Good Looper/Drum Machine?

[craichead]

I'm in search of a good looper and drum machine combo for improv practice. I've been looking all over the net, but it's tough to find basic info on these things regarding the types of drum beats available on them.

I'm basically a country, rockabilly and jazz player and so would like to know for sure I can get a variety of patterns from these genres including 3/4 time and tempo control.

Do they even make something like this? I've looked at several demos on youtube and the digitech rp55 looks interesting, especially in terms of price. I don't need anything too heavy duty as this will be used pretty much exclusively in my basement at home.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Justinvs]

I have a Boss RC-2. It's pretty basic, but the drumbeats work fine for practicing against.

 

[jeremypodom]

I'd just use your computer for drum beats. Any looper pedal is going to give you really cheesy and awful beats.

Another good idea would be looking for generic jam tracks. They'll force you to go beyond your comfort zone, because if you only practice to your own loops than you'll never expand beyond your own style.

 

[Justinvs]

I'd just use your computer for drum beats. Any looper pedal is going to give you really cheesy and awful beats.

Another good idea would be looking for generic jam tracks. They'll force you to go beyond your comfort zone, because if you only practice to your own loops than you'll never expand beyond your own style.

Lots of relativey cheap drum machines out there, too. I find myself using one when I loop because you can add bass lines to the beat.

 

[6Shotsdown]

Use computer programs. Much more versatile and you can record yourself which is very helpful.

 

[BBill64]

Old Korg Electribes. You can load in your own samples and program your own sequences, and they are cheap.

 

[fly135]

You need the looper and the drum machine synced. So buying a drum machine is not a great idea for use with a looper. I suggest the Zoom G3, which has a 40 sec looper and synced rhythm machine. The Rhythms are great fro practice. My link has several songs done with the G3's looper/drums. They are Some Bird, Baldwin Park, Outta Town, Bug Walk, and Jelly Jam.

 

[VintageToneGuy]

ZOOM G3 is what I use and it's really good plus you get three effects at one time to boot!

 

[gussbrown]

My Zoom G3 can do 6 effects simultaneously.

 

[GhostofJohnToad]

How much you want to spend? And do you prefer a hardware or software solution?

 

[teleprompted]

Definitely not used in the guitar world but if what you want is a drum machine the akai MPC 500/1000 is awesome. The MPC can sample anything and slice, crop, edit, and sequence it. Even add effects to individual events/tracks. Many hip hop producers use these to create drum patterns and record samples to be looped and played with.

 

[GhostofJohnToad]

Actually I use an mpc1000 for most everything I record. With the added functionality of the add-on JJOS it can almost function as a DAW as well. But there is the cost of admission and the learning curve.

For a low price software option I recommend Drum loops like Beta Monkey. Good quality and you can buy genre specific.

For low price hardware get a used drum machine either boss or alesis.

Another option is if you have an iPhone or iWhatever get a few apps like GarageBand, Figure, or nano studio.

 

[deadicated]

I like to use the BR-600 to practice with. Not cheap or very expensive kinda in the middle. May be more than your looking for. A lot of fun though.

 

[fly135]

My Zoom G3 can do 6 effects simultaneously.

That's because a software upgrade increased the number of FX since this was originally posted.

 

[Chris2P]

Line 6 jm4 looper does both and then some. Great practice tool but wouldnt use it for gigging.

 

[popthree]

i use the drum beats in an old keyboard along with my looper. i don't sync them via midi or anything like that either. it works well for me.

i've also used drum patterns from my pc and for awhile i had an old alesis drum machine.. all these solutions worked fine. you can play in any time signature you want.. as long as you have a pattern in that signature... the looper doesn't care.

for loopers, i recommend the boomerang.. i have the 3, but an old rang plus would be fine too... and cheaper. the boomerang is the best thing you can get except for a gibson echoplex.... but the echoplex is alot more expensive. you can get a new rang 3 for 450ish, and an old rang plus for 150-200. they are the best live loopers... the digitech and boss stuff is not as good for live, spontaneous loop creation in my opinion.

 

[fly135]

The issue with unsynced drum machines is variable. A long loop that is only repeated a few times might be fine. But the error will accumulate each loop. A 20msec error over 25 loops will be 1/2 sec out of sync.

 

[popthree]

sort of like a real drummer

for jamming its fine and virtually unnoticeable if you are doing it right

 

[Honga Man]

RE: unsynched drum machines and loopers...

I have a Boss DR-3 drum machine , an old Yamaha keyboard with really basic drum beats, and a Fender G-DEC with drum loops in it.

I also have a Boss RC-2 looper. When not using the drum tracks in the RC-2, I do it like this:

1. Find a drum beat I want to use. Press Start.

2. Step on looper to start recording and play along with the drums on guitar, bass, or keys.

3. Step on the looper again to stop recording and create the loop.

4. Immediately press Stop on whatever is playing drum sounds that is now a fraction of a second out of synch.

5. I now have a drum beat that's synched with the loop, since I recorded it "live".

In my experience, learning how to record good loops consistently is harder than working in the drum machine.

A mixing board helps. I plug everything into a mixer and then into the RC-2 and then out to a monitor.

 

[popthree]

Honga man has it down