Help!!! Please :-) : Loop Switchers, amp channel switching and midi

iain_psb · January 2016

Hi all,

So I'm going to bite the bullet and get myself some form of looper/switcher as I'm sick of tap dancing and being limited to tones.

Currently I have a very small setup (6 pedals crammed onto a pedaltrain nano) and I'm pretty useless when it comes to this stuff.

Basically I'm looking for advice on a looper that can do the following:

Switch channels/eq on my Mesa Mark V 25 per bank preset
Bring in multiple pedals on top of channel switching
Assign midi presets within the midi pedals (thinking about getting a timeline (again) and a mobius to cover the modulation.

So what can I do?! I'll have 8 pedals I would like in the loops, Wah and tuner kept out of the loops.

I think, and I could be a mile off, that the one control crocodile tail will do what I require.

I know the gigrig g2 will but I don't have that kind of money when you add everything else on top of the actual unit that you need.

I don't want it to be massively complicated and it probably isn't but my knowledge of this is so small it scares me.

Thanks in advance

Iain

rossyamaha · January 2016

If you can't afford the G2 there are others around. Musicom Lab, RJM etc that are cheaper and do what you want. G2 is the best though and the support is second to none. You actually don't need anything else with the G2. If you went the route of the Generator and all the adaptors it can get really pricey quickly but you don't have to use them. You get a Generator free with the G2 and you can just use that for G2 and whatever you're using now to power the rest of your stuff. They also come up used every now and again for decent money.

Teetonetal · January 2016

Boss es 8

iain_psb · January 2016

Cheers for the input @rossyamaha. I'm just not sure I can justify the gigrig. I've not seen a single one up for sale second hand and the wait time is back to the end of February now for a new one. The musicom lab one is the same price as the crocodile tail. Not sure if the crocodile tail is what I need though.

@Teetonetal, cheers for the suggestion. What would put that one at the top of your list compared to others?

robinbowes · January 2016

Seriously, the G2 does sooo much - it's a steal.

I wouldn't be without mine - fantastic piece of kit.

R.

iain_psb · January 2016

Oh dear @robinbowes, I know I should get it and then I won't have to replace whatever I might buy with it in a few months...

Teetonetal · January 2016

Es 8 does everything the G2 does but is cheaper, easily available and has very good midi options. Also allows pedal order swapping.

Lots of the cheaper ones are fixed order and midi implementation is poor.

For a completely pro board get a G2. .. for most the es8 will be more than enough and for simple switching get a joyo or moen.

iain_psb · January 2016

Will the G2 do amp channel/eq switching out of the box with no extras needed?

EDIT: and by that I mean can you assign amp channels per bank on the G2. So bank 1 clean, bank 2 clean with delay, bank 3 overdrive (channel 2), bank 4, overdrive (channel 2) with delay boost etc.

vasselmeyer · January 2016

The Joyo PXL-Live might do the job. It has 8 loops or two loops of 4 if you want to use the 4CM. It also does midi and has two relays for amp switching.

rossyamaha · January 2016

iain_psb said:

Will the G2 do amp channel/eq switching out of the box with no extras needed?

EDIT: and by that I mean can you assign amp channels per bank on the G2. So bank 1 clean, bank 2 clean with delay, bank 3 overdrive (channel 2), bank 4, overdrive (channel 2) with delay boost etc.

It will do that per preset. There are 4 relays in total so even if you added another amp it can switch that one too. I currently switch channel/ solo boost on the lonestar.

FYI, there is an update due that will make it possible to change pedal order on this too. It's money but it's a serious piece of gear. Lot's of switchers out there that do the job but don't quite stack up to the G2. And yes, I am a total Gigrig fanboy. Sorry.

Teetonetal · January 2016

Seriously. Compare es-8 with G2 and see if G2 does anything extra you need for the extra 300 gbp.

If it doesn't then look at es 8 vs moen joyo glab etc... for the extra 150 to 200.

Then decide.

timmysoft · January 2016

I do a similar thing but on a smaller scale. I only use 5 patches and no midi but I do use amp channel changing.

Patch 1- dry clean
Patch 2- dry amp drive
Patch 3 - boosted amp drive
Patch 4 - delayed clean
Patch 5 - clean, pedal drive, delay

Function switch just mutes everything for silent tuning.

robinbowes · January 2016

A couple of things off the top of my head which the G2 has that the ES-8 does not:

1. 10 loops

2. variable input gain for each loop on each patch. This means you can get several different sounds out of the same drive pedal by varying the input level and compensating with the output level.

I personally think the G2 is much easier to program than the ES-8 too - I like having each loop status clearly indicated and selectable at all times.

R.

cbellanga · January 2016

That's what I'm using - midi, 2 channel switching + 6 loops. Very compact and has a screen for the patch names:

TimmyO · January 2016

cbellanga said:

That's what I'm using - midi, 2 channel switching + 6 loops. Very compact and has a screen for the patch names:

Hmm - @cbellanga what's the depth of that from the front of the switcher to the back of the jacks going in to the H9s ?

iain_psb · January 2016

Just ordered a G2. Why not. It's a short life on this planet...

TimmyO · January 2016

iain_psb said:

Just ordered a G2. Why not. It's a short life on this planet...

I've nearly done it a couple of times for the same reason - not had the wotsits to follow through yet though

timmysoft · January 2016

It's hard to beat the g2 for sensible features!

Teetonetal · January 2016

So everytime i bring up the es8 in these threads they are always shunned and no one agrees with me.

I don't get it. It's a gobsmacking piece of gear and a good price. Is it just because it's boss?

Otherwise what's the deal breaker? I don't see it.

TimmyO · January 2016

Teetonetal said:

So everytime i bring up the es8 in these threads they are always shunned and no one agrees with me.

I don't get it. It's a gobsmacking piece of gear and a good price. Is it just because it's boss?

Otherwise what's the deal breaker? I don't see it.

I've just watched a couple of videos on it - I think I prefer its features actually - having names for patches and being able to move the order of loops around and/or parallel them within a patch is great functionality. I'd use that more than pre/post gain.

TimmyO · January 2016

Then there's the G-Lab GSC-4 too which has a lovely colour display

http://www.glab.com.pl/gsc-4_en

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Help!!! Please :-) : Loop Switchers, amp channel switching and midi

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