Looper question

[motorhead9999]

Hey all, I should be having my new Helix being delivered today! It was supposed to come Thursday, but thanks to a certain Hurricane, it got delayed...

 

So I have a question on the looper block and function, mostly because I'm somewhat unsure how loopers work.

 

The Helix advertises a certain length of stereo loop time, and a certain amount of mono loop time. Here are my questions, which may be slightly odd since the primary purpose of this unit would be for a Chapman stick, but since I'm sure there's some stereo guitar players here, maybe you will have the answers.

 

1)  I need to process each of the two inputs differently, but I don't necessarily need the final loop to be in stereo. Can I mix down the inputs before the loop block so as to maintain my the higher quantity of loop time? (And yes, I'm quite aware that 2 mins of loop time is a bit of an eternity in musical terms).

 

2) So let's say I lay down the first layer of a loop that is 30 seconds. I then pass back on top of it 3 more times (also at 30 seconds) for a total of 4 "layers" looping. Does that count as only 30 seconds of loop time, or does that count as 120 seconds? (This relates to what I was concerned about question 1...if it only counts as 30 seconds, then I'm good and it's not a big deal if not, I'll have to figure some things out).

 

3) Continuing on, I have my layered loops going. At the very end of the song, I want to play something over the loop, but gradually fade out the looped portion, keeping my volume constant on the closing bits I'm playing. Is that possible?

 

Thanks again, and looking forward to having some fun with the product!

[amsdenj]

1. Yes, you can use a mix block in front of the looper to mix to mono. However anything that is input to the looper is summed to mono if the looper is set to mono. In your case, you're already mixing two things, so you already have the mix block.

 

2. Although a looper overdub is stored in separate memory (in order to support one-level Undo), this has no impact on the memory required for multiple overdubs. The memory used is established by the first recording, which establishes the loop length. All other overdubs are simply mixed with this content. 

 

3. The looper has no stop and fade out mode, but you could simulate that with an expression pedal controller on the looper playback level parameter.

 

You might find the blog posting helpful: Using a Looper for Solo Gigs

[motorhead9999]

Thanks! I think that was basically everything I needed to know, and your answer to number 3 was exactly what I was hoping could be done, and just how I saw it working.

 

Can't wait for this thing to get here!

[amsdenj]

For a more comprehensive looping solution, Helix makes a very nice audio interface and MIDI controller for Apple MainStage 3 which has excellent looping capabilities. This would eliminate the loop length issues, provide stereo loops, supports multiple independent loops that can be panned and mixed, and has additional features for play once, and fade out on stop.