I used to use a boss loop station (RC-2) in a very basic way (no more than 4-5 overdubs on top of the same phrase) and it served me well for a while.
Now i am in the process to move my rig entirely to the dwarf so i am looking for a plugin to replace it.
I looked at the good superlooper however there does not seem to be a “quantize” function which automatically adjust the recording of the phrase to the playback audio.
I am surely not good enough to enter the tempo perfectly with the footswitch that’s why the boss came handy in order to be able to get the perfect loop avoiding glitches or undesired audio cuts due to poor performance.
Looking back at the forum history i noticed there is an alternative like ALO in the beta shop which i am really keen to try or looperlative which looks far more complex for what i need.
Do you have feedback on this subject or suggestions?
The LP3 plugin allows you to overdub as many times as you like with undo and redo capabilities. It also offers a second track that can be synchronized to the first track.
LP3 seems really nice however the interruptions are frequent and quite nasty which make the overall evaluation slow and not straightforward.
I would not mind buying but if there was an open source alternative i would prefer to chip in for it
Hi,
I’m not sure I understand your problem. In SooperLooper, the length of the loop is always set by the 1st one. So you don’t have to be precise with the footswitch when you overdub. Only the 1st loop has to be done precisely. Maybe I don’t understand what you call “playback audio”.
A quantize mode works with some kind of clock (plugin clock, MOD’s internal clock, external MIDI clock). Nothing like that in SooperLooper. The LP3 can sync to a clock.
That’s exactly my problem getting the first loop/phrase correct without quantize i found it very difficult not incurring into cut sound, glitches and so on…
If you want the looper to end the loop at the good time, you need one that can be synced to a clock and you have to use a feedback of this clock (metronome or sequencer) while you record. I think the best choice if you need that is the LP3. You can try ALO but it’s still in beta state.
On the other side, it doesn’t take too much time to get used to making perfect loops without quantization if you don’t have rhythmic problems. And it can be a way to improve your rhythm.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Regarding improving the performance to get the tempo right it’s definitely something i would be keen to pursue in the future (despite i am very lazy musician! ).
However since my way of playing loops adapted with the boss features over time i’d prefer to have similar functions available in the pedal.
Definitely LP3 and/or ALO sound the right choice
I can tell you that the LP3 is so good that will make you wanna be a better MusicAN.
You can add delays and reverbs after it to smooth things out and disguise a slightly poor performance.
When tracking a loop what I find most difficult it is to control the intensity of the first attack. ( I tend to hit the strings too hard ).
All depends on your goals. If you have a click track or drum beat already, then you have to sync to it if you want to stay in time. If you are setting the time, then you just need to practice. Consider playing more than a single measure and learn to tap while in the middle of playing. You will find greater joy using a looper if you take the time to train yourself.
BTW, one of the reason that my loopers have always been designed to support ending record into overdub is because your loop will sound more seamless. I think the harsh transition from record to play is one of the reasons that people get frustrated with button press timing.
I don’t think bad timing is more forgiven when you go from record to overdub but you’re right about the harsh transition and you gave me an idea. I used to always prefer going from record to play but I had one problem : when I record drums with my MIDI keyboard, I generally loose the kick on the 1st beat because I play it at the same time I hit the button.
So I tried to go from record to overdub and played the 1st beat at the end of the loop instead of the beginning. The loop is now fluid, nothing is eaten. And I realized this is also useful with anacruses. I may stick with this mode. Thanks for the tip.
I’ve done a lot of audio looping over the years, and I always found anything that quantized the audio to be a horrible experience. If you sync to midi, then you can play ahead or behind the bar and it won’t matter because the loop will be X bars long regardless of what you play. I find that set up to be much easier to work with. The Electrix Repeater had an audio quantize, and I never used it because you can’t make rhythms without slight timing errors being introduced by the audio truncation.
You may want to look into syncing your looper instead of using one which quantizes the audio.
Just a thought.
And obviously, I mean that you can 'intentionally" play ahead or behind the bar.
But if you do that, and audio truncates based on the ‘first beat’ it detects in the audio - it ruins all groove, not just that first beat, but everything which comes after it is pulled around and it’s a mess.
Hi @S_Righteous,
I don’t know if every looper do the same thing when they “quantize”. For instance, I believe my Boss looper only corrects the timing of the button pressure to match the measures when the tempo is played. I don’t think it modifies the audio. This is also what I understand from the manual. But I’d need to make some test to be sure.
The majority of loopers do not ‘quantize’. They might let you set a tempo, which sets the loop length, or the tempo comes from midi, which sets the loop length, or they let you freestyle the first loop to set the loop length, and overdubs are at that same tempo/loop length. Most loopers can ‘sync’ to a tempo.
You are probably thinking about sync, and how to sync your looper ?
Quantize is something where your performance will be moved forward or backward to match a tempo. There are loopers which will detect your input and truncate any empty signal before that point, which truncates the loop length, essentially quantizing it. The idea is that if you start playing ‘late’ on the beat, it will tighten that up - but it’s a flawed concept, and I’ve never seen anyone use it successfully for live looping. It’s also a very rare feature.
Probably. But Boss uses the word “quantize” in the manual.
Or trying to define what @NinU had in mind in the 1st post. I don’t know if he was talking about some kind of audio stretching or just a correction of the bad timing of the footswitch pressure to sync the loop to the tempo. I’m leaning more toward the latter.
I think what he was thinking in the original post is three things:
Recording started by audio. In that case, the record button only prepares to record but audio is the final trigger.
He wants the loop to automatically end recording at the end of the 4th bar beyond the start.
Implied but not stated: Stay synchronized to the host clock.
The LP3 plugin allows 3 but not 1 and 2. I’m thinking about whether or not to implement 1 and 2. They aren’t two difficult to code, but the question is whether these features would confuse or help most people.
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