Loop pedals have become more and more prevalent among the singer-songwriter crowd over the past decade, and a large amount of the credit for their rise in popularity can be given to Ed Sheeran. Despite progressing from pub gigs to sold-out arenas, his live shows still heavily rely on a custom-built looper, and now, the artist has teamed up with HeadRush to create a pair of signature units, the Sheeran Looper + and Looper X.
Looper +
Looper + is the smaller of the two units, and comes housed in a compact aluminium chassis with a pair of large footswitches (record/play and stop). A central LCD display offers visual feedback on the status of the active loop, as well as a menu system that provides access to a range of settings. Menu navigation and parameter control is provided by a large rotary push encoder, which is surrounded by an LED ring that offers additional loop status feedback.
The Looper + is a compact unit that offers vocal and instrument inputs and supports single- or two-track looping modes.The unit offers four modes of operation: Single, Multi, Sync and Song. Single provides users with one track and limitless layers, while Multi offers two tracks that share a global loop length. Sync then provides two tracks that offer independent lengths and will automatically remain synchronised, and Song also features two tracks that can either have the same, or independent lengths, intended to function as two separate song sections.
In terms of I/O, there’s a microphone input on an XLR/TRS combo socket, whilst four quarter-inch TS sockets offer both a stereo instrument input and main stereo output — all three have their own dedicated top-panel level controls. A MIDI input is provided on a 3.5mm mini-jack socket, and is joined by another quarter-inch TS socket that can be used to connect an external footswitch, as well as a USB-B port that offers file transfer, MIDI connectivity and two-channel audio interface functionality at 24-bit/44.1kHz. Power is delivered by an external 9V DC supply.
Looper X
The larger Looper X features a seven-inch multi-touch display, with eight large footswitches offering direct access to the device’s four individual tracks, as well as record/play and stop functions, and control over its operation modes and functions. Along with the touch interface, some tactile parameter control is again offered by a rotary push encoder.
The device’s four tracks impose no limits on loop length, and come loaded with powerful features that promise to set it apart as the most advanced standalone looper system available. A tap tempo feature is combined with intelligent time-stretching that helps to keep everything perfectly in time, and the tempo of imported loops will automatically be adjusted to match the tempo of the current song. The Multi, Sync and Song modes from the Looper + are joined by a Band mode, which utilise three of the devices tracks as independent song sections with the fourth providing a global backing (for drums or percussion, for example), along with a Free mode that allows all tracks to be used independently with no synchronisation.
The four-track Looper X boasts a large multi-touch display and eight heavy-duty footswitches, and comes loaded with onboard HeadRush processing and effects.
As the unit has been developed alongside the team at HeadRush, it’s no surprise that the Looper X also packs in a collection of onboard effects. Nine multi-effects racks offer a total of 150 presets designed for vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion and more, while 26 stompbox effects provide users with a wealth of customisable effects options. Vocals can be processed with built-in delays and reverbs, and there’s also some pitch-correction and automatic harmony processing for those after modern-sounding Auto-Tune-style effects.
Looper X’s rear panel hosts a comprehensive selection of I/O, with all four tracks equipped with XLR/TRS combo inputs, and an additional aux input provided on a 3.5mm mini-jack socket. Stereo outputs are provided on both XLR and quarter-inch TRS, while a pair of five-pin DIN sockets offer MIDI in and out/thru connections, and a quarter-inch TS socket offers connectivity with an external footswitch. A USB-B port again offers file transfer, MIDI and two-channel audio interface functionality, with the latter operating at 24-bit and supporting sample rates of 44.1, 48 and 96kHz. There’s also an SD card slot and USB-A port for expanding the 5.1GB of internal storage.
Pricing & Availability
Both the Looper + and Looper X are available now, priced at $299£299.99 and $1299£1299.99 including VAT respectively.
