thanks so much for taking the time to do this - I will look into the Boomerang 3 definitely
From: Ace Ovil <aovil@wfubmc.edu>
Subject: RE: A multi channel looper
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Date: Wednesday, 10 February, 2010, 14:24
I’m new here too but would like to take a stab at your question. As long as everything you play live goes through the PA when you play live (guitar amp mics, vocals, drum mics keyboard output, turntable mixer or whatever else floats your boat) all you need to do is to run a stereo looper through the effects loop of the house mixer. It can be done in mono but stereo is much nicer because you can keep the placement in the mix how you like it and play with panning as a powerful form of expression. You could even get a panning pedal to use onstage and control it on the fly.
There are a few hardware products that can handle stereo and would be useful for something like this .
“I'd like to be able to record say 2 bars then overdub a 32 bar loop over that, if you know what I mean”
I know exactly what you mean and I believe the function is called “multiply”. It saves a lot of time and makes everything much more exciting. This actually narrows things down a bit though if you are looking at hardware rather than software solutions like ableton live or whatever else the software gurus on here recommend. It turns out not too hardware many loopers actually have an easy to use “multiply” function. The best solution in my opinion is two echoplex’s running in stereo but an RC-50 or boomerang 3 could handle the job perfectly and are significantly cheaper. Avoid the otherwise great EHX 2880 for this reason, this is what caused me to sell mine, lack of ”multiply”.
If I were doing it all over gain starting now, I would go with the rang because for some reason I don’t gel with the RC50 at all. I find the interface uninspiring and there are some timing idiosyncrasies with it I just cannot get used to.
Bear in mind, if you are not going to be using a PA at practice that can handle everything you want to throw at it ( ie. if you have a bitchy singer who gets upset when anything other than vocal harmony goes through his/her PA, LOL), you can use one channel from the looper (the L or R) to feed the amp for your main instrument (guitar in my case) and the other channel to feed everything else from your small mixer into a full range system like a small PA. The bose L1 compact would be perfect but is $$$$ or you can use a keyboard amp/bass amp type thing. All you would need to do then, is pan your main instrument (let’s say guitar for arguments sake) hard right and connect the R output to the guitar amp. Then pan everything else hard L and connect the output to the full range keyboard amp/bass amp small PA type thingy (Used Roland keyboard amps can be
had on the cheap and work fabulously for this).
In my case, all this was NOT cheap at all, but well worth it. I have made the money back many times over by doing little “one man band” cover gigs on the side here in my area. I actually find this is also a great way to increase looping proficiency and saves you some embarrassing “what do I press?” time when you are with your band.
Hope this helps,
Ace
From: JAMES FRASER [mailto:thejamesfraser@btinternet..com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 8:01 AM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: A multi channel looper
I am a Headrush user with my band Greenheart. I love the Akai's simplicity and it's been perfect for me to get into looping. However, I now need something like this
A multi input and output looper that can take several different sources - microphone (x2)guitar, stompbox, keys etc and output to different amps. I'd also like to not be constrained as I am on the Akai to only being able to overdub the same loop length as the first loop; I'd like to be able to record say 2 bars then overdub a 32 bar loop over that, if you know what I mean.
I approached a local electronics firm who told me that this would be a very expensive switchbox with some kind of sampler in it - and they said it would be 2500 UK pounds. Ouch.
Do any of you know of such a box? Or can one be built? I have little chance to try this stuff out without travelling a fair distance so your comments would be appreciated.
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