FM3 Looper Block

teddis

teddis

Fractal Fanatic
I am trying to get better at looping and need to understand a few basics please :
I understand a Looper block needs to be in both preset you are looping from or adding to, if that makes sense.
1) Does it matter where in the Blocks chain the looper is placed ? What is best practice for placement ?
2 Does I it need to be saved or an engaged state in every patch you wish to use for looping? Why would you save it in a bypass state?
3 if so,enagaged, how much CPU will LPR block use ?
4 Is there a way to add looper globally ?, instead of patch by patch ?

thanks
 
teddis said:
1) Does it matter where in the Blocks chain the looper is placed ? What is best practice for placement ?
Click to expand...
Yes. If you want it to play things as they are when you loop, put it at or near the end of the chain.
teddis said:
2 Does I it need to be saved or an engaged state in every patch you wish to use for looping? Why would you save it in a bypass state?
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If you want the loop to continue playing when you change presets.

teddis said:
3 if so,enagaged, how much CPU will LPR block use ?
Click to expand...
The same amount it uses when bypassed.
teddis said:
4 Is there a way to add looper globally ?, instead of patch by patch ?
Click to expand...
No.
 
Thanks Unix, so do most “Loopers” save an engaged looper block in all presets so they can jump around and be good ?
 
teddis said:
I am trying to get better at looping and need to understand a few basics please :
I understand a Looper block needs to be in both preset you are looping from or adding to, if that makes sense.
1) Does it matter where in the Blocks chain the looper is placed ? What is best practice for placement ?
2 Does I it need to be saved or an engaged state in every patch you wish to use for looping? Why would you save it in a bypass state?
3 if so,enagaged, how much CPU will LPR block use ?
4 Is there a way to add looper globally ?, instead of patch by patch ?

thanks
Click to expand...
the Looper records the blocks before it. it plays into the blocks after it.

putting the Looper last (of course before the output block) records everything before it, so this is ideal for recording a clean, then changing to a lead tone and soloing over it. the Looper sound won't change since it recorded the clean tone.

putting the Looper first (of course after the input block) plays into the blocks after it, so this is ideal for recording your dry guitar and letting it play for you so you can adjust all the blocks in real time to create your tone. if you try the clean/lead thing mentioned above, the tone of the Looper will change because it's playing into those changing blocks after it.

any other position is a combination of the above. if you don't want to "record" your delays, then put the looper after everything except the delays, etc.

you can bypass the Looper block, but i don't see a good reason to do so. some do this so the loop is still playing in the background, but you don't hear anything because the block is bypassed. for most "play over the song" use, bypassing it isn't very useful.

if you are changing Presets and want the loop to continue, you need the Looper block in those presets, for it to be Engaged when you load the preset, and for the settings to be the exact same among all presets.

at my last calculation, the Looper block uses about 4.5% CPU at full speed. like any other block CPU is the same Engaged or Bypassed if it's in the preset.

like many other functions and blocks, the Looper is per preset and needs to be added in every preset you want to use it.
 
teddis said:
Thanks Unix, so do most “Loopers” save an engaged looper block in all presets so they can jump around and be good ?
Click to expand...
It doesn’t matter what most people do. If you want a Looper in every preset, put one in every preset.
 
What I meant by that Rex is that if you had a clean loop running......you cannot just randomly choose a preset to lead from......it would have to have been previously saved with a LPR block, engaged state, correct ?
 
teddis said:
What I meant by that Rex is that if you had a clean loop running......you cannot just randomly choose a preset to lead from......it would have to have been previously saved with a LPR block, engaged state, correct ?
Click to expand...
Correct.

Why not just put all the tones you need into a single preset? Then you don’t have to worry about putting a Looper in every preset.
 
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Bodde said:
What on earth would you loop for 120 seconds? Maybe if the crowd is asking for an encore and you want to go home.
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The Axe Fx III allows 5 minutes. ;)

I use it sometimes to quickly work out song section ideas.

Different people use the same tools in different ways.
 
If the preset takes up all the block row to the out block, how do you insert the the looper block so that it receives all the effects? ie the last row has reverb and pled delay in parallel and I can place the looper block in between them right before the out block but by doing so the looper in is not receiving either of those effects? Any takers ?
 
AzPerryD said:
If the preset takes up all the block row to the out block, how do you insert the the looper block so that it receives all the effects? ie the last row has reverb and pled delay in parallel and I can place the looper block in between them right before the out block but by doing so the looper in is not receiving either of those effects? Any takers ?
Click to expand...
You can put a "Send" block at the end of the row and a "Return" block on the next row and continue from there to Out 1. Check out The Fractal Audio Blocks Guide p.85 & 86 and / or the wiki page on the subject. I've actually yet to do this myself, but it should work.

A warning from the guide:

"WARNING: Use these blocks with caution, as you can easily program an unstable loop and cause internal clipping and/or dangerously high sound levels. Begin with the Return Level at 0% and bring it up slowly. If you start to hear squealing or runaway feedback, immediately bring the value to minimum and analyze your routing for possible causes of instability."
 
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