USING LOOPER DELAYS - PROS and CONS

Just a few thoughts about using delay loops and Frippertronics.

As you know by now I have recently been making tracks using delay loops to produce ambient guitar tracks. I have to say its been quite rewarding but I feel that there are limitations to this so before everyone gets too excited let me explain what I see as the downside.

I have noticed that there are problems with the overall sound quality and the more parts that you add the worse it gets. Now I know that you should not expect professional quality from these pedals but when I actually thought about it becomes easy to understand what the problem is and more importantly how to get round it.

First however there is a plus side......using the pedal as is is great fun and a very quick way to work out parts that go together. Also it is still acceptable quality for demo tracks (like I have been making) but if you are making an album or tracks to sell commercially then the quality issues come up.

The real problem lies in the fact that when you compile these parts together you get resonance issues. This is due to the fact that you cannot seperate them in the stereo field.

So here is the answer.................and it is really so simple.

You see the idea of playing and recording the loop in one shot is really a basic way of doing things live as the pedal designers aim these pedals primarily at the gigging guitarist.

We on the other hand are using these as a studio effect so we can use this method:

Set your loop to the time you want to use say 5 seconds.....and set your feedback (number of delays ) to full 100%.

Now record one part ONLY as your loop for as long as you need and lower the feedback to fade out at the end of the track.

Now when you play this back from your recorder / computer record the next piece as a fresh loop on a fresh track in time with the loop playing back.

Repeat as required ........this is great for mixing up riffs, chords and arpeggios.

As long as you keep your loop at the same length and play each part in time then it will work.

When you have finished you then have options available to you.

1) You can remove or change parts you don't like and cover up mistakes.

2) When you come to mixdown you can now place each part into its own space in the stereo field with the pan control.

3) You can use the mixer part volume faders to bring parts in and out of the mix.

Note: All of this applies whether you are using a hardware mixer (like me) or a software mixer in a sequencer where you can use automation .

This should enable you to use these loops to make high quality recordings if you need them.

If you have any questions or comments on this please let me know.

Ah yes! Great idea!
I have kind of done this before, but in small ways with just a few tracks.

I might have to try that with 8 tracks and mix them down into one 'phrase' of a song.

I like how you think outside the box. Very inventive!

Z

Thanks z,

Another point I forgot to mention is that you will need to calculate the time needed for your loop if you are using a drum track or other instruments in the track.

If you can set bpm on your pedal its no problem but if not then you will need to manually calculate it. There is a calculator to do this on this page if needed http://www.thewhippinpost.co.uk/tools/delay-time-calculator.htm

If you can set bpm and intervals (notes) then the longest interval is 1 bar.

So if you wanted 4 bars at 100bpm then just set the pedal at 25bpm at 1 bar.
This will equate to 9.8 seconds which is correct.

This is important so that your loop restarts in sync with the rhythm track.

Easy when you know how

Did you check out my new track AURORA BOREALIS ?

It has just one part playing a guitar arpeggio on a loop. the lead guitar and synth are played live. So its a 3 track piece. As the sounds are big and spacy it still sounds like a very full track.

I have a new track not posted yet done with the e bow on looper live. I will be posting that soon.

globaltrancemission wrote:Thanks z,

Another point I forgot to mention is that you will need to calculate the time needed for your loop if you are using a drum track or other instruments in the track.

If you can set bpm on your pedal its no problem but if not then you will need to manually calculate it. There is a calculator to do this on this page if needed http://www.thewhippinpost.co.uk/tools/delay-time-calculator.htm

If you can set bpm and intervals (notes) then the longest interval is 1 bar.

So if you wanted 4 bars at 100bpm then just set the pedal at 25bpm at 1 bar.
This will equate to 9.8 seconds which is correct.

This is important so that your loop restarts in sync with the rhythm track.

Easy when you know how

Did you check out my new track AURORA BOREALIS ?

It has just one part playing a guitar arpeggio on a loop. the lead guitar and synth are played live. So its a 3 track piece. As the sounds are big and spacy it still sounds like a very full track.

I have a new track not posted yet done with the e bow on looper live. I will be posting that soon.

Good info!
Haven't checked out AURORA yet.... once I get to work I will listen.
I was out all day yesterday at a Cub Scout thing. I'm kind of over-scheduled these days...

Lots of tricky techniques to talk about.


Z

Very cool Peter...I had a digitech that did some looping. I used it alot when i was analoge.

Z sent me a boss looper and it was very hard to use. To much for me.

I kinda do this stuff in real-time when i do guitar tracks. I mimic a looper FX as i add my parts to each other..Kinda call and responce to i guess..But a loop-mindset to it.
I play about with different Delay times when adding tracks to each other. Makes them wobble about against each other. Can be done in real-time multi-tracking easy..But its more real sounding, not as FX sounding. tricky, takes a ton of time, and very improv. more getting lucky i guess?
Anyway..Yep..
DACE>