How to get the best out of the Looper?

adew

adew

Inspired
I'm just starting to mess around with the Looper block and am slightly confused about a couple of things:

1. Placement of the Looper block in the grid: what are the pro's and con's of placing the Looper at the start of the grid rather than at the end?
2. I notice that when I hit Record on my MFC to start playback of the loop, I get a volume jump, in other words the volume of the playback loop is greater than the volume at which it was recorded. How should I compensate for this so that the levels are the same? Is there a magic formula, or is it a question of adjusting the Looper block level parameter by ear? For info, in the preset in question the Looper block is at the end of the grid.

Thanks for any pointers to assist with these no doubt rather basic questions. :)
 
Not sure with 2, but with 1:

If you place the looper first, you record your unprocessed guitar signal in the looper. If you place it last, you record the processed guitar signal. So if you want to use the looper to tweak your tone, you place the looper first. That way you can listen to and adjust everything in the Axe Fx 2 with a known input source, knowing that difference in your playing isn’t affecting the tone. If you want to record a loop and play back over it, you want to place the looper last. In most cases, except for that special case of using the loop to tweak the tone, you want to place the looper last.
 
allard said:
Not sure with 2, but with 1:

If you place the looper first, you record your unprocessed guitar signal in the looper. If you place it last, you record the processed guitar signal. So if you want to use the looper to tweak your tone, you place the looper first. That way you can listen to and adjust everything in the Axe Fx 2 with a known input source, knowing that difference in your playing isn’t affecting the tone. If you want to record a loop and play back over it, you want to place the looper last. In most cases, except for that special case of using the loop to tweak the tone, you want to place the looper last.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

So, basically:

Tweaking sounds = Looper first.
Overdubbing, etc = Looper last.

Excellent. This is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to know.
 
1. simply put, like allard said, there are no pro's and con's. It's just the question what do you want to playback. At start you get the dry signal, in the middle before the delay (for example) you get the processed sound but without delay. At the end - you get the whole processed signal.
2. As far as I know, the playback signal is adjustable. Look for something like "playback level". I've seen it but don't remember now. It should be there.
 
I like to put my looper block almost at the end. I prefer to have reverb and delay after it as then it isn't recorded to the loop in case I want to change patches, it also spills over nicely that way.
 
1. I always use the effected tone so I always put it last in the block, but I use it 2 different ways. For an ambient/clean tone, I put it at the end of the signal chain in line with the block, so all the stuff goes through the looper. For a lead patch, I put it in a block by itself below the lead chain and then I control the volume of the original loop with an expression pedal so I can play over the original clean loop. This way I can change the volume of the loop and not the lead tone. I attach the expression pedal to the output of the looper. You can also raise or lower the volume of the original patch with the pedal. Best solution I have found so far but others may have a better one.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone.

So, for my question #1, no problem, all is clear.

However, notwithstanding the advice re the Mix knob, can someone explain to me why the playback is louder than when just playing through the same preset?

For example, in the preset in question, which has an amp block and a cab block followed by the Looper, the amp block level is -8bB, cab level is 0dB and Looper level is 0dB. However, with Looper Mix at default (50%) the playback volume jump is significant, which means having to turn down the Looper Mix knob to around 41 or 42% to be at the same volume. Why am I fretting about this? Well, if I have several presets, each with different grid/amp layouts, it appears that I will have to manually adjust the Looper Mix value in each preset to take into account the different tones. Or am I misunderstanding something rather basic?
 
It shouldn't matter what any other block volume is. The looper receives the signal and then repeats it, simple as that. If it receives an amp at -8db, it will play that back, if it receives -18db, it plays that back.

The mix knob balances between the live guitar and the loop playback, that's it.

How loud are you playing? You may be experiencing hearing your guitar strings while recording then not hearing your strings.
 
I'm playing a band situation, ie gig volume. Anyway, I took your advice and found that somewhere between 44-47% mix works for me.
 
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