The LOOPING Club

[LeonD]

I don't know about the Loopy app but the Boomerang will do what you want.

You can have up to four independent loops. Play any amount of them. Stack on any of them. Undo the last recording. Erase the loops independently. Etc.

 

[Adamixoye]

A question for the loopers ... I've been dabbling with the Ditto, but feel it would be nice to not overdub but rather have parallell loops that you can turn on and off and also re-record if something goes wrong. On my iPad I have the Loopy app - is there something close to that in pedal form that gives you at least a few tracks?

I don't know about the Loopy app but the Boomerang will do what you want.

You can have up to four independent loops. Play any amount of them. Stack on any of them. Undo the last recording. Erase the loops independently. Etc.

As much as I love my Infinity, which can kind of do what you want, I too thought of the Boomerang. Probably your best bet, although obviously it's in a completely different price/size class than the Ditto.

 

[FretNoMore]

Thanks guys!

 

[Photobassist]

@FretNoMore
I don't know if you've seen this guy, but he's using the Loopy App and details his layout in the description.

 

[FretNoMore]

Thank you! That was cool. A pedal alternative seems a bit too pricey, but on the other hand using an iPad or laptop is more stuff and has its own problems.

 

[SteveCS]

You could try something like the DigiTech Jamman XT and a couple of Jamman Express, all synced up via JamSync. The nice thing about this is that you could send the out if each loop to a mixer and have control over balance between them, or apply different post-loop effects to each looper output... IME, loopers and freeze effects really come to life when you add post-loop effects.

 

[FretNoMore]

Interesting idea ... add as many as you need ... though cost wise maybe you'd end up at the level of one of the bigger loopers.

 

[SteveCS]

Interesting idea ... add as many as you need ... though cost wise maybe you'd end up at the level of one of the bigger loopers.

Possibly, yes, but you would need a fair few to get to the price of a 'Rang. Here in the UK, 2 express and 1 Solo comes to about £220. A 'Rang III is about £340. I can see the attraction of having everything in one box, but being able to post-process each loop independently is very attractive also.

 

[BooshBass]

Read your post and was keeping up ok until all the midi assigning stuff since im not too familar with all things midi as well. I know doing it with a controller in hand rather then just visualizing your instructions would be easy though, very nice tutorial. Nice pic of the set up and nice use of space. I was imagining a ridiculous setup but this can easily be set in any corner of a room.

Now if its not too much to ask (at this point come on now its not!) lets see this set up in action. Same angle as the picture, just set up a video camera and do your thing man.

Just bought a super cheap recorder, Tascam DR-03. Plan on doing a vew video recordings of the Ableton setup. Will be coming soon.

 

[Syxz_ML]

Just bought a super cheap recorder, Tascam DR-03. Plan on doing a vew video recordings of the Ableton setup. Will be coming soon.

Hell yeah awesome. Definitely keep this thread updated when u post some vids of your set up in action.

 

[BooshBass]

Now if its not too much to ask (at this point come on now its not!) lets see this set up in action. Same angle as the picture, just set up a video camera and do your thing man.

Here's the first video I've made.



Not too great of quality or angle but will try to make better ones in the future.

 

[Syxz_ML]

Here's the first video I've made.



Not too great of quality or angle but will try to make better ones in the future.

Haha thats bad ass. I know it was a quick little jam but I can see the accessibility it has to just flip a power switch and jam away whenever the inspiration is there. Great setup man.

 

[karla684]

Hi,

Just got an idea! Would like some input on whether it's feasible or not.

So my goal is to create solo pieces on bass, with a drum backing track, and using a looper to layer different parts. My attempt so far has been building a big effect board to have lots of different sounds to chose from, and an EQ pedal to voice my bass differently depending on the parts being played (e.g. sounding more like a guitar at times etc.).

But then I just realized that my Boss RC-50 has stereo in and out, and I'm only using mono. Could I instead divide my pedals into two different boards (i.e. one "bass" and one "guitar) and connect them to stereo left in, stereo right in respectively. And then connect the left output to the bass amp and the right output to the guitar amp. That should work, right? Then everything I play would be recorded to the same looper (no sync issues between different hardware etc.) but still played back on different amplifiers.

I'm tempted in trying. If anyone have any suggestions on a better way to do this, please let me know!

Cheers,
Kalle

 

[karla684]

Hi,

Just got an idea! Would like some input on whether it's feasible or not.

So my goal is to create solo pieces on bass, with a drum backing track, and using a looper to layer different parts. My attempt so far has been building a big effect board to have lots of different sounds to chose from, and an EQ pedal to voice my bass differently depending on the parts being played (e.g. sounding more like a guitar at times etc.).

But then I just realized that my Boss RC-50 has stereo in and out, and I'm only using mono. Could I instead divide my pedals into two different boards (i.e. one "bass" and one "guitar) and connect them to stereo left in, stereo right in respectively. And then connect the left output to the bass amp and the right output to the guitar amp. That should work, right? Then everything I play would be recorded to the same looper (no sync issues between different hardware etc.) but still played back on different amplifiers.

I'm tempted in trying. If anyone have any suggestions on a better way to do this, please let me know!

Cheers,
Kalle

So I bought a cheap ABY switcher today to try the idea I described above. Success! This was a big step forward for me regarding my goal of creating a solo project (with recorded drum tracks for now). It makes pedal switching much easier and the live sound so much broader and interesting. I just need to spend some time to think through how I'm gonna organize the pedal board. Instead of a long serially connected line of pedals I will instead have one setup for the bass amp and one for the guitar amp. Which pedal goes where...?

Fun times ahead! Perhaps I need to buy two smaller boards/cases instead of my single rather big one that I've tried to cram everything in until now.

Only problem now is that the guitar amp is hissing when I switch to the bass amp. I guess it's the loose end that's left in the ABY pedal when switching channel. Sort of like leaving a cable with one end connected to the amp, having the other end loose on the floor. I probably should look at a more competent ABY switcher. Anyone have any ideas on where the problem might lie, and/or suggestions of an ABY pedal that fixes it.

Cheers,
Kalle

 

[BooshBass]

So I bought a cheap ABY switcher today to try the idea I described above. Success! This was a big step forward for me regarding my goal of creating a solo project (with recorded drum tracks for now). It makes pedal switching much easier and the live sound so much broader and interesting. I just need to spend some time to think through how I'm gonna organize the pedal board. Instead of a long serially connected line of pedals I will instead have one setup for the bass amp and one for the guitar amp. Which pedal goes where...?

Fun times ahead! Perhaps I need to buy two smaller boards/cases instead of my single rather big one that I've tried to cram everything in until now.

Only problem now is that the guitar amp is hissing when I switch to the bass amp. I guess it's the loose end that's left in the ABY pedal when switching channel. Sort of like leaving a cable with one end connected to the amp, having the other end loose on the floor. I probably should look at a more competent ABY switcher. Anyone have any ideas on where the problem might lie, and/or suggestions of an ABY pedal that fixes it.

Cheers,
Kalle

Glad you figured this out. I don't have any experience with that loop pedal and was wondering if the A and B outputs were going to output your loops to both amps. But it sounds like they truly are stereo outs.

I honestly can't believe I'm saying this, but I finally settled on using Ableton with a cheap computer I bought on eBay do to what you're doing (after using pretty much every top of the line hardware loop pedal). If you haven't already read it, check out my post here: Invalid Link Removed In my opinion, its really the best (but not the only as you've proven) way to go to do what you want to do. There is certainly something to be said about just having a hardware looper for ease of use though.

Good luck with what you're doing! Glad to see someone else has an interest in making a kickass solo looping setup.

 

[Marial]

Getting back into the looping thing and putting my board together and it's time to resurrect this club. I have a Ditto Mic looper coming so I can add in vocal percussion or other weirdness. What I'm really GASing for is an RC300, but I'll make do with what I have. I need to look into whether the Ditto X4 and the Ditto Mic can be linked via the midi inputs, that would be nice, but I don't think it works that way.

Anyhow, here's the board as it currently stands, semi-assembled.

 

[expatmuso]

So is anyone taking to the stage with their looping set up? If so, how's it going? Are you playing solo or in a group? What styles of music work well with looping? Originals or covers? Please share stories .

 

[lfmn16]

So is anyone taking to the stage with their looping set up? If so, how's it going? Are you playing solo or in a group? What styles of music work well with looping? Originals or covers? Please share stories .

I only use my looper (Ditto Looper X2) live. I loop the bass line while I play keyboards. I'm only playing parts of songs, not trying too much right now. I just started, it works fine in practice, still working out the bugs live. The drummer has to be able to hear the bass clearly.

 

[Photobassist]

I've been doing solo gigs for the past year using just the Ditto, but I've had to do a lot foot shuffling to make things work so I've decided that the Ditto x4 will be worth the investment.

I play mostly ambient/chillout style music in small bars/cafes/wine bars etc.

I only play originals.

 

[expatmuso]

When I loop live it's always solo. I tried looping with a band a few times in practice sessions but it didn't click so much. I've done short sets of solo bass original stuff, songs that usually have spoken word elements. I've mostly played at open mic, which usually goes down well. I think the novelty of it alone seems to impress people. It's cool that it sounds like you do solo gigs fairly often, Photobassist. Have anything on soundcloud?