What does a looper do?

[tombaker]

Hey,

sorry if this has been covered but i couldnt find it in the search i did.
so im wondering, with loopers like LoopMaster, does pressing the switch turn on all pedals in that loop, or just make that loop available for having those effects in your signal to turn on?

reason im asking is because i have a PT2 and hate having pedals up the back as there harder to use live. so i was thinking of putting a looper in the front so i could just use that to control/turn on my effects.

Cheers,


Tom

[TheMutt]

Hey Tom.
Loop pedals will bring the effects plugged into the send & return of the loop pedal into the signal chain where they can be turned on or off as if there were no loop pedal.
For example, lets say that you have a signal chain that looks like:

bass -> tuner -> loop pedal (with an overdrive and a chorus pedal in the send & return) -> phaser -> delay

Now, lets say that you wanted to have the overdrive going into the phaser. You would ensure that the tuner was off, the loop pedal was on, the overdrive was on, the chorus was off, the phaser was on, and the delay was off. However, if you wanted the chorus going into the delay you would need to ensure that the tuner was off, the loop pedal was on, the overdrive was off, the chorus was on, the phaser was off, and the delay was on. Additionally, if you always used the overdrive going into the chorus and never with other pedals, you could leave both the chorus and overdrive on, and turn on or off the loop pedal when you needed them.

Hopefully I was able to explain this clearly enough.

This is also different from what is commonly known as a looper pedal, which will record a set amount of time of your playing before continuously looping it over and over again allowing you to record and play a passage, while being able to play on top of it, or record extra layers of playing over it.

[tombaker]

ah k. so it just brings the effect in that loop in/out of the signal?
so whats the point in those 18 loop LoopMaster pedals?

thanks for your reply

[TheMutt]

The 18-loop pedals (or any of those ridiculously large loop pedals in general) allow you to do certain things:
-enable you to very quickly (since the switches are right next to each other) turn on or off 18 (or however many) different pedals
-enables you to switch on/off 18 (or however many) different (depending on how it is wired up) loops with different pedals in each loop (or different combinations of the same pedal set if you have multiples of a pedal)
-makes your signal completely true-bypass (for those who are sticklers for their clean tone being bass -> cable -> amp)
-the ability to not have to reach for the pedals on the back again (so long as you leave them on)
-additional lights to blind you onstage/make light shows with

[tombaker]

sweet thanks heaps!
i think i might just get a single loop pedal. that way when the pedals are out of my signal i can turn on several then turn on the loop and all the effects will be engaged