Is a loop switcher what I need?

[FarFromTheTrees]

So my pedalboard is getting a bit fuller these days and growing (Darkglass B7KU, Seymour Duncan Studio Bass Compressor, Marshall Echohead Delay, Valeton OC10 Octaver, Boss CE-5 Chorus, DOD FX25, Korg Pitchblack). I'm having fun combining fx but its getting somewhat tedious tap dancing all over my board for the desired sounds that i'm using more regularly.

Is a loop switcher what I need in order to use two (or more?) fx at the same time with one press of a switch? Can anyone recommend one up to £120? 

I came across these on my searches thus far but i'm not 100% sure i'm looking at the right thing-

https://www.brightonion.co.uk/bigger/

https://www.thomann.de/gb/mooer_pedal_controller_loop_6.htm

Many thanks!

 

[SumOne]

A loop switcher is indeed what you need to turn on/off 2 or more pedals at the same time with one footswitch. Bright Onion pedals are good for this.

I got to a similar situation about a month ago (9 pedals) and I got something slightly different from them worth considering: The Bright Onion dual reverse looper  https://www.brightonion.co.uk/dual-reverse-looper/ for £65. It was handmade and sent to me within a few days (you get to customise your LED colours). It's good.

I have octave, chorus, envelope filter in one loop and distortion pedals in another: can get a couple of pedals in  a loop ready to be switched on/off with one footswitch rather than tap dancing, and cuts pedals out of the signal chain when the loops aren't activated. Plus you can reverse the order of the loops with a footswitch - that opens up a lop of options. 

I heard good things about the Boss ES-5 which can do all that with 5 loops, but that costs £330 and I didn't feel I had enough pedals to justify it.

Edited January 4, 2021 by SumOne

[milford59]

No - you don’t need a loop-switcher..... you just need to dump all those pedals and buy an HX Stomp.......😀

[FarFromTheTrees]

1 hour ago, SumOne said:

A loop switcher is indeed what you need to turn on/off 2 or more pedals at the same time with one footswitch. Bright Onion pedals are good for this.

I got to a similar situation about a month ago (9 pedals) and I got something slightly different from them worth considering: The Bright Onion dual reverse looper  https://www.brightonion.co.uk/dual-reverse-looper/ for £65. It was handmade and sent to me within a few days (you get to customise your LED colours). It's good.

I have octave, chorus, envelope filter in one loop and distortion pedals in another: can get a couple of pedals in  a loop ready to be switched on/off with one footswitch rather than tap dancing, and cuts pedals out of the signal chain when the loops aren't activated. Plus you can reverse the order of the loops with a footswitch - that opens up a lop of options. 

I heard good things about the Boss ES-5 which can do all that with 5 loops, but that costs £330 and I didn't feel I had enough pedals to justify it.

Hi

So what would be the benefit of your dual reverse looper over say, a larger 6 switch looper? 

1 hour ago, milford59 said:

No - you don’t need a loop-switcher..... you just need to dump all those pedals and buy an HX Stomp.......😀

I would absolutely love one of those but I can't quite afford one at the moment and i'm unable to save further right now because of reasons. I'd be buying the loop switcher with some christmas money I was gifted

[SumOne]

4 minutes ago, FarFromTheTrees said:

Hi

So what would be the benefit of your dual reverse looper over say, a larger 6 switch looper? 

I would absolutely love one of those but I can't quite afford one at the moment and i'm unable to save further right now because of reasons. I'd be buying the loop switcher with some christmas money I was gifted

Not many loop switchers do the reverse loop thing so it depends if that's something you think would be useful. Personally I thought 2 loops with the reverse was more useful to me than 5 loops with no reverse. As far as I know the ES-5 is the cheapest option for 5 loops and being able to reverse loop ordering but its cost and size are disadvantages. 

[cLepto-bass]

Vein-Tap offer a wide range of true bypass loopers...

https://www.vein-tap.com/

[FarFromTheTrees]

5 hours ago, SumOne said:

Not many loop switchers do the reverse loop thing so it depends if that's something you think would be useful. Personally I thought 2 loops with the reverse was more useful to me than 5 loops with no reverse. As far as I know the ES-5 is the cheapest option for 5 loops and being able to reverse loop ordering but its cost and size are disadvantages. 

How does the reverse thing work? What does it do exactly?

18 minutes ago, cLepto-bass said:

Vein-Tap offer a wide range of true bypass loopers...

https://www.vein-tap.com/

Thanks!

[SumOne]

11 hours ago, FarFromTheTrees said:

How does the reverse thing work? What does it do exactly?

Thanks!

It has a footswitch to change the order of the loops - so one loop could have chorus and octaver (that you can click both on/off with one footswitch) and the other loop could have distortion,  you can either have chorus and/or octaver feed into distortion or click to reverse it and have distortion feed into into chorus and/or octaver....as you can have several pedals in each loop it opens up a lot of combinations, it took me a while to work out what pedals always sounds good in front or behind each other to put in one loop and which ones sound good either way around and need to go in separate loops.  

Or if you don't think the reverse thing is that useful for you and you just want to turn on/off several pedals in a loop with one click it's probably worth considering what loops you would like your pedals to be in (I guess the compressor and tuner probably won't be going into loops). Bright Onion do everything from 1 up to 12.

Or perhaps you'll want to blend in your clean signal to loops. There are pedals for that by Bright Onion, or the Boss LS-2 or the EHX Switchblade or tri-parallel mixer, or Old Blood Noise Endeavors Signal Blender. 

I went through all this about a month ago, my conclusion was the dual reverse was mot useful to me but if I had the ££ and pedal board space I would have gone for the Boss ES-5.

Edited January 5, 2021 by SumOne

[FarFromTheTrees]

On 05/01/2021 at 10:16, SumOne said:

It has a footswitch to change the order of the loops - so one loop could have chorus and octaver (that you can click both on/off with one footswitch) and the other loop could have distortion,  you can either have chorus and/or octaver feed into distortion or click to reverse it and have distortion feed into into chorus and/or octaver....as you can have several pedals in each loop it opens up a lot of combinations, it took me a while to work out what pedals always sounds good in front or behind each other to put in one loop and which ones sound good either way around and need to go in separate loops.  

Or if you don't think the reverse thing is that useful for you and you just want to turn on/off several pedals in a loop with one click it's probably worth considering what loops you would like your pedals to be in (I guess the compressor and tuner probably won't be going into loops). Bright Onion do everything from 1 up to 12.

Or perhaps you'll want to blend in your clean signal to loops. There are pedals for that by Bright Onion, or the Boss LS-2 or the EHX Switchblade or tri-parallel mixer, or Old Blood Noise Endeavors Signal Blender. 

I went through all this about a month ago, my conclusion was the dual reverse was mot useful to me but if I had the ££ and pedal board space I would have gone for the Boss ES-5.

I figured it would be something like that. That reverse function honestly sounds like a lot of fun. Definitely something to consider when I make my purchase.

As it goes i've decided a loop pedal would be more useful to me at the moment, so I think i'm going to get a ditto+ instead.  

[Quatschmacher]

On 04/01/2021 at 14:29, FarFromTheTrees said:

So my pedalboard is getting a bit fuller these days and growing (Darkglass B7KU, Seymour Duncan Studio Bass Compressor, Marshall Echohead Delay, Valeton OC10 Octaver, Boss CE-5 Chorus, DOD FX25, Korg Pitchblack). I'm having fun combining fx but its getting somewhat tedious tap dancing all over my board for the desired sounds that i'm using more regularly.

Is a loop switcher what I need in order to use two (or more?) fx at the same time with one press of a switch? Can anyone recommend one up to £120? 

I came across these on my searches thus far but i'm not 100% sure i'm looking at the right thing-

https://www.brightonion.co.uk/bigger/

https://www.thomann.de/gb/mooer_pedal_controller_loop_6.htm

Many thanks!

 

Check out the Morningstar ML5. About £120 used. 

[GisserD]

Check out the JOYO PXL-PRO 8 Effect Pedal Loop Switching System.

Thats where I started my looper search. 

But all looper roads lead to boss es8.

[Quatschmacher]

34 minutes ago, GisserD said:

Check out the JOYO PXL-PRO 8 Effect Pedal Loop Switching System.

Thats where I started my looper search. 

But all looper roads lead to boss es8.

There is another company that does a very similar thing to the ES-8 but can’t remember the name right now. 

[GisserD]

2 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

There is another company that does a very similar thing to the ES-8 but can’t remember the name right now. 

Decibel eleven? 

[Quatschmacher]

37 minutes ago, GisserD said:

Decibel eleven? 

No, it’s something which looks almost identical to the ES8. 
 

might have been this

http://www.musicomlab.com/efx-le.htm

Edited January 6, 2021 by Quatschmacher

[Quatschmacher]

There’s also this:

https://www.nemphasis.com/en/prodotti/pb-8-foot-controller.html

[Quatschmacher]

This:

http://www.rjmmusic.com/mastermind-pbc-2/

[SimonEdward]

I'd always recommend a Loop switch when using multiple stompboxes.. once-upon-a-time I had a Carl Martin Octaswitch 2, which was different gravy (in terms of the sound quality/clarity), but for the money, the dip switch options were limited. And the size!!

The one I use now and recommend is by One Control - which also has a separate Tuner out. For around £100.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/one_control_3_channel_loop_switcher.htm

As per thread, I'm also looking at aquiring a dry/wet "blender" pedal, and this one by Lazy-Bear effects could be the one.. :-

https://www.lazy-bear.co.uk/product-page/active-blender

[tonyf]

On 06/01/2021 at 18:32, GisserD said:

Check out the JOYO PXL-PRO 8 Effect Pedal Loop Switching System.

Thats where I started my looper search. 

But all looper roads lead to boss es8.

Harley Benton do an exact copy of it, called the FXL8 Pro. I've got one and it's worked amazingly and has served me very well over the years, only stopped using it when I retired my pedals 18 months ago and moved to a Helix Floor.

@FarFromTheTrees it's available for sale at a VERY reasonable "make me an offer as I need the space in my parts drawer" price if you're interested! 😂