I thought I'd start a thread on live looping.
I use a pair of Line 6 DL4's and a guitar to create textures in my group. Our guitar player also has a DL4 he uses to compensate for being the only real guitar player. We wanted our loops to have the ability to sync, so we started looking into pedals that might have midi capability. The only thing we could find that would enable you to sync with midi was, of course, the holy grail of loopers Gibson's
Echoplex which retails for $1,124.95(!) with the foot controller(!!). These are re-issues of the older digital echoplex Gibson used to make back in the late 80's early 90's. They are really cool, you can record and save 8 loops into the unit and the record time is ridiculously long. We used to play with a guy who had three of them and once he got them going, he really didn't need the rest of us.
Looking around though, I found out that Digitech makes a multieffects unit that has a built in 8 track. I called Digitech and found out that the 8 track can be set to loop eight separate loops individually or simultaneously. These are the same features the echoplex offers, only the digitech has a USB in/out for file transfers or interfacing with a computer, stores to flash, can store multiple loops and only costs $499.00. The sound quality of the thing is pretty descent to, with 24-bit capability, I can't think of a reason not to buy the thing. Other than it looks horrible.
What experiences with live looping do you have? What's your set-up? Any advice on low cost alternatives to a massive looper set-up?