Looper pedals and more

[archerscreek]

I’ve spent, perhaps wasted haha, a few hours researching various looper pedals and am leaning towards the JamMan Solo XT. I like the ability to store more than a few loops, the possibility to add the three switch pedal, the option for auto start, and some of the other features that seem to smooth a player’s loop out.

Does anyone have any experience with the Solo XT? Reliability? Ease of use? Sound quality especially for an acoustic? The videos I’ve tracked down were made using electric guitars and the sound of each seemed a bit digital rather than than giving a beautiful tube amp tone, although it certainly could be the setups the video reviewers were running that produced the sound and not any alteration caused by the pedal itself.

I’d prefer to mic 🎤 my acoustic. What other gear will I need or might help create a nice loop other than cables, a mic, and an amp? Someone said I should run through a compression pedal. Any insights are appreciated.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by archerscreek

I’ve spent, perhaps wasted haha, a few hours researching various looper pedals and am leaning towards the JamMan Solo XT. I like the ability to store more than a few loops, the possibility to add the three switch pedal, the option for auto start, and some of the other features that seem to smooth a player’s loop out.

Does anyone have any experience with the Solo XT? Reliability? Ease of use? Sound quality especially for an acoustic? The videos I’ve tracked down were made using electric guitars and the sound of each seemed a bit digital rather than than giving a beautiful tube amp tone, although it certainly could be the setups the video reviewers were running that produced the sound and not any alteration caused by the pedal itself.

I’d prefer to mic �� my acoustic. What other gear will I need or might help create a nice loop other than cables, a mic, and an amp? Someone said I should run through a compression pedal. Any insights are appreciated.

That particular pedal no experience I have a Boss R3 LoopStation similar I think. Plus I only use it for electric.

So in general while it is certainly doable for acoustic use I doubt your going to get away from a "digital" type sound per se ( although the better the final output chain, the better the sound will be) , given virtually all loopers have digital recording chips in them and fairly cheap ones at that.

[BT55]

I have a few looper pedals and all of then connect via cable to the guitar. If you are using a 1/4” mike cable to the looper you will be fine. If you are using an XLR cable to your amp or PA I don’t know how you would connect to the looper.

Originally Posted by archerscreek

The videos I’ve tracked down were made using electric guitars and the sound of each seemed a bit digital rather than than giving a beautiful tube amp tone, although it certainly could be the setups the video reviewers were running that produced the sound and not any alteration caused by the pedal itself.

A looper pedal won't shape tone, or at least they're not supposed to. Lots of variables in the signal chain from guitar to amp to video mic to upload to your computer speaker. Take any video tone with a huge grain of salt.

Originally Posted by archerscreek

TI like the ability to store more than a few loops, the possibility to add the three switch pedal, the option for auto start, and some of the other features that seem to smooth a player’s loop out.

As for the JamMan Solo XT, I am generally of the opinion that the fewer buttons a looper has, the more difficult it is to use smoothly. At the very least, you definitely want a dedicated start/stop button. Anything that requires a double tap is problematic for performances. If you're just using it as a writing/practicing/jamming tool, a single-button unit is fine.

I bought the now-discontinued two-button JamMan, and even with that, I wished I had sprung for the four-button JML2. That said, I also found that mine had way too many "features," like the rhythm track, that I never used and that bolloxed up the process.

If I was buying today, I'd probably opt for the Ditto X4.

[DesertTwang]

I have had the JamMan Solo XT for a long time and use if for practice. I have not (yet?) gigged with it, so I'm fairly certain I'm not using it to its full potential. What I do is use it to record myself playing rhythm tracks and chord progressions to then loop them and practice over, for example fiddle tunes, or improvising a melody over a chord progression.

For this purpose, the JamMan XT works great. The sound quality is very good, although I admit I haven't really been scrutinizing it for that aspect (I guess I assumed all looper pedals are the same in sound quality...?). All I can say is that when I play my guitar through my acoustic Fender amp and loop it, the recorded sound coming from the looper sounds no different from the sound when I play "live" through the amp.

This is my setup: Acoustic guitar plugged into the amp; JamMan plugged into the amp's effects loop. That's it, and that works great for my purposes.

In terms of ease of use, I will say that I find the JamMan far from being intuitive. Granted, I never sat down and spent a lot of time with the manual. Because the unit is so compact, it has many more functions than buttons. As a result, many of its functions are "hidden," and you have to press a certain combination of buttons to access them. Especially when I haven't used the looper in a while, I have to refresh my memory of how I access certain functions, and that can be frustrating. If you plan on using it very regularly, though, I think you'll find it quite easy to use.

One last word on using a mic in this setup: Before I had a pickup installed, I used a mic to record my practice loops. That was a minor disaster because of constant feedback issues. That said, I hardly knew anything about this stuff at the time, and for example used a condenser mic placed in front of studio monitors. Now I know that setup was not a good idea. But even in my current setup with a proper guitar amp, I find feedback to be an issue when using a mic. Also, keep in mind that the JamMan does NOT provide phantom power, so you'll have to figure out how to power the mic if necessary.

Other than that, I agree with what Willie said: For example, to stop the loop, you have to stomp the pedal twice in quick succession. sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. For my practicing purposes, it's a minor annoyance, but I could see how this could botch a performance in a major way. The rhythm track is annoying, too, because it is turned on by default, and you have to either press a series of buttons (that I can never remember) to disable it, or turn the rhythm volume level down all the way. On many occasions, I was recording a loop where I had forgotten to turn down or disable the rhythm track and ended up with an unusable loop.

One thing I really like about the JamMan is that you can play back a recorded loop at lower or higher speed without changing the pitch. Especially for practicing purposes, this is incredibly useful, and for me, it was a must-have feature. Otherwise, I may have bought the Hotone Wally instead. It looks super fun, and it's tiny, too.

[DesertTwang]

Originally Posted by BT55

I have a few looper pedals and all of then connect via cable to the guitar. If you are using a 1/4” mike cable to the looper you will be fine. If you are using an XLR cable to your amp or PA I don’t know how you would connect to the looper.

As long as the amp provides phantom power for the mic, the looper simply goes into the amp's effects loop. That should work fine.

[8TrackJoe]

If you are looking at the Jamman Solo XT and wanting to use a mic then I would suggest taking a look at the Jamman Stereo which has a dedicated mic input. It also has four foot switches along with a connection for the Digitech 3 button switch if you need the additional control. Has the sd card slot for storing loops.

https://digitech.com/en/products/jamman-stereo

[J Patrick]

..I have had three loopers starting witth a boss RC 20 XL more than a decade ago....these days I use a JamMan express XT..a real one trick pony....it's not because I can't afford a more full featured looper....what I have found is that it forces me to lay down live tracks and that in turn keeps me on my game...technically and creatively.....

...of course I could use any looper in this manner but I tended to rely on stored loops quite a bit in the past....I am tempted to get a more advanced looper so that I could add more voices and expand the creative horizon ...and likely will...

....I do however recommend a lot of live looping to anyone getting started to really get tapping in and out down pat...

[MikeBmusic]

Having witnessed people using 'stored loops' too many times... at what point is it different than karaoke (but adding a guitar part, too)? To me, using it as an occasional 'addition to the sound' is good, but using it regularly is a non-no. Seems the audience gets used to/tired of it, too.

[MGSRobinson]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

Having witnessed people using 'stored loops' too many times... at what point is it different than karaoke (but adding a guitar part, too)? To me, using it as an occasional 'addition to the sound' is good, but using it regularly is a non-no. Seems the audience gets used to/tired of it, too.

I agree with this sentiment. I performed solo with a looper for years, but gave it up when I started to feel like more of a technician than a musician. It can be cool for a few numbers, but not for a whole set:

A) If you try and create big loops live, the audience will constantly be waiting for you to finish layering before the song can begin. It becomes tedious.

B) If your intention is to create and save loops for later use, you’d get a better end result from just playing a pre-recorded track on a sampler, sequencer, or even IPad/phone. I still sometimes play with background drones and I just use a couple of big WAVs I have saved on my IPhone.

C) When making loops live there’s always a chance you might goof on one layer and then have to listen to the mistake repeated the whole song. If you’re using pre-recorded loops you limit your ability to be spontaneous, improvise, and “play to the room”.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with loopers, but I think they can run the risk of bordering on novelty if overused.

They are great for practicing, though, and with enough rehearsal and planning they can be integrated into a set when used sparingly.

The one dude that I’ve heard use a looper really tastefully is Bill Frisell. He uses a Line 6 DL4 I believe.

When I was looping, I liked the RC20-XL. 10 stored loops, two foot pedals, and a super cool reverse loop function.

[steve_mac]

I use the simple looper that is built into the TC Helicon playacoustic. I have disabled the undo feature which gives me a longer loop time.
In an average set of two and a half hours, I probably use it on a quarter of the songs and the vast majority of them it's just a single loop with only a couple of songs with more than two over dubs so as not to bore anyone.
If I make a mistake creating the loop, I abandon it and do the song without.
If I wanted pre-recorded loops, I would just use a backing track, I don't really see the difference.

[Spook]

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[M Hayden]

Depending on the type of mic, it could either just plug in via 1/4” (dynamics like SM57 or the like) or need an in-line phantom power box (most condensers).

I’ve tried using a mic before with a looper (two pedal JamMan blue) and found there was waaaaay too much bleed. If I could hear it, the mic heard it also and the sound got muddy rapidly.

Pickups are a better solution imho.

[varmonter]

I use a ditto mini . I don't use it much. it's on my pedal
board and is first in the chain . I use it to eq my guitar
at different venues. I play a simple progression then
put my guitar backwards on the stand ( mutes strings)
Then i can grab my ipad and go out
front and eq my guitar. I also use it as a practice tool.
playing lead over rhythm. If i actually used it as designed
like KT Tunstall or ed sheeran then i would
definitely get one with a dedicated start stop button.
The double tap can be a train wreck at a live gig.
The Ditto mini works for my needs. and takes up
little space on my board.

[Liam77]

Originally Posted by varmonter

I use a ditto mini . I don't use it much. it's on my pedal
board and is first in the chain . I use it to eq my guitar
at different venues. I play a simple progression then
put my guitar backwards on the stand ( mutes strings)
Then i can grab my ipad and go out
front and eq my guitar. I also use it as a practice tool.
playing lead over rhythm. If i actually used it as designed
like KT Tunstall or ed sheeran then i would
definitely get one with a dedicated start stop button.
The double tap can be a train wreck at a live gig.
The Ditto mini works for my needs. and takes up
little space on my board.

I never thought about that!

That's actually a very cool way to finetune a guitar sounds without having to play and adjust at the same time.