For those of you who predominantly play acoustic or electric guitar, a looper pedal may prove to be the most valuable music purchase that you ever make. Unfortunately, the sheer variety of pedals available today can make purchasing a looper a bit overwhelming. There are dozens of manufacturers and hundreds of models, all of which come with their own pros and cons. But thankfully for you, we’ve combed through a wide variety of sources in an attempt to help you find the best looper pedal for your needs. We’ll give you a basic breakdown of the pedals, as well as great recommendations for the one you should get! If you're short on time or just want to get right to the winners, we've summarized our findings. So, What Does A Looper Pedal Do?
For those of you who aren’t already aware, a looper pedal is a device which records the signal from your guitar and then plays it over and over again. A looper pedal differs from a delay because the signal is repeated for as long as the musician requires, whereas a delay will only repeat a signal for a short amount of time.
A delay pedal is an effect, whereas a looper pedal is more of a tool. What’s so great about a looper pedal is that it allows a musician to create their own backing tracks on the fly, giving him/her dramatically more control over their practice routine. To give an example, let’s assume that you want to practice some jazz improvisation at a medium tempo in the key of C Major.
Now you could spend half an hour on the web trying to find a jam track that’ll fit your needs, or you could use a looper pedal to easily lay down a basic chord progression and get to practicing. Some musicians also use looper pedals for live performance, laying down the basic progression of the song and then adding ornamentation on top of it. A good example of an artist who commonly uses this technique is.
Here's an inspiring performance from Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice, who uses looper pedals to not only loop his vocals, but also switches between acoustic and electric guitar to record different parts (the fun starts around 4:10 into the video). He would need four or five other musicians to do the work his one (or perhaps two) looper pedals are doing. What Should I Look For In A Looper Pedal?
There was a time when we were standing right where you are now, unsure of just what we needed in a looper pedal and what we should expect to spend. Having demoed a pretty wide variety of loopers, we’ve come to the conclusion that you don’t really need a lot of features in your looper pedal to get a lot of use out of it. Sure having the ability to slow tracks down on the fly or easily transfer them to your computer is handy, but it’s by no means a necessity. At the end of the day, most looper pedals on the market are going to perform fairly well. The most important thing is that you a purchase looper with a well built chassis (the case of the pedal) and components that will hold up under the stress you’ll be putting it through.
Generally, a looper pedal is going to run you somewhere in the neighborhood of $100, and a feature rich looper could easily run you $200-300. How Did We Choose The Winners?
Our research method is very comprehensive. We scour the web for forum threads from the likes of reddit and Gearslutz where people are asking 'What's the best looper pedal?' Instead of relying on individual opinions, we tally up each time a looper pedal receives a recommendation or endorsement from an owner. This yielded a master list of about 23 pedals, and from that we sorted out the top 5. Then, we thoroughly read reviews for the top 5, watched demo videos, and finally went to try them out ourselves at our local music shops.
And as always, it’s important to clarify what “best” means in the context of this article. Sure, a $300 high-end looper pedal may have a lot of features that you won’t find on a $50 model, but that doesn’t matter to someone who can only scrape together $50. In our top 5 list, we make sure to include looper pedals that hit a variety of budget ranges, and we make sure to name the Best of the Best, and the Best Bang for Your Buck choices. The 5 Best Looper Pedals So without much further ado, here are the best looper pedals.
TC Electronic Ditto Looper Loop Time: 5 minutes The TC Electronic Ditto Looper pedal is without a doubt the best loop pedal on the market today for most guitarists. Think of it almost like the iPhone of looper pedals. We say that with conviction, since when we hunted down countless 'what’s the best looper pedal?' Forum threads, the Ditto came up the most liked and recommended one again and again. In fact, if you’ve read any of our other, you know sometimes when we tally up the votes, it’s a pretty close race between the gear that comes in first, second, and sometimes third place. In this case, the Ditto stole the show, coming in first by a huge margin! The TC Electronic Ditto Looper is outstanding first and foremost because it’s a simple and affordable looper.
TC Electronic set out to make a pedal by guitarists, for guitarists, and it shows in how relatively straightforward it is to operate. Not only is it simple and functional, but the sound quality is outstanding due to its 24-bit uncompressed audio fidelity. This is important because it makes for great clarity and distinction between the layers you’re looping. The Ditto is great even when it’s not on, with its true bypass circuitry (meaning your guitar signal goes through it unaffected). And to take it another step further, the Ditto has analog-dry-through, meaning that even when it’s on, the dry signal comes through the pedal, all analog, unaltered in any way. The Ditto Looper is so well-received by guitarists because it gives you the feeling that every feature that is essential to looping is simply best-in-class.
If you want to get an idea of just how well-received it is, it has a whopping 400+ positive reviews on Amazon. The interface on the Ditto couldn’t be much simpler - you have a single volume knob to control the loop volume, and a single footswitch to operate the pedal. In terms of the tech specs, you have 5 minutes of looping time, which is ample time to record and loop and entire song if you want to. You also get unlimited overdubs, meaning you can record layers upon layers to your heart’s content. At first it might seem strange that the Ditto is fully controllable by a single switch - and admittedly, it can take a little bit of practice to get used to using it seamlessly. Punch the switch once and the light turns red, which is record mode. Punch it again to stop recording, and the light turns green to indicate playback mode.
The light conveniently blinks at the start of the loop. When it’s in playback mode, you can press the switch to arm it for recording, and it actually starts recording at the start of the loop, which is super convenient. Don’t like the loop you just recorded? Punch the switch and hold it for a second to undo (or redo). Press switch twice to fully stop the loop. Again, these controls might take a little bit to get used to (especially the double-tap to stop), but after playing with the Ditto Looper for a couple of hours they’ll become second nature. The TC Electronic Ditto Looper is not completely without flaws.
For one, it doesn’t have a battery. You must power it with a 9V power supply providing 100 mA or more. We got our Ditto from Amazon (hooray for Amazon Prime free 2-day shipping), and also got this $10, which is the recommended power supply and works perfectly to power the Ditto. Also, this pedal’s simplicity might not be for everyone. If you are a live performer with complex looping needs when it comes to your layers and arrangements, you might require more options that what the Ditto Looper provides. Unlike some other looper pedals on the market, you can’t save any recorded loops with the Ditto. This is unfortunate if you need to store a bunch of pre-recorded loops for songs you want to perform.
Also, say you are songwriting and come up with some brilliant loop worthy of recording, you’ll have to hook it up to something that is capable of recording. As soon as you switch the Ditto off, you’ll lose whatever you had going on it. Of course, this isn’t necessarily a terrible thing; we found that by having to recreate loops each time we switched the Ditto on, we had to inject more creativity and come up with even more interesting stuff!
Bottom Line: The TC Electronic Ditto Looper is, overall, truly the best looper pedal out there right now. For composition, songwriting, practice, and live use, it really has no equal. The recording quality is great, and the impact to your guitar’s tone is minimal, if not nonexistent. It’s definitely the looper to get if your looping needs are relatively simple. We love this quote from an Owner of the Ditto: I have one and it's fantastic. Does exactly what it's supposed to do and nothing else. And it's cheap.
And it's sturdy. We really can’t stress how good this pedal is, especially for the budget-friendly price it is offered. Simply having one handy as a practice tool will tremendously improve your guitar playing, timing, rhythm chops, soloing, creativity, etc.
Whether you’re replacing your old looper pedal, or buying your first one, there’s a 99.8% chance you’ll fall in love with the Ditto. Definitely the Best of the Best. Boss RC-3 Loop Station Loop Time: 3 hours The TC Electronic Ditto may have taken first place by a large margin, but second place by a significant margin goes to the Boss RC-3 Loop Station.
Immediately when you look at it you’ll notice it lacks the dead-simple interface that the Ditto has, but in turn it adds some pretty great features. These features, plus the Boss build-quality, reliability, and experience in making loop pedals make the RC-3 a very strong contender. The tiny buttons placed close together might seem intimidating at first, but rest assured that operating the Boss RC-3 is pretty straightforward and simple. In fact, you can ignore the buttons and get straight to looping by hitting the footswitch once, and the red light in the top-left corner indicates you’re in record mode.
Hit it again and both green and red LEDs light up meaning you’re in playback AND recording mode. Hit it yet again, and just the green one stays lit, meaning you’re playing back your loop. Double-tap the footswitch to stop looping. This operation is very similar to that of the Ditto.
The RC-3 also has the handy feature of starting and stopping the recording on the measure, so you don't have to have perfect timing with the footswitch. We were surprised to find the Boss RC-3 being recommended in forum threads that were asking for the best budget looper pedals. We don’t think the RC-3 has a budget-friendly price tag.
However, it does have quite the impressive set of features. You get a whopping 3 hours of loop time, and 99 presets to store your loops in. And speaking of storing loops, the RC-3 has a USB port so you can save your loops to a computer, or load WAV files into this pedal to be part of your loops, and have those be saved (no special software required, which is great). As a side note, this works great not just for looping, but just for storing any kind of sound effects. Say a song of yours needs a sound effect like a clap of thunder. Find that sound sample online, load it up into one of the 99 slots of the RC-3, and boom, you’ve got a mini sampler! OK, moving on, you get a AUX IN 1/8' jack so you can plug in an iPod, iPad, or other mp3 player and have that be part of your loops as well.
You also have the option of mono or stereo inputs and outputs, which is handy. If operating this loop pedal with the single Boss footswitch seems too difficult, the RC-3 has the option of an external footswitch, which takes some of the functionality of the RC-3 and expands it out to it (Boss recommends using the ). One more feature worth mentioning is the Rhythm feature, essentially a built-in drum machine, which you can use as a metronome (with a handy tap tempo button, so you can set the tempo you want on the fly, though several reviewers lamented the tap tempo not being displayed nor being able to be adjusted incrementally). The rhythm portion also comes with its own volume knob. This is a great feature for practicing, but we wouldn’t recommend using the built-in drum tracks in recordings or live; they simply sound a bit thin, cheap, and basic, and overall not that great. The RC-3 also comes with 9 pre-recorded loops to jam along with, complete with bass, drums, and piano parts.
A fun feature to practice and play with, but by no means essential. In terms of sound quality, it’s a notch below the TC Electronic Ditto in terms of clarity. This is due to the loops being in 16-bit audio, as opposed to 24-bit. The RC-3 also introduces an ever-so-slight bit of noise to the signal chain, and when switched off it is unfortunately not true bypass. These are minor annoyances, and only the most sensitive ears will be able to tell.
Bottom Line: Despite some drawbacks, the Boss RC-3 is a great little loop pedal. It holds its own against the significantly more expensive, in a much more compact package.
If the 5 minute loop time and lack of loop storage of the TC Electronic Ditto is too limiting, the Boss RC-3 is the one to get. The drum machine functionality - while not the best quality - is good for practicing your chops, but what we really love is the AUX IN, and the ability to hook it up to your computer via USB and transfer your loops back and forth. The price is a little on the high end, but you’re getting a lot of great features and recording capacity with the price still far lower than some of the premium $300 looper pedals out there. DigiTech JamMan Express XT Loop Time: 10 minutes Sporting a funky vintage racecar aesthetic, the DigiTech JamMan Express XT is as dependable as it is stylish. Featuring 10 minutes of stereo recording time as well as an easy to read three LED display, the DigiTech JamMan Express might quickly become your favorite practice tool. The race for the third place loop pedal was tight, but the JamMan Express just barely edged out the competition. After this review, you’ll see why it’s very worthy of being on a best looper pedals list.
The DigiTech JamMan line actually has several looper pedals at various sizes, feature-sets, and price points, and the JamMan Express XT is the most compact and most affordable one. If you’re in the market for a looper pedal in around the $99 price range, chances are you’ll be looking at this one and the TC Electronic Ditto (in nearly every forum and review we looked at it seemed people were trying to decide between the two). If you go strictly by our analysis and the number of recommendations both pedals received, the Ditto objectively wins. Subjectively however, there are several things that might sway you towards the JamMan Express.
Like the Ditto, the JamMan has true bypass which keeps your signal nice and clean when the pedal is off. Unlike the Ditto, the JamMan has stereo inputs and outputs, which is a nice option to have handy. You can power it with a 9V adapter, or a 9V battery (it comes with a 9V battery, so the moment the pedal arrives at your doorstep, you can plug it in and play with it). Honestly though, when we were testing this pedal out, the battery wore out quite quickly, so like with most pedals we highly recommend you use it with a power adapter.
The operation is remarkably similar to the Ditto. You have an On/Off footswitch, and a nice big volume knob to set the Loop Level. Stepping on the footswitch once kicks it into recording mode. Stepping on it again kicks it into play mode. Hitting it yet again switches it into dub (i.e. Overdub) mode, so you can record layers on top of the original loop.
Pretty simple. Its “silent clear' feature means that you can press and hold the footswitch while playback is stopped, and your loop clears out instantly with no fuss (this is actually better than some loopers that might play a tiny clip of your loop when you’re instead trying to clear it out). The JamMan has twice the recording time of the Ditto, an ample 10 minutes, and also lets you do infinite overdubs. One feature we love about the DigiTech JamMan more than any other looper pedal are the 3 big bright LEDs indicating what mode you’re in.
Whether you’re casually playing at home or performing in a dark, smoky venue, glancing down and seeing a brightly lit red (record), yellow (overdub), or green (play) LED is massively helpful. Another nice feature is Jam Sync. On the back of the JamMan you can see IN and OUT jacks for Jam Sync, which allows you to take different pedals with the Jam Sync feature and lock them together, meaning the loops start and stop at the exact same time, synchronized with each other. This is good for advanced looping, and it’s more of a nice-to-have feature.
Bottom Line: The DigiTech JamMan Express XT is a serious contender for space on your pedalboard. Its build quality is solid, it sounds great, and packs more features and more looping time than the Ditto in an ever-so-slightly larger footprint. The big bright status LED lights alone are almost enough to seal the deal for us. You still can’t save any loops, so if that’s a must-have requirement for you, take a look at the.
Whether practicing, jamming, performing, or composing, you can’t really go wrong with the JamMan Express. If price is the deciding factor, keep a very close eye on Amazon as the price of both this and the tend to fluctuate a bit. Zoom G1on Guitar Multi-Effects Processor & Looper Loop Time: 30 seconds The Zoom G1on Guitar Multi-Effects Processor is actually quite an incredible pedal, and an incredible bargain. The entry level price for a dedicated looper pedal is around $100, and with the G1on Zoom you not only get you a looper for half that price, but also a full-fledged multi-fx processor! Given the price of admission and the many recommendations it received for people asking for the “best looper pedal under $100”, the G1on earns a solid place on our list.
We’ll touch on a lot of its features, but we’ll mostly focus on reviewing it as a looper pedal, since that’s what you came for! The impressive thing about the Zoom G1on is how good it sounds given its very budget-friendly price tag.
It’s one of those rare guitar pedals that makes you wonder how they were able to pull of the price vs quality without sacrificing much. Sure, if you’re an effects pedal purist and have a pedalboard built out with the best of everything, multi-fx pedals might not impress you. For the rest of us, the amp and effects modeling of the G1on sounds fantastic.
You get 100 guitar effects (delay, reverb, distortion, amp models, etc), 68 built-in rhythm accompaniment patterns to jam along with, and even a built-in tuner. Trust us, we're not exaggerating when we say this thing has some quality sounds. The back us up. On to the looping functionality. The Zoom G1on allows for 30 seconds of loop time, and infinite overdubs. 30 seconds is quite a bit less time than most dedicated loop pedals offer, but that’s one of the tradeoffs you have to make for this price.
Still, it’s ample time to record an interesting lick or progression, making this a great practice tool. While having 60 seconds would be better, we’re personally ok with 30 seconds, since we don’t find ourselves needing to loop 5 minute songs very often. Of course, your milage may vary. The audio quality is good, 16-bit 44.1kHz (CD quality). Remember how we mentioned the 68 built-in rhythm patterns?
Well, you can play along to any of them in your loops, which lets you get pretty creative with this thing. The drums sound much better and more realistic than the cheesy sounding ones of the Boss RC-3. Operation is simple, with two very easy-to-stomp foot switches (the left one controls play and record, the right one is to stop and clear). Unfortunately, there is no undo function if you messed up your latest overdub.
The most fun thing about the loop feature is that you can use it in conjunction with the G1on’s effects. For example, throw on a drum rhythm, put on some delay and chorus, and make a loop with a chord progression. Next, switch to the octave effect, and your guitar suddenly becomes a bass guitar so you can record a bassline.
Then, throw on a distortion effect, and play a lead line over your loop. This pedal makes it very easy and fun to be a one-(wo)man-band and do some interesting things. The Zoom G1on comes with 4 AA batteries, but you can also power it via a 9V adapter, or USB, which is a nice feature. Zoom recommends, but we like the. Despite the body of the pedal being made of plastic, it actually feels solidly constructed, and has an all-metal base. We haven’t used it for long enough to comment on long-term durability, although what we see is promising. Bottom Line: The pros and cons of the Zoom G1on Guitar Multi-Effects Processor as a loop pedal are fairly obvious.
The most glaring features you will miss are a lack of undo, and the relatively short 30 second loop time. On the plus side, this is as inexpensive as a loop pedal comes, and with it you get a very decent sounding multi-fx unit. With the headphone output, you could take this thing with you anywhere and jam out or practice without bothering anyone else. If you’re on a budget and want a looper that is well-built and user-friendly, perfect for practicing, and has the added bonus of loads of quality effects and amp models, the Zoom G1on is a no brainer, and wins our Best Bang for Your Buck. DigiTech JamMan Solo XT Loop Time: 10 minutes Rounding out our top 5 best loop pedal list is another one in the DigiTech lineup, the DigiTech JamMan Solo XT.
This is the big brother to the, and adds on loads more features. It’s also, unsurprisingly, more expensive. Feature for feature, this is the primary competitor to the. The controls of the JamMan Solo take a little bit of time to get used to. With 5 buttons and 2 knobs, the interface is certainly not as simple as the Ditto or JamMan Express.
In terms of features, the JamMan Solo caters to more looper power users. You get 200 memory locations to create and store loops in, and if you stick a microSD card in the slot, you get another 200. It has 35 minutes of loop time, however be advised that the maximum length of a loop you can store is 10 minutes. You get stereo inputs and outputs, Jam Sync compatibility (for syncing multiple JamMan loop pedals), and a USB port for syncing with the JamManager XT software on your Mac or Windows computer.
There’s even an AUX in to connect an external device like an iPhone, iPad, or other mp3 player. Operating the JamMan Solo is similar to the other loop pedals we’ve covered. As you hit the footswitch, watch for the central LED light to light up red to indicate recording, yellow to indicate overdubbing, and green to indicate play. Tap the pedal twice to stop the loop, and briefly hold it down to undo the latest recording.
To clear the current loop, simply press and hold down the footswitch while the pedal is stopped (this makes the loop play for a second before deleting it which is a bit annoying - we prefer the “silent clear' feature of the JamMan Express). When you’ve recorded a loop, one feature we really love on the JamMan Solo is being able to speed up or slow down the tempo without changing the pitch (this is a great tool for practicing - if you can’t quite nail down a solo part, simply slow down the loop and work your way up to full speed).
You also get a rather primitive drum machine, with some rhythms to play along with. Just like the Boss RC-3, the drum loops have their own volume knob. Nearly every review we read for this loop pedal recommended the optional, which adds an additional 3 buttons that can be used to patch up/down, as well as stopping the loop. It just makes operating this pedal more intuitive, although it will add a good $30 to the price of the pedal. The build quality is great, and the solid metal housing rivals that of nearly-indestructible Boss pedals. The included 9V power supply is a nice bonus (especially because oddly there is no battery option on the JamMan Solo). The sound quality is great, and we have a hard time hearing any discernible tone changes, even when layering a lot.
On paper, the sound quality of the TC Electronic Ditto is better, but we can’t really tell much of a difference. The JamMan solo is a great tool for songwriting, especially with the auto-recording feature. When you turn this feature on, you can arm the pedal to record, and only when you start playing it will auto-record. When you want to manage your loops and either save some to your computer or bring some into the pedal, you unfortunately have to use DigiTech’s software. We much prefer the way it works with the Boss RC-3, where it simply acts like a memory stick. We read some negative reviews on the compatibility of the JamManager XT software with certain operating systems, so make sure to check the for the latest.
Bottom Line: Given the DigiTech JamMan Solo XT’s slightly higher price tag, you should get it if saving your loops to memory is something you really want. Also, keep in mind the optional DigiTech FS3X Footswitch is highly recommended, and will bring this one very close in price to the Boss RC-3. The JamMan Solo XT sounds a bit better and more clear to our ears than the Boss RC-3, although our research shows the RC-3 is recommended quite a few more times.
It has far more preset slots than the RC-3, so if you need the storage capacity for songwriting or live use, this is the looper pedal for you. So how do you feel about looper pedals?
If you have any thoughts or experiences that you’d like to share, feel free to tell us all about it in the comments section below. How are these the winners? You've basically just listed a good majority of looper pedals available. Which is fine, but I would like to know which people prefer. I've gone from the RC-20 on to the RC-50 and then wanted to downsize and first got the RC-30. I thought the effects were for the most part cheesy and unusable.
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I am now with the Digitech JamMan Stereo and like it. When I downsized, I was mainly doing duo shows and now am back to solo shows and wish I had the RC-50 so I could create multiple loops. I am thinking about switching to the Pigtronix but would like to try it out if possible. I also heard that the Boomerang is the best looper out there but very pricey. You're exactly right!
The old article definitely wasn't cutting it. We put in a LOT more research and just revamped it to truly call out the winners, i.e. The top 5 loopers that musicians all over the web are recommending. Just to give you an idea of the raw data, the Boomerang III Phrase Sampler didn't quite make the cut for the top 5, getting a handful of recommendations. I suspect the reason for that is the high price tag, about $480 is what I'm currently seeing.
That's simply out of reach for most casual looper pedal users. The Pigtronix Infinity Looper placed lower on our master list than the Boomerang. I think at the price range you're looking at, you would fall more in the looper pedal enthusiast camp!:). Good shout, with the Zoom multi effects, I have one, and used it for bits of looping, before I got my delay pedal, with a looper feature, and I wouldn't have actually considered it for a list like this, so props to Gchiaren/Michael. I would say that the drums aren't incredibly useful as a live tool, or for loops unless you build over them as there's no tap tempo, however I see that It'd only be used for rehearsal, and for that, and a bit of a lark I don't see why not; audio quality is good, inf overdubs, and being a MF it has a tonne of cool built in presets, specifically H bank, with the weird, and atmospheric settings, though no undo/redo is irritating. Its a bit of a bargain, and is immense quality all around for a lot of things, not just the looper.
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TC Electronics have taken all that is good about loopers, trimmed away all the non-essential, mood-killing tech hoopla and ended up with a looper that is intuitive, tons of fun, sounds great and doesn't break the bank. Its 'one knob' button may seem like a minimalist approach, but all the essentials are there: record, undo/redo, stop and erase are all accessed via different foot-commands that always make sense, whether you are building loops, changing from one part to the next (we're looking at you, live performers) or adding layers to a song. Tone quality should still always be priority number one so that's why the loops produced are in 24 bit uncompressed high quality audio. Make looping as easy as 1-2-3.
No hassle or needlessly complicated stuff, Ditto Looper is boiled down to the essentials and makes control intuitive yet flexible, so guitarists can focus on what matters most: playing and performing. You press once to record, press once again to play the loop. Press once to add another layer of sounds (something you can keep repeating until you run out of ideas). You press and hold to Undo a layer and press and hold again to Redo. Rhel 7 iso. Press twice to stop, after which you can press and hold to clear the loop. The Ditto Looper has a ton of great features aside from its simple layout and controls.
True Bypass Looper Pedal
It provides 5 minutes of looping time which is more than you'll ever need and unlimited overdubs. It has an ultrasmall footprint and takes up almost zero space on your pedal board, saving you precious realestate.
It's great for quickly getting rid of parts you aren't feeling, but it's been found that many people actually use this to change parts during live performance, say from verse to chorus Ditto works great in either scenario. The single knob allows you to set the level of your loops as a subtle background or a mindblowing performance. In addition the Ditto Looper always let's your ˜dry sound' pass without ever converting it to digital, keeping your original tone just that original and purely as you intended it coming through with zero latency.
And when it's bypassed, it's REALLY off. The Ditto Looper also stores your loops when you power down or disconnect the power plug.
This means absolutely zero worries, as the music you've created stays stored and is ready to go when you need it whether you're just jamming on ideas, rehearsal, live performance or studio. Note: Power supply sold separately. Features. The guitar player's looper - made for guitarists by guitarists. Dirt simple looping - and nothing but looping. True bypass and Analog-Dry-Through.
5 minutes of looping. Undo / Redo function. Unlimited overdubs. 24-bit uncompressed high quality audio. Ultra-small footprint, requires 9V DC adapter (sold separately).Please note that Ditto Looper has no battery compartment, and you cannot connect a USB power supply to the USB port. A conventional power supply is required for operating this product. Great Live Performance Looper I've had this Looper for about a week now and never used one before.
I've tried the RC30 made by Boss at the music store debating whether to spend to much money $300 and. I've had this Looper for about a week now and never used one before.
I've tried the RC30 made by Boss at the music store debating whether to spend to much money $300 and wasn't sure if it's worth the hassle of trying to figure this thing out. I've done the live solo performances with Drum machines and vocal machines. But I've become a much better live performer just by using my natural voice and Acoustic guitar skills with no electronics, you know real raw talent from the heart!! So with that in mind I wasn't sure about getting back into the world of enhancements!
Enough about me! With this Looper I found it nice to play the song and record as I sing the verse or the whole song, what ever it is you would like to do and pick the melody the next time around. I can see where in the near future it will help improve my melody guitar picking.
It is very simple and easy to use live and also cool to listen to your rhythm playing. I highly recommend the Ditto Looper for its simplicity, especially if you don't want all they bells and whistles the other loopers have that makes it harder to use and are so over priced One thing would be nice is if TC Electronics would have added a button or switch so you can just use the Looper for one time loop instead of adding more. I would like to record, play the loop and press the button once to stop.
The hardest thing about any looper is the double tap to stop while doing a live performance. Sometime I make a mistake and press it once and it is recording over the first loop so you have to really pay attention. This Looper is very small which is nice and will fit in your Guitar case or gig bag!! I hope they make one with one loop. Press once to play over and once to stop!!! Now that's the real world of a live performance.
Great Job TC Electronics!!! Good in its day, but it's been superseded by the competition Guitarist love vintage gear. We love our old TubeScreamers and original CryBabys. There are reasons why old does equal better in some cases, when it comes to loopers there is no value in. Guitarist love vintage gear.
We love our old TubeScreamers and original CryBabys. There are reasons why old does equal better in some cases, when it comes to loopers there is no value in what was good yesterday. Dadly the Ditto has been replaced. I can think of absolutely no good reason to buy this product over the competition. Here is my story and how I qualify the statements above.
I was torn between the Ditto Looper and this products leading competitor, the DigiTech JamMan Express XT. From the moment I arrived home with the Ditto Looper I regretted my decision. The Ditto looper has in the past been given a lot respect, In fact for a low-cost looper designed for guitarist by guitarist, the Ditto was the 'go to' product.
Sadly, TC Electronic's Ditto product has been superseded in every category by the JamMan Express XT. DigiTech has innovated in every category and the JamMan Express losses nothing in comparison to the Ditto. Here are the differences: The JamMan Express XT has a more intuitive interface (it's actually simpler than the Ditto thanks to the's multi-LED light display which makes it clear what's going on). The JamMan Express XT offers twice the loop time (10 minutes vs 5 with the Ditto) the JamMan Express is stereo out, the Ditto mono. The JamMan Express XT does not require an AC adapter. When you get it home and realize the music store is closed and you have a gig in half an hour, you can simply go buy a 9V battery. The Ditto in contrast only works with a 9V AC adapter.
What's more, TC Electronic doesn't even make a proper AC adapter for this unit. The manual (which I had to find on-line) states 'use a general purpose 9V AC adapter'.
On the bottom of the Ditto it states that it wants DC/100mA. You can't buy one of those in the US. Good luck finding a perfect adapter, the best I could do was a 9V DC/300mA which seems to work ok but it's a generic AC adapter that cost me eight dollars. Multi-adapters like those sold at most big-box retailers with an electronics section cause noise and do not work properly. I would be ok with the Ditto not coming with an AC adapter if it had a battery option, but it does not.
So this is a huge inconvenience, annoyance and huge design flaw by a company with enough experience to know much better. Three more important things that make the JamMan Express XT a superior buy IMO. The JamMan Express XT comes with a product manual. The product isn't difficult to operate at all, but at least you get a piece of paper in the box that explains how the device works. The Ditto Looper does not come with any printed manual. You have to go to the manufactures website and download a PDF. The JamMan Express XT lets you sync with other JamMan looper products so your bass player, second guitarist, etc.
Can keep loops in sync on stage (awesome, awesome feature. Yeah the Ditto Looper doesn't do that). Last but not least, the Ditto Looper cost 30% more than the JamMan Express. Across the board, the Ditto looper has been turned into a dinosaur by competition. If you are reading positive reviews, note that the JamMan Express XT was released late 2013. TC Electronic knew this was coming and simply did not have the engineering expertise to compete or perhaps they were too arrogant to think the extra features of the competitors product made it worth their time.
Regardless, It's too expensive and it's lack of certain basic things (product manual, battery powered option) make it a infuriating product to own. I've written the manufacture and expressed by views in both tactful and tactless ways because the Ditto has made be very, very angry. I'm giving it two stars instead of one only because the build quality is high as with most TC Electronic products, but that is not enough here. Any product on the market has to be reviewed in contrast to the competition and this little guy just doesn't stack up anymore. Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: Guitarist love vintage gear.
We love our old TubeScreamers and original CryBabys. There are reasons why old does equal better in some cases, when it comes to loopers there is no value in what was good yesterday. Dadly the Ditto has been replaced.
I can think of absolutely no good reason to buy this product over the competition. Here is my story and how I qualify the statements above. I was torn between the Ditto Looper and this products leading competitor, the DigiTech JamMan Express XT. From the moment I arrived home with the Ditto Looper I regretted my decision.
The Ditto looper has in the past been given a lot respect, In fact for a low-cost looper designed for guitarist by guitarist, the Ditto was the 'go to' product. Sadly, TC Electronic's Ditto product has been superseded in every category by the JamMan Express XT. DigiTech has innovated in every category and the JamMan Express losses nothing in comparison to the Ditto.
Here are the differences: The JamMan Express XT has a more intuitive interface (it's actually simpler than the Ditto thanks to the's multi-LED light display which makes it clear what's going on). The JamMan Express XT offers twice the loop time (10 minutes vs 5 with the Ditto) the JamMan Express is stereo out, the Ditto mono.
The JamMan Express XT does not require an AC adapter. When you get it home and realize the music store is closed and you have a gig in half an hour, you can simply go buy a 9V battery.
The Ditto in contrast only works with a 9V AC adapter. What's more, TC Electronic doesn't even make a proper AC adapter for this unit. The manual (which I had to find on-line) states 'use a general purpose 9V AC adapter'.
On the bottom of the Ditto it states that it wants DC/100mA. You can't buy one of those in the US. Good luck finding a perfect adapter, the best I could do was a 9V DC/300mA which seems to work ok but it's a generic AC adapter that cost me eight dollars. Multi-adapters like those sold at most big-box retailers with an electronics section cause noise and do not work properly. I would be ok with the Ditto not coming with an AC adapter if it had a battery option, but it does not. So this is a huge inconvenience, annoyance and huge design flaw by a company with enough experience to know much better. Three more important things that make the JamMan Express XT a superior buy IMO.
The JamMan Express XT comes with a product manual. The product isn't difficult to operate at all, but at least you get a piece of paper in the box that explains how the device works. The Ditto Looper does not come with any printed manual. You have to go to the manufactures website and download a PDF. The JamMan Express XT lets you sync with other JamMan looper products so your bass player, second guitarist, etc. Can keep loops in sync on stage (awesome, awesome feature. Yeah the Ditto Looper doesn't do that).
Last but not least, the Ditto Looper cost 30% more than the JamMan Express. Across the board, the Ditto looper has been turned into a dinosaur by competition. If you are reading positive reviews, note that the JamMan Express XT was released late 2013. TC Electronic knew this was coming and simply did not have the engineering expertise to compete or perhaps they were too arrogant to think the extra features of the competitors product made it worth their time. Regardless, It's too expensive and it's lack of certain basic things (product manual, battery powered option) make it a infuriating product to own. I've written the manufacture and expressed by views in both tactful and tactless ways because the Ditto has made be very, very angry. I'm giving it two stars instead of one only because the build quality is high as with most TC Electronic products, but that is not enough here.
Any product on the market has to be reviewed in contrast to the competition and this little guy just doesn't stack up anymore. Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: I've had this Looper for about a week now and never used one before. I've tried the RC30 made by Boss at the music store debating whether to spend to much money $300 and wasn't sure if it's worth the hassle of trying to figure this thing out. I've done the live solo performances with Drum machines and vocal machines. But I've become a much better live performer just by using my natural voice and Acoustic guitar skills with no electronics, you know real raw talent from the heart!! So with that in mind I wasn't sure about getting back into the world of enhancements!
Enough about me! With this Looper I found it nice to play the song and record as I sing the verse or the whole song, what ever it is you would like to do and pick the melody the next time around. I can see where in the near future it will help improve my melody guitar picking. It is very simple and easy to use live and also cool to listen to your rhythm playing. I highly recommend the Ditto Looper for its simplicity, especially if you don't want all they bells and whistles the other loopers have that makes it harder to use and are so over priced One thing would be nice is if TC Electronics would have added a button or switch so you can just use the Looper for one time loop instead of adding more. I would like to record, play the loop and press the button once to stop. The hardest thing about any looper is the double tap to stop while doing a live performance.
Sometime I make a mistake and press it once and it is recording over the first loop so you have to really pay attention. This Looper is very small which is nice and will fit in your Guitar case or gig bag!!
I hope they make one with one loop. Press once to play over and once to stop!!! Now that's the real world of a live performance. Great Job TC Electronics!!!
Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: I have wanted a looping pedal for a while, but every one I had tried seemed too complicated to make it practical for my use. I had actually given up on the search when a friend informed me of the Ditto Looper. I did some research and watched some videos on it's use on the TC Electronics website and decided I had to check it out, but it would be on my next trip to Guitar Center.
Then I got an email from Guitar Center that showed the pedal had been put on sale. That was enough for me. I got in my car and drove straight to the store, then tried the pedal and was amazed at how simple it was. No longer does a quality looping device need multiple pots or switches to set. The Ditto did everything I was looking for with just a volume knob for the looped track and a footswitch to turn on the recording or turn it off. The other manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves for making their looping pedals so difficult to figure out.
This pedal rocks and you don't need to be a PHD to figure it out. Get this pedal. My learning curve was less than 2 minutes.
Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: No power supply included - not stated clearly enough. If you don't have a pedalboard (with a dedicated power supply) you will need to spend extra money for a power supply. For someone without, this should be made more obvious as the product is suddenly not as inexpensive as it seemed and rather inconvenient to have to go out and find/buy a power supply separately. I am returning mine. Since I have to make a trip to the store and spend another $20 I'll buy some other brand looper. Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: Bought my Ditto 11-14-13 at GC. Absolutely loved this pedal.
It's small, affordable, sounds great. About a decade ago bought a big 'double-decker' Boss looper and hated it: it was, big, expensive, and while it had some features, I hated the playback. Also, unfortunately, I was young and wasn't musically mature enough to loop at a high level. Years later The Ditto appears out of no where and became my constant work horse companion for literally hundreds of shows and touring. It sounds so good and has been so reliable that I hate to write 'the bad'. Last night I'm packing up heading to a small bar.
I didn't expect to play last night though often like to bring a guitar and literally 'just' the Ditto, in case I'm able to play for a song or two and want easy set up. I picked up the pedal and heard a 'clanking' noise of moving parts. This pedal is too small for a battery which meant trouble. The on/off switch had totally disconnected from the metal base. It's so frustrating: obviously I used this pedal heavy but I'm struggling with the idea of a pedal having problems within the first three years (closer to two years). I reached out to TC: they were very nice in replying to my email though all they could do was recommend servicing.
The spots they recommend all have a flat fee to get the pedal worked on, which is frustratingly close to the cost of a new ditto during a holiday sale. I've recently had other pedals die like this: a lot of companies brag on their 'true bypass' circuitry pedals that do sound amazing, but are made so cheaply they die fast - and the switch is the first go go. I'm thinking about buying a Boss RC-1 - I'm assuming play back has improved from the early 2000s and though it's not true bypass, the pedal design can stand up to the heavy touring I do while these new guys cannot. Telecharger socksescort. So frustrating. Bottom line - it's a great pedal, though do a google search before you buy: 1-3 years of heavy use will kill it. Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: I've purchased several boxes in the past (Line 6 for example) and they were all well made with many features.
And if I had my MSEE and a month to do nothing but learn how to use the device, I might get somewhere with it. In short, my experience with other loopers is that they're designed for people who either have a lot of tech knowledge already or the time to figure them out/take training. What drew me to the TC Looper was the claimed simplicity and designed by guitarists for guitarists.
Believe me - it's true! I'm a 60 year old non-tech and I had my first loop down in under 5 minutes after opening the box.
I was able to over-track and erase with just a few minutes more practice. In 15 minutes, I was a pro at it, and the box does what I want - provide me with a track or two to play against. As TC says, it's not for a one man band operation in that there are no built in FX or percussion tracks, no fancy synching capability, etc. It's a small, solid feeling box with just two controls. Once you master the click/double click/hold for a few seconds scheme, that's it. You have it all. Highly recommended for non-techs, self-practice and even live performance if you're looking for just a simple backing track you put on.
The box looks like it would take a modest amount of abuse and it's small enough to almost stick in your pocket and go. The only minor thump I had: it would have been nice if the product description on line said there's no battery compartment and no power supply included. This meant an extra trip to Radio Shack to get a power supply. Granted, it also means one less thing to break (battery compartment doors seem to be a weak spot on many devices), but it would have been nice to know at the time of purchase. Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: I loved this pedal at first.
It is compact and performs as expected. However, I have had it for less than a month, and now the foot switch doesn't work; and it's not like the pedal saw heavy use.
No, I didn't get pro coverage, but I shouldn't have to for a pedal that cost this much already. I thought the prices for all the other brands of pedals were exorbitant, but now I realize that the ditto looper is cheaper because it's of substantially less quality. Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: What I wanted was a simple pedal for making a backing track so that I can play solos. This one fits my bill perfectly. It's easy to use, once you have learned the way it works.
It's not necessarily intuitive, but that would probably require more knobs. If you want to get fancy, this is not for you, but if you want it simple, this is definitely worth a look. Featurewise, it has what I want. It's not much, but enough for me. It's rock solid, and looks like it will live happily on my pedal board for years to come.
Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: What a GREAT addition to a pedal board. With a minimum of a learning curve it is easy peezy to incorporate into your live playing or practice. The footprint would be difficult to imagine smaller. The sound recording is absolutely steller quality whether with an electric into a tube or solid state amp or an acoustic into a PA system.
I have another more elaborate looper but this is the one I've been using the most. Great pedal that I'd replace if lost. Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: what a great pedal. I'm a beginer been playing for a year and a half and wanted to get a looper to help me learn to play along and keep time. Other reviews of the 'Ditto' were all great but when I plugged mine in and kicked it on it made the WORST howling noise in my amp.
I thought the speaker was going to blow. After two weeks of looking at my new pedal sitting there unused I decided to mess around and see if I could find any support or forums on the TCE site. I found a cable from another product that was USB to mini USB and completed the firmware update to my joy the pedal now works flawlessly! GC also did not only match Amazons price but beat it by $2.05.
Good thing 'cause the powersuply was $30 at my local music store I know it was overpricd but the pedal didn't come with a powersuply and I forgot to buy one at GC when I got the pedal. Super excited to begin getting 'Loopy'!
Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: i was excited when the looper came in the mail. After adding it to my pedal board, i sat down to play. Pressed the switch once to record.great, pressed again to play.great. Pressed again to overdub. Pressed and held, what does that mean? Undo first and second layer or second layer? Because pressing and holding doesnt change anything.
In fact trying to get it to stop is a nightmare. Its like the battery commercial it goes and goes. Its the most frustrating thing ive ever delt with. Im finding my self just stomping angryly on it trying to get it to stop.i dont want to go play my guitar right not because im very discombobulated.
Rachel Woodruff. Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: I REALLY dig this little pedal. It is super simple to operate and I was able to use it in a band setting straight out of the box.
It offers flawless looping with zero lag. It is tiny and takes up almost zero real estate. The build quality is top notch.
I really like the soft footswitch. No missed clicks due to resistance. Also, a cool feature that isn't listed anywhere is that you can download the stored loop as an audio file on your computer!!! I am using this with a 5 string bass and it has no problems in replicating the low B.
Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: I've used several loopers including the BOSS RC-20 loop station, the RC-2, the Akai Headrush and the looping functions on the Eventide Timefactor. I have to say this little TC Electronic Ditto is by far the easiest to use, the most transparent and in my opinion the best. It's really simple. One switch, one knob. Out of the box w/out reading any of the instructions I was able to use it - it's natural. The loop is up to 5 minutes so I can do an entire jazz standard or a 12-bar blues and play over it. At 129.00, I think every guitar player needs one of these!
Comments about TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal: I've been a longtime bass player, and I was simply looking for a looper to spice up my practice and jam sessions a bit. This pedal does just the job.
While I can't rag on all the toys and add-ons that you may find on other loopers (since I haven't tried them), this affordable pedal gets the simple job of looping done for me. The controls are easy, you just need to start/stop the recording, and you're good.
You can even put additional layers over that by doing the same thing. You can even erase a loop, then undo the erase and bring it back, which is useful if you're looking for a more dynamic jam. The sound quality through it is great, tand the level knob works fine. The stop button is very responsive and easy to press.
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I often don't have anyone to practice with so I often just improvise over loops I create. I'm considering buying a new loop pedal because mine can only record one track at a time. Could it be better to simply use recording software and a microphone?
I wouldn't mind using my laptop to record and practice with however having the loop pedal plugged directly into my amp is very handy. I'm also interested in being able to record voice, keyboard, bass, etc. Which the newer loop pedals can do but my current loop pedal cannot. I currently own a Boss RC-2 loop station and it's great fun to practice with. I am considering getting a new one, either the Boss RC-30 or the RC-300, both of which have many many more features than my RC-2 (which is quite outdated). The RC-300 has a lot more features but it's also a lot more expensive, I'm hoping I can find them used. If there are even better options than recording on my computer or loop stations I'd like to hear about them.
RC-30: RC-300:. I just got the digitech jam man solo XT and its simply amazing.
The auto record feature alone is worth the money, not to mention the 200 slots with 35 min of loop memory with over dubbing on each loop. SD card accessible so you can store as much music as you have SD cards. The software interface is kind of tiresome when you plug it into a laptop though, but other than that I have no complaints. 150$ but well worth every penny. Ive had it for 2 weeks and its progressed my playing greatly, especially my timing. Recording software is too complex. Good if you want toi really work out parts of arrangements.
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But for simple everyday deal you do not need anything that complex. You just want to lay down few chords - sometimes even just a 4 bars fragment of progression. Another option is iRealb PRO app. Very simple way to get backup tracks - you input chord progression, pick up style and that is it.
Plus you can change tempo, key and style on the fly. If your objective is melodic, harmonically specific soloing then that may be your ticket:. In my opinion: use recording software.
REAPER costs $50, but just has a message asking you to buy. You can record a phrase and loop it, loop as many tracks as you want, add in backing tracks, adjust tempo while preserving pitch (useful for learning sweeping for example. You play it slower, then adjust tempo to see how it will sound when sped up). Not to mention, you can use amp modeling and find a bunch of neat sounds for free.
Best of all, you can get started doing all this for about the same price as a decent loop pedal. I play violin with a Ditto X2 and I can't recommend it highly enough. I found that all the newer Boss units have a slight hiccup at the loop point. It's not so noticeable when I make a rhythmic or melodic loop but the minute I start drawing out long notes for a thick drone I can hear the hiccup when it goes back to the beginning. The RC-30 does it, the RC-300 does it but for some reason neither the RC-20 or RC-50 do it. I think maybe they used a new chip or algorithm or something.
None of the newer Jamman units have that hiccup either.
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