I used to have four of the Digitech Jamman’s synced together. I can record a drum part, then bass, then guitar then vocals and then play them together is different configurations for different parts of the song.
Some people would want the loops to play one after each other. For example, looper one will have the verse then loop two will have the chorus. The user will have the looper start the next section when the current section ends.
Don’t forget about the guys who play in odd times like 7/8, 11/8 etc… I guess you will have to decide on a time…
I never use the free loop start I have wanted to put in some noises like a crowd sound or sound effect that I’d like to inject during a song. This could be a separate sampling module plugin. So you can take it off from the looper I guess…
I see how your idea can work as a single plugin with multiple loopers. Will each looper have it’s own input and output?
I would like each looper to have a differnt channel because I play multiple instruments at the same time and want to record each on it’s own track.
@Skydiver, your suggestions are absolutely helpful yes. My previous looping project Luppp[1] (Not a MOD capable LV2 plugin) worked quite similar to the workflow you have described:
song “parts” are seperate loops;
each instrument has its own “track” (or looper in this case);
User triggers next “part” at end of this one.
Although a powerful and common way of using loopers, I think there is a better way to loop in a live situation. I’m not quite sure exactly how to address the changes of parts of songs etc, but I do think there’s potential to be improved on the workflow as we have discussed until now.
Thanks for your input - I’ve had this conversation with a lot of people, and every time some new ideas or understanding of how “you guys” (musicians with loopers) actually use this stuff
PS: Thanks - i’ve scratched “free mode” off the list!
Because is wasn’t mentioned yet: would the to-be-developed-looper be able to load external or previously saved files or is that something you’d rather outsource to a separate tool?
@eggsperde
I’m glad you mentioned this since I totally forgot about it.
One thing I used to do is upload a drum loop to one of my physical loopers (Digitech Jamman Solo XT) and have other loopers synced to it.
@harryhaaren
Another function I just thought about is an “Undo” function. This would erase the last overdub. It would be good to be able to “undo” the “undo” so that you can bring in and out that last overdub. It’s great to take out a mistake… or use it as a tool to bring in and out the part…
Sorry to keep adding to the list.
@Skydiver, no worries about adding to the list - the problem is more how do we map this functionality to two buttons. There is no way to have overdub, play, stop, record, undo, clear, one-shot vs repeat, and all these for multiple loops?
So lets start thinking about how you want to use this thing - what would your idea way of controlling it be. To be very clear - the above are features, which is different to how you control the features.
We have a list of features - step 2 is how to control things. Novel suggestions based on how you control a looper welcomed!
Digitech has an interesting way for a single button operation. Press to start/record. Press again to stop record and looper keeps going. Press again to overdub. Double tap to stop. (I think press&hold erases the recording or deletes the last overbud… I can’t remember) I think that TC Electronic Ditto is a little bit different.
Maybe one button can do all that is listed above. Other button can scroll through the loopers and select the looper/track you want to use. It probably should show on the display which looper is being active.
@gianfranco Fully agree with you - it is necessary to implement MOD’s file handling first. Do you plan some kind of abstraction (like a DB) or will the users organize their files in the file system?
@Skydiver I like the Digitech concept and the way you describe it; it is very minimal and people who only want to use one looper/track can do that without hassles. The others would still get the power of multiple tracks.
Aren’t discussions with strong opposition great, @gianfranco? And I dont only say that because I would prefer a system-wide availability.
I reckon, the reasoning behind your position is, that the system would become too cluttered and disorganised. And I agree. But then again, it would be necessary to distinguish different types of files anyway:
loops
backing tracks
short samples for a drum machine
full songs to play along
impulse responses / convolution files
…
Tricky stuff. If I had to suggest an implementation, I would probably meditate about these categories some time and then create a central upload folder with subfolders for each category. Additionally, each pedalboard would get an own folder (equal to the pedalboard’s name) and I would create soft links from the central upload folder to the pedalboard folder for each file used in this pedal board.
Softlinks are great anyway. Easy to build “favorites” and “last used” folders…
But well, you have an excellent track record and I am sure you can come up with something better. I look forward to it!
In my case I would kind of hope part of the interface could be deported to the tablet linked to the mod Duo (ideally in Wifi once it comes).
As I play with loops, add them remove them, it’s ok if I do not play all the time, I can focus a bit on the screen to do what I want, but also I can use my feet to change parameters on other effect avoiding a static sound.
Hello everyone, I’ve been following this thread hoping for something new happening on the looper…
What i really would love to see is a MIDI sync function, I play a lot with a drum machine and it is very hard to perfectly sync my guitar riffs with it…
Is this something you guys are looking at?
@rogeriocouto
I know about this tip. That’s what I meant with "But he gets along with it by playing with better technique"
But this doesn’t work for my style of playing with loops (but I have to commit that it’s pretty poor).
I don’t have this problem with looper foot pedals and I think that this problem should be fixed.
…it definitely needs fixing - finding workarounds is about making something usable until it’s fixed, not a reason to not fix it
If anyone’s working on this, my wishlist for the looper in terms of priority would be to have the click fixed, have the option to go straight from record into overdub (which may actually be the way around this, as it should eliminate the broken wave form if the sound is continuous, unless you start recording while there’s sound going in) and a feedback control/loop decay/whatever you want to call it, so we can make loops fade. Also a stereo version would be AMAZING (a stereo version would basically be on the outputs of every patch I have with enough spare CPU for it to be there…)
After that, I’d love for it to have multiply, and the option to sync to delays/clock/other looper instances in a plugin etc. but one thing at a time
…uh-oh… just to throw a wrench in the works (and kinda surprised no one else asked about this): i make huge use of variable loop-speed, available both in record and in playback for each loop in SooperLooper (http://essej.net/sooperlooper/)
…would love to see more looper development for MOD…
