4. From Thomann for £66. Seems like a total bargain for what you're getting. I can plug this into my Roland Go Mixer pro and my phone. 

I've certainly been pleased with mine !

Just a thought, there was someone on here very recently selling one for £40 posted if you've not ordered it yet may be worth a look ;)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...