ENHANCE YOUR SOLO PREFORMANCE WITH
“LIVE – LOOPING”
By ARTHUR LEE LAND
What is “Live-Looping”?
It is the art of layering sounds in a live performance using a looping device that records/samples sounds and plays them back in a “loop”. Once your initial “loop” is recorded it plays back indefinitely, then you can continue to record (overdub) more sounds on top of your initial “loop” to create more depth and fun.
How can “Live-Looping” enhance my solo performance?
Looping allows you the opportunity to create more dynamics by layering backing parts for your songs and to be able to interact musically with yourself in new ways.
For example a singer-songwriter/guitarist can loop a rhythm guitar part to solo over or loop a vocal percussion (beatboxing) part creating a groove to play over. You can loop three-part harmonies or counter melody ideas to create call and response interaction. You could layer all these parts provided the initial loop is not too long. (Looping devices usually have a limited amount of memory but more than you’ll probably need.)
The possibilities are endless especially if you expand the amount of sounds/instruments that you can loop during you performance. The other end of the spectrum might look like my setup where I loop numerous African percussion instruments, bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, guitar synth (which gives me a plethora of sounds emulating various instruments), vocals and talk box. This allows me to create a virtual one-man band yet it is all done live as there are no pre-recorded tracks.
How is it done?
Basically the signal of a vocal mic or acoustic guitar goes into your looping device and the output goes into your mixer or amp. When you are ready to loop you press the record button on the downbeat and press it again at the end of the phrase on the downbeat. Then that loop will play over and over. You have to make sure your initial loop is in time otherwise it will drive you crazy. Then you can “overdub” additional parts on top of what you have and you can layer parts to your heart’s content.
What “Looping” Devices are available?
There are many to choose from and I suggest checking out the website WWW.LOOPERS-DELIGHT.COM and going to the link “Tools of the Trade” for detailed information on different loopers. I use the Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro (EDP) which is the most advanced (and expensive), other options include the Boomerang Phrase Sampler; Line 6 DL4 Modeling Delay; Boss RC-20 “Loop Station”; Lexicon MPX G2 (which includes the “Jamman” module). A few of the differences between the EDP and the rest of these loopers is it’s ability to manipulate the lengths of loops during a performance, the “UNDO” feature and the ability to have multiple loops. The EDP has so many other levels which is why it costs more than the rest. I suggest if you’re new to looping and budget is an issue to go for a less expensive unit and grow from there. I started out with the Boss RC-20 and bought an EDP after I was into for a while and needed the features the EDP offered. I’m not saying the RC-20 is the best option as it does have it’s problems which I discuss in the next section.
What are the Pro’s and Con’s of “Live-Looping”?
Well the big Pro is that you can create a more dynamic sound for your solo performance, more interest for the audience and more fun for you the performer. For me I don’t have to pay a whole band either.
The Con’s are that you have more gear to deal with (and schlep around) and the learning curves that go with technology. I’ve found that a lot of loopers enjoy techy stuff if they are not already outright gear heads. With that said it’s not rocket science were dealing with here so I think most of you people can handle it especially in its more simple applications.
Another con is that when using any live mics while looping you can get the sound of your stage monitors recorded back into your loops which make numerous layers become muddier sounding. The answer is to keep the amount of layers to a minimum or to mute the live mics on your mixer so that signal is NOT going into your looper during the recording/overdub process. Another answer which I use in conjunction with muting is In-Ear Monitoring. Implementing In-Ear monitors can be fairly expensive but it is soooo worth it. It’s like having a pair of studio headphones on and you can hear everything and have no feedback which is great for acoustic guitars and as far as for singers go, you’ll never complain about not hearing yourself in the monitors. I actually only use one side so I can hear the “house” with my other ear.
Also for current owners of the Boss RC-20 “Loop Station” Pedal there are a few things to be aware of: #1) The Instrument AND Vocal Inputs undesirably change the sound of whatever is plugged into to those inputs and I don’t recommend using them. Instead use a small mixer to increase your signal to “line level” and use the AUX Send plugging into the Miniplug CD Input, that way the sound that gets looped will be the sound that goes into it. #2) I recommend going first into an A/B box or a muteable tuner like the white Boss floor pedal tuner. That way after you have created your loop your direct guitar and vocal sound won’t be going through the RC-20 and into another channel of your mixer or amp. Unfortunately the RC-20 doesn’t have a “Mix” control like the EDP so you have to find a way to mute your direct sound and that’s how I did it. You’ll need a female ¼” to male 1/8” Miniplug adapter to go from the tuner or A/B box into the CD In jack on the back of the RC-20.
One of the big selling factors for me in going with the EDP is it’s MULTIPLY Function which allows me to manipulate the length of an already established loop. For example say I loop up a two bar percussion loop that is five parts deep using Djembe, Shaker, Omele, Bell and Talking Drum. I can now press the Multiply button on the downbeat and play a sixteen bar song (phrase) on guitar (say an eight bar Verse and an eight bar chorus) and end with a press of the Record button and the EDP has Multiplied the two bar loop under the sixteen bar loop and now I have one sixteen bar loop with the percussion loop multiplied by eight (2x8=16). Imagined how long it would take to play five drum parts for sixteen bars each! Then I can add bass and I’m ready to jam with the band (me and me and me and me and more me). Now another application of the Multiply function would be tagging the chorus at the end of the song and looping up some vocal harmonies. To make that happen I press Multiply at the beginning of the chorus and record at the end of the chorus and now I have shortened the loop to eight bars hence repeating or tagging the chorus. The Multiply mode is actually recording so I can be singing the chorus vocal part and after the chorus is looped I can press Overdub and start singing harmony parts. This makes the EDP very song friendly and I can create song based loops on the fly. You will hear and see examples of this during my “Enhance Your Solo Performance with Live-Looping” Workshop or at WWW..ARTHURLEELAND.COM.