Looping kit for duo - from scratch?

stickyfiddle

Ok, obviously I have a load of stuff already, but for the purposes of this assume I have zero gear other than an ipad and electric  & acoustic guitars. 

If I wanted to be able to play out in a duo with 2x singers and 1x guitar, using some form of looper (laptop, ipad, pedal solutions all valid), and employ some sort of drums/bass/synth sounds somehow... what's the best option? For context, this would be for playing pop/soul covers in bars and events, so I don't need screaming 4x12s etc. But I would definitely want a pretty comprehensive looper, not just a single-loop gizmo with a couple of buttons

I figure I have a number of options, potentially in combination.... 

iPad with Loopy Pro (would need foot control as well - maybe with a Helix of some sort)
iPad running Bias FX or similar
Laptop running Ableton
Some sort of looper from Boss ? 
Aeros 
Helix 
Headrush Looperboard 

Am I missing anything? What do you use? What would you use? 

personalnadir

If you have an iPad you can use an app like AUM to mix audio on your iPad. With a midi hub and interface you could then send audio from your guitar to Loopy Pro and play things like the Moog soft synth simultaneously using a midi keyboard. My caveats would be that sometimes my iPad doesn't always recognise my interface, so you need to be prepared for it to get fussy 5 minutes before you go on stage. You also wind up with a mess of USB and MIDI hubs if you also want to power the iPad on stage and want to have more than one instrument or midi controller going into it.

If you're prepared for some steep learning curves, I'm a big fan of the Loopler looper module in the Poly Beebo. It is one of the most powerful loopers out there and the Beebo gives you some synth modules, convolutional reverbs and amp sims. You may not be able to do all of those at once with a single Beebo though, there's a CPU limit and the only way to know whether you'll hit it is to try. I think the Beebo introduces a fixed latency, though I've not heard complaints about it. The Empress ZOIA offers similar features, but I've found the looper on that hard to work with.

I feel like the Boss 505 would probably be the safest approach? I've seen people loop with an Akai Force too, I get the impression that Akai stuff beyond the MPC range can be a bit too flakey for live stuff

DrHungry

Left field option: I use a 1010 Music Blackbox for looping at home.

There are 16 pads onto each of which you can record a loop, although once recorded you can't overdub. You can also pre-load your own samples onto any of the pads and sequence them for drums/bass/synth and/or hook up a midi keyboard to play them live. They go for around £400ish used, although you'd probably also need to factor in the cost of a midi foot switch for live use.

I have found it brilliant for quantized looping of electric/acoustic guitars/bass and synth at home, plus it's tiny and runs off a USB battery pack so easily portable as well.

Teetonetal

I would take a look at the Boss RC600

I used to do a bit of looping and having dedicated stop start footswitches for each channel is a must in my opinion. I also think hands free is the best way to go.

The boss also has a decent i/o selections, so adding in guitar, both vocals, maybe a synth would be easy and it has onboard drum possibilities.

allen

disclaimer: I don't play in front of people...

1. I would avoid ipad solutions as too flakey for anything more than playing backing tracks. I have tried them at home and there is plenty of faffing about.

2. I had a few loopers before I got the Aeros. It's miles better than anything else I've tried (although to be fair the boss RC-600 looks impressive) and Aeros does get some complaints/niggles in their forum from people who actually perform.

3. Drums from beatbuddy. The sync between that and the looper works very well, but doesn't work so well with other loopers (it can work with faffing)

4. I would go for a modern multi-fx for other sounds i.e. octaver for bass sounds and there's always some kind of synth pad style reverb in there. If you get a fancy one (quad cortex?) you can also route vocals through it for reverb/delay on that.

 5. I would tend to want to control it all via one midi controller e.g. morningstar. remembering the workflow for different boxes while performing would seem tricky to me.

 edit: 6. you could also preload loops with synth/bass tracks on to simplify the workflow.

You will need a mixer if you're including vocals and it's all going into one PA. Although now I've mentioned the quad cortex you could maybe put it all through that.

Spaceaceuk

im currently trying to do the same as you with a Ditto, and as good as they are its just not cutting the mustard, as someone else has mentioned ive been looking at the Boss RC600 , hands free is key for me don tthink i could live with lag from some sort of computer processor if it felt like it that day so hardware all the way would be my top shout.

stickyfiddle

Cheers. No progress on this as I've been busy with work and also kicking the big band up the arse as well. 

Having watched a good bunch of KT Tunstall vids though I am v keen on some sort of drum machine/groovebox

And the singer saw Ed Sheeran at the weekend so I'm guessing she'll be super inspired so need to get on with it! 

pt22

https://www.andertons.co.uk/second-hand-other/second-hand-headrush-looperboard-sh

stickyfiddle

pt22 said:

https://www.andertons.co.uk/second-hand-other/second-hand-headrush-looperboard-sh

Now that is one that looks very interesting... 

stickyfiddle

Bumping this because we're properly trying to kick things off now, and also the Ed-board came out since we last discussed anything in here. 

What I do now know is we definitely want to be able to loop:

• At least 1 vocal, probably 2
• Drums from a small drum machine. Most likely played live then looped, 
• Electric guitar

In the long run electric and/or acoustic and/or keys would be nice, but not all at once, so that could be dealt with via an external switcher/mixer if needed. 

I don't think the Aeros has anywhere near the I/O we'd need for that lot, RC600 could probably do it but I'm not sure I like the workflow as much. 

Has anyone tried a Sheeran Looper yet...? 

stickyfiddle

stickyfiddle said:

Has anyone tried a Sheeran Looper yet...? 

I guess not..??