"The one with the looper"

So, I have to admit that I have been having a lot of fun with looper pedals recently! In particular, the new MXR Clone Looper. I have it wired up to the fullest of its capabilities with an external footswitch and Dunlop mini expression pedal. I rarely use it to just record a rhythm part, kick it into play mode, then solo over it. However, this is also fun and useful when I’m in a teaching situation and want to demonstrate scales over a rhythm part or chordal changes. The way I have been using my looper on recordings and writing new music lately is by having the expression pedal rocked all the way off, which has the volume all the way down on the output of the looper. I then will at random, record pieces of what I am playing for about 3 to 4 loops worth of material. 

Keep in mind that all of this is being done in real time, while I am playing a piece of original music. After all of the recording is done in the looper, I step on the playback button. At this point, I have some cool options with the MXR looper especially; I can change the playback speed, or my favorite thing to do, hold down the external switch for 2 seconds and send all of my recorded parts into reverse mode. Normally all of this is done pretty quickly in a song and by the chorus of the song I can start to fade this wacky reverse coolness in and out of the rest of the song at will! Sometimes I will take these recorded loops and towards the end of the song or for a specific part, change the speed of the loop to double time or 2x speed, hit record, then playback that loop in reverse, giving it all a crazy octave up reverse sound to fade in and out. 

As you see, I like to mess around with sounds in real time, particularly when I’m recording, just to see what I get! This is really exciting because most of the time you end up with something awesome and off the cuff! Another thing to think about is how to do all of this during recording sessions. You can do it in real time and have it all embedded on one track, as is, no separating or editing. The second way is to do your rhythm or lead track on one track and your loops on another separate track. Doing it this way allows the engineer to edit both parts separately and come up with exactly the way they need it to sound for the session. 

One last cool pedal that I’ve come to love after fighting with it for so long is the Freeze pedal by Electro Harmonix. This is another one that takes a ton of getting used to, or at least it did for me! I tried and tried to use it like my favorite players, ala Krantz or Frisell, but I just couldn’t meld with it like that. As usual, I had to go down a long path of putting it on and off of my board about 4 times before discovering how it best fit into my playing and song writing. I definitely tend to lean on it for simple drones behind solo guitar songs that are more avant-garde in style rather than tap it often and change the frozen note frequently. I really like to use it in recording sessions to freeze a chord and run it through a warbly chorus, then tape delay, then record that sound that can then be brought in and out of a song as needed. Using this type of frozen sound with the reverse looper craziness that I described above, and fading it in and out as you play can also be incredibly inspiring and lead to some wild explorations! 

Well, that’s the way that I use these two innovative pedals that expand your tonal palette. I know that there are many players out there that may use pedals in the same way that I do. I am just trying to impart a little bit of outside the box thinking that I experience in my everyday pursuit of tone, in hopes that you will take your own fun journey and end up in a place with your music that you ultimately thought you would never ever be! Check back for part 4 with next weeks installment on how to choose the best amplifier and guitar for a recording session. My favorite part of it all!

~ Ryan Ridgeway 9/3/20