Best gear for writing songs - looper / octave down etc

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 11:59 am

I'm looking to get in the saddle of actually coming up with songs and tunes. I'm looking for a set up which allows me to loop and play over parts including using some octave down pedal to simulate basslines - esstentially I want to be able to jam with myself and save down the results so i can pretty much have a song written and know the parts before I sit down at the PC to record it. I'm thinking two footswitch Digitech Jam Man and maybe a whammy or some other cheaper pedal for the pseudo bass.

Any other options worth looking into?

rps-10 · Post by **rps-10** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 12:04 pm

MXR Blue Box (or clone of) for bass sounds? Quite cheap on ebay. I recently got a DIY one with some extra mods to it, its a fun pedal. (see my soundcloud page for octave fuzz + Bluebox mix effect to see how it sounds)
Jamman Solo - I have one, but yet to use it since buying it (off ebay again and selelr included 4Gb SDcard, which was nice)

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:28 pm

Just chiming in to say don't buy a Bluebox. Haet.

M9 would do all these things very well, but maybe not quite cheaply enough. Is there a Behringer octave down pedal?

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:40 pm

you could buy a cheapo 2nd hand bass for the price of an octave pedal, and audacity is free and has a loop function. that's all i do.

laterallateral · Post by **laterallateral** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 3:41 pm

Drum machine

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 4:16 pm

a guitar amp modeler/pedal hooked to a cheap tape deck. keep it next to your bed and when a cool riff/idea enters your head, get up and immediately record it. after a while you'll have a tape full of ideas to work on.

GreenKnee · Post by **GreenKnee** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 4:23 pm

benecol wrote:Just chiming in to say don't buy a Bluebox. Haet.

This.

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 5:17 pm

if you want something to help get ideas down then look at the irig for your iphone Dave, it has a 4 track recorder, effects, looper, import backing tracks (drums) & octave pedal if you don't have ze bass and if you do it has bass amps. I use it to get ideas down all the time. when I have parts I like I upload them to sound cloud for the bassist to add drums and bass parts and then we work on them at practice.

I bought an interface from George to do something more with it but as I have to practice a lot at home with the irig I use this most of the time. Also, you can run your pedals through it as well which is great.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 9:41 pm

Thanks for the suggestions guys - I'm definitely looking for something to easily jam with myself wihtout having to stop and press record on my PC and that just to clarify. I do want a shortscale bass at some point but its more like RECORD GUITAR BACKING, STOMP, RECORD FAKE BASS, STOMP, RECORD LEAD LINE, STOMP IMPROVISE VOCALS = REPEAT UNTIL SONG STRUCTURE FLESHED OUT

^^ that's the kind of experience I'm seeking.

M9 / 13 certainly look good but possibly too rich for me...not sure...

ambientnoize · Post by **ambientnoize** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:54 am

buy either a behringer clone, or one of the boss oc-2/oc-3's which can be had on ebay for around Â£40.

then buy a used rc-2 or jam man for around Â£100 and you have a lot of versatility
buy a dd3 - dd6 for the hold function, but be prepared for short sample times although at a reasonable price (Â£50-60)

Now that the m9 is out, DL4's can be had all day long for around Â£120-140. Maybe a slight overkill with the delays, although the looper is phenomenal for on the fly recordings.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:04 am

Boss RC2 is my recommendation.... I also use micro pog for layering simulated bass exactly as you're describing. However, any Octave down pedal will do the trick. Chilli Dog Dano I like for cheapness.

You could get both units for about Â£100 buying used.

Â£80-85 rc2
Â£15-20 cheap octave

Will · Post by **Will** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:48 am

stewart wrote:you could buy a cheapo 2nd hand bass for the price of an octave pedal

110% correct with regards to functional octave pedals. And even the best octave down won't sound very much like a bass.

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:37 am

All of this reminds me of something cool, Dave.

Maybe Mike/Aen/LRC could confirm this if they saw it: If I'm not mistaken, last November when I was in SoCal for Fredo's birthday, I got to mess about with one of his Jazzmasters that a sizable nut groove mod to accomodate fat-and-low E and A strings, both tuned an octave lower. Was heaps of fun to get all the toanz, could imagine it being a fun deal to track both parts with.