In the Loop: Simple Pedal Loopers

This photo pretty much wraps up 1984

When Van Halen’s 1984 album came out both my step-dad and I were smitten.  I was 8 years old and I remember buying the tape at Bradlee’s along with some Star Wars figures with sweet, sweet B-day cash.  My step-dad, who’s band practiced in our basement, was really trying to nail the riffs to Drop Dead Legs.  He taught me the basic drum groove and had me play it for hours which I was more than happy to do.  Years later, when I picked up the guitar, he would have me play chords so he rock solos, again, for hours.  I lived under his roof and if he wanted me to back him that was the way it was gonna be.  Now there are no kids in house.  Who’s gonna lay down the groove?

He needs a looper!

As you may or may not know, a looper pedal is one of the most useful tools that you can own.  For both practice and performance, loopers allow your separate musical ideas to exist at the same time.  You can lay down a chord progression and solo over the top.  You can build a percussive groove and accent it with phrases and drones often infinitely.  Some units allow you to create multiple tracks that can be played at will and others can warp your loops until there take on an entirely new vibe.  Either way, you NEED a looper.  

Robert Fripp is one of the pioneers of looping.  His “Frippertronics” technique utilized two reel-to-reel tape recorders that fed into one another to create an ambient backdrop for his pointed improvised soloing.  Others have used similar techniques with vintage tape delays to created massive sounds-capes with a single instrument.  Luckily, we can now do it with affordable looper pedals that set up in seconds and don’t require a roady.

Looping has become very popular for players of many instruments and styles that there is now a wide variety of looper pedals at all price points and specs.  Many practice amps, delay pedals and multi-fx units have loopers built in.
For now, let’s talk about basic, independent looper pedals.  My dad is a great player but doesn’t want to get deep on some tricked out pedal.  He just wants to plug and play.
It doesn’t get too much simplier than these the entry level pedals from Boss and Digitech.
The Boss Loop Station and Digitech Jamman lines are both very well established and offer an array of models in increasing complexity.  Both of these pedals are in the basic stompbox format with a single footswitch.  
Common Features:
-Both pedals allow you to add layers on top of one-another until your hearts content.  
-Both have 99 locations to store loops.
-Both have USB to import/export loops to your computer 

-Loops can be any variety of instruments allowing you to “Play” with a full band.

RC-3: Loop Station 

 -3 hrs of internal recording.
-Stereo Output
-Built-In Drum grooves
-Optional Battery operation

 

Jamman Solo 

-Store over 35 minutes of mono, CD-Quality loops in 99 internal memories
-Optional SDHC card can store over 16 hours* of CD-quality audio in 99 additional memories (198 total)
-Metronome with multiple rhythm sounds and time signatures
-Jammanager Librarian software
-Slightly lower Price
-Slow down or speed up any loop without changing pitch


These boxes will serve you well for practice or even limited live performance.
Next Time we’ll cover multi-track loopers that more geared for composing and the stage.