Just a general tip about setup that most experienced loopers will probably already know, but for guitar its really beneficial to use two amps or a P.A. and put the playback on its own amplifier. I like to run my looper from the effects loop send of my main amp and instead of going back to the return ill take the looper output to another amp thats very clean. This way whatever is recorded on the looper doesn't muddy up the main amp and placing it in the effects loop after the preamp really improves the sound vs. having it in front of the amp
Figured it out 3 years ago after 15 years of having the pedal 😂Guitar to Marshall solidstate stack to looper to Hartke bass stack. The distortion channel sounds AMAZING! Lol
A wee trick that I'm honestly surprised no one else seems to use: A looper is great for EQ'ing amps, or playing with pedal settings. Rather than juggling between playing and adjusting settings, just get something going on the looper so you can focus on live adjustments. On the face of it, sounds needlessly convoluted. But it actually speeds up the job considerably and allows for finer and more accurate dialing in.
oh yeah! I often end up having to do the initial sound setup for my band when there's no soundie at the venue, and being able to just set a loop going for my guitar while everyone plays with it has been an absolute lifesaver!
I like to add quick, random blips of stuttery notes to drone loops by holding a sustained note while quickly hitting overdub then immediately ending recording. You get a choppy immediate attack of the note, slight decay, then immediate release. A few passes of adding more layers of blips and you can either build melodies with unique envelopes or build a randomized pad to play with/over
@@nsiepmann Thanks so much, I've been contemplating making some videos about some unusual pedal concepts and digital modeling sound design that I use. Perhaps I'll get around to that eventually!
Dave Knudson from Minus the Bear used like 6 line 6 DL4s to remix guitar loops live, listening to that like 15 years ago was where I fell in love with loopers
I played in a band that relied alot on both guitars making loops. One trick that I used on a few songs was having the looper volume down. But as we played I would record bits of chords or harmonics preparing an atmospheric loop for a break coming up in the song. We get to that point, I’d hit reverse and I’d roll up the volume and have loop ready for that spot.
Placing a looper at the outside edge of a loose door to keep it from closing shut during these increasingly crazy summer nights is a good use for loopers 😊👍
Great video and outstanding visual representations of how those loops will work with the waveforms on the toilet roll. So many TH-camrs are giving up the main visual benefit of educating through video and are explaining concepts without using any visual aids at all and I'm really happy to see someone using it well
Geek nitpickery: that first ostinato wasn't in 6/8, it was 3/4 playing 8th notes. The former is a compound meter with 2 groups of 3 notes (ONE-2-3 TWO-2-3) the latter is a simple meter with basic subdivisions, such as 3 groups of 2 notes (ONE & TWO & THREE &). as in the example. Good video!
This is a really great explanation. I once wrote what I thought was a 3/4 waltz riff but my drummer then informed me it was actually in 6/8 due to the sort of "swing" delivery it was suggesting. I never really understood the difference 'til now
@@nsiepmann In most cases, if the top number is a multiple of 3, you count the meter as groups of three with greatest stress on the 1st beat of the first group -- 9/8 at a brisk tempo is a really aggressive sound, ONE-2-3 two-2-3 three-2-3 etc.
This is great video! Being a newbie to looping, you’ve introduced some really great creative ideas that I never would have considered. Thank you so much! Excellent teacher as well!
If you get your mic connected to the loop pedal you can use vocals to add a droning/ambience effect and since you're using your voice and not a guitar or something else that creates that beginning sound note you can change notes on the fly, and you can stack it if you want to which is pretty cool. You can use more than just your guitar on loop pedals.
My favourite way to use a looper is a Trey Anastasio-esque funk siren. It’s similar to your droning technique. I like to use a Roland GR-20 for this, but any octave sweeping pedal will work.
for 'shimmery audio garnish' and drones with loopers, I'm finding the TC Infinite sustainer to be fantastic (and if you use the FX loop of the sustainer, and stick an octave pedal or synth pedal in there you can have a low bass note, too)
To keep the rhythm guitar while playing the solo, but also add some extra layer to enhance the solo. I added it to the solo of “Another brick in the wall” and works great
I like doing hocket-like stuff with my little looper. You can play one or multiple notes on the first pass, then fill in more notes on the next passes. A very simple example-say you play straight low E quarter notes, and then fill in the off-beats with 8th notes on the second pass. You can do more complicated stuff with this as well, and make some super intricate and often glitchy-sounding melodies the more notes you add! Phasing is also super fun, like playing a riff in 7/8 and then playing a 4/4 variation overtop of it-which is basically what you described earlier in your video, just in a more intentionally “mathy” context. Adam Neely has a good video on that earlier in his catalogue. Great stuff, thanks for mentioning drones! If you pluck an open string super close to the bridge and then swell in quickly, you can get a super sitar-like sound :)
Oh that sounds fiddly and fun! And I'll have to try that sitar tip.... Also, you mention phasing - since I've got the Flashback on my board which can behave as a looper, I've occasionally tried running it and the RC-30 against each other to do an automated version of Steve Reich's Clapping Music 😆
I've prerecorded instrumental breaks and triggered them at rhe required time. The break can be on a different instrument, harmonica, flute, sax etc. so you can keep playing your accompaniment on guitar. If you a two track looper you can have the other track providing a more 'conventional' loop.
or get the rc600, (or ableton), the rc600 is the only looper i've found that i can even start to do everything a looper needs to do in an actual live situation - more than one section, send a separate out to a drummer, erase and reRecord loops, all while being set to the tempo of your choice
Can it change between song sections while staying at the same tempo? No one could answer this simple question to me under rc600 videos. I mean simple and dumb ableton replacer. A B C D etc. Sections. No way to work with the pedal before buying
Hi, call me Buddah,I am getting Michael Caine dressed Alphi .But it this is just straight ahead ,u,cool. Great dude .I learned and looking at my looper. I am subscribed.
Oh that'd be cool - an interesting songwriting challenge too! You could have a weird vibey bridge section where the chord progression is the verse backwards... Going to try that if I ever upgrade to a looper with a reverse function!
Do you have any tips on level matching or a good volume when it comes to using backing tracks? I guess it's more of a mixing thing, but I've struggled with my RC300 to have a consistent backing track level. Would you suggest using mastered backing tracks or unmastered stems?
I’ll be honest, I’m still working on that - my method so far has been to save a loop of me playing at gig volume, then take the file off the looper and then try to match the backing tracks to that level. I usually end up tweaking it slightly with the volume sliders on the pedal anyway
Oh it's such a nasty pedal - I love it :D I suspect going full chainsaw guitar might alienate the people who've come to my channel from the folk music world, but one of these days I'm going to record the old-school death metal EP I've got written and demoed... (That said, you can hear a tiny little example of it in my video 'What on earth are you doing?' at 2:50 or so!)
Really nice, now I think I might have waste my time building a drum machine on an Arduino to play with me lol Just playing, I guess it still useful because a looper would need way to many loops and to switch between them live in the correct order and times would be a bit of a nightmare, unless the songs are really simple (also my drum machine can trigger my looper right at the start of the beat, which is a bit of a game changer)
Thanks for posting the video. You probably want more subscribers so I hope you won't mind my saying that it appears that this video is only intended for native English speakers since you speak so fast! You were either heavily caffeinated or on cocaine lol I live in the US and recommended your video to friends whose English is not their mother tongue and they told me they could not understand. You'll be suprised at how many people don't know that one can change the speed of the video. I sometimes do that for figuring out licks, but your voice at 75% does not have the same sexiness lol There are 500 million people who speak Spanish and whose English is rather poor. Just think about it, do you watch videos that you can't understand, say, a brazilian guy teaching about looping? Look at the comments below and you'll see that only native speakers watched your video. Anyway, keep up the good work. I am a new subscriber. Jay, from sunny southern California.
Rather than one big do everything looper pedal, buy two or more $30 looper pedals (I have a Kokko SOS FLP2 that is a Ditto Mini clone) --- a lot more flexibility for low cost.
Seems like no one uses their loop pedal like I use mine and it's been very tricky to find a unit that will easily do what I need it to do. I'm a solo acoustic guitar player and here's what I do. As I'm singing the song I start recording the loop at the start of a verse, (sometimes not even the first verse), at the end of the verse I stop the recording, but do NOT have it start playing the loop back right away. A verse later or so I will trigger the playback and do a solo over the loop, then stop the playback as I start playing the guitar part. I can usually do it seamlessly. It's not easy to find a unit to do that without having to double tap to stop the recording, which I find too risky for live performance while I'm singing and playing at the same time!
Just a general tip about setup that most experienced loopers will probably already know, but for guitar its really beneficial to use two amps or a P.A. and put the playback on its own amplifier. I like to run my looper from the effects loop send of my main amp and instead of going back to the return ill take the looper output to another amp thats very clean. This way whatever is recorded on the looper doesn't muddy up the main amp and placing it in the effects loop after the preamp really improves the sound vs. having it in front of the amp
Figured it out 3 years ago after 15 years of having the pedal 😂Guitar to Marshall solidstate stack to looper to Hartke bass stack. The distortion channel sounds AMAZING! Lol
A wee trick that I'm honestly surprised no one else seems to use:
A looper is great for EQ'ing amps, or playing with pedal settings. Rather than juggling between playing and adjusting settings, just get something going on the looper so you can focus on live adjustments. On the face of it, sounds needlessly convoluted. But it actually speeds up the job considerably and allows for finer and more accurate dialing in.
oh yeah! I often end up having to do the initial sound setup for my band when there's no soundie at the venue, and being able to just set a loop going for my guitar while everyone plays with it has been an absolute lifesaver!
Genius
Legend!
That's my main use of my looper.
wow that visualisation with the toilet paper roll was really creative and effective. great stuff
I like to add quick, random blips of stuttery notes to drone loops by holding a sustained note while quickly hitting overdub then immediately ending recording. You get a choppy immediate attack of the note, slight decay, then immediate release. A few passes of adding more layers of blips and you can either build melodies with unique envelopes or build a randomized pad to play with/over
Oh that sounds cool! Would be great to hear an example
@@nsiepmann Thanks so much, I've been contemplating making some videos about some unusual pedal concepts and digital modeling sound design that I use. Perhaps I'll get around to that eventually!
The Red Panda Tensor is great for those type of sounds. Really unique, beautiful sounding pedal with many possibilities for manipulation.
Dave Knudson from Minus the Bear used like 6 line 6 DL4s to remix guitar loops live, listening to that like 15 years ago was where I fell in love with loopers
I played in a band that relied alot on both guitars making loops. One trick that I used on a few songs was having the looper volume down. But as we played I would record bits of chords or harmonics preparing an atmospheric loop for a break coming up in the song. We get to that point, I’d hit reverse and I’d roll up the volume and have loop ready for that spot.
I had to pause, laughing hysterically. The "toilet paper roll" drone example was so visually spot-on!!!
I'll never look at the "roll" the same again!😂
Placing a looper at the outside edge of a loose door to keep it from closing shut during these increasingly crazy summer nights is a good use for loopers 😊👍
reduce reuse recycle
Love that bit about starting a silent loop to then add ambient sound to. Brilliant mate!
Great video and outstanding visual representations of how those loops will work with the waveforms on the toilet roll. So many TH-camrs are giving up the main visual benefit of educating through video and are explaining concepts without using any visual aids at all and I'm really happy to see someone using it well
Geek nitpickery: that first ostinato wasn't in 6/8, it was 3/4 playing 8th notes. The former is a compound meter with 2 groups of 3 notes (ONE-2-3 TWO-2-3) the latter is a simple meter with basic subdivisions, such as 3 groups of 2 notes (ONE & TWO & THREE &). as in the example. Good video!
Caught red-handed
This is a really great explanation. I once wrote what I thought was a 3/4 waltz riff but my drummer then informed me it was actually in 6/8 due to the sort of "swing" delivery it was suggesting. I never really understood the difference 'til now
@@nsiepmann In most cases, if the top number is a multiple of 3, you count the meter as groups of three with greatest stress on the 1st beat of the first group -- 9/8 at a brisk tempo is a really aggressive sound, ONE-2-3 two-2-3 three-2-3 etc.
The last tip was awesome with the pitch shifting idea👍
Why hasn't this video been in my thread before? Great info here. Immediately subbed!
I like using mine for ambient soundscapes and having the final note of a solo ring out as I head back to a rhythm part ala "Limelight" by Rush.
This is great video! Being a newbie to looping, you’ve introduced some really great creative ideas that I never would have considered. Thank you so much! Excellent teacher as well!
If you get your mic connected to the loop pedal you can use vocals to add a droning/ambience effect and since you're using your voice and not a guitar or something else that creates that beginning sound note you can change notes on the fly, and you can stack it if you want to which is pretty cool. You can use more than just your guitar on loop pedals.
I sometimes loop a lead piece and then experiment with chords over it. (Kinda the opposite of how loopers are normally used).
I think I will have to watch this video at least twice more to catch all those tips!
My favourite way to use a looper is a Trey Anastasio-esque funk siren. It’s similar to your droning technique.
I like to use a Roland GR-20 for this, but any octave sweeping pedal will work.
I once sang a harmony into the sound hole of my acoustic that was picked up by looper. I then continued with rhythm & main vocal
Awesome work man! You’re channel deserves way more subscribers!✌🏻
for 'shimmery audio garnish' and drones with loopers, I'm finding the TC Infinite sustainer to be fantastic (and if you use the FX loop of the sustainer, and stick an octave pedal or synth pedal in there you can have a low bass note, too)
oh yeah, since making this vid I've added the the Infinite Sample Sustainer and a pitch shifter to the board and I LOVE it!
Great tips…really thinking outside the box. Thanks!
Amazing video. I’m gonna use more of this technique with my looping pedals
Great lil vid! Stirs them creative juices right properly. Thank you for this!
Cheers
To keep the rhythm guitar while playing the solo, but also add some extra layer to enhance the solo. I added it to the solo of “Another brick in the wall” and works great
I like doing hocket-like stuff with my little looper. You can play one or multiple notes on the first pass, then fill in more notes on the next passes. A very simple example-say you play straight low E quarter notes, and then fill in the off-beats with 8th notes on the second pass. You can do more complicated stuff with this as well, and make some super intricate and often glitchy-sounding melodies the more notes you add!
Phasing is also super fun, like playing a riff in 7/8 and then playing a 4/4 variation overtop of it-which is basically what you described earlier in your video, just in a more intentionally “mathy” context. Adam Neely has a good video on that earlier in his catalogue.
Great stuff, thanks for mentioning drones! If you pluck an open string super close to the bridge and then swell in quickly, you can get a super sitar-like sound :)
Oh that sounds fiddly and fun! And I'll have to try that sitar tip....
Also, you mention phasing - since I've got the Flashback on my board which can behave as a looper, I've occasionally tried running it and the RC-30 against each other to do an automated version of Steve Reich's Clapping Music 😆
Some great ideas here, thanks!!
I've prerecorded instrumental breaks and triggered them at rhe required time. The break can be on a different instrument, harmonica, flute, sax etc. so you can keep playing your accompaniment on guitar. If you a two track looper you can have the other track providing a more 'conventional' loop.
Great suggestions!
Thank you for sharing this! It really opened up so many doors of inspiration.
Had to give a click for the superb thumbnail image. Well done!
Great ideas!! Thank you!
Great ideas here, glad I found this!
Hey,that is very good points!thank you!
Great tips! Thank you!
If I had a looper, I could play with myself.
OK, seriously thanks for posting these helpful hints.
wow. great ideas and great playing.
or get the rc600, (or ableton), the rc600 is the only looper i've found that i can even start to do everything a looper needs to do in an actual live situation - more than one section, send a separate out to a drummer, erase and reRecord loops, all while being set to the tempo of your choice
Can it change between song sections while staying at the same tempo? No one could answer this simple question to me under rc600 videos. I mean simple and dumb ableton replacer. A B C D etc. Sections. No way to work with the pedal before buying
Great video - content and editing! Happily subscribed 😊
Hi, call me Buddah,I am getting Michael Caine dressed Alphi .But it this is just straight ahead ,u,cool.
Great dude .I learned and looking at my looper. I am subscribed.
AWESOME Thank you
excellent tips man thx
Hi Nick! Great video! Nice to see the algorithm feeding me someone I know!
Thank you - glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing tips
Osta-what who? JK. Awseome looper vid. TY. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Play a section from end to beginning and playback the loop in reverse to reverse the dynamic envelope.
Oh that'd be cool - an interesting songwriting challenge too! You could have a weird vibey bridge section where the chord progression is the verse backwards... Going to try that if I ever upgrade to a looper with a reverse function!
Do you have any tips on level matching or a good volume when it comes to using backing tracks? I guess it's more of a mixing thing, but I've struggled with my RC300 to have a consistent backing track level. Would you suggest using mastered backing tracks or unmastered stems?
I’ll be honest, I’m still working on that - my method so far has been to save a loop of me playing at gig volume, then take the file off the looper and then try to match the backing tracks to that level. I usually end up tweaking it slightly with the volume sliders on the pedal anyway
I like your video. Link to your band - it sounds interesting... I just found the link haha!
Thank you! We’ve got some gigs coming up in London if you’re around 😁
Qaulity content man - you deserve more subscribers! You gained 1 today anyway 🙃
Make that 2!
@@joelonsdale
I’m another one of ‘em.
👍
Lordy there were loops 👍🏻😎
Why the cap - indoors?
Lots of great ideas here. I’ll have to dust my looper off..
Coooool.
Post something using that heavy metal pedal😊
Oh it's such a nasty pedal - I love it :D I suspect going full chainsaw guitar might alienate the people who've come to my channel from the folk music world, but one of these days I'm going to record the old-school death metal EP I've got written and demoed...
(That said, you can hear a tiny little example of it in my video 'What on earth are you doing?' at 2:50 or so!)
Really nice, now I think I might have waste my time building a drum machine on an Arduino to play with me lol
Just playing, I guess it still useful because a looper would need way to many loops and to switch between them live in the correct order and times would be a bit of a nightmare, unless the songs are really simple (also my drum machine can trigger my looper right at the start of the beat, which is a bit of a game changer)
good stuff I found that pedal for 20 bucks at goodwill.
If you have the Zoom MS70-CDR, you have a pitch shifter.
Arrrrrrrr mates..
Thanks for posting the video. You probably want more subscribers so
I hope you won't mind my saying that it appears that this video is only
intended for native English speakers since you speak so fast! You were either
heavily caffeinated or on cocaine lol
I live in the US and recommended your video to friends whose English is not their
mother tongue and they told me they could not understand.
You'll be suprised at how many people don't know that one can change the speed
of the video. I sometimes do that for figuring out licks, but your voice at 75% does not
have the same sexiness lol
There are 500 million people who speak Spanish and whose English is rather poor.
Just think about it, do you watch videos that you can't understand, say, a brazilian guy
teaching about looping?
Look at the comments below and you'll see that only native speakers watched your video.
Anyway, keep up the good work. I am a new subscriber.
Jay, from sunny southern California.
You make a good point - something for me to work on...
Why I never used mine...
Rather than one big do everything looper pedal, buy two or more $30 looper pedals (I have a Kokko SOS FLP2 that is a Ditto Mini clone) --- a lot more flexibility for low cost.
I’m exausted😂
Please consider NO BACKGROUND MUSIC
Sack your drummer! Just think of the benefits!
Poop ledal
If Brian Johnson from AC/DC ever dies, you could take his place cause u look a lot like him LOL
ngl I think my vocal cords are still recovering from doing You Shook Me All Night Long at karaoke in 2015
We'll, at least if Brian Johnson ever loses his hat you can lend him yours....
@@joelonsdalethat was funny
My wee Scottish pal K.T. showed me all I needed tae know about using my own Akai Headrush 2 looper pedal. Shove "that" in yer pipe and smoke it.
Seems like no one uses their loop pedal like I use mine and it's been very tricky to find a unit that will easily do what I need it to do. I'm a solo acoustic guitar player and here's what I do. As I'm singing the song I start recording the loop at the start of a verse, (sometimes not even the first verse), at the end of the verse I stop the recording, but do NOT have it start playing the loop back right away. A verse later or so I will trigger the playback and do a solo over the loop, then stop the playback as I start playing the guitar part. I can usually do it seamlessly. It's not easy to find a unit to do that without having to double tap to stop the recording, which I find too risky for live performance while I'm singing and playing at the same time!