Creating a Loop

Jam10

I have the Boss RC 20XL and I can't seem to figure out the perfect loop. It's either to early or too late. It's really frusturating. Instead of just playing and having fun, it seems like I'm spending most of the time trying to get my loop on time. Does anybody have any suggestions?

xtremehardy388

Jam10 wrote:

I have the Boss RC 20XL and I can't seem to figure out the perfect loop. It's either to early or too late. It's really frusturating. Instead of just playing and having fun, it seems like I'm spending most of the time trying to get my loop on time. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Practice.

ianvomsaal

Try using the built in metronome so you know that you're actually playing in time.
That can also deal with the quantatize function - you need to make sure it pulls to the correct beat (1/4 note, 1/8th note, 1/16th note, etc).
Also, try using the "auto start". All this and practice and you should be fine.
Remember that you need to start and stop recording on the correct beat or things won't sync up (you kind of need to have decent timing to use any kind of looping pedal).

- Ian

prytocorduroy

Practice as everyone's said.



When I got my JamMan I'd try to get a perfect loop for a long time, but couldn't do it easily. One thing that helped me, and I don't know how well this will translate in text, but I kept this in mind:

Hit record a hair before the first note (or beat) of your riff, and when you're ready to repeat, hit stop a hair before beginning the riff again (in the exact place you started it, just one measure later). So, how I got it down was that I'd play it once, then record the second time, and play through the first few notes of the third repetition to get the loop started. Once you get it down you can loop riffs more naturally, but I wouldn't suggest playing the loop riff only once, recording it that time, and then moving on to soloing or dubbing.


My biggest problems were:

Stopping too early (mostly cutting out silence or ringing notes that are critical to keeping time)
Playing the riff one time and recording that first time (play the riff out a few times and record when it feels right)
No metronome/drum machine (it really does help, I'd been in denial until I got my pedal)

who's_pearljam?

I have an RC 20, and if I'm doing a loop, put the metronome on and get the feel, then it has a 4 beat intro then kick out in time for the loop to repeat.
Also, make sure you have AutoQuantize on. That automaticall sets the timing right if you're a little bit off when you hit the pedal to stop the loop.
If you have the auto Quantize "off" you have to be exact, and I find that sometimes the pedal doesn't exactly match the timing when I kicked it.

Or that's my excuse, anyway!