View Full Version : Reccomend a Looper for practicing?
Hi all,
I am looking to get a looper. I am only going to use it for practice, doesn't need to be suited for live performance.
I think all I need is: ease of use, good sound quality and built in metronome. A bonus would be the abilitiy to record from a cd, and have a 'slow downer' feature.
I have always put this off, spending the cash on something more performance related instead, but I know this would be a big help in honing my skills.
Got any favorites?
thanks a bunch,
gary
ahh, yes, the amazing search function. Looks like I'll be hanging out in the library awhile:)
Old Tele man
03-05-2006, 06:03 PM
...look up the BOOMERANG pedal, it might help.
tonezoneonline
03-06-2006, 06:17 AM
How about a free one for the computer.Winamp has a slow downer and looper plug in.One is called Pacemaker and can be downloaded from the Winamp plug in site.
Cap'n Fingers
03-06-2006, 07:02 AM
I use one of the older boss loop stations.
The Boss RC-20 Loop Stations seem to be pretty popular with home and small gigs.
HarryJ
03-06-2006, 08:12 AM
For practice, I prefer the Digitech Jamman by far.
Very easy to use, USB to computer, so you can create loops and port 'em over. Once connected to the comp, it recognizes it as a hard drive... drag 'n drop!
Digitech has more memory than Boss, and even more than that via standard type I flash card, 99 storage programs.
Most of my students now have these
Harry Jacobson
www.harryj.net (http://www.harryj.net)
NeuroLogic
03-08-2006, 07:07 AM
One of the recent issues (this or last month) of Guitar Player had an article on these. Could have been done a lot better but, ok. The Boomerang & Oberheim seem to be the best going. I like my Boomerang but probably would buy the more expensive Oberhiem if I had know of it at the time.
HarryJ
03-08-2006, 07:53 AM
Perhaps for performance, Gman clearly said it is for practice.
The only thing that the Boss can do and the Digitech Jamman can't that I can see is that the Boss can play a loop backwards.
If that is important to you for performance that would be an issue. Other than that the features of the Jamman blow away the Boss
HJ
thanks for the tips!
Looks like the rc20xl and jamman would work equally well. Hard to come to grips spending that cash, doesn't seem as much fun, ha! I think I'll look for something used.
duffyguitarman
03-09-2006, 11:07 AM
Haha, Harry looks like you and I should be getting commisions on these things. Upon my recomendation, most of my students have gotten either a Boss LoopStation or Digitech JamMan. I owned a Boss for quite awhile. Have not really gotten into the JamMan to see how much different it is. My newest student is fellow TGP'r ProCos, and he immediatly was going out to GC and buy one. He was going to have the sales person take him through both extensively before making a decision. Maybe he will post what he found out.
Peace,
duffy
mtlin
03-09-2006, 03:39 PM
What's the use of a looper for practicing? So that you can record yourself playing a rhythm part and then you can practice soloing over it? So that you can record yourself playing and listen to yourself for the purpose of self-citique? Something else?
Martin
60HzShuffle
03-09-2006, 04:45 PM
The answer is yes and yes. It is a great tool for working on your timing too. I got the JamMan and love it. I had the Boss a couple years ago and it seemed harder to use. With the Jamman, I looked at the one to 2 page quickstart and the rest was intuitive.
HarryJ
03-12-2006, 08:30 AM
Hey Duffy,
Most of my students picked up a Jamman at this point.
Unlike the Boss, I can create loops on my computer then simply drag them over to the J.M. via USB 2.
They can then practice whatever we are working on at their home and at their tempo.
In the past generally, I have always preferred Boss products to Digitech. I was pretty surprised by the Jamman. I later found out that Digitech built upon the design of the Lexicon Jamman device. Ahhhh....
The J.M. has 99 program slots and up to 2 gigs of memory via flash card.
The stock 128K flash card had sufficient memory to allow me to load 68 very cool short loops. The first 10 loops I did were just drum loops for them to practice with. I then did a series of blues, funk, ii V I's, and sections of jazz standards, as well as some very cool non diatonic chord changes.
I can't begin to stress how this device has helped my students, not to mention how it has helped in the teaching process.
Harry Jacobson
Senior Faculty National Guitar Workshop
www.harryj.net (http://www.harryj.net)
R3deemed
03-12-2006, 12:49 PM
If I didn't already have an original Boss Loop Station (which works great - I use it for the same thing it sounds like you will), I'd buy the Jam Man.
miltwill
03-14-2006, 08:43 AM
Harry,
Is there any way i could get some of your loops for the jamman? I'd be willing to pay for them or maybe we could arrange some email lessons.
I've been spending a lot of time with the JamMan.
Thanks,
Milt
Hey Duffy,
Most of my students picked up a Jamman at this point.
Unlike the Boss, I can create loops on my computer then simply drag them over to the J.M. via USB 2.
They can then practice whatever we are working on at their home and at their tempo.
In the past generally, I have always preferred Boss products to Digitech. I was pretty surprised by the Jamman. I later found out that Digitech built upon the design of the Lexicon Jamman device. Ahhhh....
The J.M. has 99 program slots and up to 2 gigs of memory via flash card.
The stock 128K flash card had sufficient memory to allow me to load 68 very cool short loops. The first 10 loops I did were just drum loops for them to practice with. I then did a series of blues, funk, ii V I's, and sections of jazz standards, as well as some very cool non diatonic chord changes.
I can't begin to stress how this device has helped my students, not to mention how it has helped in the teaching process.
Harry Jacobson
Senior Faculty National Guitar Workshop
www.harryj.net (http://www.harryj.net)
Hi Harry,
Thanks for your input on a Jamman. I did use Boss's RC20XL for my etude dvd.
Many of my students own RC20XL. but I liked what you said about a Jamman
can do more than RC20XL. I only teach correspondence lessons so I can't
transfer loops to my students.
It's nice to know about this Jamman. Thanks Harry!
PS, You are great teacher!
Tomo
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