Bastl midi looper

The Lounge Other Gear
#41

Indeed, you can see it that way

#42

It doesn’t seem like you can record an initial part in a time signature other than 4/4 though, which is quite frustrating when jamming. It only wants to close the loop on the closest 4th beat when tempo synced, wish there was an option to tighten this up.

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#43

What firmware version are you on?

#44

Anyone got a sustain pedal to work with the bastl midilooper?

I’m plugging it into the trigger/rec input with an adaptor, but it’s not responding.
I tried the same adapter with the head phones on the metronome input and it’s working.

Any ideas how to fix this?

#45

I use boss fs-5U and it works as expected.

I can’t test it right now since it is at a friend’s studio but I remember it hasn’t been straightforward at first.

Check polarity to begin with. I remember it refused to work at first and I 'm pretty sure it doesn’t work in certain configurations/modes, also depends on what is plugged in maybe ?

The manual says :

“If none of the voices are set to receive CV on that particular
jack, the jack will act as a pedal input.”

I made it working so I’m sure you will ! :wink:

#46

Thanks buddy. I’ll try to get in contact with bastl and hopefully they can sort it out.

#47

Got it to work by turning all the CV func off.
Great looper all the way!

#48

Continuing the discussion from Bastl midi looper:

Hi , to turn all the CVs ON i have to push the voice Button 5 seconds
but how do you turn all the CV off ?

#49

I’m not near my midi looper but afair you have to turn off the settings(white led) of all 3 knobs to the left, to get the sustain pedal to work as recorder

#50

Answer from Bastl when I was struggling with the settings:

If retrigger, velocity and transpose are light up (white) then it means CV is active fro them, so you should click on each of them in order to disable it.

#51

Thank you very much Ringokidf for your prompt response, unfortunately this is a second hand Midilooper .
All is working well and the white light are off except the voice . I use a DX7 with MIDI out and in, controlling VSTs inside Cubase , I never use a modular synth with CV . I have update the midi looper with the last version ( april 2021) . An update very very easy to do .
Too bad, i like very much this product but l i think i will have to renounce the idea of the use of a pedal to command the record button , i will use my hand .

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#52

Does anybody have experience with this and could you illuminate me about why this might be more attractive for multiple synth “sequencing” than say, a Keystep Pro? (other than slightly cheaper price).
Im looking at either of these as a performance solution and just trying to decide which would feel smoother for my workflow.
Thanks.

#53

Good question. Also can’t you essentially record and loop ( and quantize) MIDI with a Digitakt, as well ?

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#54

This is a looper, you’re not limited by patterns duration, time signature and such…

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#55

very simple to operate + small form factor

(never tried a Keystep, though)

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#56

Yeah the midi looper is way different than a digitakt midi recording

Short version, bastl midi looper can handle way more midi, and will not jump when playing it back

The looper literally just records all the incoming midi and loops it. You essentially have an unlimited amount of CC messages you can send it (though you can, you will start to get interference if you over lap cc numbers and channels) and no steps means no cc jumps. It’s literally plays back what you did with your hand

The digitakt, you have to set up midi cc lanes via the 8 selectable parameters, you have to manually set those then record midi. So the amount is limited and very manual.
The midi track cc resolution isn’t great also. Your smooth filter sweep will still jump parameters per step. You can make it better by changing the step sequencer resolution but you will still ultimately get jumps

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#57

Ok, what about the Midiphy Loopa ?

#58

I’m surprised the Loopa doesn’t have its own thread here.

I think I’m right in saying that the Midiphy Loopa, the Bastl device and the Retrokits RK008 all operate on the principle of recording a real-time stream of midi messages. They all offer different features (number of tracks, quantisation, editing) but the underlying principle is the same and quite different to what’s usually called sequencing.

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#59

Let’s see if I can resurrect this thread. I am interested in one of these, but there are very few performances/tutorials with the Bastl Midi Looper on YouTube, and a bit underwhelming.
Silly and not so silly questions for users:
I read you can save all your patterns and there are 12 available. How does it actually save? Do you save single patterns, groups of three or whatever is recorded in the box at the moment of saving? Extremely silly question: by saving this means we find the same patterns when we switch the device back on again right?
Is there anyway to copy patterns- I did not see it mentioned?
And: how exactly do you switch from one pattern to another while the looper is playing? Is it possible to have a group of three patterns playing, then switch seamlessly to another three etc.? Or would you have let’s say A1, B1 and C1 playing and then you would have to individually change each one (which might mean loops playing together which were not supposed to play together).
Thanks !

#60

Regarding tutorials, this series is pretty deep - well from my point of view, at least:

I’ve been using the MIDI Looper extensively for a couple of years, or rather intensely, because I only use a fraction of its potential.

For example, pattern saving, I only tried once. As far as I remember, it was rather straightforward to use, as described in the manual. I think - not sure it’s instant pattern change (i.e. it doesn’t wait for the end of the pattern to switch)

From the manual:

“The recorded loops for all 3 voices are a pattern. To change
between 12 different patterns, hold down the PLAY button
and press one of the voice buttons to select one of the three
patterns. There are four groups of three patterns and to access
a different pattern groups press one of the four smaller buttons
(LENGTH, QUANTIZE, VELOCITY, TRANSPOSE) while still
holding the PLAY button.”

And

“To save all patterns press FN+REC”

(I guess it answers some of your questions at least)

I like it because it’s simple and straightforward to use, not too many buttons, muscle memory comes quickly - which is important for live use.

I have considered switching to the RK008 - which is much more sophisticated - but I suspect it’s many buttons and features might distract me from the essential purpose (for me): looping parameter tweaks for basically anything.