Pedal that has both looper and rhythm for live gig
 

Hello, I was wondering if someone can help when it comes to a pedal that can do both looping AND rhythm while gigging solo. In the past, I've been using plain looper pedal from my Zoom G3 processor, but I'd like to go a step further and use some basic drum rhythm that I will put in memory for each song on a playlist.

I found this video of a guy gigging in a bar, and you can hear that he occasionally loops along with a backing drum rhythm: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCO-3VuJHZI/

And he's doing all with his foot, going from song to song. Anyone has an idea about the pedal that can do this?

Don't know much about it, but do you mean something like this

Boss RC-10R Rhythm Loop Station Pedal--

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...-station-pedal

This one does what you are talking about

https://www.digitech.com/band-creator/TRIOPLUS.html

This pedal seems to have what you're looking for... a few demos on youtube.

The MOOER GROOVE LOOP X2

https://www.mooeraudio.com/product/G...op-x2-244.html

I have an older BOSS RC20XL that had some pre-loaded drum patterns in loop-slots that are not very good, so I "wrote" over them. I may also look into this MOOER pedal for that rhythm feature as well.

You can incorporate percussion tracks into your loops with the Boss RC-500
and RC-5. The older RC-3 will also do this, but you may find 'better' sound
and more options with the current Boss loopers.

I use a Boss RC-500 for my duo gigs similar to what you described. Some presets I use the internal drum machine, pick a style, pattern, remove any parts you don't want and adjust the speed. On a few songs I've recorded percussion and bass loops at home and save to a preset. You can also either make your own in a DAW, or recorded if you're a drummer, and import that track into the pedal. I will usually just look for an isolated drum track for a particular song I like, record bass to it and save that to a preset. Sometimes I'll just record percussion loops to save by whacking my guitar a bit.

I've thought a bit about setting up a minimalist percussion rig to simply record directly into my looper. It takes about 30 seconds for me to get to the point where I can't stand any kind of pre-programmed "drum loop".

Then I remember watching other folks who thought drumming was easy and stepping up to a kit to try their hand at it. It's usually fairly amusing, and I'm sure that's what I would sound like, too. ;)

I can use 2 of my limbs at one time fine but 3 or more, I feel like its my first time walking on land. I'll never sit behind a kit again.

Percussion is almost equally as difficult to do well. When I'm on gigs and someone who isn't a percussionist pulls out a tambourine or shaker or other instrument, I cringe. And usually that worry is confirmed. People think it is easy to play a shaker. As someone who plays a lot of bass gigs, I can tell you it isn't easy to play it well, and most kill a grove before it has a chance to happen.

fwiw I use any pre-recorded drum/percussion loops for practice only - never on a live gig. My personal rule is whatever I'm playing live has to be generated live. So if I want a percussion loop, I will create that on the guitar or bass I'm playing on the fly, then work with that. Totally ymmv but *to me* playing live means just that - playing live, not playing along with something made before the gig.

If I really want live percussion or drums on a song, then I'll hire a human to do that live. Recording in the studio is a different story - I use samples and various drum software to make that happen. But I won't use that as a backing track to recreate the music live. Again, ymmv but to quote my wife, "that drum machine sounds cheesy..."

A wise woman indeed. ;)

I played in a couple of different bands with a very good drummer who also was a percussionist. He often did our acoustic shows using dumbek or jambe with various bells and rattles fastened to other parts of his body. He used his full Rodgers drum set on the electric gigs. He made it all look easy, but I've never been deceived into attempting it. ;)

I also played in a Cajun / Zydeco band for several years and we always had a dedicated percussionist that played rub board (frottoir) and triangle (te fir, "little iron"). Those two instruments ALWAYS had someone in the audience who was sure they could instantly play them. The few times we gave in a "train wreck" always followed. ;)

I played bass in a Brazilian pop band for a couple of years. When I first started, I got some roadmap charts from them and figured, "hey, I play jazz - plenty of latin tunes - I got this."

Wrong. It took me about 6 months of woodshedding and playing out to understand the polyrhythms and how bass interacts with the kick in that music. This also was with a drummer who I'd done hundreds of other gigs in different situations - jazz casuals, theater shows, etc. So it wasn't like I was getting used to a new drummer, but rather I was learning a new rhythmic language that I thought I could fake my way through.

The groove is a powerful but fragile thing. Doesn't take much to make it disappear...

Most definitely!

The accordion player in our Cajun / Zydeco band also fronted another band playing another of his specialties, Brazilian music. At least he had to make a mental shift to go from the single row to triple row accordion!

The Cumbia stuff was a LOT more difficult to play bass to than what I initially thought. That and Forro kept me mentally stimulated and proved to be a pretty constant challenge for how to syncopate with the drums involved!