Re: Dream looper (was Re: DD-20 (was Re: Boomerang 3))

[Louie Angulo <louie.angulo@googlemail.com>]

Mark your dream has been my dream for a long time
loose your dream and you will loose your mind...
Matthias dont let us go into the cuckoos nest!

On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 7:31 AM, Mark Hamburg <mark@grubmah.com> wrote:

My looping setup for several years consisted of a pair of independent (but brother synced) EDPs. Of late, I've been using the looper in the Line6 M13 because of convenience. I own an LP1, but it doesn't think quite the way I do.

My dream looper (rough thoughts, this list would probably get expanded and revised with sleep):

* Stereo or at least stereo friendly. The Line6 pedals are stereo friendly though not a stereo looper. The EDP is not stereo friendly unless you buy two and even then some things don't work quite as well -- e.g., threshold recording. Basically, the rest of my rig is stereo and I'd rather not have to use a mixer in a portable rig.

* Pedalboard/floor friendly. Hauling a rack around is a pain.

* I need to be able to go straight into Overdub at feedback of 100%. This seems to be the key to creating seamless loops.

* I want an EDP-style multiply -- i.e., tell it to start multiplying and it overdubs on new cycles as long as is needed for the multiply period. One also has to be able exit multiply into overdub.

* I like the Line6 model for undo -- i.e., it goes back to where you left it before you started recording or otherwise modifying the loop. This makes more sense if the loop doesn't decay when not being modified. EDP-style loop windowing is cool, but it's not as useful.

* Two separate loops with only one playing at a time and an ability to copy the audio between them is pretty useful and more flexible than undo.

* I want a replace mode that allows it to function as a single delay with then the option to go out of replace into either play or overdub.

* I like intermediate feedback levels (other than 0% and 100%), but I could be persuaded to live without them.

* The ability to mute/stop and then restart the loop is pretty critical. It's good if it can do this and stay in time or not as the case may be.

* Double-speed and half-speed are pretty useful. Reverse feels more like a trick and is less critical for what I do.

* I've been into Quantized Replace on the EDP since before the LP1 offered it, but a good implementation -- particularly on a pedal board -- should recognize that when in Quantized Replace mode, I probably want to mute the input audio except when I'm replacing. But I would not insist on having quantized replace on my dream looper if I got much of the other things I want.

* I need to be able to synchronize at least two of these things so that they have cycle lengths that are multiples of one another. That can either be handled via two or more simultaneous loops in one box or two loopers with sync capabilities.

I'm sure more would come to me. I feel some pressure to also try to edit the list down, however, since there's an aspect of wanting something that is fairly clear and simple to use.

Take the EDP, put it in a floor pedal, make it stereo friendly, and revise the undo and next loop functions a  bit and I would probably be quite happy. But then I also deal with the EDP seeming to be more finicky about audio levels and...

Mark