Guitar w/ drum machine and looper pedal

[oldguy]

I sometimes do this when I'm stuck in a rut, or bored with practicing scales, songs, or playing to backing tracks. Play a lick or riff you like, practice it to a drum machine to help with timing, lay that down on a looper, then try some lead lines to see how they sound. It's just another way to stay motivated, at least for me.

Ry0_ZHs8jok

[Neal]

That was great Old Guy. What kind of drum machine and looper did you use?

[oldguy]

That was great Old Guy. What kind of drum machine and looper did you use?

Thanks, Neal.
The Jamman looper is the one I have.
The drum machine is actually the "World" drum setting on my Digitech RP250.
I'm working on another video where I take the riff and run it through two amphs along w/ that drumbeat, one set crunchy and the other clean.

[Spudman]

I'd do an edit cut at 137-152. I think for those measures you nailed it. Cool riff.:AOK :dude

I do this too. It's such a great fast way to get an idea towards completion. It makes it so easy to find the 'keeper' because you can capture what ever you want to. I'm glad you showed the steps you take to get some jamming going. It may help demystify or simplify the process for other players.

[sunvalleylaw]

Very cool!

[oldguy]

I'd do an edit cut at 137-152. I think for those measures you nailed it. Cool riff.:AOK :dude

I do this too. It's such a great fast way to get an idea towards completion. It makes it so easy to find the 'keeper' because you can capture what ever you want to. I'm glad you showed the steps you take to get some jamming going. It may help demystify or simplify the process for other players.

Thanks, Steve, appreciate the feedback.
I threw this together rather quickly to demonstrate, and left it rough rather than work to get some polish on it.
I did actually slow it down and try to get a more refined take here.........

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=13940

[sunvalleylaw]

Hey OG, I have a looper, (RC20XL) but don't have a drum machine. I do have some drum beats in Garage Band that I could record into the looper I guess. What way do you find is best to get both the drum beat and your riff into the looper in time so you can play over it?

I suppose I could also record the riff into garage band, use the drum beats there, and practice along, as another approach.

As you can tell, I still do not use my looper effectively enough as a practice and learning tool. Time to learn, and as you say, have fun and play hard!

[oldguy]

Hi, Sun.
What I do is run the RP250 output to the Jamman input. The Jamman out goes into the amph input. By plugging the guitar into the RP250 I can....
1. Play guitar w/ or w/o drums thru the Musicman amph.
2. Capture either or both on the looper along the way.
Playing along w/ the drums in time is like practicing w/ a metronome. It gets a bit tricky knowing when to hit the loop pedal to start the loop repeating. I still have trouble there. Practice makes it easier, but it's usually somewhat like a waltz........ONE,two,three,ONE,two,three,ONE,two, three-LOOP!
This makes for a flexible setup. You can loop a riff & practice it to a drumbeat, or vice/versa, and save both together to practice over when you're ready.
You could theoretically save a few drums @ varying BPM from garageband to your looper to get started. It would give you a platfom to play riffs or chords over, and you could layer more onto them as needed.
That should get you up and running to practice some of your favorite Sunvalley noodle ideas.:AOK

[aeolian]

Hey OG, I have a looper, (RC20XL) but don't have a drum machine.

Steve, I thought the RC20 has built-in drum beats that you can set tempo and play on top of. I got an RC2 a few weeks ago and it works that way, so I assume the RC20 will do that too. An even better feature is that since the RC2 knows the boundary of each bar I don't have to press the pedal at the exact time, the RC2 will cycle at the exact boundary of each bar as long as the pedal is pressed close enough to the end of the bar.

[sunvalleylaw]

It has a metronome, and I do have a cd of drum tracks I can input somewhere around here. But they are not pre-recorded in there as in the RC2. As I understand it now after looking into it, the key is to get the drum track or loop saved in the unit, at one of the 11 stations, so that you can then adjust the tempo to play over, or continue to record riffs over, etc. The trick looks to be, as OG said, to get the loop in there so it loops correctly.

[Tone2TheBone]

Keep them flannel shirt riffs coming my friend. Great vid!

[M29]

Oh man og I am getting an error trying to listen to the vid. It says to come back later. Guess that is what I will do.....:thwap

[oldguy]

Hey, Rob! Thanks a bunch.....we do love those flannel shirts.:AOK

[oldguy]

Oh man og I am getting an error trying to listen to the vid. It says to come back later. Guess that is what I will do.....:thwap

Dunno, M, I just clicked it and it's working for me.................:thwap :help