Least Costly Live Looping Solution

[Rainer Straschill <moinsound@googlemail.com>]

Rick,

I have to say I'm somewhat surprised how you seem to be trying to take
computers out of the race completely in this discussion by using false
assumptions which clearly contradict the facts pointed out here by
e.g. Jeff Larson and Tony K.

The most obvious example being:
"The good news is that we are beginning to see laptops on sale for as
little as $400 (USD) With your aforementioned footpedals and breakout
box this brings the tab up to about
$700 (USD)RE"

A computer that can run an application like Mobius in stand-alone mode
can be had for free. I personally threw away a (working) computer one
year ago which was at that time approximately ten years old and hadn't
been a top performer at the date of purchase. According to experiences
reported on the Mobius discussion group, this hardware could run
Mobius, albeit with limitations, which mostly affect unavailablity of
pitch shifting and number of simultaneous tracks. Apart from that,
it's a looper that is far more powerful than anything out there with
the exception of the really big players.
CRT monitors have been thrown away in the hundreds due to the
widespread arrival of flatscreen display technology. So these can be
had for free as well.
A computer from that time usually includes an audio interface which
(with the exception of latency issues) is more than sufficient for the
task at hand.
Jeff pointed out how you could use e.g. a cheap USB numeric keypad and
jury-rig it to use it as a foot controller for Mobius, while Tony K
and others correctly pointed out that you don't need foot control at
all and can use the keyboard for controlling Mobius. As a matter of
fact, I've seen a great many outstanding and experienced loopers who
did at time control a (stompbox) looper with their hands, among them
(without wanting to wilfully omit someone) Michael Klobuchar, Matt
Dagignon and Genie.

Summarizing, you can get a looper for free. That's right, for free! It
will of course require either some intellectual capacity or a friend
who has this for
    * setting up windows so it becomes resource-friendly
    * setting up Mobius

And it may require more than one trip to the junk yard.

If you're willing to spend even more than zero dollars, look for a
used laptop on ebay for below 100 bucks, which gives you all of this
with less hassle.

This post should by no means invalidate all the reasons why someone
would still want to use a hardware (stompbox) user, like reliability,
ease of setup and operation, portability and all the other important
reasons which there are and which lead to some people still using
stompbox loopers even if their apartment is full of computers, MIDI
foot controllers and studio quality audio interfaces.
However, with the goal of "least costly", the computer does win - if
only because you can get a sufficient second-hand one free.

            Rainer