what you think about Boss Ec 30??

What is a Boss EC-30? Never heard of.

//J

Hi All - What about software loopers? I've just started trying to work with Mobius. So far for me it has been a very steep learning curve, like near vertical. Any one have any thoughts or advice?

Cheers

RC-30, not EC-30.

It's new.

I searched on Musicians Friend, and figured out it was RC-30.

Looks like another quantum leap in the amount of memory, and number of stored loops.

They are taking pre-orders.

Lee

Hi there, I tried Mobius and a couple of other soft loopers out there, and went to your vertical situation too, and never was able to make it work the way I wanted. Also my first fear, being the looper one of the most essential parts of the rig (sort of single point of failure), was that if I was going to have a bug/problem during a concert (that I often do), and I had to deal with several help files and that shitty interface, I was going to lose it. Not that I do not want to analyze things, but during a live gig we turn into a very different kind of animal.... so took it out of there. I believe Per Boysen has successfully made this all work with Bidule, I would check with him.

From everything I have seen, there is no 1 single lopper that would have the following characteristics:

- Rack mounted, 1/2 rack if possible (most are floor units). All inputs/outputs at the back of the unit please. Front should just show patch number and status.
- Fully accessible through MIDI (the RC-50 has an incomplete MIDI configuration, you cannot rec/play, but you can erase/program change. Should be able to run it with switches (FS-5Us) if you don’t want MIDI
- Stereo + couple of extra inputs.

To do the above, I drilled 2 holes on the side of my RC-50 to allow play/rec remotely, a frigging mess, but it does the job, and it is installed in my rack. If there are any units out there that would do this and follow these specs... please share.

Gustavo

Yep, I started using Mobius in 2005 instead of my old rig built around an EDP, an Elextrixpro Repeater, an Akai analog filterbank, a Lexicon reverb and a mixer. For two years I ran Mobius in the standalone version and used a TC Electronics FireworX as the preamp, a totally stable solution. Then I got a little stronger PC and started using Bidule as the host for Mobius VST plugin. I made an environment in Bidule that combined lots of VST plug-ins sorted into alternative effect chains that you can swap between. Someone at the Bidule forum made me a Bidule Group (home cooked multi functionality gadget) that stays listening to the old patch (effect chain) as you swap for a new patch and keeps the old patch's reverb tail etc open until it naturally fades away. When Apple launched Mainstage I found it to be almost a replica of my custom made Bidule environment - but better sounding - so I switched to Mac for gigs and still use Mainstage as the host for processing and the Mobius looper AU plugin.

My trick for keeping a stable laptop setup is to use only a few functions from what the different software allow rather than fooling around trying out many things at a time. I never change two things in one go, only one at a time and I always save many copies of my working documents (under different names). That way I know what I am doing and if something - like for example a new plugin - causes instability issues I can solve it right there by simply going back one step. You have to start a software rig at a small scale and build it up slowly.

A final thing that helps stability is that I run the looper as the sync master and the host application as the sync slave. This means Mobius "doesn't know" it is running inside a host and can use full capacity to sort out track sync when working with multiple parallel loops. Oh, I also cripple down Mobius to only four tracks instead of its default eight track format (fiddling with the xml file to set the number of tracks). As you catch a loop Mobius calculates the tempo and sends out a MIDI Clock sync signal that Mainstage (or Ableoton Live or Bidule etc) follows and all effects patched up in the host will glue to the tempo you play.

Gustavo - Thanks for the advice. I share your concern about computer stability, but I'm not anywhere near ready for the stage. I also share your thoughts about the ideal unit - rack mounted and full MIDI control. I recently bought a FCB1010 MIDI foot controller and I'm loving it.

What's keeping me from hardware loopers is the cost...and since I'm still working out my chops on the Stick, I'll keep working at Mobius and spend my money on other hardware first. I'm going to try my luck with Ambiloop as well. Any thoughts about that software, if you've used it?

Cheers

John

Hi Per - I have also been playing with Bidule, but for my looping experiments, and at this stage they are truly experiments, I have been using Mobius as a standalone. Good advice to keep things simple and not try to change many things at once.

I have to say Bidule is a great little program. The graphics makes it is so intuitive and simple to build up complicated routing schemes. As for other soft loopers, have you tried Ambiloop? I also have done some fooling around with the Elottronix XL, a VST plugin that emulates to two reel-to-reel setup that Robert Fripp used for Frippertronics. If you like Robert's music of that era, check it out.

Cheers


John

Gustavo etc,

isn't the looperlative lp-1 the rack unit you are looking for?

www.looperlative.com

Well, this would be it!!!! Thanks for the link. This Über-device also sort of has an Über-price... but it would be a definitive alternative when would be time to redesign the rig. Tt seems these guys are thinking of releasing a smaller version "LP2". It looks like a floor unit based on the prototype, but for 300$ for a full MIDI controller looper, it may be it...Does not look as a stereo unit through....



Never tried Ambiloop, I thought it was only a Windows but googling around it seems there may be a Mac version... Could not find a link to it. If cost is an issue, one trick I often use when I travel (So I do not carry too much stuff) is a used Boss LS-2 (which I have configured as a tiny mixer) and a Boss RC-2 (which is a mono looper), before sending all to the amplifier. For me it worked like a charm, it is just a couple of pedals, 1 power-supply, and if you shop around you can get all of this for 200 bucks.... have a couple of videos here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pjm7yjd_dI" using it with my Stick in Uruguay if you would be interested to check how it all sounded, as it has a couple of layers added without affecting the overall sound.

Knowing all the new loops Boss/Roland is releasing, I foresee a lot of GAS driven individuals selling their RC-2s to get the newest RC-*, so this may be an interesting alternative. I hope this helps.

Gustavo