Whether you’re after a looper pedal to finally get underway with your ambient prog project, or giving your band a boost by layering electric guitar and acoustic guitar parts live, having a loop pedal in pride of place on your pedalboard will open you up radically different creative approaches that may become your signature with enough practice. Here we’ve rounded up the best looper pedals available today, to help you understand what looping is, and where to start.
Some artists use loopers to trigger pre-recorded samples, rather than loop their riffs on-the-fly (like Ed Sheeran), and many looper pedals now support importing and exporting sound clips, or even an external memory card.
If you’re unsure where to start with looping, things don’t need to be particularly complex to begin with. If you only have, say, one or two sound effects or overdubs per song, a simple looper pedal could replace a drum trigger pad or even a laptop in your live rig. A looper pedal is also more portable – particularly if you have an ever-growing pedalboard – and far cheaper to replace if it gets damaged or stolen.
WHAT IS THE BEST LOOPER PEDAL RIGHT NOW?
For the most basic but effective live option among the best looper pedals here, it’s hard to get past the TC Electronic Ditto Looper X2. With essentially only two controls (start and stop), it’s difficult to mess up loops live, unless your timing is really off. With a little practice before you take things public, the Ditto Looper X2 is as powerful as anything else, and the lack of quantisation is actually a bonus if you’re playing in different time signatures or using polyrhythms.
If you have money to burn and the smaller units featured in
