Quote:
Originally Posted by esslewis
Well I don't know how you're intendeing to use it, and I haven't gotten a looper unit yet (but I'm re-e-e-eal close!) but I have always thought that I could use one on most ANY tune -- record the guitar verse then play it back while you're doing a lead over it, etc. Choruses too, I suppose... I'd think the choice of songs is almost endless. How do you like your RC20XL, anyway? I was looking at that unit very closely but if I was to but one tomorrow it would be the Jamman because, primarily, of it having an XLR mic input -- although I'm sure there are some other significant differences. Anyway I don't mean to hijack your thread but if you have any comments on that, I'm all ears....
|
I've been playing around with it a bit more.
For practising, it's brilliant. Practising your scales and soloing with this thing is awesome! For performances, I think you do need dedicated arrangements for your songs to make it sound good. Just sitting down and strumming the verse, then looping it and maybe soloing over it doesn't really add anything. It sounds much better when you bring parts in and out. The opposite idea which would be adding a whole bunch of loops doesn't really help either because when you get to the chorus and have to cut all of the loops that are running, the music suddenly sounds naked and thin. As if the whole band suddenly walked out!
What I've found works best is having a riff that you play in two harmonies to start off the song and then add in and take out at certain strategic parts. You can add vocal harmonies on that but that limits you a bit. Then at the end of the song, you can start layering and layering and go completely off. As I said though, you do need to think about the arrangement beforehand especially if you're performing solo.
I like the RC-20. I looked at the Jamman too and played both and I found the RC-20 easier to work with. IIRC, the Jamman didn't have a reverse function which seemed gimmicky at the time but is something I'm actually using. It sounds great so I don't mind the lack of an XLR input.
I would say though that I will probably upgrade to the RC-50 at some point (perhaps when the price comes down). I think that the RC-20 would work well in a band environment to add something extra but if you really want to perform solo, the extra track that the RC-50 has would really help. That would allow you to have different loops for chorus and verse or allow you to keep the beat and bass track going throughout the song which would eliminate that sense of the band walking out when you get to the chorus. On the other hand, even the RC-50 is limited in comparison to using Ableton Live with a midi pedal. I may actually go that route in future.