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Looper for keyboard samples?

Tnavis

Tnavis

Feb 25, 2003
622
741
Minneapolis, MN
#1
This seems like the subforum to ask this. So on a handful of tunes on our new album, we incorporated some keyboards. Mainly synth/organ chords, nothing too fancy, one chord per measure. Since we don't have a keyboard player, they're going to sound a bit empty live. So I got to thinking (since I was the one who added the keys in the first place)... can I somehow use a loop pedal to trigger these live?

The idea is that each chord would be a loop/sample. I then trigger the pedal for each new sample as the song is being played live. Anybody else tried this before, and have any recommendations on what the best hardware is to accomplish this?
 
#2
There are a lot of cheap loopers with good quality now, but yours could be interesting to pull off cheaply. We have some synth parts that I've played and I'm using a Pigtronix Infinity, which only gives you 2 but that's all I needed. You could look into the EHX 360 which gives you 11 loops, but not on the fly ability to scroll through them. You could chain together multiple Jamman solos to do it or get a midi solution going.
 
#4
Tnavis said:
This seems like the subforum to ask this. So on a handful of tunes on our new album, we incorporated some keyboards. Mainly synth/organ chords, nothing too fancy, one chord per measure. Since we don't have a keyboard player, they're going to sound a bit empty live. So I got to thinking (since I was the one who added the keys in the first place)... can I somehow use a loop pedal to trigger these live?

The idea is that each chord would be a loop/sample. I then trigger the pedal for each new sample as the song is being played live. Anybody else tried this before, and have any recommendations on what the best hardware is to accomplish this?
Click to expand...

I use a Yamaha s90 and a Boss RC 300 Looper mostly for the drum samples provided by the s90. The RC 300 gives you 3 hours of sampling time and has 3 foot switches for looping. The RC 300 is $550 new but IMO worth every penny and will probably work perfectly for what you're wanting to do. Check it out.
 
#5
gjohnson441496 said:
I use a Yamaha s90 and a Boss RC 300 Looper mostly for the drum samples provided by the s90. The RC 300 gives you 3 hours of sampling time and has 3 foot switches for looping. The RC 300 is $550 new but IMO worth every penny and will probably work perfectly for what you're wanting to do. Check it out.
Click to expand...

If the Boss RC 300 is too expensive, then you may want to check out the Boss RC 3LS (~$200). If you add a footswitch, it can control patch phrase up/down. It has 99 loop phrases and 3 hour total record time as well, but only a single stereo track per phrase. That may be enough for you.

I have one and I find it handy for recording riffs when I am noodling so I don't forget them. Some people use them for backing tracks.
 
#6
I did some research and it looks like the Digitech Jamman Solo XT with the optional footswitch should be able to pull this off. Up to 400 loops (using an additinoal SD card), and the footswitch will allow hand free loop selection. It might involve some dancing, but I think it should do the trick for $200 all told. I'll check the other suggestions as well. Thanks!
 
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#7
Tnavis said:
I did some research and it looks like the Digitech Jamman Solo XT with the optional footswitch should be able to pull this off. Up to 400 loops (using an additinoal SD card), and the footswitch will allow hand free loop selection. It might involve some dancing, but I think it should do the trick for $200 all told. I'll check the other suggestions as well. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Subbed in. I'm interested in hearing about the Solo XT. :)
 
#9
Tnavis said:
This seems like the subforum to ask this. So on a handful of tunes on our new album, we incorporated some keyboards. Mainly synth/organ chords, nothing too fancy, one chord per measure. Since we don't have a keyboard player, they're going to sound a bit empty live. So I got to thinking (since I was the one who added the keys in the first place)... can I somehow use a loop pedal to trigger these live?

The idea is that each chord would be a loop/sample. I then trigger the pedal for each new sample as the song is being played live. Anybody else tried this before, and have any recommendations on what the best hardware is to accomplish this?
Click to expand...

I used the older twin size jamman for this for a while sold it but am thinking about getting the single size solo xt. It takes a little bit of work, if you have a keyboard amp around it really helps for monitoring purposes while using it that way. You can run it through the pa but it sounds more like having a keyboard player onstage if you have it running through a keyboard amp. I used it for all sorts of things keyboard parts, sound effects like bass drops and movie samples, even guitar harmony layers. One of the things it's amazing for is sampling acoustic guitars, because using real acoustic guitars onstage with a loud rock or metal band is a feedback nightmare.
 
#11
BBox Bass said:
I record my synth on the computer so I can edit if necessary, then dump the samples to a Digitech Jamman. It's the old two-button style, so I built a footswitch for changing the loops. So far I've had no problems with this setup.
Click to expand...

I've done the same using my slate and eastwest virtual instruments. Great way to do it. Especially for guys like my that aren't that great at playing keys.
 

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