The track uses the Boss DD-3, the Line 6 DL4 and the TC Electronic Nova Delay. The Boss DD-3 is is set to a  standard 1/4 note repeat while the TC Electronic Nova Delay is set to a reverse delay with modualtion.  Finally, the Line 6 DL4 is set to ‘Digital delay with modualtion’ with very high repeats.

Really nice ambient sound textures.  Don’t forget to check out his myspace page.

Boss RC-20XL

I’ve mentioned here before about how I consider a looping pedal such as the Boss RC-20XL Loop Station as the prodigal son of the digital delay pedal.  I got one of these pedals several years ago and used it to do a busking routine with guitar where I would lay down blues/funk/jazz rhythm parts and sounds and then do some improv over the backing for a minute or two per loop.  As well as looking at the basic specs and capabilities of the pedal, I want to go a bit into how I believe having any good loop pedal such as this one can progerss your playing generally.

Specs and Capabilities

If you are not familiar with the general operation of a looping pedal, the concept is that you trigger a loop recording process with the pedal.  You then stop the recording process and start looping your recording with another pedal hit.  you can then play back over the recoding or record layer on layer to create thick textures and sounds, or have bass, rhythm, and sound effects all layered in a simple foot controlled operation.

The Boss RC-20XL Loop Station implements this with up to 16 minutes of recording time. And allows you to store up to 11 of these loops at a time for later playback and looping. The pedal comes with a bass drum sounding metronome and you can set the speed of this metronome with the foot pedals.  Additionally, the start and end points of the loop can be quantized to the metronome to give a perfect length loop for the recording process without the requirement to get the pedal hit at exactly the right point in time.

The pedal comes with a reverse mode to get some interesting sound effects and you can also change the speed of a loop without changing the pitch.  You can switch between the different stored loops in a pedal controlled manner by adding an external pedal to your loop station.

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Benefits of Having a Good Loop Pedal in Your Rig

Personally, I tend to think, beyond your basic guitar, amp, distortion and maybe a bit of reverb, having a good loop pedal of some form is probably the most important piece of guitar equipment you can own.  Generally from a point of view of learning guitar, I think that to be able to listen back to yourself and also practice your improv and soloing over a backing is something that can greatly improve your playing.  When you listen back to your playing, you notice many things about your sound that you do not notice while playing yourself.  It is probably the quickest way to refine your sound and get a good perspective of how you are sounding overall.  Additionally, when practising your improvisation, to not have a backing behind you looses a lot of the context of what you are trying to do and leaves a lot of the overall sound you are achieving to your imagination.  One of the big benefits of such a pedal is that this recording/playback process becomes integrated into your general practice as something that does not require stopping your playing to operate some other form of recording device.  The problem with not having some sort of loop recording playback in a pedal operation is that the process of having to stop your playing and operate some other piece of equipment will stop the flow of your practice and most probably result in a situation where you simply don’t do it to the degree that I believe is most beneficial for your general progress on the instrument.

Additionally, from the point of view of writing riffs/progressions, …  many players virtually improvise riffs and progressions on the fly rather than having to sit down for too long to figure them out.  At this point, one of the things that may slow down a general song writing process is simply remembering the various riffs and motifs you are going through.

With the loop storage capabilities of such a pedal, you can very quickly record a progression virtually on the fly and when you have one you like, simply save it in one of the recording spots and move straight on to creating more ideas.  You can then go back at the end of your session and listen back to the riffs you have recorded, seeing what you like the best and getting ideas of how to structure them into a song structure.  You don’t have to interrupt the creative process to memorize a riff you have just found as it will be stored and you can look at if you want to use it after the practice session.

All these capabilities are available in quite a few loop pedals, and the Boss RC-20XL loop station is a great implementation of this, however I believe that these sort of capabilities can greatly accelerate the speed of learning both the instrument and the song writing process.

If you found this review helpful please consider checking out the loop station on Amazon and eBay through our affiliate links in this post.

Boss RC-20xl RC20xl RC-20 xl Loop Station Guitar Phrase Recorder Pedal

US $137.50 (13 Bids) End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 12:50:49 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

BOSS RC-20XL RC-20 XL Loop Station Phrase Recorder

US $259.00 End Date: Wednesday Feb-08-2012 18:54:13 PST Buy It Now for only: US $259.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list

To my way of thinking, having a loop pedal feature in one of the most important effects a guitarist can have.  This is the case for learning the instrument, song writing and having the ability to create good solo instrumental performances.

In terms of learning the instrument,  playing over a backing, practising your improvisation over a backing and being able to listen back to your playing are essential ingredients.  You can get this by simply recording your playing or backing tracks, but to not have such a recording in a pedal (such as a digital delay with a loop sampling feature) makes the recording process difficult and such that it will constantly interrupt your practice.  Once you have a loop pedal, recording and play back becomes as versatile as the playing itself.

In terms of song writing, a loop pedal will allow you to hear the layering of bass, rhythm, … on the fly and can lead to a sort of improvisational song writing process where you can lay down and layer ideas with the tap of a foot as simply as playing them.

For solo instrumental performances, it can be quite hard to make a single guitar part sound full and alive, however with a loop sampler, you can really get the live effect of rhythm, lead and various sound effects interacting on the fly in a way that will hold a lot more interest to a listener.

If your considering a delay pedal and have not thought about the looping feature of these pedals, I encourage you to put some thought into just how much versatility and capability having a loop sampling feature will bring to your playing.