Looping for the metal guitarist?

BMU

Loopers seem like inspiring practice tools. But they don't work with distortion. If the looped piece is going to the distorting amp, along with the new piece I'm playing it'll turn into one blended, distorted mess.

So how does one do this? Far as I can figure, it needs to be a looper with a built-in amp simulator, into a clean amp. So the distortion comes from the looper, not the amp it goes into. And it would need two parallel (internal) amp "channels"- one for the loop and one for the fresh input.

I'm looking for one piece of equipment that's portable, i.e. the size of a pedal. Operation on batteries an added plus.

What I have now is a Korg Pandora PX4D which I love.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/korg-pandora-px4d-guitar-multi-effects-processor

Small, long battery life, amp simulations are good enough for practice. I run it into iPod speakers for practice away from home. Works great.

The Pandora has a delay effect which achieves almost what I want, except (1) delay time is too short topping out at about 2 seconds and (2) delay needs to loop infinitely.

Oh yes and (3) it uses horrible low definition compression for the delay playback, something like 96bit mp3 - just terrible! (The only thing I don't like about it.)

Does such a thing exist? Maybe any garden variety Zoom multi effect can do this? I don't know.

stompie

I use the boss rc2 loop station,works great for me, its the smallest one of the range,bigger ones have more functions but u don't need that unless u wanna be a loop artistyou are right, you can't use effects on the amp when you loop because it will effect everything coming out. I use pedals in front of my looper. So you loop something on distortion then after that you can put the volume down on your loop pedal and play over that with no noise.

Ray

I read an interview some time back with the guitarist from Russian Circles and he loops a lot and he reckoned the Akai Headrush was the best thing since bubblegum.

AlanRatcliffe

As far as I can figure, there are quite a few ways of doing it:

1. Put your looper in your effects loop (presuming it can handle line level and your amp uses more preamp than power amp drive).

2. As per Stompie - use pedals in front of your amp set clean. Also has the advantage of giving you foot control over the sound of each part: record a clean rhythm, stomp on a drive and lay down a distorted part, etc.

3. Use an amp sim/multi-FX pedal with built in looping and DI. Some allow you to change the order of the looper too. Plus some units like the boss have bass sims, letting you lay down bass parts

4. Use the looper on your amp's mic (more of a live solution when you're working with PA).

5. If you're more of a multi-instrumentalist, DI everything and use the looper on an effects send of your mixer.

Of course, you can split or A/B your signal and use a combination of these things too - split to amp on one side and via the looper/fx/amp sim direct to PA (looper set dry if you split, with no original signal feeding through). Lay down your loops, switch back to your amp and wail away.

BMU

Thanks guys.

Looper in amp effects loop - yep will try that. That's the non-portable at-home option.

Distortion in front of looper, nice simple solution, I like that. So the looper records what comes in and sends that out. As long as the downstream signal chain is distortion-free, it will work. Distortion needs to be upstream of the looper only, ok I see how that works! (Yeah yeah I know, 'duh' but this is a new insight for me here mmm'kay. Babysteps)

For my portable practice setup if I just run the Pandora out through a looper it's the same thing, should work. Cool!

BMU

PS - finally a piece of gear I want, yay. I haven't had GAS in ages, it's sad!

Shibbibilybob

The way I do this when I jam my looper is complicated, and requires a bit of gear, but ultimately, I find it is the best solution.

I have my guitar into my amp, with my effects in the effects loop, or in front of the amp, depending what I'm using. Then mic my amp into my Digitech Jam man, and Jam man out into my acoustic amp.

I have never used this set up live, and I usually use my jam man with acoustic guitar only (to avoid the admin of setting up the above) but if you can afford a second amp and a reasonable mic, I reckon this is the ultimate solution.
Or one of them ?