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Loop Stations in 2011


Vekked

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I haven't seen a topic about loop stations in ages, I remember at one point it was all about the boss RC-50 and some other one that I think D-Styles uses. I just went to the Boss site today to look and noticed they now have 4 models:

 

http://www.bossus.com/gear/productlist.php?ParentId=251

 

What one's the best for the kinda stuff we do? Are there other brands that are ever better? Or is it all about Ableton for this kind of thing nowadays?

 

Also, how exactly do you hook them up? I know that nearly everyone who uses them for scratchy stuff is rocking 1 deck. I'd like to maybe make some beat juggling loops and stuff as well, can this be done with all of them? I'm currently using a Rane TTM57, and it'd be cool to use Serato + loop station and stuff, should this be all good?

 

I watched this again today for the first time in ages and decided I need to get my loop on:

 

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i have a rc-20xl.

 

i've been thinking about hooking it up again for ages actually. i think when my next mix is out of the way im gonna turn my attention to putting some hours into it. cos i remember it being well fun.

 

mine gets set up like so,

scratchbox > rc-20 > outboard > amp

 

i always wanted a rc-50 but they're well expensive and the rc-20 filled my needs anyway.

 

i think you're right tho Vekked, i think it can all be done thru ableton and a midi controller now

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Guest Symatic

i use a free loop pedal emulator thing which is awesome cos you can record one loop, then switch channels and record another one side by side, and you can turn the different channels on and off so you can build up and build back down again, which can make the tunes you make a bit more interesting.

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i use a free loop pedal emulator thing which is awesome cos you can record one loop, then switch channels and record another one side by side, and you can turn the different channels on and off so you can build up and build back down again, which can make the tunes you make a bit more interesting.

 

What that emulator called Sym?

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i have a rc-20xl.

 

i've been thinking about hooking it up again for ages actually. i think when my next mix is out of the way im gonna turn my attention to putting some hours into it. cos i remember it being well fun.

 

mine gets set up like so,

scratchbox > rc-20 > outboard > amp

 

i always wanted a rc-50 but they're well expensive and the rc-20 filled my needs anyway.

 

i think you're right tho Vekked, i think it can all be done thru ableton and a midi controller now

 

What's the outboard? So you go from your main outs of the scratchbox > rc-20? If so, that should enable looping juggles/both decks right?

 

Yea ableton looks pretty sweet but the big draw back is you likely need 2 laptops whenever you're doing a show if you're doing serato as well, which seems super annoying.

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i just have an outboard (allen & heath zed 14) going into my amp and computer so i can plug in and record stuff real easy, but the loop pedal could go straight into the amp

 

and yeh mate your right, main outs from scratchbox or whatever mixer so juggle looping can be done :)

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I have the rc-50 and it is majorly flawed IMO. The midi doesn't time sync even tho it was supposed to, some problems with the loop glitching exists and the interface isn't the best. If I could buy over again I'd have gotten a electro harmonix 2880.

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Good to know Digg. They just discontinued the rc-50 for the new rc-300, I wonder if they fixed any of that stuff. My friend has the rc-3 and was making some pretty sick stuff with that and a guitar but I'm not sure how limited it is compared to other models/the stuff we do with it.

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The one D-Styles used to use is called Jamman. It's made by DigiTech, but is now discontinued: http://www.digitech....products/jamman

 

Like BOSS, though, they've made new loopers instead. They have three Jammans now: http://www.digitech....s/loopers-delay

 

Nice one Yoshi, I wonder if the new Jamman's are just as good as the one D used...

 

@diggla - that electro harmonix one looks kinda wild, you used it before?

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No, never have but I found a chart comparing loopers and read some reviews and it looked like the best and most versatile. I'd want the foot pedal obviously too. Another good one that I've owned in the past and is pretty simple but really well built is the Boomerang. It is a little pricy for the lack of features like to 50 has but guess the solid function makes up for it. The KP3 is awesome but unfortunately they don't make a foot trigger or it would me perfect.

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Does anyone know what it means by the Digitech Jamman "still can’t play multiple loops simultaneously."?? I watched some videos where they're layering loops but I guess that's not what they mean?

 

http://looperpedalre...-jamman-stereo/

 

Maybe it's referring to stored loops on memory?

 

Hmm perhaps, in another section it says:

 

 

Can You Play Mulitple Loops Simultaneously?

Some looper pedals merely let you play one recorded loop at a time. If you are merely using your looper pedal for practicing solos, this is not that big of a problem. If you want to use your looper pedal to build an entire song, however, the ability to play multiple loops simultaneously gives you the ability to use loops interactively, adding layers of complexity to your songs. Examples of pedals that let you play multiple loops simultaneously are the Boss RC-50 and the Digitech Jamman Delay/Loop

 

 

Anyone know what this means you can't do with other loop stations? The Jamman stereo looks dope for what we do but I'm still confused about not being able to play multiple loops and whether this is something I need or not...

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So the RC 50 has 4 pedals that can all function independently. You can record into any one you want and all four can be playing at te same time. It's nice b/c you can build more complex evolving songs instead of loop layer on top of loop layer then delete everything and start over. So you can have drums on one, bass on the other, etc. And all can play at the same time (or just selected loops).

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So the RC 50 has 4 pedals that can all function independently. You can record into any one you want and all four can be playing at te same time. It's nice b/c you can build more complex evolving songs instead of loop layer on top of loop layer then delete everything and start over. So you can have drums on one, bass on the other, etc. And all can play at the same time (or just selected loops).

 

Woord, ok I got it now. So basically if you want to take something out then put it back in, you don't have to re-record the loop with ones that do multiple loops right?

 

 

Even with the shortfalls of the 50 I would still prefer that over the digitech. I consider digitech pretty budget gear like behringer.

 

Oh ya? Hmm... the 50 sounded kinda meh with your review + some people saying there's a 1/4 second delay or something when you're looping. The Jamman Stereo is ranked best looper of 2011 on that site I linked to, but I haven't tried any before so I don't really know.

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Yea the one that's rated #1 on that site doesn't do multiple loop tracks but it does do multiple layers. I'm wondering how much I'll want multiple tracks, it definitely seems key for performing tracks with varying structure. But the Digitech Jamman Delay (looper + delay pedal) does have multiple tracks, and seems to be in stereo as well, maybe that's a better bet if the price isn't too much more:

 

http://looperpedalreviews.com/digitech-jamman-delaylooper/

 

Gonna do more research but it seems pretty decent.

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found an old thread where jimmy penguin says he's tried nearly every looper and recommends the stereo digitech jamman... I wonder if that's still the case, if so I might be sold on that one. If it's good enough for someone with a lot of experience doing the scratchy loop stuff it'll probably do for a noob like me.

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Do any if them do the auto loop adjust? Forget the name for it but it's the thing where if ur a second off on ur loop it will auto adjust instead of it eventually pulling apart. The 50 does that which is one of the best features.

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Do any if them do the auto loop adjust? Forget the name for it but it's the thing where if ur a second off on ur loop it will auto adjust instead of it eventually pulling apart. The 50 does that which is one of the best features.

 

I believe it's called loop quantize, I didn't look into that, I'll check it out, def sounds useful.

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I think I remember Mr. Brown (who used to have Jamman before—I think he used it in the video below) saying that the Jamman doesn't have quantise function so you gotta be really precise. But I tried the RC20XL and it's pretty hard to be on time when drumming on that. You gotta be precise either way.

 

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