Looper live use

cragginshred

cragginshred

Fractal Fanatic
Never messed with the looper in the Ax. Can it be used lives in a three-piece band to hold down an A part while I play the B part over it switching on and off on the fly with the Ax8 ..
Or am I better off buying a separate looper pedal if so which one?
 
It really depends on how you use your looper and how you use your ax8.

If you are:
Switching presets during looper usage,
wanting to save or recall multiple loops,
trigger samples,
have more than one simultaneous loop,
running out of CPU in your preset,
Then get an external one.

I like this:
http://digitech.com/en-US/products/jamman-stereo

But the AX8 looper does well if none of those conditions apply to you.
The reverse and half tempo functions could be pretty cool if used right.
 
Can we ever hope for an improved looper that handles two loops simultaneously? Part A and B I mean, verse and chorus. The AX8 has more than enough looper memory, more than enough foot switches. This would make the looper way more usable and the AX8 even a bit more adorable. And I could sell my pigtronix.
 
The AX8 would be much better for live use if we could assign the foot switches for record & stop/play without having to go into looper mode. EG: You could have 1 preset with the foot switchess controlling distortion, chorus, amp x/y, cab x/y, phaser, , pitch block, loop record & loop playback (all without changing modes).
 
Guitarbot said:
The AX8 would be much better for live use if we could assign the foot switches for record & stop/play without having to go into looper mode. EG: You could have 1 preset with the foot switchess controlling distortion, chorus, amp x/y, cab x/y, phaser, , pitch block, loop record & loop playback (all without changing modes).
Click to expand...
Is This Possible down the road?
 
Count me in (and let's not forget the A/B loop feature plus the fact I'm posting this in the wrong section :)
 
cragginshred said:
Never messed with the looper in the Ax. Can it be used lives in a three-piece band to hold down an A part while I play the B part over it switching on and off on the fly with the Ax8 ..
Or am I better off buying a separate looper pedal if so which one?
Click to expand...

It works great for what you've described: easy to record, play, get out, change a scene for a different B part sound and effects, go back in and pause the loop, or record again, overdub etc. I personally never need more than to lay down a rhythm riff to play over, and for that, it fits the bill perfectly. The default switch 8 instantiation and the other assignments are sensible.

Beyond that: An outboard looper or midi controlling Ableton Live might be the way to go depending on whether looping is a compositional tool or a lifestyle.
 
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I've yet to get around to using the looper live. But for it to be useable in a live-band situation you need to be able to send the click (without any guitar) to at least the drummer via the band's mixer. As far as I can tell, this is possible using the FX loop as your main out and the main outs for the click (although I can't see how to remove the guitar signal for the drummer). And what is a real shame for something of this level is that the click is just that - an unfriendly noise that you can't switch for, say, a cowbell or something that a drummer can work with and is distinct from the rest of his mix.

Without these fixes I'm going to find it impossible to use the looper as I'd hoped in my trio - to lay down a rhythm part under solos. My TC Helicon VL3x was perfect for this, in terms of routing the click and guitar signal, and the looper functions are great. It's just a shame that the VL3x's sounds are nowhere near pro quality and I'm currently on my third warranty-replacement unit!
 
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