[Manolian]

Originally Posted by Honga Man

I think these things are best used at home - that's just my opinion, but I'm VERY happy with my RC-2.

Before I bought mine, I read everything I could find on the internet and watched all the YouTube videos about looping (hours of fun there - check out Arthur Lee Land, who gave me the idea to use multiple instruments through preamps into a mixing board and then through the looper).

What I learned is a lot of guys are frustrated with loopers (all kinds) on stage. Apparently they can drive a tube amp's input too hard with multiple overdubs (or with the output level set too high). Sometimes others in the band fall out of sync with the loop (especially the drummer if he can't he can't hear it well). Sometimes guys don't think about how a looper works and change to their amp's overdrive channel and wonder why their loop is now distorted. There is a learning curve to getting your loops properly "aligned" and if you blow it on stage, well, you're on stage, ya know?

The reason I think these things are so great for the home guitarist is all those problems can be avoided at home with a little practice and it's like having a jamming partner who will never get tired, never lose the beat, and never make a mistake.

I find no loss of signal quality with the RC-2, and I make that statement after listening with headphones to recorded "loop songs" versus recordings I made with the same gear without the looper. I admit I don't have super ears - I'm not the kind of guy who complains that mp3s don't sound as good as vinyl records - but to me, the RC-2 sounds fine IF you aren't overloading it with a too-hot signal or running it through a distorted amp.

You can also have too much stuff hooked up before the looper and get hiss in the signal but this isn't the looper's fault. I believe the RC-2 accurately reproduces what its given, although only in mono.

If you just want to loop simple chord progressions and then practice soloing over them, the RC-2 is great. You can also loop music from a CD or iPod or whatever and play along with that over and over to learn your favorite licks. You can even slow it down (a little) without messing up the sound too badly or changing pitch.

If you just want to record guitar only and keep it really simple (no drum beats, no Auto Start, no Tap Tempo, no switching between saved loops), just set the big knob on the right to the 12 o'clock position, on the icon that looks like this: O/>

Press the button as you start to play. Let's say you're doing a 4-beat pattern. Press it just as you start on the ONE and then press it again where the ONE would be - don't press it immediately after the FOUR or your loop will sound like this:

1 and 2 and 3 and 41 and 2 and 3 and 41 and 2...

You want: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2...

This is true for any looper.

Consider you might have more fun with some effects pedals or a multi-effects processor before the looper so you can get different sounds in your loop. Example: clean rhythm, octave pedal for simulated bass lines, and then an overdriven lead tone. This works best if you run the output of the looper into an amp designed to cleanly reproduce all frequencies, unlike most guitar amps. Consider using a keyboard amp, bass amp, or a small PA system after the looper instead of a midrange-heavy tube amp.

If you want to get more complicated than that I'll write more but don't want to fill up your thread with a bunch of stuff that you might not care about. (I probably already did!)

Great Honga man thanx for all this info