Looper best practices

Kelleys Heroes

Experienced
Looks like most players are using the Looper block at the very beginning of the signal chain or within a send/return right before the output block. What are the benefits of each approach, and are there other ways of using this that might be better?
 
If you place the looper at the beginning of your chain, you can test changes to parameters on any of the blocks to hear the changes they make. If you place it at the end, you can change to different tones without effecting the loop.

A lightbulb moment! Never even considered there was such an efficient way to test/audition sounds. Thanks!!!
 
Looks like most players are using the Looper block at the very beginning of the signal chain or within a send/return right before the output block. What are the benefits of each approach, and are there other ways of using this that might be better?
No requirement for a send/return... That is primarily used to "extend" a grid row.

The 2 primary cases for a Looper are:

  • At the beginning of the signal chain to help dialing in tones
  • At the end of the signal chain to play back a loop with all the effects baked in (often so you can play over it)
 
I find the looper is a bit too limited for actual live looping use, so I only use it to dial in tones. I wish it could do more, and I don't really feel like extending my board with another external looper in the FX loop.
 
I find the looper is a bit too limited for actual live looping use, so I only use it to dial in tones. I wish it could do more, and I don't really feel like extending my board with another external looper in the FX loop.
Disappointing to hear. What do you find lacking?
 
No layers / alternates, only one track, no half speed, it's pretty basic even compared to a relatively simple looper pedal like a TC Ditto X4
 
You can undo one layer, but that's it.

You can overdub all you want, but you can't backtrack which is what I think Kamil is referring to.

Yeah, once you finish over dubbing and hit play again, it seems you can no longer remove the overdubbed layer. Hitting undo/erase doesn't do anything.

I like to record a kind of base / bed layer, and then be able to record another layer on top of that, and then play on top of all of that without recording. Then later be able to remove the top layer to get back to the base again, and add a new top layer or just play out till stop. I don't think that's achievable with the Axe-FX looper.

With other loopers it's also nice to be able to have the second recording not be the same length as the original. That way you can record say a 4 bar chord progression but then add 8 or 16 bars over top in another loop and just have the original one repeat 2 or 4 times in that same span.

Anyway, I'm not complaining too much since I see the looper as just a bonus in the Axe-FX and not its core function. So these things are nice-to-haves but I understand they're probably not that high on the priority list compared to all the sweet amp modelling improvements we've been getting :)
 
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Yeah, once you finish over dubbing and hit play again, it seems you can no longer remove the overdubbed layer. Hitting undo/erase doesn't do anything.

I like to record a kind of base / bed layer, and then be able to record another layer on top of that, and then play on top of all of that without recording. Then later be able to remove the top layer to get back to the base again, and add a new top layer or just play out till stop. I don't think that's achievable with the Axe-FX looper.

With other loopers it's also nice to be able to have the second recording not be the same length as the original. That way you can record say a 4 bar chord progression but then add 8 or 16 bars over top in another loop and just have the original one repeat 2 or 4 times in that same span.

Anyway, I'm not complaining too much since I see the looper as just a bonus in the Axe-FX and not its core function. So these things are nice-to-haves but I understand they're probably not that high on the priority list compared to all the sweet amp modelling improvements we've been getting :)
+1 on nice to have!
 
Pardon my ignorance, what do you use the half speed for? I never found any use for it myself.
Sometimes it's fun to change the loop to play in half speed and then overdub. When you switch back to full speed the overdubbed part is now double speed and can add some interesting shimmer.
 
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