Anyone Know A Good Midi Looper Pedal?

Mike K

Mike K

Active Member
Not an efx switching looper, but rather a smallish recording/overdubbing looper pedal with nice midi control via my MM LT.

The Boss RC-5 initially looks promising but apparently there are many issues with midi control implementation from Morningstar folks out there. And, I'm not thrilled with TRS midi connections either.

Controlling my current Eventide H9's midi loop functions the MM LT is dead easy. But I want to move recording and loop control off to a dedicated (and small rack-able) device to free up the H9 for other sounds and efx. All my stuff lives in a rack with only the MM LT on the floor.

Not interested in working on my hands and knees anymore! So something small and cool that I never have to touch (after setup) would be ideal. I suppose I could grab another H9... But I would appreciate any better ideas!
 
In my experience, there's literally only one looper that has a good MIDI implementation - the one built into an Axe-Fx. A good implementation requires bidirectional MIDI so that the controller can always remain in sync with the looper's state. Almost no one's willing to go that far, because it requires special code in both the looper and the controller (there's no standard for something like this - yet).

I'd love to hear it if there's something else out there, but right now, that's the only one I know of that's really good.
 
Here's a video showing the RC-5 talking to midi. As you can see in the comments, the rub is that overdub mode doesn't seem to work via midi control:

 
I’m late to this post (and new to the RJM forum) but I also use a MM LT with all my gear in a rack (drawer) and I was also looking for a looper pedal with good midi functionality that I could just setup and forget. The Boss doesn’t have decent midi control. The Axe FX is more than I need.

For what I need (basic loops, under 30 seconds, no need to sync but good sound quality and midi functionality) the Strymon Timeline looks like a good fit. It allows for the delay within the Timeline to be pre or post loop. Reverse. Filter. Modulation. Midi controllable. I’m thinking about setting up a dedicated button page just for the looper functions, or setting up the two button external control just for looping.

This video seems to show good midi functionality. I’m not sure if this has already been covered here but maybe this will help anyone else looking for a looper solution.

 
Still researching compact midi addressable loopers for my rig. Here's a youtube with both the Boss Rc-10r and RC-500 compared:


Anyone using and operating these with an RJB midi controller?
 
My main board has a RJM controller, but no RC-500.

I do have a RC-500 on a smaller “looping” board with a non RJM midi controller. I like what the RC-500 does, but I find the midi implementation to be a little head scratching:

1) When sending CC messages to trigger actions the RC-500, you have to send 2 values - 127 “press”, followed by value 0 “release”. Manageable, but a bit of a PITA. I think Boss is starting to use this approach for some of their other pedals (200 series)?

2) There are 8 Assigns, which you assign CC#s to. Each Assign can perform a specific function, but you have to pick and choose what they do and for some 8 might not be enough.

The RC-500 is cool, I can control it via midi with no problems, but I feel that it could be capable of so much more if the midi was implemented differently.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top