Repeater vs Looperlative AND Repeater 2.01 upgrade

[Zoe Keating <cello@zoekeating.com>]

hi folks,

i've been floating here around the edges, too busy to reply but i  
gotta chime in...

LP-1 vs RPTR

i really dislike these "what is better" discussions because to me it  
like asking...what is better? a dog or a cat? ice cream or chocolate  
cake? smoked herring or pickles?
i've found that what is better depends on what you are doing, like so  
many things in life....microphones for example!
now, of course both devices are expensive and it is hard to explain  
to the spouse that you're buying a $1000+ item just to try it. but,  
that is kinda what i do. don't get me started on how many thousands  
i've spent on amplification systems for the cello (and you can't  
return custom installed pickups).

here is my opinion though about the debate, if there is one...

sound quality-wise the LP-1 wins hands down over the RPTR.

i am a dedicated RPTR user and i know i got rid of my LP-1, but i  
actually think that feature-wise, LP-1 is a superior box. you can do  
more kinds of looping with it. its like a swiss army knife of looping.

as for why i got rid of it - right now i am focusing on a very  
precise, specific kind of looping that is entirely midi sequenced and  
the songs already composed. to do this i need a combination of  
computer and hardware looper. both the RPTR and the LP-1 have  
drawbacks for what i'm doing. i chose the RPTR in the end for 4  
reasons. 1) i've invested 5 years in mastering it and feel confident  
with it onstage. i'm even intimately familiar with how it fails so  
when it does, little can throw me. 2) the interface of the RPTR is  
nice and big and fisher-price-like. that makes it much easier for me  
to see out of the corner of my eye (because of my cello, i can't have  
gear in front or below me. i have it off to one side) and 3) the midi  
implementation was more developed in the RPTR. i couldn't use my LP-1  
for a long time because it didn't have the midi capabilities i  
needed. i think it does now, but i'm not about to switch anymore. and  
4) i want the $1000 to spend on another experimental cello pickup  
system!

now, about the RPTR upgrade....

there are some great improvements in there. from what i heard, i am  
the sole person in the universe having trouble with it,  because i  
might be the sole person in the universe controlling two RPTRs with  
sequences of midi commands from Ableton Live (anyone else out  
there??). i find that hard to believe, but whatever.

that said, there are some big improvements that i am really happy  
with...and if you are not controlling your RPTRs with sequenced midi  
commands, you will never notice the problems...

- indication of muted track
if a track is muted, the volume indicator flashes red at the top.  
yay!!  sometimes midi triggering misses and i could not tell,  
inbetween songs which tracks would still be muted as the next song  
started. with the red indicator light, i can tell right away if a  
mute did not get unmuted.
also there is a new midi command that sends an "unmute all" message.  
so i just send that as a matter of course in the batch of commands at  
the beginning of every song.

- reset "button"
my midi sequencing can occasionally make the RPTR wig out. but both  
my RPTRs have always wigged out every now and then (i'm not going to  
describe this again. just search the archives if you really want the  
details). in the past, the only remedy when it would get stuck was to  
power down. now there is a snazzy midi command that you can send, and  
it does a quick reset which clears the seizure.

- sticky settings across power cycles!!!
love this. if you setup pan settings in a song, they will stay that  
way until you change them.

- erase single track midi command
previously you could only erase the whole loop via midi. now you can  
erase each track individually via midi (yes, you could always do it  
via the front panel. but that was effectively useless for me)

- multiply by x
you can send a midi command to multiply your loop x3 or x4 or x5 or  
whatever. in the past, you could only multiply x2, so i used to screw  
up songs all the time by accidentally sending the command the wrong  
number of times and screwing up the math. now i just send one simple  
command.

ok...back to work with me.

loop, zoe