Live Looping

You play a bit. It's recorded and played back; a loop. You play a bit more, record; a new layer! Add a third layer! Add more! This is live looping! But don't listen to me explain it. Take it from the most famous of mainstream artists for live-looping: Ed Sheeran!

Ed Sheeran explains live-looping on The Tonight Show.

Sheeran uses his own custom pedal... but software and a computer can also be used. -The most used software for this is of course Ableton Live (though as a Logic user, I'm tempted to try within Logic... though I suspect it is not quite as set up for live looping at this time of writing).

One of my favourite internet-musicians "The Kiffness" became world famous in Covid-times for making live-looping video remixes with cats and dogs.

The video that exploded David Scott AKA "The Kiffness" to global fame in 2021. He was well-known in South Africa before... but this took him to a new level. It is a best guess that he is using Ableton.

At this time of writing, the person best-known for looping in my city (Edmonton) goes by "David Jay, the Spaniard". I've seen him perform on a couple occasions.

So... Why Live Loop? (And why not?)

Sheeran says it as simply as anyone: so that you can have the effect of a full-band without having a full-band. This is my main motivation. I love my band. I want to grow my band and perform more with my band. If we believe that performance is work... It just simply takes a greater amount of pay for 3 musicians than one. I found my eyes opened to this in July 2022 when I did a trip to the island of Kauai... where it seemed almost all the musicians at the touristy restaurants I saw were looping. I remember a conversation with one at the end of my visit, when I mentioned I have a marimba-band. "Band? It would be pretty difficult to make a living with a band here... Maybe a band could play at the big Luaus....".

It just seems like I can perform for a lot more occasions at a reasonable pay if I can perform all the parts of my band on my own.

-this being said... There are many things a band can do that one performer cannot. Much of our group's more complex music cannot be performed with a looper. A backing track might fit... That then also feels less real... -For looping any song with a longer B, C or more sections... to not interrupt the song and rerecord layer by layer, it seems like a simpler choice to reduce the song to its long A-section only (to be fair, that's probably in most cases what the audience remembers anyways! The gist of the song. Examples: Final Countdown minus different chords for guitar solo, Otherside or Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, skip those B sections of the songs!). I think that we have to accept that the "looping version" of a song will be a different version than a full-band take! -the build of the different layers over longer forms is also much slower than what a band can deliver. Does the audience have patience for this in the performance context? -One musician with a looper cannot be as dynamic in changes, takes, effects as a full-band. -There is not the creative interaction between different minds as there is with different humans playing together! -Individual parts are often simpler for the purpose of looping

I also love the energy of interaction in a band. If I'm feeling a little low-energy, there's nothing like this dynamic to bring me up. I really do think too, that 3 people is the minimum number where there is a party... it is a lot easier to feel joy in this interaction, and to share it with audiences.

-After my first 3 looper performances too (and hey, this is new for me at this time of writing), I also find it easier to think about all the musical aspects and all the aspect of audience interaction with a band as a team, than as one person alone. Hey, for the greater musical (and social?) responsibility of being a soloist... this is also why, per musician, soloists are generally paid more than members of a group.

But... the looper is exciting in its own way. I've felt like a combination of scientist and artist, discovering the machine, exploring what can be done and finding new ways I might be creative. I'm looking forward to continuing to grow with it as a tool in solo performance, offering the "one-man version of my band" at a discount, and also my band "the premium offer" at the same time. Looping definitely lends itself most naturally to 4-chord pop songs, but it can be used for a lot more! It might take more thought, more work to figure out though, with more potential challenges and technical difficulties when doing more than the 4-chord pop hits.

The Two Top Foot Loopers in 2025 (Sheeran Looper X vs RC 600)

The Boss RC-600 and the Sheeran Looper X are probably the two most advanced loopers out on the market right now (with hands, I understand some might also enjoy the Boss 505)... There are definitely simpler loopers out there too, and many might prefer those! After some reading, YouTube videos, I had decided I wanted to try the RC-600. Watching a few other YouTube videos again after my first few gigs, I think I made the right choice (though the Sheeran looper does have some advantages!).

Anyways, I bought a used RC-600 for $600 CAD on Facebook Marketplace in January 2025, then finally found the time to start playing with it in July. The Sheeran Looper X is currently only listed new at $1500 online.

One of the first things you might notice, is the Sheeran Looper X has nicer pedals, much easier to hit... -With the best "toppers" to improve the RC-600 pedals/buttons (my first purchase), this added about $120 CAD to the price tag. Then other accessories were purchased later, for hoped improvements... Anyways, here's a YouTube video I made taking you from first experimenting to my first 3 gigs with my RC-600 loop station! I hope that you might find this interesting or learn something from this!

A few details I missed mentioning... or worth emphasizing: Mix:

Mic 1 treble I have at a 20% intake, mic 2 (bass): 80%

I have loop 1 set at 35% volume, loop 2-6 set for 75%. Power Source:

This requires plugin for power. With an extension chord, this has not been a problem for my first 3 gigs! If I find myself in a street performance kind of situation as I often do with my band, I might need to purchase a separate (large?) battery to plug the RC-600 in to. More tech to think about, more gear to remember to pack: -There are more sound things, tech things that could go wrong on a gig bringing these! This plus bringing everything else, I have found I need to arrive at least 1.5 hrs early for a performance, instead of the 1 I usually budget with my band.

-If there is a sound person for amplification... there are more considerations with how I treat sound for looping vs amplification. It doesn't seem like doubling of mics (2 for me, 2 for amplification to crowd from sound person) caused any feedback loop on my 2nd gig! Whew! I did use my own amp for the loop, the stage amps for boosting to the crowd.

-In the panic of things to think about, readiness for gig... I did miss putting my cajembe (hybrid drum) in the car for my 2nd gig (body percussion used ass an alternative, which worked). For my 3rd, I had taken out some things from my car when I gave someone a ride... I forgot to put mic stands back in, but the extra music stands I had for my band, plus tape, worked out! A new set of things to check-list! More details to fret about.

I am increasingly bringing large quantities of things (often different) for different occasions (our Fringe Show is another long list...), and it is sometimes difficult to remember whether everything made it in the car, and difficult to double check when it's all stacked on top of each other! Given this, I think if small things are forgotten sometimes... it's probably not the end of the world! And things can be problem-solved. I have known musicians more famous than me worrying about lesser, similar things, vocal-effect pedals left at a gig the night before desired for the gig the next day.... As long as the critical things (in my case, the marimba!) are all there!

Output Effects: There is a small amount that can be done on the RC-600 (on top of input effects and track effects). I found the natural sound of my marimba coming across very dry without any effect. Using an amount of reverb from both the RC-600 as output effect and my amp have helped with this. A little bit of chorus from my BP-80 amp also seems to sound nice. This might be tinkered with forever, possibly with a degree of options from input effects also. In initial testing, it did seem like some degree of reverb as an input effect might have been lowering the volume of tracks (so I have at this time leaned away from too much input effect, only having a bit of "sustainer" there).

A Very Very Short History of Looping (non-academic...)

Wikipedia

-Depending how you define it, a version of live-looping was first demonstrated in either 1953 or 1963 with cassette-tape

-It starts to take off in the 1970s (at least, in experimental music) -Dedicated hardware begins to come about in the 1980s and 90s -Hardware and software loopers become affordable and accessible in the early 2000s.

Probably the term live-looping becomes better known in the early 2000s...

The earliest online use of the term ChatGPT can find is in an archived blog post from 1996.

Who Else is Live-Looping with a Marimba?

In 2025, not many people... -There are more who look like they've done it in an experimental way for a YouTube video. Generally using software. You can search as well as I can! One example! Which is cool:

It's difficult to tell in most cases if these have ever been done for a performance. -There is also a question: would this be a repeatable, gigable thing? I asked on the "All Marimba Players" facebook group (July 26, 2025): "Hey, I'm curious...

has anyone done some marimba gigs with live looping?

-I'm building towards this for some solo gigs in August, using the RC 600."

To be fair, not everyone who might do this would necessarily post online about it...

I was given two names, anyways!: Beth Goodfellow! Where one can find some cool songwriting examples with this.

This example (and the others I easily see) really feels like a mix of Steve Reich (modern minimalist classical) with pop music... Which, actually, seems like one of the easier types uses I might find myself for live looping with marimba, on early experimentation. I find it interesting that with the choices of 2 mics, she's using an SM-57 on a more limited range of the marimba and then an SM-58 for vocals. I'm not sure what she is using for a looper, but it looks like similar considerations to my RC-600.

-as a consideration... the Sheeran Looper X does look like it could have 4 mic inputs! Then of course, more things to carry to a gig...

--

I was also given one other name from the All Marimba Players facebook group: Navadram Ram. -I don't see examples from him easily online with a Google or YouTube search anyways... Maybe I might say hi though, online from afar sometime! It's easy enough to find people (like him) on the internet.

--- I'm sure more people will try this with the marimba in the future too! :) -Especially with the development of loopers like the RC-600, released in Dec 2021... and future ones that do not exist yet!

--- Update, oh hey, finding a couple more on YouTube: -Little information from this guy, but I think something like this could be done in a gigging kind of way, if a person were willing to move a marimba...

Some other experimental looping... specifically labelled with a pedal!