Let’s face it, playing by ourselves gets pretty boring after a while. But having a looper in your setup will get your creativity flowing again. At the times when you don’t have anyone to jam with, you can still hear your lead lines in context with chords or other harmonies. Some loopers even allow you to reverse what you play, allowing you to play over drones and soundscapes. The possibilities are virtually endless.
Many of the best guitar looper pedals allow you to record other sounds besides guitar and save them for use later. Record keyboard or percussion and recall it when you need it during a performance. You could record yourself playing something on a keyboard and play over it live at a show. I have personally used a looper for years in my own rig and would not go without one!
There are many loopers available on the market from the very small loopers with minimal features to larger ones that will allow you to record many separate sounds that you can use to build performances and practice sessions.
These feature-rich loopers have a time clock built-in so that all loops can be synced automatically. Some even have a drum machine onboard. Artists have even made a career out of using a looper being able to have drums, bass, piano, guitar, and layers of their voice at their disposal on stage. Create an impressive song from sounds you’ve saved or are building live, in real-time. (The modern take on the one-man band!)
Let’s look at the best loopers for jamming at home or playing live. While some of the top live loopers can handle both types of playing just as effectively, you might prioritize features differently depending on how you intend to use your loop pedal.
What You Will Learn in This Guide
Here’s a summary of all of the key points we’re going to cover in this full guide to live loopers for guitar.
• What a looper actually is and how it works.
• Origins of live looping. When did live looping start and how did the technique grow to be so mainstream?
• How loopers can help you to learn and become a better musician.
• Your options for performing and jamming using your loop pedal.
• How to use your loop pedal.
• Features that are on a guitar looper.
• Best loopers for live use.
• Best loopers for playing live in front of others.
What is a Looper Pedal?
A looper is a pedal that goes in your guitar pedalboard, it records your chosen instrument or voice as you play or sing. Your recording is then played back to you in a loop, usually in tempo. You can then play over this loop to create your own solos or harmonies.
For example, a guitarist can quickly lay down some chords, before you then start to solo over the top of them. It’s as if you have a rhythm guitarist there with you.
Basic pedals just have a simple function to start and stop the recording. Others give you far more functionality to store multiple loops, recall other pre-recorded sounds, and even make use of inbuilt drum machine sounds. Some even have an XLR connection, the standard cable to connect a microphone. Beatbox, sing, record vocal harmonies, the options are virtually endless.
A lot of solo performers don’t have too many dimensions to work with. Often, a guitar and vocals can sound great, but imagine what you can do with all those layers. It can be truly impressive to watch.
How Looping Began
What is the history of looping? When you talk about “loops” in musical terms, people will think of files, little sections of instrumental recordings, often used by producers to make songs.
As we already mentioned, a loop is usually a few seconds of music in tempo that can be repeated to build a song or performance. Loops of all kinds of instruments are available to producers in the modern age.
This isn’t just a 21st century phenomenon. The ability to loop audio has been around since the 1950’s when engineers and composers began to experiment. The first loops were done on gramophone records and variable speed turntables to create experimental music. Not as useful for jamming or performing at home, but an interesting technique to create new sounds.
The 50s and 60s brought about many tape music compositions in which typical sounds were reversed, layered, edited, and even combined with electronic sounds. There were alternative radio stations at the time that would play this experimental “tape music.”
Tape loops were also used in the film and radio industry for synchronization purposes.
The inventor of the tape loop is not known but the simple idea was to take a pre-recorded piece of information and repeat it as much as necessary. Notable tape music composers were John Cage, Edgard Varèse, Mauricio Kagel, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Searching YouTube for any of these composers will provide you with hours of wonderful and interesting experimental music.
The Beatles would also embrace this technique. Using cuttings or “loops” of tape from their recording sessions to build other pieces of music. This is how the song “Tomorrow Never Knows” was made.
Experimental music did not begin with 80s synthesizers and drum machines as one might think. But it dates back to the beginning of the recording age!
Looping was not widely available to most musicians until the 1980s, when more electronic equipment started to be used. Looping has become widely used in loads of genres such as hip hop and is a mainstream method for music production. Luckily for guitarists, it has even found its way into extremely small guitar pedals.
How a Looper Can Help You to Become a Better Musician
One of the many reasons people choose to buy a looper pedal is to become better musicians. You might think that a looper pedal is just great for impressing people with cool performances, but it has many other uses. Having a pedal that can stand in for bandmates can mean that you actually become a far better musician.
Benefits of a looper pedal include:
• It can give you a better sense of what it is like to play with others, saying in time with a band (or in this case, yourself).
• Having a “guitar teacher” with you 24/7 to repeat rhythms to play along with.
• Saving ideas you have in the built-in memory functions, to build out songs or compose additional layers for later.
• Enhance your live performance. Instead of having one guitar track, you can build multiple layers in your performance, even if you are already playing with a band.
• Experimenting and coming up with much more interesting sounds by slowing down, speeding up, or reversing recordings.
• Developing your timing and phrasing.
• Writing songs and experimenting with your own ideas, because you can overdub ideas and add more layers, remove layers, and experiment on the fly.
• Spot your mistakes and improve your technique. Sometimes, it isn’t until we hear ourselves recorded that we can notice the errors we’ve made. Time to brush up on technique?
A lot of people have seen a couple of performances where a guitarist taps a rhythm on their instrument before playing along with it for the rest of the song. This is cool, and it is a basic use of a looper, but it isn’t what they are all about. There is far more to it than that, and building the foundations of your technique is one of the real benefits of having a looper pedal.
If you’re not able to play with a band or practice with other people, the guitar looper might become your most valued piece of equipment.
How Much Should You Spend on a Looper?
This is a difficult question to pose when it comes to any kind of musical equipment.
Luckily, we do live in an age of incredible choice, so you have options on the affordable end of the market, at around $100-150. These tend to have basic functionality, but can do a good job of creating some simple loop effects and layering.
If you start to spend a little more, $200 and upwards can help you to get some of the more advanced features such as the option to save sounds to recall at a later date. Some of these loopers also tend to be more reliable and support higher qualities or even more recording modes and inputs.
At the elite end of the market, you can spend $500-600, or even more, for a top-of-the-line model. This will provide you with a huge amount of functionality and options to facilitate what you actually want to do with your pedal, whether it’s for some simple home jamming, or performing in front of a crowd.
Where a Looper Goes in Your Chain of Pedals
As experienced guitarists know already, whenever you add another pedal, you are creating a chain. The audio signal passes along this chain and because of this, it means that certain pedals should go before others to get the desired effect.
Unfortunately, we can’t give you a simple answer to this question. Because different locations in the audio chain achieve different results, you might want your looper in a different place to someone else. You may even change the position depending on your goals for this performance or jam session.
It is usually simplest to tag the guitar looper at the end of the chain. This means that the audio that it captures will include the pedal setup and effects earlier in the chain. If you have a reverb before this in the chain, it will be there in the loop and recording.
You may want the option to change the effects after you make the recording. This means that you might place it before modulation effects, delay pedals, and even distortion pedals, and then use these to alter the loop or the sound you are layering next.
Your signal chain can get more complex too, as you can send the audio signal elsewhere. Some people will be sending their looper’s signal straight to the amp or PA system, but others will be plugging into a mixer bus to record the sounds onto a computer, for instance.
The answer on where to put your looper pedal? It depends on what you want to achieve. For simple setups to loop and layer, either jamming or performing, it is possible to put the looper at the end of the chain.
What Features Are Normally on Loopers?
What are some of the features and functions you can choose between? As looper pedals for guitars, bass, and even other instruments have become more popular, there are many brands making different types of pedals with different features. Some will suit those who want simple operation, others will suit those who want huge levels of storage.
• Loop button. This is what is recessed to start and finish the looping, and it is usually really simple and straightforward. On some pedals you can also hold it to overdub or to alter sections of the recording.
• Loop modes. This includes different modes for looping, overdubbing, and playing the recording back.
• Inputs and outputs. Not necessarily “features” but definitely something to consider. What ins and outs do you have? What are your options for connecting instruments and vocals. Some will have mic inputs whereas others will just have room for a ¼ inch guitar cable.
• Memory slots. The memory slots and recording times can be crucial. If you want to play a whole live show and recall different sounds at different times, or build a mammoth performance with layer upon layer of intricate guitar or vocal harmony, you’re going to need plenty of memory slots.
• Recording time. Similar to memory slots, but different as this is measuring how long you can actually record for. If you want to keep layering new sounds or creating long soundscapes and atmospheres to build onto then you definitely need a long recording time.
• Drums. A lot of looper pedals have now included more options for musicians who want the “one man band” vibe, and this often includes a mode where you can add drums. You may be able to choose from a set of pre-programmed rhythms and even different genres and styles.
• USB functionality. A lot of modern pedals can be connected to your computer, and this may allow you to load loops onto the pedal or take recordings you have made as audio files directly from the looper.
How to Use a Looper Pedal
This can be pretty intimidating if it is your first attempt. It does take a little practice to get right.
In terms of the controls, they are usually really simple. The manufacturers of live loopers and pedals like this know that you will need to be able to control everything from your feet, which makes things a little bit tricky if the controls are convoluted.
You will usually have a couple of different foot controls, which will start and stop the recording.
The pedal may have a way to set or indicate timing by setting up a drum pattern or setting up the tempo, but you don’t always have to do this. As long as you are good at counting in time and creating your loops so that they neatly fit the bars and beats of the piece of music, you’re fine.
This is where it can take a bit of practice. Setting up the “loop points” is crucial. There may also be a visual indicator for overdubbing, which can show you how far through a loop you are or count through the tempo for you to follow along.
All designs are a little different, so knowing how to use your own particular live looper can take a bit of time. Hey, this should be fun, right? Take some time to practice building up songs and ideas, creating rhythms and even writing some new material with your new toy.
Best Looper Pedals – Quick Reviews
Let’s jump into a few reviews of some recommended loopers. It will be up to you to decide which suits your needs, but we have made some product recommendations so you can see what sort of uses the pedals are designed for.
Best Loopers for Jamming At Home
Boss RC-5 Loop Station Compact Phrase Recorder Pedal
When it comes to looper pedals, Boss is…well, the boss!
Their pedals have become iconic and are used by a lot of musicians who currently incorporate a looper into their live setup.
The RC-5 is compact and easy to use in a home setup for jamming, though in truth, it is also suitable for live performances. It has exceptional 32-bit/44.1kHz recording which means that if you come up with the next masterpiece and want to export the track, you can put it on your computer and start to edit it or send it to your friends. This is thanks to the USB capability that also effectively treats the pedal like flash storage when connected to your computer. Pretty cool.
It has 13 hours of stereo record time, and 99 different “phrase memories” to set up different songs or parts of songs.
There is even an inbuilt drum kit with 114 rhythms, A/B variations and different kits to choose between, the sounds are versatile and impressive.
Control is easy, and the pedal runs from a 9V battery or a power supply that you can buy separately. Being made by the huge brand that is Boss, it is also compatible with some other hardware and footswiches including FS-5U, FS-6, FS-7, FV-500H, and more…
The only real downside is that it isn’t easy to connect a microphone as there isn’t an XLR input, but this is unusual to find on compact loopers anyway.
Our rating: 9/10 – Great for live looping at home or on stage.
TC Electronic Ditto Looper Pedal – Affordable Option For Jamming at Home
I don’t want to be the guy that says how great guitar loopers are for beginners but then only list really expensive models. This is a fantastic looper pedal for beginners and doesn’t cost much money.
A benefit of the TC Electronic Ditto is that it is really easy to control. There is only one knob to set up your loops.
It can easily be used with guitar or bass guitar, and when you want to bypass the pedal, you have that option. It manages to bypass without degrading the quality of the sound signal like some pedals.
Loops are all recorded as 24-bit audio and uncompressed, and you’ve got five minutes of recording time to play with. For a compact model, this is fine, and it allows you to come up with some impressive performances.
There are some downsides, but this is to be expected for a cheaper pedal. You can’t store audio recordings to recall later, and the USB connection is just for firmware updates. You’ll also have to buy a 9V power adapter separately to use the pedal.
Overall, a great option for jamming at home and layering up sounds, perfect for recording chords and then testing yourself with soloing or playing scales on top. 7/10.
Notable mention: Donner Beltway Looper Pedal
Donner is a brand that makes a lot of cheap audio equipment, and this is even more affordable than the TC Electronics Ditto pedal. It’s got a lot of similar features and functions (though I don’t want to accuse it of being a clone) and it also has the added bonus of being compatible with your computer, with import and export functions for loops.
Best Guitar Loopers for Performing
Boss RC-600 Loop Station Looper Pedal
Welcome to Loopsville, population: you.
It’s another Boss model, and that really shouldn’t come as a surprise. This earns the crown of being the best looper for live performance.
There are six different sets of pedals and six stereo phrase tracks. They all have independent controls to record, play, and stop, meaning you can almost use this like a little recording studio you control with your feet. In spite of all that functionality, it isn’t too difficult to use, either.
There are nine footswitches that you can assign to different controls if you want, such as triggering other loops like drum loops.
The inputs and outputs open up a world of looping possibilities, and if you are a multi-instrumentalist and/or singer, then this means that you can layer up and show off all of your talents, including multiple vocal lines, chords, guitar solos, and more. The inputs include microphone options with phantom power (needed to power condenser mics).
On top of all of this, you can choose from 53 track effects and 49 input effects, using up to four per section. Things like delays and even modulation effects can be synchronized with the tempo, or with the drum rhythm (there are 16 different drum kits on board).
There’s support for MIDI control, so if you want to further your capabilities and use a MIDI device to carry signal, you can do so. You can also add an expression pedal or footswitch.
Bringing the pedal into the digital age, the USB compatibility means you can use Boss software “Tone Studio” to import and export the sounds, all are recorded at high quality so you can use them in your demos or when producing songs.
It’s a lot to get to grips with, so if you are an absolute beginner, this can be one of the scarier looper pedals. However, if you want all of the equipment necessary to create a stunning live performance, it could be the very best option.
Our rating: 9/10.
DigiTech Trio+ Band Creator and Looper Pedal – A “One Man Band” Pedal
This is a little bit different to the previous models we’ve mentioned. DigiTech set out to create a model that automates your backing band, providing you with a whole rhythm section on demand.
The Trio+ pedal lets you choose the genre of music and variations in style, including how complex a melody should be, and the pedal “listens” and detects what you are playing, before filling the song with bass and drum parts. These are in key and in tempo. What a time to be alive.
On top of that, you can control and change the tempos and loops on the fly, and the complexity of your accompaniment. The bass can be set to play simple (usually root notes) or more interesting basslines.
The looper pedal obviously lets you lay your guitar over the top, and continue to add new layers.
The step sequencer lets you create sections of the song, so you can perform a song with a big tempo or key change, even with one simple looper pedal.
One of the great things about this pedal is that it can really be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. Play some simple loops and chords and the pedal will build more backing around you, or dial in more detail and ‘steps’ and create a full performance.
The power supply comes with the pedal (not something you can say for all models) and with SD card support, you can also record your ideas and load them onto your computer to edit, send, or just listen to the triumph of your latest performance.
The downside? The bass and drums can start to sound a bit “samey” after a while. If you were doing a 90 minute set with this pedal, you might want to try adding some new guitar sounds and changing things up to keep it interesting.
Summary
Whether you want your looper pedal for fun at home or a one man band, it can be a really useful addition to your pedalboard. Used correctly, it can add interesting layering and effects and even help you to create full performances, even without other accompanying musicians.
Buskers, solo performers, virtuoso guitarists, or absolute beginners…virtually every type of guitarist can find a use for looper pedals to improve technique and create stunning performances.
FAQs
People have a lot of questions when they see those magic boxes looping sounds on stage. We’ve provided some answers.
Are guitar loopers good for beginners?
Loop pedals are fantastic for beginners. They are a great way to understand timing, and practice staying in time and tempo. They can also be a way to simulate playing with other musicians when you don’t have people to jam with.
Can loop pedals be used with any amp?
Yes, just like your other pedals, it just goes into the signal chain and can be used with whichever amplifier you want. Connect it along with your other pedals and you’re good to go.
What loopers do beatboxers use?
Looper pedals are popular for beatboxers, too. If you can beatbox (even with the most basic skills) and play guitar then you can build up some interesting sound and performances. Boss RC-5 and RC-600 are two great pedals for beatboxing and adding further sounds and instruments, or singing. Beatboxers simply need to be sure that they have a way to connect a microphone, so XLR-compatible loopers are popular.
Which artists use looper pedals?
Lots of artists use loop pedals including John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, Kurt Vile, Tash Sultana, Jonny Greenwood, and comedy-artist Reggie Watts have all used these kinds of pedals for looping both guitar and other sounds. These are just some examples, loads of contemporary musicians are waking up to the power of live looping.
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