Re: Looper census

[Mark Sottilaro <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

Pedro Felix wrote:

> Mark -
> remember when i told you that the RPTR would always be
> a little buggy, well told you so.
> lol, Pedro

Oh, you're in BIG trouble young man.  BIG.</sarcasm>

OK, so I went for the "new kid on the block" but I'm not sorry.  I've
done, and will do, a lot of great loop based music with the Repeater, as
have others.  However, I've also come to the conclusion that it's
probably not the best suited looper for my primary needs.  I think that's
the consensus on this list.  (only one person responded to my query that
the Repeater would be their "desert island looper") However, I think if I
had purchased the EDP instead, I probably would have picked up the
Repeater eventually, even knowing it's bugs and limits.  My wish list for
the Repeater was actually pretty small.  All I really wanted was the
ability to predefine the length of my loops, the way you can with the EDP
and the JamMan.  I just found it clumsy to have to think about having to
end a loop while I'm playing.

Yes, that's it.  Predefined loop length.  I found that by recording a
blank loop before I started, and then just opening up the loop when I
wanted to, I got that feature.  Not the most horrible work-around.

As for bugs?  After OS 1.1, the Repeater was mostly bug free.  The two
major bugs I'm aware of are the volume "bump" at the loop's beginning.
(this never really bothered me much.  I could only hear it when I was
playing a perfectly smooth drone, which is pretty much never.) and the
wonky MIDI clock thing that prevented me from using the Repeater as a
clock source for the MoFX and the Lexicon MPX1.  Since I do a lot with a
drum machine anyway, that didn't bother me too much either.  The ambient
show I did on Sunday night relied on the clock from my AdrenaLinn, which
seems just fine.

The pluses?  Great effects loop.  Great pitch shifting.  Great tempo
shifting. Stereo.  Quad.  8 min loops.

So basically, I just want to say that the Repeater was and IS still a
great product.  If I didn't own one, I'd be buying one now before they're
gone forever.  Electrix's mistakes had nothing to do with their product,
but more about internal stuff that I'm sure we'll never really know
about.  Here's what not to do as a company:

Discontinue all of your products except for one.
Tell the public release dates that have nothing to do with reality.
Make up lies about why the product is late that are obviously pure
bullshit.
Alternate giving lot's of info out to the public, with being totally
silent.
Ignore customers that offer (for free) to hold seminars on your product.

I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of them right now.

Mark