Advice on a Fun Pedal for Looping and Maybe More!

[open-road-matt]

Hi Friends!
I want to get a fun pedal and I'm hoping for some advice.

My original intent was to buy a Boss RC-30.

Use #1) I want to use it to practice guitar solos over the top of looped chords. Or tap the guitar to create a beat.

Use #2) I want to be able to have mic plugged into the looper and be able to loop vocals, a shaker etc.

I'm also buying this for our kids. They are having fun creating songs with their keyboards and singing through my mics. Our almost 10 year old would for sure be able to loop keyboard tracks and/or vocals.

So whatever I look at has to have inputs for an instrument and a mic and the ability to loop both. The RC-30 seems like a good choice.

But.....if I'm going to spend some money, it might be nice to get something that I might actually use live. So I'm also considering the TC Helicon Play Acoustic.

I wouldn't ever use the harmonizer live (or the vocal effects) but the Body Rez, EQ options and other guitar effects could be nice. I can also see the kids having a blast with the vocal effects at home. We'd be losing some of the looping capability compared to the RC-30 but gaining some other useful options.

Here's what I'd love to know about the Play Acoustic:

1) Can I loop both vocals and guitar? If so, what is the loop time? I keep reading that it has been extended but I don't know the total time.

2) Does the Play Acoustic have phantom power so I can use my condenser mic if I use it on stage?

3) Can the guitar and vocals be combined to one XLR output? This would allow me to use it as a backup mixer should the need arise.

Any help or advice would be wonderful!

Thanks!
Matt

[Paultergeist]

Matt,

I can only share my own opinion....others will likely feel otherwise, but I think you are asking for a bit much out of a single looper pedal.

Loop guitar and then play over it? Sure, they all do that to various degrees.

Loop guitar and vocals? Hmmmm......I have never done this myself. Seems to me I have observed solo artists use two separate loopers if they needed to be able to loop both vocals and guitar at the same time. You can certainly do either guitar or vocals with a looper, but I am not sure if any of the commonly-available loop pedals will allow you to do both at the same time...?

Boss RC-30. A good friend of mine has one of these. He really likes it. He does say, however, that there was a bit of a steep learning curve to it. I tried it, and I found it frustratingly complex to use. I instead settled on a Ditto X2.

Use by 10-year-olds: In my opinion, another vote *for* a super easy user interface such as the Ditto X2, and against the RC-30.

Good enough for you to use live yourself? No idea.....but professional-level gear for you...vs....letting kids have at it might again be splitting the intended purposes across a wide range.

I will just close with this: my advice is -- for whatever looper you may consider -- that it have an interface/operation that you are comfortable using....otherwise you are less likely to actually use the device.

[JakeStone]

Originally Posted by open-road-matt

Here's what I'd love to know about the Play Acoustic:

1) Can I loop both vocals and guitar? If so, what is the loop time? I keep reading that it has been extended but I don't know the total time.

2) Does the Play Acoustic have phantom power so I can use my condenser mic if I use it on stage?

3) Can the guitar and vocals be combined to one XLR output? This would allow me to use it as a backup mixer should the need arise.

Any help or advice would be wonderful!

Regarding the Play Acoustic

I believe the loop time is 60 seconds (mono)

1) Yes you can set it up to record / loop either guitar, vocals or both.
2) Yes the PA has 48V Phantom Power
3) Yes the guitar and vocal can be combined and output thru 1 XLR.

If you do get the PA then I recommend the Switch 3 or Switch 6. This makes the looper easier to engage. But is not necessary.

[Kalani]

Hi Matt,

I would highly recommend getting a dedicated looper; the Acoustic Play wouldn't have enough recording time to stack loops, etc...and is pretty complicated to operate at a live gig to go back and forth from looping to the other features of the unit.

I use the TC Ditto X2 and it doesn't get much easier to loop guitar rhythms at a live gig. They also have another unit for vocals called the Ditto Mic Looper. However, you can't save your loops with these units (if you wanted to do that) and I think it would be very difficult to use them together as they don't have midi to sync the timing with each other.

Therefore, I would recommend the Boss RC-30 (between these choices) as you could loop guitar and vocals easily with everything in sync, save parts if you like (99 banks), and not have to worry about running out of recording time while looping---it has 3 hours! It also has built-in effects and drums.

Have fun!

[Groberts]

A dedicated Looper will be more straight forward and useful. I have found you longer record duration than 60 seconds is essential. I often loop an entire verse and chorus. That can take a minute or two.

I use an Electro Harmonix Stereo 720 looper. I also just got an EHX22500 Looper yesterday to try. The EHX 720 has 10 Storage banks, and separate start and stop buttons. I find that essential for Live use.

The EHX 22500 Looper has a second foot switch that can be used to record/loop another section such as a chorus or bridge. There is a separate stop button so you can elegantly stop your song with one click. This model also has an SD Card slot to allow a lot of storage. Nice.

[8TrackJoe]

Just my 2 cents......you might want to take a look at the Jamman Stereo by Digitech, http://digitech.com/en-US/products/jamman-stereo. It has guitar and mic input.

[open-road-matt]

Thanks for all the help and advice. I think I will look at a dedicated looper. That's really what I want. I don't need any of the guitar and vocal effects. I sure don't need them live and although it might be fun to fool with them at home I guess I'd rather have more looping capacity/capability than the effects.

Way back when I had a Boss RC-20 so I'm familiar and comfortable with the Boss style pedals. I think I would prefer those to the medal "buttons." Any other reason to consider something like the JamMan over the RC-30?

Thanks again!
Matt

[pf400]

Happy RC20XL user here...it just never quits. Just a word about tapping the guitar for a drum beat though. Some acoustic-electric guitars give great response (through the looper to your amp) to tapping, some hardly at all. Depends on the electronics or where those sensors/pickups are located inside the guitar. My Yamaha NTX1200r is perfect, my Martin GCPA4 far from perfect in getting the tapping through to the looper.

[Slim]

Hey Matt,
I have a JamMan Stereo that I really like. It's easy to use, really well built and has a feature set that is well thought out. It is definitely fun to use! I think the 4 switch set up makes it easy to use, therefore more fun.
But it does not supply phantom power to the mic input. The RC 30 does.
Tim