Re: Noise / Ambient / Circuit Bent Looping

[Daryl Shawn <highhorse@mhorse.com>]

Though it's an unfashionable dinosaur and with almost none of the 
features of the RC-20, I personally would recommend the Digitech PDS 
pedals, either the 2-second or the exponentially pricier 8-second. They 
have a really tasty sound quality, and the ability to shift pitch 
w/delay time (two octaves from extreme to extreme) lends itself 
extremely well to creating interesting noises. They also can be tweaked 
internally for longer delays/loops, with lower resolution as the 
additional results which can also be a nice thing. Good sound references 
are Bill Frisell's older stuff (check the live record with Joey Baron 
and Kermitt Driscoll), and Sonic Youth's Lee Renaldo (who uses the 20/20 
chorus/flange/echo, which is exceptionally tweakable).

The 2-second versions, the PDS 1002/2000, are so cheap on Ebay that you 
could pick up three or four of them for the same price as an RC-20 and 
arm yourself with some real hell-raising potential.

Daryl Shawn
www.swanwelder.com
www.chinapaintingmusic.com

> In the context of ambient / noise / drone / bleepblorp / circuit bent 
> music, which looper gives the best bang for the buck? I've heard good 
> things about the Boss RC-20; Any yays or nays out there? What are its 
> relative strengths and weaknesses?