the poor man's undo function

[jessethom@canada.com]

Hi guys,

I don't even own a looper yet, but I just thought of a
way of setting up the ability to undo layers, no matter
what looper you are working with.
I'm new to this, so if this idea has been suggested
before and doesn't work, forgive my ignorance.

Here's my idea: 
Run your instrument through a delay pedal before it
gets to the looper.  Set that delay pedal's boundaries
to those of your loop (more on this in a second), and
then play your layer WITHOUT actually recording it with
the looper.  The layer should then be looping along
with the actual looper's loop, but as a result of the
delay pedal, not of the looper itself.  Then, if the
layer is how you want it to sound, hit record on the
looper and you have yourself a layer you won't have to
undo.  If you buggered the layer, just stop the delay
pedal ("undo") and try it again.  

Here's an example:
Set the chain like this: Guitar --> Delay pedal of some
kind --> Looper 
1) With the delay pedal off and looper on, play a
simple chord progression to create the loop and then
leave the loop playing.
2) Turn the delay pedal on.  To set the boundaries of
the delay effect with the Looper, a trial and error
process has to be used (unless you use a metronome to
record the initial loop, and have the delay pre-set to
that same BPM).
3) When the boundaries are set, play something that you
wish to layer on the initial loop, but don't actually
record this with the looper.
4) Now there should be two simultaneous, synchronized
loops active, that of the looper itself, and the one
you've just created using the delay pedal. Note that,
even if the two aren't PRECISELY synched, if you're
close enough and record the layer before it wanders too
far from the initial loop, it should be fine.
5) If you played the overlay properly, just add this as
a layer by recording on the looper when the loop comes
back around.  If not, stop the delay and try again. 
Since most delay pedals have a slight decay, you'd
probably want to add the layer within 10-20 cycles if
it is one you want to keep.

So there you have it: the poor man's undo function.

Hope this isn't just a bunch of time-wasting craziness
(I have yet to try it).

Enjoy your Christmas guys!  There's love for you all in
Canada!
-Jesse