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HackettFan View Drop Down
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Loopers vs. Digital Recorders
    Posted: October 05 2013 at 18:54
Does anyone have some insight on how the recording quality of loopers compare with straight up digital recorders?
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mono View Drop Down
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Points: 652 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 09 2013 at 05:03
It's mostly a matter of AD and DA converters quality.
The good thing about digital recorders is that you have a large choice for the converters and good quality can be found easily (for the price).
The good thing about loopers is that they're ready-to-use...

I you are looking for a very good sound quality,  I would go with a digital recorder with a good AD converter (I work with a laptop + external sound card).
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The.Crimson.King View Drop Down
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Points: 4596 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2013 at 13:02
I play a fantastic looper called a "Looperlative".  Excellent sound quality and features...not cheap though...but it's the Ferrari of stereo loopers...looks like they're on a design hiatus at the moment though...
Mutiny in Jonestown : Progressive Rock Since 1987
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HackettFan View Drop Down
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 03 2013 at 10:59
Thanks both of you. Sorry for my delayed response. Work has been all-consuming recently. I've only used loopers that came on my digital delays and I've recently ordered the rather inexpensive TC Electronic Ditto Looper to help as a composition tool. It only handles short loops of a few minutes, which will not make it suitable for what I ultimately want to do - record an album. I do have access to a digital recorder that I like, and might in fact stick with that. The reason I'm considering a looper is for the quick and easy response with foot controls. Many of the loopers don't have their recording stats advertised from what I've seen. Some sometimes just say "CD quality". I've looked at the RC series, but I'm not sure you can shut off the quantization on it. I've looked at the Electro-Harmonix 45000, but it's sample rate is only 16 bit. The cheapy Ditto Looper is 24 bit. I'm very attracted to what I've seen of the Pigtronix Infinity Looper. It's 24 bit with no quantization. It looks like a great composition tool too, although that's not really what I'm chasing. I'm also looking seriously at the Looperlative, which I was unaware of previously - thank you. The price tag will be difficult to deal with, though, so I'm still mulling it all over.
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The.Crimson.King View Drop Down
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Points: 4596 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 03 2013 at 23:16
Originally posted by HackettFan HackettFan wrote:

Thanks both of you. Sorry for my delayed response. Work has been all-consuming recently. I've only used loopers that came on my digital delays and I've recently ordered the rather inexpensive TC Electronic Ditto Looper to help as a composition tool. It only handles short loops of a few minutes, which will not make it suitable for what I ultimately want to do - record an album. I do have access to a digital recorder that I like, and might in fact stick with that. The reason I'm considering a looper is for the quick and easy response with foot controls. Many of the loopers don't have their recording stats advertised from what I've seen. Some sometimes just say "CD quality". I've looked at the RC series, but I'm not sure you can shut off the quantization on it. I've looked at the Electro-Harmonix 45000, but it's sample rate is only 16 bit. The cheapy Ditto Looper is 24 bit. I'm very attracted to what I've seen of the Pigtronix Infinity Looper. It's 24 bit with no quantization. It looks like a great composition tool too, although that's not really what I'm chasing. I'm also looking seriously at the Looperlative, which I was unaware of previously - thank you. The price tag will be difficult to deal with, though, so I'm still mulling it all over.

The Looperlative is pricey but it's the best piece of hardware I know of.  For example, I was using 2 Gibson Echoplex rack mounts (each is mono so I chained them to get stereo looping).  When I moved to the Looperlative, it has 8 independent stereo loopers that you can play one at a time, or all together, or split up the 8 in separate groups, etc.  It also has the ability to do asynchronos looping where the 8 can all be playing loops of different times all at once.  You will need some type of foot pedal midi controller though to really use it's full potential.  I used a super inexpensive Behringer FCB 1010 (I think that was the modell#).  Anyway, I believe the looperlative site has a forum and you can get a ton of info there...Have fun!
Mutiny in Jonestown : Progressive Rock Since 1987
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