It’s nice to hear that of what’s available today you have such a preference for the Headrush — it means I made a lucky choice in starting with one, and I’m making a good choice in using it as a mental foundation for what I wish a looper could do.

No, I haven’t build up a looper yet; however, I have no doubt it’s possible to make. I think it’ll be more difficult to come to an agreement how the user interface should work than to build the device itself, and your experience with many different loopers could be very valuable here if you were interested in participating.

To build the “real” thing, I’d like to use some specialized hardware. To build a prototype, I have an interfacing idea that would require using a computer with guitar-level audio I/O, or build some level-translating hardware, and then do the looping in software on the PC using an audio development environment called Pd. If you think you could get guitar-level sound in and out of your computer (laptop?), I’d be game to put together a board of stomp switches and LEDs and work something up for you to play with — although probably not in September.

In my experience with loopers, I have owned several. I’ve owned two Headrush E2 pedals, the LIne 6 DL-4, the Line 6 M-13 and a few others (BOSS, etc). I keep coming back to the Headrush, however. But, just as you discussed in your entry, there is SO much room for improvement.

So… to my question: Did you ever come up with a solid build idea? Is it even possible to create a looper this sophisticated? After investing as much as I have into various loopers, I would be willing to pay an almost unheard of amount of money for a pedal that functions as the one you discussed building.

At any rate- I love this topic. The idea that no large company has taken it upon themself to build such a pedal encourages me to believe that it’s either impossible at this time or that it would cost to much to build and then sell to the mass-market to make profit. But… as a musician who pays thousands on my hobby, I’d be willing to pay just about anything to have the sort of LIVE capabilities one would have with such a “smart” pedal.

Anyway, thanks a ton! Keep up the creative thought! I love it!

I’ll be trying out some more in the practice studio and will keep you posted

Thanks all!

(other suggestions are still welcome of course)

Partly KT works around it by only playing or only singing when she’s overdubbing the loop, and then she’ll sit out a couple of bars to sample it and make sure it’s at a good level before going on.

This is a little bit crazy, but it might be worth trying in the practice studio. What if you send voice, guitar, and Headrush to your sound guy, and have him mix live voice and guitar onto a submaster that he sends back to the Headrush input?

Then he can control the mix going into the loop; and even if it’s not the perfect balance for the PA, at least he’ll be able to get a good mix on what you’re laying down.

I watched the video (nice performance I got the info on her equipment, but apparently she has the same (thing that I see as a) problem: she separates input of the Headrush by putting a mixer in front of it (between guitar&mic and Headrush).

My problem though is, that – since the Headrush has only 1 input and 1 output + 1 volume button – I lose the ability to adjust the volumes of guitar/vocals afterwards.

So when I perform in a certain room/hall, the sound guy can’t help me out when I lose either guitar or vocals in the mix. He can just turn everything as a whole up or down.

Shitty shitty… Help!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1IxYksrUK8

She even rerecords the backing vocals because they weren’t loud enough the first time.

Another option like Howie Day is to use two looper one for each mic and guitar but then you get into timing issues with trying to keep the two synced which is hard.

I remember the line6 DD4 having two inputs and outputs. I also remember trying to use that and it not working, but I can’t remember why. (can’t check since switched to the echoplex) so maybe look into that. I also haven’t looked at any software solutions, but I feel like it would be easy to create that feature in software.

What I do for now is bite the bullet and have one output and control volume myself. Maybe this could be part of the Better Looper? I would definitely use it.

Now, I have a question and I hope maybe someone here can help me out with it (due to extensive experience with looping pedals ). I’ll describe it all below and let me just add to that I’m not technical at all…

Here we go!

I would like be able to loop both my vocals and (acoustic) guitar, without stealing away the options of mixing the individual channels afterwards.

Hmz, might sound a little vague, so let me try to explain myself.

I play
- guitar: Martin D1 (with active Fishman Matrix II element)
- mic: Sennheiser E865 Sting Signature
- loop-pedal: AKAI HEADRUSH E2

My AKAI Headrush E2
main pro’s
- easy to use
- nice sound
- all in one (easy to carry, since I’m a singersongwriter performing solo a lot of the time, I cannot carry too much stuff with me)

main cons
- only 1 input
- only 1 output

Problem: when I let my vocals & guitar go into the Headrush input through the output of a tiny mixer (which receives outputs from both guitar & mic), it all comes out as 1 mix, stealing away the opportunity of mixing the sound of all individual channels for the room. (so the sound guy can’t help me out if the mix is no good)

Now I was thinking, maybe the best option is to:
- send the mic to one channel of the (big) mixer
- send the guitar to another
- send the output of both to my Headrush
- send the output of my headrush to a third channel

which leaves the sound engineer with:
- 3 channels (mic, guitar, headrush output) to mix

right?

tried it yesterday, but didn’t work out and had to do 2 songs without the loop pedal. kind of stank… so hopefully someone can help me out here

what’s most important to me is
- i can’t carry a shitload of stuff around (so racks and stuff are no option)
- i really like the easy handling of the Headrush and right now I’m thinking the greatest option would be if someone could rebuild it (to have 2 inputs & outputs)

That’s my main question.

Another question is: what gear did KT Tunstall use for Black Horse In A Cherry Tree? Might help me out as well…

Hope to be hearing from you guys!

Thanks for pointing me to him.