I got one of these a few weeks ago. Like the sound quality, and the UI, fairly intuitive. I like having a hands-on looper it turns out. The modifiers are cool, and you sort of (if you able to access them easily) have access to 12 in total. However, the lack of editing the length of the loop bothers me. AFAIK, the loop length cannot be changed after I record a loop. So trimming something doesn’t give you the results you want.
I found I was using the speed modifier, to fit a mangled loop into a specific time-measure in a song, but its not granular enough (as it goes from -2x to +2x speed), it’s impossible to really set it to a particular ‘clock’ by ear. I may request a modifier that goes from CCW 0 (stopped) through to full CW 2x speed, which would be easier to work with… Any other ways to make your distorted loops fit within, say a single bar or two?
Thinking this may not be the looper for me. Is there anything else out there, that has good loop editing but also sample mangling effects on board? Ideally also with some CV options? and small/pedal format?
Ha! I let the Blooper be in charge rather than sync to other things (or I sync the loop by recording it in time). I was about to say “Octatrack” until you said “in pedal format with CV.”
If you do Euro, a Qu-Bit Nebulae checks all your boxes minus the effects. I also find my Euro case can introduce a lot of noise if I’m amplifying something into it,
Every time I see a new pedal that manipulates sound in interesting ways, I watch this video to remind myself that I’ve barely scratched the surface of the Blooper’s potential. It’s a GAS killer.
Definitely. They’re one of the most unique gear-related channels on YouTube, and yet they have a surprisingly small amount of followers…. I assume the YouTube algorithm rewards a higher frequency of uploads over the quality of content.
Here’s a question: are the dip-swith ‘sockets’ a bit wobbly on your units? I’ve noticed some give when switching these back and forth. See video. Curious whether there is some ‘wobble’ on your units as well? Don’t mind it in principle, but since I’m switching back and forth a lot (esp. the modifiers), I’m slightly concerned that things on the inside will be working themselves loose!
…and here’s another question re CV. When I modulate e.g. Mod A (or anything really) with CV, if I bring down voltage below -1v, the loop stops playing. No idea why this is happening. Sometimes bringing it up into positive territory starts the loop again, sometimes not.
Frustrating when I’m mucking about with lfos and things; I end up stopping it by mistake. I guess I could pass the CV through a half-wave rectifier jest before it goes to the Blooper, just as a safety precaution work-around, but would rather not. I’m wondering whether this is a bug.
Will ask CBA as well, but curious whether others here have had the same experience?
EDIT: heard back from CBA:
That ‘wiggle’ is normal and just the tolerance of the part inside of the socket. It shouldn’t cause any wear to the unit and even if it did we are more than happy to fix the pedal for pretty much just the shipping cost.
The pedal can only take 0 to +5v for CV. Negative voltage will mess with the microprocessor and cause strange behavior and should be avoided. If you are using LFOs from your eurorack, you’ll want to make sure that they are either being rectified or offset so the lowest point on the negative half of the wave doesn’t go below 0V.
Fair enough I guess. Don’t want to be messing with that microprocessor… Just figured out I can use a VCA to half-wave rectify the signal.
Thanks. Missed opportunity there, since it seems to have some of the magic of generation loss etc. right there in the box. I guess it would have to programmed completely different though.
I’ve been GASing over the Blooper (and Mood, for that matter) for a while now, but the thing is that rationally I don’t see much use for a looper in my setup when I already have incredibly capable sequencers…
So I’m curious: for Blooper owners who are using it with Elektron gear, what makes you reach for the Blooper instead of just using the synth’s sequencer?
Sequencers can make things play in a loop, but they can’t apply and imprint all of the audio effects that the Blooper can. Using a Blooper just to record static loops is probably not worth it even for a guitarist (there are plenty more capable pedals for the live looping part), but it is DEFINITELY not worth it for someone making electronic music with sequencers.
What you should ask yourself is whether the tape degradation/layer traversal/varispeed/re-pitching etc stuff sounds cool to you or not. If it does, GAS on; if not, 500 bucks saved. Note that it is mono as well, a lot of people don’t dig that. Of all Elektron gear, what it’s probably closest to is a semi-destructive (there is some limited ‘undo’ with the layers) pedal version of an Octatrack flex machine track and its recording buffer. You can record into your buffer (pedal) and then progressively mangle that recording by punching in effects, with some limited reordering of ‘slices’ with one of the effects. This can work particularly nicely with an Elektron sequencer btw (with your effects punch in and recording set with CC messages on a midi track).
It’s also a really cool delay/frippertronics machine if you set repeats to low enough and don’t mind that delay time has to be set fixed before you start playing.
Based on that, I have to admit it’s really hard for me to justify the investment considering I already own a “layered looper” (the Deluge) and a degradation machine (Cooper Fx Generation Loss)… I love the idea of being able to change pitch in quantized intervals in real time, and that mode that slices up the loop and reorders it randomly, but that’s not enough to justify the 500$ price tag…
The quantized pitch stuff is really good and my favourite thing on it (and on the Habit). If you have any sampler with slices and an LFO though (eg. an Octatrack) the loop slice reordering is a bit too basic and uncontrollable compared to what you have access to. I like it and probably won’t ever get rid of it, but… I’m gonna be honest here, it is way too expensive for what it does. Mood though… now that’s a different story
I got it again because of the textures and sounds it can produce from its loops. The recorded loop is just where you start. It’s like 5% of its possibilities. The rest comes down to its effects, re-sampling, all those modifiers that you can layer into something quite unique. It’s a sound design tool that uses loops as sources. Looking at is as a looper among others, it falls a bit short.
For ref, I got the Habit and the Mood as well. Not selling those either. EVER.
