[looper's] cheap n' dirty

[Daryl <highhorse@mhorse.com>]

I've just had a wonderful afternoon with a Tascam Portastudio I got for
$20 and an endless answering machine tape.  The classic lo-fi four-track
30-second looper.  I left the patch cord from my normal rig in track 1
and used a footswitch to punch in and out, switching the record buss to
a new track when I got 30 really great seconds going.  I generally used
the "tape cue" section to mix the tracks out to the phones jack; using
the mix section sends all the actively playing tracks to the currently
recording track, which can be a fun way to pile up tracks too.

I'm sure this has been done many, many times by folks on the list, but I
highly recommend revisiting it for those of you who don't have Repeaters
(or even those who do) - it's a wonderful feeling of control to have
four tracks, each with a VU level meter, EQ (when in mix) and a fader,
and to be able to re-record a few seconds on the fly anywhere in the
loop.  for cheap! and with that lovable cassette sound (overdrive at
will).

whee,

Daryl Shawn
highhorse@mhorse.com