Re: [Harp-L] Boss Loop Station mod (Question for Brendan Power)

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 I own two looping devices, the Boss RC-2 and the Akai Headrush (version 1).  I currently use the Boss pedal, because it's got something like 18 minutes of loop time in it, while the Headrush will only do multiple layers of less than 11 seconds (though it will do a single layer up to 22 seconds long).  The Headrush 2 will do up to 35 seconds of a single loop.  The Headrush is used by Brandon Bailey and KT Tunstall, among others. 

I know that Brendan mounts his RC-2 pedal on the mic stand to make it hand-operated, but I prefer to leave it on the floor.  

Loopers in general seem to come at price points that represent increments of $100.  One poster to this thread noted that you can't control the volume of separate layers with the RC-2, and that's true--you need to spend something more like $400 to get a pedal that will do that, as compared to the $189 you spend for an RC-2 at retail. However, I haven't found that to be a significant problem yet.  I do wish that I could turn layers in my loops on and off more easily--with the RC-2, you can't turn a layer on or off, you can only erase the latest layer in a loop (which means that if you want to bring it back, you have to play it in again).  

In my opinion, one of the most important things in looping--especially when the output of your pedal or PA system is monophonic--is to use layers that sound distinctly different from each other in terms of tone, timbre, register etc.  It's easy for a listener to distinguish a percussion or beatboxed loop from a harmonica, but if you pile up multiple harp loops that are all in the same register (and played through the same setup), the sound turns to mush pretty quickly.  I find my Digitech RP355 to be very useful in this regard--I can make loop layers that fulfill the roles of bass, low rhythm, lead, etc. very easily. For examples, check out these live recordings from a gig I did in August on my website at: 
http://www.hunterharp.com/from-the-alpine-wines-gig-you-wont-get-over-me/

The biggest problem I find with solo performances on loopers is that you have a basic choice between playing in a long loop that represents a complete song form (say, 12 bars of a blues structure), or doing a very short loop (say, 1-2 bars of a groove) whose harmonic (chord) structure doesn't change.  Slim Heilpern does a lot of the former, but if you do that on every song, the audience starts to feel like they always know what's coming next (i.e. 12, 16, or 32 bars of basic structure into the looper, followed by something else).  The other, REALLY big problem for harmonica players is that when you're playing a loop on harmonica, you can't sing.  So if you use your looper to establish an extended song structure with the harmonica, you can't sing until you've gone through at least one complete iteration of the structure.  (Slim handles that by having his partner Penny Hanna sing.)

These problems aside, I think looping is very cool.  As an alternative, consider playing along to pre-recorded tracks (in effect, longer and more complex loops done before the performance begins). Done well, that can be pretty exciting.  I saw a very accomplished ukelele player named Troy Fernandez on the street in Waikiki recently, and he was backed by pre-recorded guitar and bass tracks that he played from his mp3 player.  The audience seemed to be getting off on his performance. I sure was.  I know that Randy Singer has done a number of performances using pre-recorded backing tracks too, though I don't know if he still does.  

Regards, Richard Hunter

author, "Jazz Harp" 
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
Twitter: lightninrick