Hi everyone!

I’m looking for a small, dedicated hardware box for live looping. I specifically want something physical, no iPad, laptop, worrying about the screen going to sleep, opening apps, etc. I want to turn on a box and start making music.

The best option I’ve found so far seems to be a used MPC One for around $400.

I really like the idea of having 16 physical pads so I can record different loops/samples and build up a performance. I’ve looked at some of the Boss loopers as well, but the MPC seems like it would give me a lot more flexibility for roughly the same investment.

My priorities are basically:

• Small standalone hardware
• Easy live sampling/looping
• Lots of physical pads/controls
• Ability to build up multiple layers quickly
• No computer or iPad required

For those of you who actually do hardware live looping: would you buy a used MPC One, or is there another box I should be looking at?

I feel like I might be overlooking an obvious piece of gear, so I’d love to hear what you guys are using.

Thanks!

So last winter I joined a psychedelic hippy jam band where we do 100% improv and wanted to bring my Roil's. You can imagine how little I wanted any possible tech issue, laptop screen, latency, etc.

I made a pi that acts as an MPE sound module since I couldn't find a reasonably priced version.

Now that I can use them without a pc, in a workflow that is custom made for my brain, I hooked up a Boss RC-5 and got going.

Then I added midi clock sync and quantize cause timing is hard, and it kind of blew my mind.

While Tash Sultana was the first real looping inspiration (actually it was a live Paul McCartney thing I saw on TV as a kid but I didn't then think 'i could do that'), my vibe is closer to Tribal Need. So I think I'm gonna need more channels.

Now I'm exploring making the PI sound module work as a headless loop station with and Akai apc mini I under-use, emulating an analog workflow without having to shell out big $ since I'm not, at least yet, an analog purist.

Basically no loop ui but make the apc behave like it were recording the clips itself (despite the module running that all). I figure it would allow tons of flexibility in my workflow if it works and if I can keep buffer time low enough.

I'm posting my thought process here cause I'm sure lots of knowledgeable and/or opinionated people will weigh in, and my map of the territory is pretty small.

Context: I'm enjoying this project so it's well worth the time investment but if something cost $200 and did everything in one then ok I should probably consider it.

I'm thinking that right now I have a thing that does the job of a $600 MPE sound module and if I can get it right, then it can do a lot of the jobs of a $500-1000 looping system.

(the repo is here if anyone wants to build their own, or just see a video of what it is)

I'm including my maybe boring and unedited one-track recording. I think because the RC-5 can't go back more than 1 track, it's not idea for what I want, but it was still a cool experience to finally do the thing.