Looper's Lookout: Towards A Grand Unified Theory Of Looping

[la szum]

If you see someone using a looper get 'em!!

Haha! Just kidding.

As a long time looper user I thought it would be cool have a dedicated Looper Thread,
a place where we could share tips, motivation, clips, innuendo, opinions, reviews, and all
other kinds of Looper-centric content.

Personally, I use a looper at home, because I don't have a band here all the time, and I am
too damn lonely to play alone. It's also hella fun!

It takes some time, in my experience, to develop looper chops (still working on it). That is
mostly related to being able to play and/or sing, while also tapping in and out of time with
your feet to engage/disengage loops. I suggest chewing gum and riding a bicycle as a decent
form of initial practice.

I use a dedicated Vocal looper, too.... and then shudder when I hear it play my own voice
back at me. How dare you!!!

Anyways, we'll see if this has any legs. I hope so, because loopers can be a great tool to use for
us dudes who are often home playing by ourselves even if we have a band outside the house we
play with.

Loop There It Is!

 

[hemmelight]

I love using a looper as I'm always alone while playing - it'd be nice to get one of those Boss units that has the rhythms built-in, those are intriguing.

The best tip I've found for getting used to using a looper sounds obvious, but it's so dang helpful:
Play the part you want for a few bars before hitting Record. If you start the looper already in-time it's way easier to get the timing correct.
When I heard that it was a real facepalm moment because I was trying to start recording from a dead stop every time.

 

[Whizzinby]

I’ve bought a looper pedal every couple years since I started playing guitar. I’ve returned a looper pedal every couple years since I started playing guitar.

I like the idea of using a looper more than actually using one.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Big time looper here, use live with band (instrumental 3 piece). Running an RC-500 (my bass player has one as well)

When this band first starting out, was rawdogging it on stage with an RC-1, as I'm sure many of you know, live looping with a human drummer can present some major challenges. Even the slightest shift of time from the drummer and you can end up in an unpleasant sounding mess.

What we are doing now is playing with a click in in ears (generated by the RC-500 serves as both click and midi clock)

 

[quadgear]

At the low end of the market the mvave/cuvave/lekato Looper Pro (also under other brand games) looper works extremely well for a very low price.

Seems like they are selling these now for less than $25.

There's a similar version with less slots to store loops.

This is one of the few loopers (especially at the low end) that automatically saves loops which means you can record and play a two (or more) part song without stopping to save.

 

[Sascha Franck]

At the low end of the market the mvave/cuvave/lekato Looper Pro (also under other brand games) looper works extremely well for a very low price.

Seems like they are selling these now for less than $25.

There's a similar version with less slots to store loops.

This is one of the few loopers (especially at the low end) that automatically saves loops which means you can record and play a two (or more) part song without stopping to save.

Downside of all one button loopers: To erase previous loops, you'll have to holdpress the button, which at first will trigger the old loop for a while. Renders them completely unusable for live.
Also, none of them features a "quick undo" or "cancel" function. We all know that the most important loop is the very first one, and in case you notice it might be messed up, it's great if you can just press "cancel" and that was it. The looper in the Zoom G3 allows for that and it's just incredibly handy.

 

[TubeStack]

I hear Ed Sheeran is great at it.

 

[la szum]

 

[TSJMajesty]

If I ever gigged again, since I just don't want to be in a band with a 2nd guitarist, and would love to have the lineup be- keys, guitar, drums, bass, and a singer who can play some acoustic, I'd explore using a looper to capture the rhythm parts of a song, that tend to drop out when a solo comes up, and send them through a 2nd channel on the Axe III, just to keep the sound full during those parts.

Kinda like being able to have the chords part start playing, while you finish that last high-note bend of a solo, sort of thing.

I've always wanted to try that.

 

[la szum]

I started this thread with the intent of expanding on it, and then I dropped the
freaking ball big time.

Hoping to fix that in 2025.

 

[AutomationBias]

Anybody using a Boomerang? I had one a million years ago and never did much with it.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Bass player has a new tune he wrote that switches between 5/4 and 11/8 so been interesting setting up the looper to be able to switch between those parts (especially since our in ear click is controlled by the rc500)

 

[Sleezy E]

Bass player has a new tune he wrote that switches between 5/4 and 11/8 so been interesting setting up the looper to be able to switch between those parts (especially since our in ear click is controlled by the rc500)

 

[TubeStack]

Out of the ones I've used, my favourite is HX's 1-Switch looper, Just fast and simple and, as the name says, only uses up one switch. I just do basic stuff, though.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I've had a Ditto for about 10 years, and the loopers built into the HX stuff of course. I don't really use them anymore because I just record things onto the computer and play/loop there. I tried looping with drummers but it was always a mess. Best I've done was building pad sounds that don't follow a rhythm.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Out of the ones I've used, my favourite is HX's 1-Switch looper, Just fast and simple and, as the name says, only uses up one switch. I just do basic stuff, though.

I think that all one switch loopers are horrible because they don't allow you to delete a loop silently. Which makes all of them a no-go for live.

 

[spawnofthesith]

The plan wasn’t ever to be a “looping band” it just kind of became that, honestly it’s a blast

Here’s a live ipotato clip utilizing looping in both composed and improvisational bits

 

[spawnofthesith]

My brain can’t click with the ditto stuff. I’ve had 2 of the x2s. First one was legit haunted, second one just not intuitive or usable for me. I like the boss stuff

 

[Orvillain]

For me, I really enjoy writing with a looper. Not a HUGE fan of the 1-switch loopers, but I can make them work for writing combinations of melodies, chord progressions, riffs, etc.

But I prefer a 4 switch looper, ala - Meris LVX, Line6 DL4, TC Flashback X4.

Currently my looping options are the LVX, Plethora X3, and a Boss DD8. They're really useful for making a loop and then dialing in a tone too.

The Helix 6-switch looper is killer. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

There's something off with the Axe FX III looper. With the bog standard FC12 layouts, and using the LOOPER layout specifically, I still find that the timing is always a bit off. Getting a clean loop seems WAY more tricky than the other pedals.

The Quad Cortex looper is pretty great. I love the duplicate function!

 

[FuzzyAce]

Bass player has a new tune he wrote that switches between 5/4 and 11/8