Recording looper troubles

[MISSINGNO.]

Hey guys, just got a quick question that'll probably turn into something long and drawn out by the end of the post.


I make ambient sort of math-y derived music. To make it easier, I like to use my Line 6 M13's built in looper. It works fine enough, except for one thing.

Whenever I record it, the sound quality just turns into mush, even when it sounds fine to the ear. I use a condenser mic placed a little bit off to the side to avoid treble overkill.

Everything just turns into a big mess as if the frequencies overlapped and everything was just fighting to come through its own mix.

I try everything--varying the tone and volume on the guitar, different settings on the M13, using off board distortions and overdrives and nothing really makes it work.


HELP! I could sure use some.

[avj]

I don't own one of these, but I'm eating lunch at work and not much else is going on. I was looking in the manual to see if I could find any specs on the quality of the recorded loop and I came across this information that may help:

Looper Levels – the Playback and Overdub Level of your loop will be determined by the Looper Levels you set in Chapter 2, Page 2. Play Level is the volume of your recorded loop in relation to your live guitar volume. Overdub Level is the level of your loop that will be recorded each time the loop cycles in Overdub mode. In other words, if Overdub Level is set at 80%, every time your loop cycles in Overdub mode it will decrease in volume by 20% in relation to your live guitar. For no reduction in volume, set Overdub Level to 100%, but be aware that hot levels may build up and distort.

EQ – your recorded loop will also be affected by the EQ settings you made in Setup mode. If Hi Cut is set to On, your loop will play back with the high end slightly attenuated. Conversely, if Low Cut is set to On, your loop will play back with the low end slightly cut. Both Hi Cut and Low Cut can be active or off at the same time.

I believe benecol is the most visible owner of an M13 around here, so perhaps he can be of some help.

You can grab this and others at the manuals page for the M13 at line6.com.