Re: jamman upgrade and syncing multiple loopers

["William R. Walker," <chillyb@cruzio.com>]

  Regarding the jamman upgrade, Judging only from what Max Valentino did at
the Loopstock II, I would say that it is absolutely worth upgrading, just
be prepared as Max did, to spend the time to get it up to speed.
 Regarding syncing multiple loopers. My suggestion would be to have
everyone in your band sharing a common midi patch bay (preferably
programmable) so that you are not chaining the midi from one looper to
another to another,  which can create its own latency problems, and so that
you can quickly change midi configurations depending on who or what is
acting as clock. Each person will need their own midi merge box if they
want to be able to independently control there own loopers from a midi
pedal. If you are just using regular footswitches for the rptr or jamman,or
edp the merge box is not necessary. A programmable midi patch bay is an
vital piece of equipment for me, even though it seems few companies make
them any more. I have and old discontinued programmable DMC MX8, I noticed
that Edirol, makes a new one that seems pretty full featured. A good
programmable midi patch bay should be able to filter the midi data so that
each player can control there own looper, but not be sending unwanted
control or program change data to another persons looper. Be prepared to
spend some time getting the patch bay tailored to your band's needs. If you
buy something used, make sure it has a manual, if you don't understand midi
filtering. Live I run a drum machine, a rptr, an edp (yep, that's right,
I've joined the ranks),a guitar synth with sync capable arpeggiator, a
filter factory, and an effects processor, that are all requiring midi
clock. If I'm playing with Rick or another looper, that adds yet another
device requiring clock. If I were chaining one device to another, by the
time I got to the last device I would have  noticeable latency. A midi
patch bay will help sync issues. So will keeping your midi cables, if
possible to 10 feet or less. This may seem a little anal but I think it
helps cut down  midi clock latency. Another thing that will help sync
issues with two loopers is having both being driven by the midi clock of a
drum machine or some other more stable clock source. Both the jamman, the
edp, and the rptr tend to exhibit some tempo drift  but they are more
stable when driven by a drum machine.  I've been experimenting with trying
to create loops without hearing the drum machine part, but having it act as
the master clock source, and watching the clock light flash on the repeater
for the tempo. Its tricky but I'm getting better at it. It frees me from
having to have a beat box in the mix, but still provides a more stable
clock. I realize mid sync issues with the various hardware loopers are
frustrating. The afore mentioned suggestions have  helped me minimize them.
Bill