UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45
Does it exist - tap tempo looping bass drum pedal
What's Hot
I'm wondering if such a thing exists, or whether it would need to be a combination of things - Google searching for this is quite hard because of the key words being common to a lot of different things and none of them quite seem to be what I mean.
In my head, I have an idea of what's essentially a drum machine looper pedal, whereby you can tap tempo for the speed, and then tap the rhythm you want within that loop on a bass drum sound. I don't want a full drum machine as I think they sound cheesy, just a bass drum sound. Sometimes it'll just be tapping the beat on the bass drum, other times a bit of variation on the rhythm.
Needs to be foot controlled as hands would be busy playing (and it looks naff to keep leaning over an MPC type thing and tapping away with fingers)
This would then be used "one man band" style underneath guitar and vocals, like how people use those stomp boxes (Seasick Steve style) but without the need for me to keep tapping all the way through the song, as that would probably cause RSI and also I'd be out of time quite quickly.
In my head it would be cool to be able to fill out the sound in a solo kind of setting, and also give you the flexibility to improvise a little as you go, rather than just using say a looper with pre-saved wav file loops for specific songs.
I feel like it wouldn't exist and I'd need to combine say a Looper and one of those Roland drum stomp pad things, but that's getting into a realm of more co-ordination than I think I'd possess!
Thanks
0 LOL 0 Wow! 0 Wisdom · Share on Twitter
Comments
It shouldn't be difficult to find one that can trigger on/off and tap tempo with a footswitch.
If you want to be able to build your drum loops on the fly every time then a stomp box pedal connected to a looper would work.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Maybe I need to rig it up on my pc at home virtually first and see how it works. Just hoped such a thing could exist (or be hacked into existance)
https://speakerimpedance.co.uk/?act=two_parallel&page=calculator
I have the Boss RC500 and it definitely does all of the above.
Edit: probably other Boss ones do this as well, it's only the RC3 I've done it with. I see someone above mentioned the RC500 as an option as well.
Shouldn't be too difficult if you do your homework. Ten minutes flicking between eBay and various .pdf manuals turned up several fairly ancient drum machines that would do both with a dual footswitch (Zoom RT 234, Boss DR-5, Alesis SR-16, all available fairly cheaply on eBay), so anything newer should be capable too, although it turns out the kind of drum machines I found on eBay aren't really so much of a thing any more.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Boss have an editor program where you can write rhythms for RC series loopers. I couldn't find any information on which of the RC series pedals were compatible- RC-1 doesn't have drum patterns so definitely not that. I doubt the RC-3 will. RC-5 might. Pretty sure the bigger ones - RC-500, RC-10R and the mahoosive ones were compatible.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Pre-programming could be useful for when I don't want any flexibility but it's really the ability to tap a tempo for a bar length with one switch, then once that's set, tap the bass drum pattern with a second switch.
I don't really know that it would work practically speaking, or whether it would sound a bit shit in reality vs how it sounds in my head. For example tapping the tempo/bar length would then presumably need me to have some kind of metronome to be able to tap in the bass drum rhythm, which seems extra complication than it's really worth.
I don't think you can just do bass drum on beat buddy. RC500 looks like you can select which drum parts are playing but I can't see anything in the manual which suggests you can create your own patterns, seems like you just have to use the built in patterns, is that correct or am I reading the manual wrong? I'm a bit slow on the update and a bit thick so please forgive me
It's fairly hypothetical although I'd love to be able to do this at some point to let off some creative steam. Really the answer is a second person on an MPC or keyboard tapping it in but that would a) require somebody willing to work with me and be told what to do, and b) more rehearsal faff to get it working. I don't want to work with other people and they don't want to work with me, so something electronic would be ideal.
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/254331/there-are-multi-instrumentalists-and-then-theres-steel-beans#latest
Or there are these types of stomp boxes that you literally stomp on and they produce a kick drum sound for you to loop. I've never used one but I'd like to think some can even be programmed to trigger other drum/percussion sounds or even samples:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153974348782
Some thoughts having played a lot of gigs with this setup.
Kick only can get very samey. Playing manually allows tempo and volume changes in the song. The kick is dynamic so you can play louder or quieter as the song requires.
A tambourine on the other foot gives great variation to lift choruses and bridges. I play the tambourine either first beat of the bar, every other beat or all beats with the kick. Not so much off beats or anything too clever, but I might work on that.
Manual or drum machine/looper, PA is critical. IME you need bass bins on the PA or 15inch woofers. 12inch tops only sound passable but anything less and you get no weight to the sound.
Endings are fun on the manual pedal, i use both feet for a fast bass drum roll/crescendo and can make sure the last hit times with the bass guitarist for a faux ‘band’ ending. Honestly, I’m like Cozy Powell some days!
It can get tiring but you build it up. Personally it’s worth it over a loop for dynamics, tempo and variation.
https://www.instagram.com/insta.guitarstuff/
Nice and small, runs on batteries. Just set the tempo and hit go.
I think my main issue with something like that where I can do the loop, is that I'd be tied to the spot and have to keep stamping my foot even when playing stuff with a contrasting rhythm. Can you stamp out a rhythm while soloing for example? I imagine that would be really hard to do without just laying the same rhythm
I think I need to write/record some songs which do what I mean, in order to show audio examples of what i'd like to recreate
It would be quicker than farting about trying to tap something in if all you are looking for is kick and tempo.
Given you just want a kick pattern I can't imagine there are going to be that many especially as you won't have anything else to give it context so a complex pattern will be weird and hard to play to.
Couple it with a MIDI pedal if you want to start it with your foot.
Playing through the chord sequence/riff motif
Sing verse
Sing chorus - add the drum beat
Slight pause before verse, no drum
Second verse, drum beat returns maybe
Second chorus, drum beat still going
Then either another quieter breakdown bit (no drums) or a solo (with drums)
Maybe then go off on one into something else while finishing up so no time to go over to the machine and change it by hand.
There would only be me there, watching one person on a stage tapping away on a little gadget you can't see very well isn't all that fun. I'll see how much I could do via a midi foot switch perhaps. That at least hides some of the fiddling about