Who uses loopers here?

[guitarz_dave]

While I know about the Looper's Delight" website, I am interested in how folks from TGP use loopers. In particular, I would love to hear how you use multiple loopers together.

I have a Boss Loopstation and a Zvex LoFi Loop Junky, which I do various things with on a standalone basis. Having just listened to Bill Frissel's CD "Ghostown," some thoughts come to mind for possibilities with working with two loopers together. However, I have no experience with this sort of thing.

Would appreciate hearing your experiences with this sort of thing.

 

[Warchitect]

I use a Boss DD-20 and Line 6 DL4 for looping, and sometimes my TC Electronic D-two multitap rhythm delay for looping as well.

I've just bought a new Eventide DSP7000 and I am going to experiment with its looping capabilities.

So yeah, that's 4 units for looping.

 

[Unburst]

I use loopers a lot, occasionally I'll have more than one running at a time.

I use a range of stuff, the Line 6 DL-4, Oberheim EDP, Lexicon Vortex, an EH 16 sec delay clone and an awesome plug in called Augustus loop.

Generally I'll have parrallel loops running or occasionally run one into the other, maybe capture a loop in the DL-6, reverse/half-speed overdub and then record that into the EDP or Augustus.

Hopefully splatt will chime in, he's the master of this domain.

 

[jonny guitar]

I have a junkie and a boss loop station too. I run the lo-fi into the boss; create the loops on the lofi first and then record them into the boss; erase lo-fi loop and repeat. It gets muddied up pretty fast though so I usually only put on Lo-fi loop on the boss and then do the rest of the overlays on the boss.

I am getting a couple of true bypass boxes made up so I can take the boss out of the signal when I am not using it because I notice its buffered sound and prefer the true bypass variety better.

If only the Lo-fi had more memory imagine how could it would be

 

[g-nem]

Um- that's a lot of high-quality gear, splatt! That kind of setup definitely takes a long time to master- but I guess you've been doing it for years. Interesting you use a G2- there's another piece of gear that takes a long time ot master- I have a G1 that I use for pitchtracked synth sounds, and it is very versatile- for whatever reason, though, i have never integrated it into my regular guitar rig.

For looping right now I am using my magicstomp for short textural out of time loops, my DD20 for longer loops, and my dod dfx94 for triggured rhythmic loops. I've thought about getting a loop junky as it is the only other looper that will fit on my board, but think I will hold off for a maneco nanosampler at some point.

 

[g-nem]

Originally posted by splatt
i added it a bit over a year ago; specifically, as i said, to rhythmify previously arhythmic loops:
it's a treat, really;
it's user-configurability is its primary feature, imo, though i still truly hope that nord will focus more on its live-sampling capabilities for future software/hardware updates.
(btw: it took me a month of sporadically concentrated effort to scratch-build my own audio-processing patch to a working & workable satisfaction --- 9 months later, i'm still tweaking that single, powerful patch!)

The two things I wish the NM had was more delay time and sampling capability- it seems like those would be easy to integrate, but they aren't the focus of the NM. Although the G2 with 2/ 8 sec of delay time is better than the 60ms or whatever the G1 has!

The G2 seems to be well-suited to the 'create 1 patch and use variations' approach- the good thing about that is being able to switch between variations without an audio dropout.

I got reaktor a while back thinking it might be a good sub for the NM that had sampling and looping capabilities but haven't been able to make it do what I need in the same way as the NM. Plus it is so nice to not have to bring a laptop to gigs.

Originally posted by splatt
d'ya think that the nano- might be a bit more sonically & functionally flexible?

dt / spltrcl

Of course- but the nano would have to sit beside my board, where the junky could fit on it. I try ( and sometimes fail) to stick to a only use what fits philosophy, as much because if things don't fit I'm less likely to take them to a gig, and therefore be able to use them.\

Let us know how you like your maneco- did you buy it from him in uruguay, or from the web store that is selling them? (I forget which store- affiliated with analogman.) Which model did you get?

 

[guitarz_dave]

Wow! It sounds like a lot of good things to look forward too.

I read what Splatt said. Pretty amazing. (Can you imagine what it would sound like if you read that entire method into multiple loopers and then played them back in different time signatures - LOL!).

Well, I am pretty basic, and will probably start experimenting. I have a Chopper, which goes out in stereo. I am thinking of going from A through the Zvex and from B through the Boss, both into separate amps, then using the panning function of the Chopper (ie, Gig FX), all the while playing a third line over this while using my AD999. I don't know how it will work, but you guys inspired me to think it through!

 

[drolling]

Originally posted by splatt
fwiw:
i use a completely separate amplifier setup for my live-looping rig, which's driven by my (mono) gtr setup.

dt / spltrcl

Good point. All the coloration & distortion added by guitar amps make them less than ideal for amplifying loops. I get the best results by 'treating' the guitar signal before it's looped & feeding the output to a PA or clean SS amp live. When recording, my loopers are plugged right in to the board.

 

[g-nem]

Originally posted by splatt
of course, for clarity's sake, the original "main gtr" signal can be split before the mixer, leaving the opportunity for a true full WDW (or, 3-point stereo, as i prefer to think of it) output.

dt / spltrcl

By WDW do you mean having seperate dry, fx and loop signals?

 

[drolling]

Splatt- thanks for clarifying.

Great thread...keep it comin..

 

[g-nem]

Oh- I was thinking you meant WDW was the signal flow- and I was confused. Thanks for clarifying.

I haven't tried the wet dry thing yet- I know it is supposed to be better sounding than a simple 2 amp stereo setup. It's interesting that you prefer guitar amps for the fx- I always thought it would be nice for verbs to be full range- but I'll try using a gtr amp and see what I think.

 

[g-nem]

I guess for all the intellectualizing about the setup, the proof is in what it sounds like, and what works. It's great to hear about your experiences- really valuable. Thanks!

 

[doc]

Anybody here have a chance to try the new Digitech JamMan?

 

[tim gueguen]

Boss is upping the ante with their soon to be released RC50.
In badly electronically translated English for your viewing pleasure.

 

[simeon]

i use various bits of gear for loopage...

tc d2 (x2)
electrix repeater
eventide eclipse
tc g-force
tc m-one
korg kaoss pad

i find the advantages of using multiple loopers are...

the ability to have various loops in sync or out of sync
the ability to effect some loops but leave others untouched
the ability to crossfade between loops
the differing sound qualities of different bits of gear mixed together makes for a bigger sound, imo

there are probably loads more...

sim

 

[simeon]

oh, and it's good to see Boss putting some commitment into making a useable and versatile looper - hopefully some other big companies will jump on the bandwagon as well and start making some more products with the sort of feature set that you can find in the big boy loopers like the edp and repeater...

sim

 

[guitarz_dave]

Originally posted by tim gueguen
Boss is upping the ante with their soon to be released RC50.
In badly electronically translated English for your viewing pleasure.

That thing looks great! A bit like a Boomerang, but with a third phrase switch, and better build quality. Have you seen any reviews on them? Do you know how much they will cost?

 

[simeon]

info is very sketchy at the mo - the only thing i've seen is the page on the japanese roland site - we might have to wait a while for more info to come out

sim

 

[nashvillesteve]

Splatt, I might have some questions for you. I am getting a custom switching system from WOBO in Poland next week- kind of a 12-stomp/LED big Cornish or CAE-looking box. I have put a lot of time into designing its functions.

I have a Dr. Z for guitar sound, then I'm running a Champ II into a '63 Leslie 120 cabinet- which has a separate effects loop in the switcher for an E-H POG and a crazy low-fi compressor, which makes anything sent to that side very reminiscent of a B3's sound. Of course, there is also a switch to disengage the effects loop to get standard Leslie-guitar sounds.

So, from here, this is where my setup seems similar to what you described about 3 point stereo- help me out here:

From the front end of the line, I've got a wah pedal running into my Deluxe Memory Man. Out of the dry/direct output of the echo the signal splits to clean and dirty lines. The clean side has an Analogman CompROSSor and I will have one of my boosts there as well. I've got a Crowther Hotcake, Hellbaby, Hellbilly and might pick up a Time Machine Boost at some point. There is more than enough there to use a boost on the clean side (I'm thinking Hellbaby now for "rude" clean boost) and have a couple left over to dirty up the dirty side.

So, in the system, there are separate ins for the clean, dirty and echo lines. Then I have a unique type of effects loop with a relay added so that when it is engaged (stomp), I can select clean or dirty (stomp) to be sent to the RC-20 Loop Station in the loop. The output of the Loopstation will be always on. Now, the cool part is that each part- Clean, Dirty, Echo, Looped- all of them have two independent output switches, one for the Dr. Z and the other for the Leslie. This means I can independently layer them in and out and change up the sound on the fly. Also, once the Loop Station has a loop going with, say, an organ sound, I can play guitar over it and with a single stomp on the "Loop Engage" on/off switch on the system, flash between a dirty guitar sound through the regular amp and the clean input running through the organ-emulation side.

There is also a tuner-out for good measure.

It should arrive sometime this week, but I won't really be able to try it out until I outfit my pedalboards with new cable (I'm thinking Gepco cable/George L connectors). It seems pretty ridiculous, but I think it is the most straightforward way to be able to use all of my gear and sounds I want in a live context- sounds on tap at my feet. I play blues, rock and classical (not like Yngwie-shred, I've got an original arrangement of a Schubert piano sonata movement for solo guitar that sounds killer with organ sound- probably better using both organ and guitar sounds simultaneously.

Anyway, that's a lot of typing, but it seems like you have a similar system of routing/switching going... do you use a switching unit to get around your signal paths? Thanks!

 

[BillyK]

Hey, since there are cooler loopers available now (Jam Man) and on the way (RC50), please feel free to sell me your RC-20!

While a bit limited, a used RC-20 perfect for my current needs.

Just shoot me an email!