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Looper's Delight
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Hey fellow Loopists..... Recently I posted some questions pertaining to the Zvex LoFi Junky Looper. Between the responses (thank you all very much...), and some further research, I decided to toss caution to the wind and just buy one. It arrived Tuesday and I have been puttin' it thru the paces and thought I would share.... (I guess maybe I should try to post this to the LD site as well..... since ther eis precious little info there on this box.) It is pretty damn cool. It is also quite small---which is nice. And, it is built very well (like a tank). The switches and knobs are top notch and the inside assembly is very thorough and clean (remarkable attention to detail there) and the components are all very high quality. It may be "lo-fi" but it is not cheaply made (nor cheaply priced). So, first off what it doesn't do: No overdubs, layers, replace, reverse or other loop manipulations...and no MIDI! It is a one-shot 20 sec max. analog looper. It also doesn't do pristine, hi-fi sound quality. And, it certainly is NOT for everybody.... But what is does do is quite cool. More than anything it adds a certain "je nais se quoi"; a vibe, an atmosphere to the loopage . Kinda like playing thru an old Supro amp or something; yes, it is a bit noisy and less than "perfect" in sound quality, but there is something very inviting and comfortable about that. Being analog (and lo-fi) it can hiss (and careful setting of the levels helps keep this in order), but the hiss and noise is strikingly different that the hiss and noise found in digital devices....and what hiss there is seems to be masked by the playing to the loop (in fact it sort of melts into the music itself...). For this feature alone, to me, it is worth every dime. It injects something quite human, something quite blemished, worn and imperfect to my looping. AS for the shortcoming of layers (or lack thereof), It is quite easy to re-sample the LoFi into a bigger more full featured looping device..... It does have true bypass and the instrument preamp which drives the unlooped signal is of exceptional quality: a very high impedence (>5megOhm)input which insures there is no loading or degradation of your signal (the looper section does enough of that!!). It has a single passive tone control which is useful both for tone variations and controlling hiss. It has no freq response above 2.6kHz. This seems like a somewhat severe limitation, but actually it helps produce a sound wholly different than other loopers...and quite different than the source sound fed into it (but drastically different....different in what to my ears is a good way.......) The input/rec level is adjustable (as is the output) and the recording section can even be overdriven. The result is a very pleasing driven sound VERY different from the digital clipping other machines produce when hit too hard. In fact, on my basses, the distortion produced here is very cool. It also has a cool vibrato circuit which can give anything from a warped LP kind of warble to a psuedo Leslie spin to some rather jiggly modulations. Of course, I am using this with bass and the effect is somewhat understated...but for my purposes that is perfect as I do not need to get to heavy handed with modulations. It is more subtle than other fx, but it is also quite present and noticeable. The behavior of this vibrato circuit is somewhat unpredictable as well. Which I find very appealing. It is something of a loose cannon, unpredictable yet still quite musical and useful. It does shimmer...but not like other modulation effects. And since the controls (rate and depth) are interactive you're never quite sure jsut where the effect is gonna land........pretty neat. All in all I am very pleased. I have some other looping devices (modded Lexicon JamMan, EDP, Headrush, DL4), but this is quickly becoming my favorite---it seems especially geared towards my direction in looping in which the looping is not so much a feature in itself, but rather a necessary and integral part of the compositions and performances, and as such is somewhat stealthy in its appearance--never static and not always present--, and usually neither dense nor drone-y. I am sure the limitations of this little box make it "less than ideal" for a great number of loopists, yet for me it does something special...and that is quite inspiring. I have a solo show next week...and the LoFi will definitely get some game-time. Max _________________________________________________________________ Get the power of Windows + Web with the new Windows Live. http://www.windowslive.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_powerofwindows_012008