As producers, you struggle to get inspired if you're using the same thing. A lot of times, a piece of analogue gear can break you out of that rut" – Shaun Lopez on crafting synth sounds for the long-awaited second album from Crosses There is a big difference in features across the loop station pedals. Before we look at each pedal and its unique features, let’s look at the common features available across all loop station pedals. You can use your looper pedal just like a regular guitar pedal, placing it at the end of the chain with the input coming from the last pedal on your pedalboard and the output going to the amplifier. You can also set it up in your effects loop if your amp has one, by routing the input on your looper to the ‘send’ on your FX loop before plugging the ‘return’ on your amp into the output of your looper pedal. Can you use a loop pedal with any amp? It’s great to be able to jam along with basic loops, but there will be times when you want to take things further.

footswitches control the action, with options for time-stretching via tap tempo, reverse, fade, multiply, and the ability to divide length and speed for the whole loop.There’s clearly a big difference between the RC-3 and RC-30. The RC-30 is also almost twice the price of the RC-3. So the big question for you is whether the extra control and features built into the RC-30 are worth it to you.

Straight to right-angle 1/4-inch connectors, 10 ft./3 m length. Also available in 15 ft./4.5 m (BIC-15A) length. View Product While the RC-1 gives you basic looping functions, it should be clear how much of a step up there is when you jump to the RC-3. KISS – use as few gadgets as possible. Try playing acoustic jazz wih a plain amp, it’s loads of fun. The RC-30 is possibly the most popular looper pedal of all time with live performers. More often than not, when you see a live performer creating loops, you’ll see an RC-30 on the pedalboard. It’s easy to see why when you consider how much control the RC-30 gives you. In summary, Howard please update us on what you think of the RC-1 after you’ve had a chance to play with it a bit.A great tip to master the art of looping is to treat the pedal as an instrument. All you need to do is press the pedal in time to what you are playing and you’re golden - if you can tap your foot in time, you can loop. So the simple fact is: *anything* you change in your setup will change frequency response and other factors, however slightly. In a sense, that’s only logical – you’re trying to change your sound, right? My personal approach to diminishing unwanted effects is threefold: The RC-3 and RC-5 are clearly very similar in size and retail pricing. So which one is the better choice? You can record different chord progressions and practice improvising over them and have them ready at every practice session.

There’s a vastness in the world of looper pedals that takes you from a simple, one-button control, right through to layering multiple loops up to six minutes long or adding crazy pitch and time effects. So to understand what kind of looper works best for you, you need to take a look at what you need from your playing.These different recording modes can help you create the perfect loops. The rhythm patterns are also a great way to work on your timing skills and build up complex loops. Who is the RC-3 for? Your main issue when getting started with looping will be timing, particularly if you’re playing with a band. On your own, it’s not quite as bad if you mess the timing up, but when there are multiple people following the loop it’s quite easy for things to get messy sounding. Multiply this further when playing live and the onstage sound isn’t great. The key here is to practice a lot before you take it on stage and make sure at the very least your drummer has good monitoring on stage. Where does my looper pedal go in the chain? You can use the latter to make a loop stop at the end of its cycle, stop immediately, or even via a fade or cool tape reel-esque slowdown, as well as reverse, or half-/double-speed a loop. The Boss RC-1 also has 2 inputs, labelled A and B. This can be used as a stereo input, which is ideal for keyboards, electronic drums/drum machines, samplers, DJ hardware or even a smart device. Guitarists, Bass Players and Vocalists can use a single input, meaning singer-songwriters can have both their instrument and vocal microphone plugged in at the same time. Ok, I just exchanged my old Christmas Tree RC-50 for this little looper. The local shop offered a very reasonable price for the old flashy machine and boy, I did feel some relief at leaving it with them. First observations on the RC-1:

The “mono to stereo”-feature suggested by Howard above does not seem to work in this case: the stereo channels are separate. styles make up the rhythm side of the pedal, with the ability to program two unique song sections, as well as intros/endings and rhythm fills. For solo performers, this could be the band-in-a-box you’ve been waiting for. The RC-1 is a lot of funand fantastically user friendly.Guitarists, bassists, keyboardists and pretty much any mic'd up instrument can be looped to createamazing layered sounds. A fantastic composinglive performance tool, the RC-1 has space for 12 minutes of recording time - the longest memory inthe ultra-compact looper category and plenty of time to build up a rich, detailed performance. LED Display Want to hear about the latest news, products, offers, and have the chance to score some amazing freebies from Roland & BOSS Australia?This fire engine red pedal is a stereo looper, offering just 12 minutes of recording time. The unit automatically remembers the loop you’ve recorded when you switch off, but that’s it as far as memory capability goes. The RC-3 isn’t quite dated, but it feels that way when you compare it against the RC-5’s RGB LED screen. If tap the footswitch twice, the loop stops. After stopping the loop, hold the footswitch down for longer than two seconds and the pedal will erase your loop. FL Studio's latest version has an iconic synth, stem separation and will upload your music to Spotify – and it's still only a point update