RE: Zvex LoFi Junky Looper

[max valentino <ekstasis1@hotmail.com>]

Hey fellow Loopists.....
Recently I posted some questions pertaining to the Zvex LoFi Junky Looper. 
 Between the responses (thank you all very much...), and some further 
research, I decided to toss caution to the wind and just buy one.  It 
arrived Tuesday and I have been puttin' it thru the paces and thought I 
would share....
(I guess maybe I should try to post this to the LD site as well..... since 
ther eis precious little info there on this box.)

It is pretty damn cool.  It is also quite small---which is nice.  And, it 
is built very well (like a tank). The switches and knobs are top notch and 
the inside assembly is very thorough and clean (remarkable attention to 
detail there) and the components are all very high quality. It may be 
"lo-fi" but it is not cheaply made (nor cheaply priced).

So, first off what it doesn't do: No overdubs, layers, replace, reverse or 
other loop manipulations...and no MIDI!  It is a one-shot 20 sec max. 
analog looper.

It also doesn't do pristine, hi-fi sound quality.  And, it certainly is 
NOT for everybody....

But what is does do is quite cool. More than anything it adds a certain 
"je nais se quoi"; a vibe, an atmosphere to the loopage . Kinda like 
playing thru an old Supro amp or something; yes, it is a bit noisy and 
less than "perfect" in sound quality, but there is something very inviting 
and comfortable about that. Being analog (and lo-fi) it can hiss (and 
careful setting of the levels helps keep this in order), but the hiss and 
noise is strikingly different that the hiss and noise found in digital 
devices....and what hiss there is seems to be masked by the playing to the 
loop (in fact it sort of melts into the music itself...).

For this feature alone, to me, it is worth every dime.  It injects 
something quite human, something quite blemished, worn and imperfect to my 
looping.  AS for the shortcoming of layers (or lack thereof), It is quite 
easy to re-sample the LoFi into a bigger more full featured looping 
device.....

It does have true bypass and the instrument preamp which drives the 
unlooped signal is of exceptional quality: a very high impedence 
(>5megOhm)input which insures there is no loading or degradation of your 
signal (the looper section does enough of that!!).

It has a single passive tone control which is useful both for tone 
variations and controlling hiss.  It has no freq response above 2.6kHz.  
This seems like a somewhat severe limitation, but actually it helps 
produce a sound wholly different than other loopers...and quite different 
than the source sound fed into it (but drastically different....different 
in what to my ears is a good way.......)

The input/rec level is adjustable (as is the output) and the recording 
section can even be overdriven.  The result is a very pleasing driven 
sound VERY different from the digital clipping other machines produce when 
hit too  hard. In fact, on my basses, the distortion produced here is very 
cool.

It also has a cool vibrato circuit which can give anything from a warped 
LP kind of warble to a psuedo Leslie spin to some rather jiggly 
modulations.  Of course, I am using this with bass and the effect is 
somewhat understated...but for my purposes that is perfect as I do not 
need to get to heavy handed with modulations. It is more subtle than other 
fx, but it is also quite present and noticeable.

The behavior of this vibrato circuit is somewhat unpredictable as well.  
Which I find very appealing. It is something of a loose cannon, 
unpredictable yet still quite musical and useful. It does shimmer...but 
not like other modulation effects. And since the controls (rate and depth) 
are interactive you're never quite sure jsut where the effect is gonna 
land........pretty neat.

All in all I am very pleased.  I have some other looping devices (modded 
Lexicon JamMan, EDP, Headrush, DL4), but this is quickly becoming my 
favorite---it seems especially geared towards my direction in looping in 
which the looping is not so much a feature in itself, but rather a 
necessary and integral part of the compositions and performances, and as 
such is somewhat stealthy in its appearance--never static and not always 
present--, and usually neither dense nor drone-y.

I am sure the limitations of this little box make it "less than ideal" for 
a great number of loopists, yet for me it does something special...and 
that is quite inspiring.

I have a solo show next week...and the LoFi will definitely get some 
game-time.

Max
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