Electro Harmonix 45000 Looper

Started by Rhcole, March 28, 2016, 12:33:41 AM

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Rhcole

Although the Electro Harmonix 45000 Looper is no longer a brand new product, it is still considered current and is part of EHX's present lineup. Having read every review of it I could find both in the past and recently, I thought I could write a better review, at least for the audience of this forum.

I bought the 45000 two years ago, and haven't actually used it very much until the present. The first one I bought was defective, which EHX replaced for the price of my shipping it back to them. After I got it back I was focused on other areas musically, and frankly didn't bond with it as well as I expected. At about $600 with the foot pedal this was a disappointment, but I placed it aside and promised myself I would either work through it more seriously or sell it when the time came.

Well that time is now, and I'm going to keep it. It was close call, though, for reasons that I will explain. Let me say here that I suggest you look up the 45000's feature set at EHX or elsewhere to better acquaint you with its many features. I'm not going to spend my review time describing it when you can find that out on your own. Instead, let me focus on the aspects that you can't always find out easily that might influence you regarding this product.
1. It doesn't have an undo button, and while it is true that every review complains about this omission, they are also right. You have to dub over your mistakes and physically press a button on the front panel to do so, which is a major design flaw in the product. You can work around it, but it is a flat-out mistake by the design team.
2. This product is optimized for a performing musician who has at least one hand free. If you look on Youtube you will see a few videos of singer songwriters playing songs and overdubbing themselves with a verse and chorus while stepping on the foot pedals. But, if you know the product, you realize that they are not able to access the full design potential by doing that.

(Also, EHX, why no one-shot loop playback option? Feel free to answer me here!)

You see, the 45000 uses a multi-track recorder design paradigm. It's like a 4 track looper that you can overdub and record complete songs per loop. Pretty cool, yes? And it is, except that if you are playing an instrument you can't control the volume levels of the different tracks without using a programmed external MIDI controller. A singer who creates rhythm tracks with his voice and uses only a Mic on the other hand can swap parts in and out, change levels, overdub, and everything else the box is capable of by using the front panel and the foot switch. THAT'S WHO THIS PRODUCT WAS DESIGNED FOR IN LIVE PERFORMANCE. If you are using it live, the 4 independent tracks are of little functional use because any looper allows you to overdub anyway; you don't have access to the benefits that 4 independent tracks could give you because you can't move the sliders while you are playing. This isn't as big an issue when you are using the product as a recorder, and it shines as a working 4 track if you want to use it primarily in the studio. Just be aware that it samples only at 44.1K which may not be a high enough sample rate for serious recording. BTW, a quick note, this can also be 2 stereo pairs of inputs that you can mix down to a stereo master track.

Now, a massive benefit of this product is its ability to quickly exchange loops with the foot pedal. You can have the verse in one loop and the chorus in another and easily move up and down with seamless loops that play one after the other. This is why I bought this pedal. Regular loopers are just too limited to me in their timing and loop capabilities. The 45000 allows you to play loops that blend into one another of different lengths, time signatures, anything you choose. This is great for composing and performing longer pieces on the fly where you can have different loop structures saved in different locations. Nice, nice, nice. The ability to exchange running loops stored in different locations live is an unusual feature in loopers, and it is a mandatory feature for my needs.

Also, it's a breeze to store WAV files on the 45000 but you have to ignore the instructions they gave you in the manual. I was moments away from packing the unit up and selling it because I couldn't load my own samples into it. But, a lightbulb went off and realized how to do it. You record a blank loop slightly longer than the sample you want to load, and then you drop your sample into that loop as TRACK1. It will adjust itself to the sample you put in and it will be seamless if you created your sample that way. (This of course makes no sense to readers who don't own the unit, but it is a big yee-hah for anybody who has suffered through trying to get their samples to play according to the instructions in the manual. I can now get any sample I want on the unit within moments and it works great.)

In conclusion: The 45000 is a great product but it has its quirks. It is expensive; No undo is a big mistake; it is functionally more appropriate in a recording environment where you can twiddle with it than live on stage; BUT, it sounds great, it has tremendous firepower even live if you want to control via MIDI, you can exchange loops in real-time to create any kind of song structure you like, and you can have plenty of loops in any style ready to go under your control. It's a different design paradigm than almost any other looper out there.

Feel free to comment, always appreciate knowing if anybody reads this stuff.

Now_And_Then

 
I just got around to reading this; I don't know how I overlooked it earlier.

I was actually interested in this at one point but for reasons which I can not now recall (of which the high price of the 45000 was but one), I found an RC-300 at a really good price and got that instead.

As loopers go, for me, this would have been the correct choice *if* there was a correct choice to be made between the RC-300 and the 45000. However, it turned out that either unit was an incorrect choice for me: my needs were / are very very basic and either unit would have been far too complicated for my needs. So I sold the RC-300. 

At any rate, this is a very informative review. If I had read it at the time it would have certainly helped me make a better and more informed decision.