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Co-signed on the Head Rush. Dead simple, reliable and CHEAP. Under a bill new. Still use mine for synth stuff.

Mama Clortho wrote:Mama Clortho wrote:Anyone have any experience with the Electro-Harmonix 45000? Thing is stupid expensive, but it seems to be the only one on the market that does everything i need in a looper.This thing just came in the mail. Managed to get a really good deal on one second hand. I know i'm going to be fucking pissed about the fact that there are some very basic things this $5843924259843410 looping pedal does not do, but I'm excited all the same.Will give my dealer a call and report back after the weekend.CRAPSelling it and getting an Infinity.

the akai headrush 2 does the job well. definitely worth it, esp if they're being marked down.

Justin, are you wanting to sync tempo with your drum machine via MIDI? Without a time sync the devices will drift from each other eventually. TC Electronic Ditto X4 or a used Eventide Timefactor both do this and about fit your budget. Boomerang III and Pigtronix Infinity will also sync with MIDI but are out of your price range, even used. Besides, my experience with the Infinity was plagued by software bugs. The Boss RC20 and EHX 22500 both have quantizing but do not sync to external MIDI clock. Note that there are some issues with the older Ditto pedals software and foot switches failing. Maybe not too common, but have seen a few mentions on forums occasionally. Maybe that is a 3% failure issue and not prone to every model.I use a Line 6 DL4, try to get my timing as good as possible with a drummer, but occasionaly retrigger to keep sync with him. Not ideal for you situation though. Looping pedals are an entirely frustrating field, with little current innovation and feature sets that vary wildly from company to company.(Edited for more precise info)

In terms of the Boss RC loop pedals, they will quantize to an internal rhythm guide (drum samples) which requires some premeditation on how long and what speed you want to loop. I am not aware that quantization syncs to an external source. The RC20 has a tap tempo feature that would allow you to adjust the speed of a recorded loop without changing pitch. In order to make an adjustment on the fly to resync with a drum machine would require speeding up the loop to match the tempo then trying to reset the tempo to be in sync again. I think that would prove frustrating.The more simple solution would be using a looper with a single stomp to stop, and another stomp to restart the loop over, like a Headrush. Other loopers have a retrigger feature that will restart the loop to the beginning, such as the DL4 (but it will automatically stop at the end of the loop, hence "Play Once") or a Timeline (which restarts at the beginning and will continue to play the loop). These pedals are much more useful when syncing to an imprecise human drummer, who may shift in timing a bit even at some micro level, or who could even adapt to an imprecise looped guitar part. If you are planning to sync your loop to a drum machine the most elegant solution is to pick a looper that accepts MIDI time sync. It would take a lot of hassles out of the scenario. There are always quirks though, in general. Older versions of Boomerangs would sync at the start, but slowly drift off a millisecond every pass of the loop, which would become desynced over a large number of repetitions. Some loopers continue to monitor the MIDI time code to stay in perfect sync. My point is that while the MIDI sync should be perfect, more research would be needed to see if any particular looper will in fact stay in tempo with your particular drum machine. Hope this helps.

Just read through the whole thread and I would appreciate it if somebody had some up-to-date advice. I would like to get a looper that can play the same phrase over and over again live to a very specific beat. Seems like I would want a quantizing panel for that. I like the look of the ditto X2, but it doesn't quantize. It would also be good if the pedal could sound good, not take up too much space, and cost under 200 bucks. Robust construction is also a plus. Any 2016 recommendations? Thanks in advance. =Justin

Doesn't need to be MIDI, but I'd like to be able to re-set/correct it if I find it's starting to drift from the rest of the tempo. Am I right in understanding that this is what a quantizing tap feature would do? If not, how does one correct for timing drift while playing live without having to re-play the repeating phrase?= Justin

W.L.Weller wrote:Yes, there's a USB mini-B port over the power port on the Ditto, you'd download the software from TC Electronic's website and plug the Ditto into your computer to install it.http://www.tcelectronic.com/ditto-looper/support/PM me if you need a USB mini-B cable, I'll mail you one.Might have that type of cable--if this works, it will save me a huge headache, so thank you both!

Yeah, the ditto looper was fun until it completely shit the bed after just over a month of use. Didn't drop it, it just decided to stop working. And it seems like they'll only replace/fix if I send it back in the original box, which I threw away like an idiot.Great sound, easy to use, but an F- for durability.