Anyone use a looper?

Len Amaral · Post by **Len Amaral** » 6 Jun 2009 10:15 am

What model is user friendly and easy to operate? It may be interesting to jam along with one of these unit.

Loren Claypool · Post by **Loren Claypool** » 6 Jun 2009 10:29 am

Looping is an important part of what I do on all of my instruments. I have recently migrated from hardware to a software solution - I'm running SooperLooper and Ableton Live on a Mac with an mBox 2 for looping. I still have my Boss RC-50, as well.

In terms of easy to use, you might check out the Boss RC-20XL and RC-2. Plug 'em in and go. In both cases you can overdub an infinite number of passes in real time. On the RC-50 you can have three separate loops, which I need for my work, but it is a pretty complex device. For ease of use and something to "jam along with", the RC-2 and RC-20XL will do a great job.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 6 Jun 2009 10:55 am

I have a Boss RC-20XL and I love the thing. I have a mini-mixer wired up with two different preamp setups coming in. Then, the "FX send" goes out to the looper, and it returns back to it's own channel on the mixer. I can loop a guitar, bass or steel part, then play over it with - guitar, bass or steel, about as fast as I can stomp on things and change guitars. I can offload a track to a cassette deck if things get interesting... I could wire the computer in, but it's already pretty exciting, you know. I don't even use "Band-in-a-Box" anymore - why? There are some minor level-matching issues, but so what.

The looper has an instrument/mic level switch on it, but I've had little luck sending a signal direct from an instrument - it's much tonier to send a processed signal to the mic-level input. I don't use it live, I know Dave Easley does solo PSG gigs with his but I get confused easily, and I'm no Dave Easley, that's for sure.

Earl Foote · Post by **Earl Foote** » 6 Jun 2009 12:51 pm

I have the RC-2 and it's a really cool tool. I did a wedding recently and had to do the feature song. I recorded the backup tracks in Sonar and loaded them to the RC-2 as well as the wedding march and the exiting song (I forget the name). Also the looping feature is a blast. As soon as I master the RC-2 I plan to upgrade to the RC-50. It's like 3 RC-2s in one with stereo capability and a few more inputs (including xlr) as well.

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 6 Jun 2009 9:49 pm

I have a few Electrix Repeaters. For "art music", I can loop a couple stereo tracks in each. Usually, what I'm going to play is all written out before I start. That way the stuff lines up better and I don't have to sit there and wonder what I'm going to do next.

Len Amaral · Post by **Len Amaral** » 7 Jun 2009 6:30 am

Thanks for the info and insight. The C-2 and RC-20XL look interesting.

Chas, very impressive setup and rack you have.

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 7 Jun 2009 12:26 pm

Len thank you, that was a few paychecks.

Max W. Thompson · Post by **Max W. Thompson** » 12 Jun 2009 2:03 pm

One of my sons is deep into the looping, and I have tried most of the looping pedals he has bought, and the easiest for me to use so far has been the Boss RC-20. I don't get artsy with it yet, but it is great as a practice tool: lay down a quick backing track and then practice solos over it.

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 12 Jun 2009 4:19 pm

@ Chas Smith, man that's a admirable rack there

You can buy a nice used car for the price of the eventide alone even if it's an older one which I can't make out the model so it could be a newer one and in that case you could buy a nice used car plus a nice steel to boot.

I've not seen those brand of loopers before are they mainly loopers or will they handle other duties?

Well anyway nice rig!

Bob Martin

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 12 Jun 2009 6:39 pm

Bob, thank you. The Eventide is an 8K which truly is a "talent simulator". Years ago, when I was "working", I had a cascade of three H3000's in the rack and I could do some pretty interesting stuff with those puppys.

The Electrix Repeater came out in the summer of 2001 and was discontinued a year later. I had two, at the time, and I ended up getting several more for backups. The main attraction, for me, was 2 stereo tracks per unit at 16-44.1 and a lot of minutes.

I've done a few solo concerts where I had to do 20 minutes up to 50 minutes and with these things, I can do real-time loops.

Here's an old article on them:

http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_electrix_repeater_2/

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 13 Jun 2009 7:57 am

I think the Digitech JamMan is the best bang for the buck, feature wise.
Get the foot pedal to switch loops on the fly.