Anyone here using a looper pedal with their Elektron machines? What are you using? How are you using it?
I just ordered an RC-202 as sort of an impulse buy. I’m hoping to use it with my guitar, bass, and other gear to make loops to feed the Digitakt. I think it will make a great practice tool, and I’m hoping that it will be a cool way to create material for my tracks. It arrives tomorrow morning, so we shall soon see!
iam using two Electro Harmonix 2880 multi track looper within my set. one is pre FX the other one after the master FX.
controlled via the Original footswitch. 
one thing I don’t like with the Elektron sequencer is the fact that you can’t completely turn off quantization.
I like my free minded Ideas and btw. the 2880 is my dream machine because of its simplicity and you can control every parameter with midi ccs and EHX have implemented more functions available via midi.
…the Converters are Incredible crisp.
I use 3 cheapo (ditto)basic loopers on mono sources when I dont feel like midi sequencing, will upgrade one to OTmk2 next year 
Pigtronix infinity looper and ehx superego (is that a looper). Just got OT2 so need to setup first. PIL is really good.
I’ve heard great things about the PIL.
I’m mainly curious about how everyone is using loops with their Elektron gear.
It’ll be good for that, but looking at it another way, it can be used to capture phrases or whole patterns from DT, mix between and play with fx on the two loops and the DT, and provide some ways to transition DT patterns…
Looks like you get 5 cc assignments that you can choose from 35 functions…
You’ll be able to use the DT midi tracks to capture perfect loops from the DT and plock various things like fx, mixing of loops, triggering saved loops, and more.
Sounds interesting! I really need to brushup on midi. Can you give a brief summary of how the DT midi track would need to be set up to do that?
The 202 can use control change(cc)#'s 80-85 to control things, you choose what they do on the 202…
You’ll set a midi track for the correct channel of the 202, assign the cc #'s, and use lock trigs to lock cc values to steps…
One example of a cc target in the manual is track fx parameter. Say on the 202 you set up cc 80 to control the track fx parameter. Once you’ve set the DT midi track on the right channel and assign and activate cc 80, then the DT’s encoder acts the same as the track fx knob on the 202, and if you want you can then lock certain values of it to steps on the sequencer…
Thanks! Gotcha! I hadn’t envisioned sequencing the loops from the DT. That opens up a whole other world of possibilities. Plus, I haven’t been making proper use of those midi tracks on the DT!
PS: Guess what just arrived as I was typing this. Time to set this baby up.
The PIL is two channel so the plan is to run each one to thru machines with flex machines assigned to same record buffers and build from there. Same with superego.
I use one 2880 but no footswitch as a sort of multitrack and extra mixer with its own set of fx as part of my studio setup, and live too when it comes in handy for the aux in to allow a little synth like a Monotron Delay or BC-8 to be added into the mix.
I tend not to sample into it very much (mostly for practical setup reasons as the flight case it lives in makes access to the front panel a bit fiddly), but use it for running backing tracks, environmental recordings and drum loops into whatever else is going on.
Currently it’s triggered by the A4 and passes MIDI through to a modded Volca Bass which in turn sequences an SV-1 and is synced to an SQ-1 that controls a number of other things (currently 0-Coast, Erebus, an analogue kick device and occasionally an MS-20). The 2880 might not get used all the time, but it is invaluable to have it as an option.
I’ve not really taken advantage of the 2880’s MIDI control as much as I could and a footswitch would be useful, if bulky for live use, but it’s an incredibly flexible addition to my setup. I do wish I had the later EHX 45000 looper with the SD card though, mostly as it can swap between different sets of loops stored on the card, which the 2880 cannot.
Oh man, spent a couple of hours with the RC202 today. Loads of fun and really easy to use. It works surprisingly well with Korg Volcas (insert effects, mini stereo plug input, etc), and was great fun to use with my guitar and bass. I should be able to make all sorts of great food to feed the Digitakt.
Tomorrow I’ll try to midi it up. I’m hoping to just keep it slaved to the Digitakt so that it tracks the Digitakt’s BPM and have the outputs fed into the DT. This way when ever I’m working on DT tracks, I can pick up the bass, guitar, or whatever and jam until I get something nice, then sample it into the DT for further mangling/sequencing. I’m hoping it will be a nice solution for getting live instruments into my tracks (fingers crossed).
So far so good.
I’ve got an Eventide TimeFactor in my FX chain that I use mainly as a looper. It’s not really “functional” looping, more just to generate weird textures. It’s really good for this because you can scan thru the loop, adjust loop size and punch in at any point, as well as all the nice quantised pitch shifting tricks. It gets nice and glitchy.
Midi’ed it up and it works like a charm. No drama whatsoever, and that never happens for me when it comes to midi. Lol.
Yeah the midi syncing is pretty solid now in the Rc-202 and 505 
Also, the 505 has 16 available assigns for CC’s with more detailed setup possibilities, which is extra sweeet
Awesome! So much to explore.
I was planning on adding an A4 mkii for Christmas, but now that I got this 202, I’m thinking I need to spend a few more months exploring all the possibilities of what I can do with this setup before adding anything else.
I had been planning to get rid of my Volcas when I got the A4, but I was layering up bits on the 202 with the Volca Keys last night and was thinking that maybe I should keep them around for a while to experiment on. I’m thinking I might able to coax some of the BoC sounds I like out of them.
Best of all, I had been neglecting my guitar and bass since I got the Digitakt, so hopefully this will be the missing link that brings it all together.
Niceness Good call with waiting a bit, settling in with the stuff.
I think that’s one of the great uses of those things - giving new life and movement to various “side” instruments, actually any sidekick piece of gear or acoustic source by microphone, and implementing them into the electronic groove and environment, in the simultaneous fusion of production and performance!
I got a mkii as well, but I meticulously studied and grasped the rest of my setup before I dove into that wormhole tho 
Yeah, after more playing around more today, I’m definitely holding off a bit. This is the perfect opportunity to finally get my electronic music gear and instruments to play well together before I dive headfirst into the world of synthesis, after having wading around the shallow-end for years now.
Hopefully, I can get the new workflow down by the end of December. It would be nice to start the new year with everything finally starting to come together.
BTW, for anyone else thinking of the RC-202, it’s pretty great for the price. So easy to get perfect loops to feed the sampler.
Hi,i am using dittox2 looper.Here is my chain:
Octatrack CUE - Dittox2 IN
Dittox2 OUT - MD UW+ InpA&InpB.
MD OUT - OT CD
For me very useful for experiments,and i use ditto between switching songs.
I am curious for folks using Pigtronix Infinity Looper, any of the EHX pedals, and RC202: have you had issues with the MIDI sync? Or, on the positive side, have you used it and found the MIDI sync to be working fine with DT/OT?
I’ve read lots of reviews that complain about bugs in the MIDI syncing for the PIL in particular, and it seems that this isn’t the “main” intended use of these pedals (which seem more geared toward instrumentalists), so I wouldn’t be surprised if the MIDI implementations weren’t perfect. Have not found any info on the EHX though, so hoping folks can share some experiences on MIDI sync reliability in the wild with these loopers.