Does anyone use other pedals? Does anyone use one that can loop a whole 12 bar progression? Is the Akai so easy to use that it just plain outweighs it's limitations on recording time?
I know that in a live situation it might take a little too much time to build layers on a full 12 bars - does anyone have experience with this live?
I have the Boss pedal, it has a long enough record time to do a whole 12 bar easily, you could probably do a whole 3 min song and overdub it. It's just a home toy for me. Never gigged it.
I have seen it. I think it is a fantastic pedal. If it only had enough memory for a full 12 bar loop then I wouldn't be wondering about something else. I have looked at the jamman, but it seemed much more complicated than the Akai. Probably my own perception and the guy at guitar center trying to explain it.
I've also been considering this. I like the Akai because of it's simplicity and because I prefer "buttons" to "pedals" for stomping. The Akai Headrush 2 says it will record up to 35 seconds on the first loop and 17 on the second. 35 sec is enough for most medium to uptempo blues 12 bar loops.
What the specs don't tell is if 35 sec is the default first loop or whether you could lay down a short beat loop first and then go back with 35 sec 12 bar rhythm loop.
Sorry for adding more questions than answers :) ---------- Ozark Rich
I have not seen this in person, but search for Boomerang III Looper for information about a high-end device.
I have a Digitech RP355 and one slightly irritating (to me) feature is that it wants to trigger based on sound. I thought that it would be nice if it could just start immediately when you hit the footpedal, instead of only arming itself. Maybe it's just my problem. Also it doesn't have any kind of partial undo. But it's basically free if you're not buying the pedal just for looping, so ...
I use a digitech rp 155 with it's built in 20 second looper (same as in the 355 KeithE mentioned). I love it. You can over dub to your hearts content. Contrary to what Keith mentioned, the looper is not ONLY sound activated. That's one way to use it, but if you keep your foot on the button, you can just start recording. If you step on the button and release immediately, it goes into "sound activated record" mode. This mode is great because you can cue it up, get your fx/amp patch ready, and just start playing. It records from the beginning of the phrase w/out you having to try to coordinate a button stomp just before the first down beat, and then you just click it when you reach the end of a measure, and it goes. As Keith mentioned, you basically get the looper "for free" with the RP units. The RP155 I bought cost all of $90 which is way cheaper than the cheapest dedicated looper pedal. There is only one loop, however, so you can't have independent control of the overdubs (ie. You can't loop a beat, and then loop some harmonies, and stop the beat while letting the harmonies play. You CAN loop a beat,a nd then record harmonies OVER the beat, and have them BOTH loop and then pause BOTH, and then have BOTH play again). If you want more than one independant loop, you'll have to go with something more expensive and dedicated. I've seen the jamman used up close in a live situation (by a street violinist), and it was awesome. It's fairly expensive though. ---------- ------------------ The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
Zack, I was kind of hoping Brandon might pipe in here, as he has clearly mastered using the Akai. I wondered if he had tried anything else. And what he had done live.
Unfortunatly, I have never used any other pedal. But I have done a lot of research into the other models. I like the overall design of the Akai pedal. For me, shinny buttons are just cooler, lol. You can get up to 36 seconds of loop time, HOWEVER if you record a phrase for over 19 seconds, you will not be able to overdub. This is fine for the songs that I play since they all are based on rather short opening phrases. 19 seconds may seem like a very small ammount of time, but it's actually a good ammount. It gets difficult and boreing for me If I'm playig an opening phrase for to long. The Akai has a flashing light to let you know when your about to run out of time. It is also pretty easy to redo an overdub. All that you have to do is tap the right button twice, and you are left with your initial phrase. This is very helpful for Son of Dave songs, like Old Times Were Good Times, and a few others. I have heard very good things about the jam man looper as well. It looks like a rather cool pedal. Also, I really like the Akai's analoug and digital delay functions. It makes for a good all around pedal. It's also all metal, so it's pretty sturdy. ---------- Brandon Bailey
So on the Akai Headrush you record an opening phrase, and then you can record an overdub....are you only able to record a single overdub? Or can you do multiple overdubs so that you have several different layers? Do the other looping devices allow you to make multiple overdubs?
If you have a Digitech RP 155 can you do a loop with your guitar, quickly unplug it and plug in your harp mic and then continue on? Or does it shut off when you unplug the chord like my Boss ME-20?
Keith, sorry it took so long to get back to you on this, I've been busy as hell all week! But I finally got about a half hour to play around yesterday afternoon after I got home from work and before the wife got back. So, what I discovered is that you have to put the RP155 into looper mode (hold down the left stomp button for a few seconds). It should say "LP" in the display. The looper is on standby, ready to be activated, but not recording. You can now start playing what ever you want, but the looper will remain on standby. When you want to start recording a phrase, just hit the left stomp button again briefly, and let off it. You need to do this right on the downbeat, as you just start to play a note. Now, as you near the end of the phrase, get your foot ready, and play the end of the phrase, and just as you hit the NEXT downbeat (ie, the 1st beat of the NEXT bar), stomp down on the left stomp button again. I also always actually play that note too, to make sure the loop will be truly seamless. This note should be the same as the first note in your phrase (ie. the 1st note you played and the last note you play should be the same).
I recorded a little ska-type jam where I use the looper this way (with beatbox, but it works the same with notes), and I'll post it to YouTube and then on the forum shortly...
Isaac - thanks for looking into it. It still seems to be triggered by the actual sound. This is usable, but it seems to be different than how the headrush pedal works. It seems like you need to heavily attack beat one to get it to trigger predictably.
Keith, yeah, I think that's true. I know that if I turn my mic's volume down too far, it won't trigger the recording mode. In t hat case, you have to stomp TWICE in a row, very quickly. Once to go to the "loop is armed" status (the display changes from "LP" to "AR"), and the second to actually activate the "loop record" mode (Display changes from "AR" to "RC"). That's a pain though, and makes it more difficult to hit the downbeat.
I wonder, however, if you can adjust the dB threshold for sound activated recording though? If it is adjustable, then I'd assume turning the threshold down to 0dB would essentially nullify it. I'll search around, and see if I can find out if that's possible.
As far as I can tell, you can't adjust the sound activated recording threshold on the RP series. You CAN do it on the JamMan, though. I also found that you can't control the volume of the loop (other than just recording it a lower mic volume, and then turning your mic up afterwards), but you CAN on the JamMan.
