Loopers

epictring

Hey there.

I'm looking into getting myself a looper pedal, it seems we're not coming right with getting a suitable replacement guitarist and I wanna try taking over both roles where required.

What pedals out there are good quality, reasonably priced and easily on the feet?

Bob-Dubery

Look at features too. Some have more memory than others (thus can hold more loops or longer loops). I have a Boss, and it has a limitation that occasionally frustrates me - when I've finished recording the loop and I stomp on the pedal it starts playing back immediately. I can't record and then stop and save that loop for later. To do that I'd have to buy an add-on foot switch, or get the two switch version. Some of them make use of regular memory cards in a slot, thus making it easy to increase memory and thus capacity.

IceCreamMan

I recently bought a Boss RC 3 which has 3 hours of storage space and up to 99 loops.

Still getting to grips iwth it ....its great for jamming and messing around with but it would take a bit of skill to use it in a band environment i reckon..... great pedal though

deefstes

IceCreamMan wrote I recently bought a Boss RC 3 which has 3 hours of storage space and up to 99 loops.

And in what sort of price range would those sell for?

IceCreamMan wroteits great for jamming and messing around with but it would take a bit of skill to use it in a band environment i reckon.

Why do you say so? What are the things that would make one pedal more suitable than others for use in a band environment?

Squonk

I saw Farryl Purkiss use one of these on stage

http://www.roland.com/products/en/RC-50

I think for what you want, you will need one of these

AlanRatcliffe

Depends on what you call reasonably priced and what features you need - they range widely in price and features. Also depends on if you need mic inputs or not. Narrow it down based on the features you need and then start looking at reviews.

The Boss RC and Digitech units are most widely used, but there are also good units from Akai (K T Tunstall uses an Akai), Eventide, TC Electronic and even Line 6. Just about every delay pedal and multi FX these days has some kind of looping built in (but most are a bit difficult to use in comparison to the dedicated loopers). But I saw a guy the other day who was using a Boss Digital delay (DD-7) and making good use of it.

From the little I know of loopers, I'd probably go for Boss - from the little (but quite capable) RC-3 to the ultra powerful RC-300 and the new RC-30 - they all have three hours of recording time, which is enough for anyone. On a budget, there should be some good deals to be had on the older RC-20 and RC-50 models.

IceCreamMan

deefstes wrote
IceCreamMan wrote I recently bought a Boss RC 3 which has 3 hours of storage space and up to 99 loops.
And in what sort of price range would those sell for?

IceCreamMan wroteits great for jamming and messing around with but it would take a bit of skill to use it in a band environment i reckon.
Why do you say so? What are the things that would make one pedal more suitable than others for use in a band environment?

I bought second hand , but new you should be able to pick em up for around 16 - 1700 for the RC 3.

The problem with loopers is they are meticulous and "perfect" timing wise , its one thing playing by yourself and putting a solo above the loop and overdubbing ad nauseum etc however in a band environment everyone would need to line up with the pedal's "timing" and this could be tricky and owuld take a lot of practice i reckon ...might be easier to load licks and solo's on the pedal an activating the loop to play a 1 shot loop so to speak.......

one of the reasons i got a looper is that the other guitarist is a pilot and his schedule means he is not always available for practices , my idea was to use the pedal to fill in for him from a rhthym POV, am rethinking that stance though cos its not too easy to :line" everyone up but having said that i need to play with this pedal a whole pile more

raithza

unless you have a metronomic drummer, or are using a click track, will this really be practical? (asking out of curiosity)

Bob-Dubery

If you use a looper then your timing has to be accurate & your tempo constant. You might slip, but the looper won't. So if you're using it with a band then EVERYBODY has to keep perfectly in time with the looper, which would mean they all have to be able to HEAR the looper.