Your thoughts on: Stupid human tricks with Looper (or Delay)

[johnnyvlee]

Since I was working with my "Say It Ain't So" (Weezer) patch today, it reminded me that I had always intended to fiddle around with a means of playing a similar ending to the solo live as they have on the recording. And I never did.

 

If you know the song, you know that near the end of the lead there's a 7-note phrase that repeats 3 times and there is some overlap because, you know, studio multitracking.  Live they seem to bounce it back and forth between 2 guitarists which means the guy playing the rhythm has to let it drop out while he plays those lead bits.  And the chorus comes in before the lead is done.

 

Anyway, I think there must be a way with a looper or high-end delay unit that I could play the riff the 1st and 3rd times and the looper/delay could play it the 2nd time.  In other words, I need to set it up for ONE loop, and of course getting the timing of that exactly right could be a hella shennanigan!  And I am not very experienced with loopers.

 

Anyone done this already? Or have thoughts because you have done extensive playing with this kind of gear?

[theElevators]

OK, well you need stereo ping-pong delay with trails enabled.  Set up the delay so it matches the tempo of the song, so you play the 7-note motif once, and it plays it back twice, first left, then right.  The trick is to have 0 feedback, so that it repeats whatever you played exactly twice: left and right, and that's it. 

 

Then if you are a snapshot user, have 2 snapshots: snapshot 1, snapshot 2. 

 

In snapshot 1: you enable the ping-pong delay. 

In snapshot 2: you disable the ping-pong delay. 

 

So live, you are on snapshot 2, you play your solo.  Then when the time comes for the overdubbed portion, switch to snapshot 1 where you play the "tadadadadadada".  Then you switch back to snapshot 2, and play other stuff.  While you're in snapshot 2, the delay continues to play the "tadadadadadada" twice left and right. 

 

Alternatively, you can assign the delay bypass to expression pedal, so instead of switching between snapshots, you can simply rock the pedal up to turn on the delay, and then down to turn it off.  Since you have spillover delay effect, you again will hear exactly 2 repeats of what you just played, while you are free to play other stuff. 

 

Makes sense?