My Minimum Requirements (longish)

["Clayton Gary Lehmann" <hqr@cox.net>]

My minimum requirements for a looper would seem to be 90 seconds of sample
time, and overdub capability.

I have had lots of fun with shorter loop times, but you need feedback
control to keep it interesting, and having independent volume control also
helps make it more musical. Most of what I do with looping is sample 
capture
and playback--but even then, without FB it's pretty easy to get caught in
the "lobster trap" . . .

The trick for me, then, is to be able to create the "full sound" I get with
looping exclusive of the loop, so as to make transitions between the 
states.
I noticed this with Tom Griesgraber, the looping stick player, that he 
would
grab a loop while keeping both hands going.

As a plectrum guitarist, usually acoustic steel string, it's hard to have
two independent elements simultaneously, so extensive use of custom tuned
harmonicas have enabled me to do it more easily (I did this at Y2K2 with a
Lee Oskar Melody Maker, but am now designing my own tunings.)

Of course, not everyone cares for the harmonica, no matter how you tune it
(especially true with the diatonic--chromatic is less strident). Still, 
this
provides a melody independent of the guitar which can then go between the
looped and non-looped states--and the niceties of loop control are less
crucial.

I have getting by with the RC-20 (which died) and a Digitech Jamman, and
just added a Boomerang III. None of these are uber-loopers--I like using 
the
EDP but it really needs a foot controller, which is one more thing to set
up, and takes up floor space. I am hoping the LP-2, when it arrives, will 
be
the uber-looper for more intricate looping of a non-minimum nature.

Oh, Bob, how ya coming on that LP-2 . . .

Gnarly