Re: What are the looper features that manufacturers are stupid to leave out?

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

There are several things I wish they would add (and we're trying to 
remedy some of this
stuff with the LP-1 and the eventual LP-3 (on the drawing boards, as we 
speak)

These are suggestions for multi-track loopers which, I realize are more 
high end units:
This would be the LP-1, the RC300, the coming Evo Looping, et. al.

1)  immediate switching of tracks as one overdubs so that all
overdubs can automatically go to a separate track to then be 
muted/multiplied/sliced and diced, et. al.

2) The ability to simultaneously record an intial track to ALL tracks of 
a multi track looper
so that, say,  an initial percussion track, could be copied to all 
tracks so that
verse, chorus and bridge iterations would automatically have that track 
underneath them.

This would radically speed up the ability to do more complex song forms.
Most artists eschew anything but A/B song forms because it takes so long 
to build a track
in front of an audience.

3)  This next suggestion is not one that people are dumb for not 
including as it is probably
wouldn't be used by that many people,  but to be able to incorporate the 
AKAI MPC paradigm
for manipulating syncrhonized samples in real time would be awesome on a 
looper.

To be able to retrigger tracks so that, whereever you were in a song, 
the thing you retriggered could
be done with musical values (1/8, 1/12, 1/16, 1/24, 1/32, 1/48, 1/64 so 
that when
you lifted your foot on a momentary switch that loop would still be in 
the same place in the loop
musically, speaking.

The wonderful VST program StutterEdit has this capability.

There are many more in my head but the coffee hasn't kicked into gear yet.

Oh, and I so agree with Andy about Divide.
I used to love the function in the EDP that let you divide the loop 
further and further down
to glitchy goodness with a SUS command (brain fart:  what was that called?)

Rick Walker



On 3/25/12 10:50 AM, andy butler wrote:
> following the conversation that developed on the Boomerang thread.
>
> ...just a rough sketch for comment, and keeping in mind that no one 
> feature set is right for everybody.
>
> (and forgetting for the moment that almost any delay unit
>  can be pressed into looping usage)
>
> The features that every looper has
> 1) Record
> 2) Overdub
> 3) Erase
>
> The features that are very commonly desirable, but could be left out 
> and still
> leave a satisfying piece of kit. Depends a lot on the amount of floor 
> space
> unit will take up.
> 1) Reverse
> 2) Speed change
> 3) Stereo
> 4) Midi sync
> 5) Volume on loop(s)
> 6) Undo/Redo
>
>
> The features that get left out, but really shouldn't
> 1) Option of going straight into Overdub
> 2) Feedback control (at least during Overdub)
> 3) Seamlessly re-record a loop ...(so unsupported that it's importance 
> is underestimated)
> 4) Multiply ( or 2 or more loops to allow you to achieve it)
> 5) Stop/Start
> The features that add usefulness, but not at the expense of essentials.
> 1) Substitute/Replace 2) Insert
> 3) Configurable Quantise
> 4) Alternate Outputs
>
>
> ...well that's enough from me...what do you all think?
>
> andy