looping live - a good, cheap setup?
August 23, 2009 5:05 PM Subscribe
help with hardware for live music looping setup
Alright, i have a vision of what i would like to do live musically and am looking for a translation into what actual hardware i need. (the key is i DO NOT want a laptop involved, and i would like the setup to be as cheap as possible - im poor:P ):
Here is the scenario: I am in the street with a little synthesizer and a guitar (2 people). Basically I would like some sort of foot controller to first record some loops live. However, i would like to be able to control these loops in more fancy ways - for example:
1. Record one measure in the key of G with the guitar.loop this
2. overtop of that loop, record one measure in the key of G with the synthesizer.
With this loop that includes two instruments, we now play over the looping for 4 measures. Now I want to switch things up - I want to record a loop in the key of D, so i press the foot controller, and record that. Now I want the looping to include what we first recorded in G for one measure, then insert the new one in D.
Now we play overtop of this new G-D loop that is 2 measures long. I next press a button on the foot controller, and we go back to the first recording of just the G loop.
Now in the G loop, i want to play with effects of the synth sounds while the guitar plays live overtop of the looping.
----
Ok, so that is a simple situation of something i would like to do - so what do i need in terms of hardware? I assume i need at least:
1 - a foot controller of sorts to que recording, and preprogrammed setings for types of loops and the channels involved
2 - the hardware that controls the loops and its sequences and variations (can this be the same piece of hardware as the foot controler?)
3 - some sort of effects/channel mixer to play around with the sounds that have been recorded.
4- the guitar/synth/amps
In addtion, i would live to be able to upload the samples recorded into mp3s or wavs or whatnot when i get home.
Alright - what what are my options? is there some sort of one piece of hardware that can take care of all this? Ive got some extra fancy things i would also like to do live as part of such a performance, but i guess ill save that for now, id like to first find out what this first vision entails.
thanks for any help musicians!
Alright, i have a vision of what i would like to do live musically and am looking for a translation into what actual hardware i need. (the key is i DO NOT want a laptop involved, and i would like the setup to be as cheap as possible - im poor:P ):
Here is the scenario: I am in the street with a little synthesizer and a guitar (2 people). Basically I would like some sort of foot controller to first record some loops live. However, i would like to be able to control these loops in more fancy ways - for example:
1. Record one measure in the key of G with the guitar.loop this
2. overtop of that loop, record one measure in the key of G with the synthesizer.
With this loop that includes two instruments, we now play over the looping for 4 measures. Now I want to switch things up - I want to record a loop in the key of D, so i press the foot controller, and record that. Now I want the looping to include what we first recorded in G for one measure, then insert the new one in D.
Now we play overtop of this new G-D loop that is 2 measures long. I next press a button on the foot controller, and we go back to the first recording of just the G loop.
Now in the G loop, i want to play with effects of the synth sounds while the guitar plays live overtop of the looping.
----
Ok, so that is a simple situation of something i would like to do - so what do i need in terms of hardware? I assume i need at least:
1 - a foot controller of sorts to que recording, and preprogrammed setings for types of loops and the channels involved
2 - the hardware that controls the loops and its sequences and variations (can this be the same piece of hardware as the foot controler?)
3 - some sort of effects/channel mixer to play around with the sounds that have been recorded.
4- the guitar/synth/amps
In addtion, i would live to be able to upload the samples recorded into mp3s or wavs or whatnot when i get home.
Alright - what what are my options? is there some sort of one piece of hardware that can take care of all this? Ive got some extra fancy things i would also like to do live as part of such a performance, but i guess ill save that for now, id like to first find out what this first vision entails.
thanks for any help musicians!
Response by poster: cool. good info, thanks. anything a lot cheaper (the RC-50 is about 500 bucks) that would you could recommend that will still have the basics?
posted by figTree at 9:15 PM on August 23, 2009
posted by figTree at 9:15 PM on August 23, 2009
Hm.
If you're two people, you won't really need the overdub function; just play both instruments at the same time. And you could always just record the G/D loop as one thing, rather than joining D to G (which I doubt is possible anyway, aside from constantly switching manually). That'd all be doable on a cheaper unit.
Get one with stereo in and stereo out, plug the synth into R and the guitar into L, and run the R output through whatever effects you want to mess with.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:14 AM on August 24, 2009
If you're two people, you won't really need the overdub function; just play both instruments at the same time. And you could always just record the G/D loop as one thing, rather than joining D to G (which I doubt is possible anyway, aside from constantly switching manually). That'd all be doable on a cheaper unit.
Get one with stereo in and stereo out, plug the synth into R and the guitar into L, and run the R output through whatever effects you want to mess with.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:14 AM on August 24, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:15 PM on August 23, 2009