One-Button Loopers: The Most Cryptic Dang Things
Okay, these things are cryptic AF but once you realize it’s basically just keeping track of a single working track and mixing that track down into a main track, it starts to make sense.
The looper is extremely timing dependent, so it triggers on the leading edge of the first button press. Then it decides what to do if you continue to hold that press or let back up. If you tap and then quickly tap again, it stops the playback on the leading edge (because tap tap is “stop playback”), and only if you continue to hold the second tap does it to a full stop and erase.
TAP: Start/stop recording TAP TAP: Stop playback HOLD: Undo/Redo working track TAP HOLD: Stop and erase
The looper is optimized for timing. It reacts instantly to the leading edge of the first click as a TAP. So a HOLD will actually look like a TAP when the button goes down, and then switch to the HOLD action when the button is held down. (Woof, this means the looper has to hold on to the previous working track and start recording the next one until the switch either goes up or gets held down long enough to trigger the hold action.) You can actually see the looper reacting and changing its mind.
- No main track
- No working track
- Not playing
TAP: Starts recording.
TAP TAP: Edge/error case. First tap starts recording, second tap turns the looper right back off.
HOLD: n/a (No working track to undo/redo)
TAP HOLD: n/a (Nothing to erase, already stopped)
- If there is a main track, it will be playing.
- There is a working track, you are recording to it right now.
- If there is a main track, the looper knows how long the main loop is; if you are recording a working track and go past this length, your working track will begin playing back as well. Like a tape looper with no erase head, the working track effectively mixes itself down to itself as you go around the loop, so if you loop around n full loops and are some partial value k around the current loop, you will be recording the k portion but all n of the previous loops of the recording will be playing.
TAP: Stop recording. If there is no main track, the length of the loop is fixed to the length of the working track.
TAP TAP: Stops recording and playback
HOLD: Stops recording and undoes working track. It can be restored later.
TAP HOLD: Stop and erase.
TAP: Playback does not stop. Previous working track is mixed into the main track. Start recording a new working track.
TAP TAP: Stops playback.
HOLD: VERY state dependent! If you have no main track (you have recorded the first working track but not a second): Stops and erases.
Otherwise, the working track is toggled between on and off. if the working track is currently playing, it is turned off, effectively “undoing” that recording. But if the working track is already off, it will be turned on, effectively “redoing” that track.
TAP HOLD: Stop and erase. (At the start of the first tap it starts recording. At the start of the second tap, it returns to playback, but stops playing. And after the hold goes long enough, it commits to the stop and erase.
TAP: Resume playback.
TAP TAP: Nothing happens - remains in stop playback mode.
HOLD: Stops and erases. If you want to discard the working track without losing the main track, you must TAP to resume playback instead. Then HOLD will work the way that state describes.
TAP HOLD: Stops and erases