Looking for a looper...

vonLayzonfon

I've had a Hotone Wally just as a cheap one to see if I get along with the whole looping thing.  There are occasions where I think I might be able to make use of one in a live setting when I'm the only guitarist.  It might open up a few song options that are a bit flat when trying to make do with a single guitar.

Anyway, the looping part is fine but the Hotone is definitely not suitable for three main reasons, only one of which is my fault.

1. Sometimes it's noisy enough to be unusable.  This is a sporadic, bad earth type buzzing that seems to be totally random.  I'd have sent it back as faulty if it had been expensive enough for me to be bothered and I wasn't just dicking around with it.

2. When erasing a stored loop it plays it for about half a second before deleting it.  That's not going to fly in a performance situation.

3. It only has one button.  And I simply cannot be arsed to put the effort into remembering the tap combinations for each function as well as trying to play guitar and possibly sing at the same time.  I know this is my failing but surely it's not something I have to put up with?

Ideally what I am looking for is a looper with dedicated foot switches for play, record, stop and undo, and if I'm being really greedy two separate loops so I can have verse+chorus and switch between the two.  And the icing on the cake is that because it probably won't get massive practical use I don't want to pay the earth for it - £250 max. would be favourite.

So I've been looking, on and off, for probably a couple of years and I'm coming to the conclusion that what I'm after simply doesn't exist.  The main sticking point seems to be the multiple switch requirement.  The thing that seems to come closest is the Line 6 JM4, but that's got a shed-load of extra guff on it that I really don't want or need.  But maybe I'll have to put up with it if I can't find anything else.

Any suggestions?

boogieman

Ditto X4 does most of what you want except for the dedicated undo. Has two separate switched loops and a stop switch. There’s one in the classifieds (not mine) 

Grunfeld

vonLayzonfon said:

 ...I simply cannot be arsed to put the effort into remembering the tap combinations for each function as well as trying to play guitar and possibly sing at the same time.  I know this is my failing but surely it's not something I have to put up with?

To me it looks different:  all the loopers I've used have tap combinations however this is easier to do, especially when playing live, than hitting the wrong button.  Your foot's always in the correct place and it just has to do a little movement.  And it's not the wa tutsi -- it's pretty simple to learn.

 

My main looper is a Ditto x4.  Essentially it's two loopers in one.  You can do the Verse/ Chorus thing, or have two loops perfectly synched e.g. a 2 bar rhythm loop and a 16 bar backing loop.  (Or whatever obviously.  Oh, and you can unsynch too but I'm not sure why you'd want to do that unless you're making weird ambient pieces.)

ICBM

Boss RC-50. You should be able to find one for under £250 second hand.

It is pretty much the opposite of the Hotone size-wise though!

vonLayzonfon

Thanks for all the feedback.

ICBM said:

Boss RC-50. You should be able to find one for under £250 second hand.

It is pretty much the opposite of Hotone size-wise though!

I don't know how I managed to miss this one in among all the other Boss RCs. Looks promising. It'll certainly help me reserve my stage space when paired up with my ToneLab SE.

ICBM

I may have to look into it myself as well... I just got a RC-30 on trial, and my god is it the most frustrating, hair-pulling, non-intuitive thing I've tried to use for a very long time. Just when you think you've got the hang of it, you press a pedal in the wrong order or for the wrong amount of time and it does something contrary to what you want, again. And even when you get it right there are some simple steps that it appears to be impossible to do, like jumping straight from recording one phrase to recording the other one. No way I could even consider using it live, there are just too many ways to screw up which would be difficult to instantly fix - it's infuriating enough to use as a practice tool and ideas pad.

I think I'm going to put it back in the box before I open the door and boot it to the far end of the garden .

benmurray85

I always chip in on these looper threads and comment that in my experience (and I’ve been through pretty much all the common ones) the TC loopers are by far the most intuitive to use. 

I cant understand how Boss have made their loopers so difficult to use. They completely remove any of the joy from the experience. 

Fenderish

got an RC30, a digitech trio +, and two delays with builtin' loopers (alterego + volante)

I use the digitech or the delays for electric guitar and the RC30 for acoustic/voice loops (only one with mic preamp and +48v)
but yes, the RC30 needs more user manual learning

ICBM

benmurray85 said:

I always chip in on these looper threads and comment that in my experience (and I’ve been through pretty much all the common ones) the TC loopers are by far the most intuitive to use. 

I cant understand how Boss have made their loopers so difficult to use. They completely remove any of the joy from the experience. 

The Akai Headrush E2 was always my favourite - super simple and totally intuitive - and I borrowed another one before the RC-30... it's still probably the perfect basic live looper (which is why KT Tunstall still uses hers), but it's too simple for what I want now. Without hooking up external stuff there's no way of saving loops or transferring them to a computer, or loading a prerecorded track into it to practice over. As usual I wasn't a fan of the footswitches for no-shoes home practice either .

vonLayzonfon

ICBM said:

As usual I wasn't a fan of the footswitches for no-shoes home practice either .

I just got some of these which help a great deal in that respect.

Chester

benmurray85 said:

I always chip in on these looper threads and comment that in my experience (and I’ve been through pretty much all the common ones) the TC loopers are by far the most intuitive to use. 

Totally agree - the Ditto 2 is quiet, and simple enough so that even I can understand it. It's also solid and well designed so footswitching is easy

robgilmo

I too am after a simple, easy to use looper, I need to be able to record an entire song then lay tracks ontop of it, take tracks off it and be able to load the finished onto a computer, is there anything out there that will do this?

ICBM

robgilmo said:

I too am after a simple, easy to use looper, I need to be able to record an entire song then lay tracks ontop of it, take tracks off it and be able to load the finished onto a computer, is there anything out there that will do this?

That's why I got the RC-30 - it does do that. I happen to know where there's one for sale .

Some people may find it easy to use, I don't know... maybe it's just me.

robgilmo

ICBM said:

robgilmo said:

I too am after a simple, easy to use looper, I need to be able to record an entire song then lay tracks ontop of it, take tracks off it and be able to load the finished onto a computer, is there anything out there that will do this?

That's why I got the RC-30 - it does do that. I happen to know where there's one for sale .

Some people may find it easy to use, I don't know... maybe it's just me.

Its always been my ''when I buy a looper I'll buy an RC30'' but your previous post put me right off it! Im not very good at technology! Is it cheap?

ICBM

robgilmo said:

Its always been my ''when I buy a looper I'll buy an RC30'' but your previous post put me right off it! Im not very good at technology! Is it cheap?

Not particularly, although it is in as-new condition - £119. (£159 best price new I think.)

It's frustrating - it should be exactly what I want, but either I'm just getting old and not very good at learning new complex sequences of things, or it's really illogical and unintuitive to use. It could be the former though...

robgilmo

I think only having one pedal might be the problem, I was more thinking a few pedals for each layer or track might be an easier option, like the RC50, but usually more expensive. I cant really do frustrating, I get stressed easily so an RC30 might not be my best option.

ICBM

robgilmo said:

I think only having one pedal might be the problem, I was more thinking a few pedals for each layer or track might be an easier option, like the RC50, but usually more expensive. I cant really do frustrating, I get stressed easily so an RC30 might not be my best option.

Probably not. I tend to be quite good at figuring out new technology, but this afternoon I may have got a bit cross with it at least once .

For a more balanced opinion you may be better asking @Fenderish though .

It’s the two-pedal one, by the way - the single pedal is the RC-3, which I haven’t tried, but I’ve had the older RC-2, and found that frustrating too. The one I like the best is the RC-1, but it’s also very basic.

m_c

I've got an RC3. It's OK for basic practise (I loaded mine with some basic backing tracks for noodling purposes), but the single pedal is limiting. I think I did order all the bits to make an extra extension pedal, but never did get around to it.

I did buy a Trio+, but I've only used it twice, as I really need to sort out enough cables to get everything connected so it's not just a glorified looper stuck at the end of my pedal chain.

Fenderish

Trio+ as a looper is simple but effective and has an undo function. RC30 is richer, but harder to handle. There are lots a good demoes by talented musicians on YouTube who use thé rc30 live and allow to understand thé operations.

Zonular

Anyone have any experience with the trex image looper, it's 68 quid on thomann at the mo

squidtastic

Zonular said:

Anyone have any experience with the trex image looper, it's 68 quid on thomann at the mo

I had one, briefly, and returned it. It was noisy, even using a fully isolated power supply.

I replaced it with the Ditto X2, which I really like.