Loop Station Review

Two week ago, I wrote about winning an eBay auction for a looper pedal, and promised a review once I received it. I've now been using the looper for a week, and here's my review - it's the greatest practice tool ever.

If you're learning how to solo or improvise, I don't see how you can do without a looper. You tap the pedal with your foot, play a few bars or a chord progression, then tap it again, and what you just played loops continually (until you double-tap the pedal to stop the loop.) While it's looping, you have a background track to practice improvising over.

It took me a little while to learn how to use it properly. I couldn't sync the timing of the loop, and finally realized that I was coming in on an off beat. I now pay attention to coming in right on the beat, and it works like a charm.

My looper (the Boss RC-2 Loop Station) has many features that I haven't yet used - I've only recorded a loop, then played it back. I could save eleven loops to play back later - but I'm doing very simple chord progressions - nothing so complicated that I can't just play it again next time. There are also drum tracks that can sync with your loop - I've played with that a little, but it's not necessary, and I've been fine practicing to just my simple loop.