Looper in the Axe FXIII

trancegodz

Fractal Fanatic
I thought I'd read that in the Axe FXIII that you didn't have to add a Looper block for the Looper to work, and that it would be automatically available in all presets. I tried it today and nothing worked. Was that something they were thinking about and decided not to do? I had to add a Looper block just like I did in the Axe FXII for it to work. So it looks like you have to add a Looper block in every preset that you want to use the Looper with, just like before.

I also discovered that both "Half" and "Stack" are missing in the Axe FXIII,
Not just "Half".

HALF – Slows the Looper’s speed to half. Playback and normal or overdub recording are supported at half speed. For double speed playback, record in half speed and then switch back to normal. Note: Halving the speed slightly reduces high-end frequency response.

STACK – Overdubs audio on an existing loop. Pressing it again stops the addition but playback continues. Existing audio is faded every time through the loop based on the setting of the DUB MIX parameter on the Looper’s MIX page.

This has to have been an oversight. Hopefully they will add these back in a new firmware update. Especially "HALF". Until they do the Looper in the Axe FXII is better than the one in the Axe FXIII, which I don't think was the intention.

The Looper in the Axe FXIII is 5 minutes which is great.
That is a big improvement.
 
I thought I'd read that in the Axe FXIII that you didn't have to add a Looper block for the Looper to work, and that it would be automatically available in all presets. I tried it today and nothing worked. Was that something they were thinking about and decided not to do?
i've never heard that.
 
I also discovered that both "Half" and "Stack" are missing in the Axe FXIII,
Not just "Half"...

STACK – Overdubs audio on an existing loop. Pressing it again stops the addition but playback continues. Existing audio is faded every time through the loop based on the setting of the DUB MIX parameter on the Looper’s MIX page.
You won't miss Stack when you're using Overdub. :)
 
You won't miss Stack when you're using Overdub. :)

Thanks Rex. I managed to get the MFC-101 and Axe FXIII working perfectly together. Including scenes and the looper functions.
I was able to do everything I'd been doing with the Axe FXII and MFC-101 (except see the names of presets). So that's good news for everyone.

The only functions I see for the Looper in the Axe FXIII are:
Record
Play
Undo
Once
Reverse

Try and get them to add "Half" (half speed/double speed) back.
 
1. There is no half speed at this time. The unit has an excellent pitch shifter. Use that to generate bass lines.
2. There is no Overdub button. Overdub is a state that is automatically entered on subsequent presses of Record. The looper control is all done through the five buttons.
 
1. There is no half speed at this time. The unit has an excellent pitch shifter. Use that to generate bass lines.
2. There is no Overdub button. Overdub is a state that is automatically entered on subsequent presses of Record. The looper control is all done through the five buttons.

I don't use Half Speed that way (to generate bass lines). I use it for ambient sounds.

In the Axe FXII with Half Speed you can record a riff then hit half speed and it plays the riff half as fast and an octave lower.
If you then record a riff again and hit the Half button the riff will be twice as fast and an octave up.
My old Gibson Echoplex has this function, as do the Boomerang and all the better loopers. It was asked for in the early days of the Axe FXII and was added.
Please add this function back. You already have the code and since the cc numbers are assignable, why not?

I have a question:
How do you delete what is in the looper now?
 
I don't use Half Speed that way (to generate bass lines). I use it for ambient sounds.

In the Axe FXII with Half Speed you can record a riff then hit half speed and it plays the riff half as fast and an octave lower.
If you then record a riff again and hit the Half button the riff will be twice as fast and an octave up.
My old Gibson Echoplex has this function, as do the Boomerang and all the better loopers. It was asked for in the early days of the Axe FXII and was added.
Please add this function back. You already have the code and since the cc numbers are assignable, why not?

I have a question:
How do you delete what is in the looper now?

We don't already have the code. The looper was rewritten from scratch. I'll add it to the wishlist but there are higher priorities at this time.
 
Loved doing some minus the bear type riffs with the half speed looper and once button on the II. Too bad its not in the III (yet ;)). Not the II or my video but just to give people an idea of the possibilities.
 
My old looper had HALF//NORMAL//DOUBLE, which was really cool. You could have sub-octave and sparkly stuff at the same time, but Cliff's point is a good one: you can do better than that with the pitch block and other effects in front of the looper.
 
My old looper had HALF//NORMAL//DOUBLE, which was really cool. You could have sub-octave and sparkly stuff at the same time, but Cliff's point is a good one: you can do better than that with the pitch block and other effects in front of the looper.

It's not the same at all. It's totally different. You can not do the same sort of things with the pitch block. The pitch block just changes pitch. The Half function changes both speed and pitch. Adrian Belew, David Torn, Brian Eno, and Robert Fripp all understand the usefulness of the half speed function.

I played on two CDs with Robert Fripp more than 30 years ago. I like experimental music, ambient music, electronic music, world music, and unusual music in general.

To hear some of the ways I used the half speed function check out my songs below. I got some very un-guitarlike sounds:

Fire Dance
(all sounds made with guitar)

Tranceformation

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/TerryBlankenship2

I used the half speed / double speed function for those.

Also check out my song:

Initiation
(all sounds made with guitar)
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/terryblankenship5

and also:

Attention

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/terryblankenship4

I actually used the half speed function on many of the tracks from all of those CDs.

Thanks to Fractal Audio for considering adding the Half function back in when they get the time. I really appreciate it.
 
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i think people need to accept that the looper in the axe is a functional practice tool, not a performance effect

personally, i think it would be better to have a really stable and easy to use simple looper than something with lots of bells and whistles that's difficult to control and possibly buggy. the only thing i would say, is that opening up the functions to internal, or external modifier control would certainly allow for some creative use, especially if half speed and reverse are available

if you want to get into the super creative stuff, then there are lots of other options out there that are already light years ahead of whatever the axe fx looper could possibly be
 
Y'want a looper that's as professional-level, for looping, as the Axe FX III is for timbre?

Easy. It's called Ableton Live and you can get the free version, sufficient for most needs, bundled with a Focusrite 2i4 or similar interface. Hook it up to your Mac, and hook up the outputs and inputs to, respectively, your house snake and your Axe FX III's outputs, and whammo: Yer' good to go.

Reasonably speaking, to mirror that level of functionality (overlapping looped clips, song-sections, keymapping, etc.) the Axe FX III would probably need to be $500 more expensive and have an additional rack-space worth of hardware.
 
Thanks for the tip. I think Adrian Belew was using Mobius hosted in Ableton Live for a while. Not sure if he still is or not. I wonder why Adrian used Mobius inside Ableton if Ableton had a looper already. He must have liked Mobius better. I had a Gibson Echoplex that was great, but it wasn't stereo. I think Mobius was modeled after that.
 
Y'want a looper that's as professional-level, for looping, as the Axe FX III is for timbre?

Easy. It's called Ableton Live and you can get the free version, sufficient for most needs, bundled with a Focusrite 2i4 or similar interface. Hook it up to your Mac, and hook up the outputs and inputs to, respectively, your house snake and your Axe FX III's outputs, and whammo: Yer' good to go.

Reasonably speaking, to mirror that level of functionality (overlapping looped clips, song-sections, keymapping, etc.) the Axe FX III would probably need to be $500 more expensive and have an additional rack-space worth of hardware.

It’s true what you say about Ableton. Only one thing, you don’t need another interface. You can do all the routing using Axe Fx 3’s I/Os and using it as the interface.
 
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