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One of the more difficult problems with looping
live is getting the loop to start and stop at the right place. Trying to do this
raw by pressing the Record switch to start and stop has to be done very
carefully to avoid a glitch in the sound if the start, stop, or both aren't
aligned to the beat precisely.
The Jamman seems to solve half the problem, but not
the whole. You can tap a tempo before recording, then press the Record switch
one measure before you actually want to record. Recording will then start
automatically on the beat after a 1 measure lead-in.
I found this pretty tricky to do in practice. You
really have to know where the 1 is in the beat because when you press the Record
switch, the Jamman starts on the 1 regardless of where it was in the previous
measure. If you press somewhere in the middle of that measure, the Jamman will
restart the 1 at that point and throw off the beat.
But the worse problem is at the end. There's no
corresponding lead out. So you have to carefully press the Record switch at the
exact point where the loop should stop recording and start the playback loop. If
you're off a little, then there's be a glitch between the start and end of the
loop and the timing could be off a little.
One other thing that makes this even a little more
difficult is setting the beat while you're playing. You can tap the Stop switch
to set the beat. It takes at least two taps. The odd thing is that its the
second tap that establishes the 1, not the first. So you have to do the first
tap on the 4 in 4/4 time in order to get the red flash on the 1. You can keep
tapping to adjust the tempo faster or slower, but the 1 beat has been
established.
One simple trick I found if you get the beat wrong.
Just switch to another loop patch and switch back. That will erase the tempo and
stop the rhythm track.
I have heard of other units that did a little more
for synchronization. For example. Boss RC-2 has loop quantization. To
start recording, you just press the switch anywhere in the measure and recording
starts at the beginning of the next measure. At the end of the loop, you press
the switch again anywhere in the last measure and recording stops automatically
at the end of that measure. You still have to know where 1 is though. This
really seems a lot easier.
Am I using the Jamman correctly, or does it simply
not have this quantize feature, only a one-measure count-in and you have to be
precise on setting the loop end? Anyone found any good, simple tricks to get
reliable loops? Just got my today and am finding its going to take some parctice
to use this live.
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