the Strymon El Capistan tape looper pedal

[billygomberg]

The multi-head setting ("B") gives me the most stereo.  I'm away from home right now so I can't confirm.  Generally the stereo imaging is subtle...it's not a ping-pong delay...

[rené]

I played with it some more yesterday. It is def. subtle. Will try B tonight and record it digitally (have not touched the computer for music making in ca. 6 months, except for some quick final edits). Maybe I can rather "see" it.

Anyway, mono is fine anyway...

[haesslich]

celemony anounced a product (celemony capstan) that can remove wow and flutter effects from tape recordings.
http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=capstan

i wonder what happens if you feed it with recordings from el capistan?

[landtitles]

if you could only have one,

would you choose an el capistan or 2880
i realize these are totally different pedals but so much praise has been given for both

already have a timefactor, but one of the things i don't like about it is you can't use the looper with the delays

[taylordeupree]

if i could only have one? a TimeLine 

but, seriously...

you can't compare those two because one's a delay and one's a looper... well, the ElCap loops as well, but it's a different beast altogether... so, you have to ask yourself what you need more.... a seriously good "tape" delay with a quirky looper... or a seriously good multi-track looper with no delays.

considering you have a timefactor... i *may* go for the 2880 in that case.. you can free the timefactor up from being a looper and use its excellent delay capabilities.

if you could only have one,

would you choose an el capistan or 2880
i realize these are totally different pedals but so much praise has been given for both

already have a timefactor, but one of the things i don't like about it is you can't use the looper with the delays

[landtitles]

but seriously, what's the story on the timeline

should this be brought in for debate also?

[taylordeupree]

yes, the timeline is a serious contender... i've had mine for a week... it's, by far, the best delay pedal i've ever heard... very tweakable delays, very much a sound design box.. very much an ambient box. then, on top of that, is the looper... it's a very straightforward looper... no start/end editing like the Time Factor, no pitch control like the TF or the 2880... but, what it does that no other looper does, it you can put the looper before or after the delays.. so, you can call up some cool effect ... play, and loop the effect right in your loop.. then change to a different type of delay and overdub newly effected playing on top of the effect you already had... and keep building layers of different delays.. or.. you can simply put the delays after the loop.. where your loop is clean and you send it through one of the delays.

i can't describe the delays as good as you can hear them for yourself

http://www.strymon.net/timeline/

click through all those tabs and soundfiles of the different delay types

i can try to answer any specific questions you may have about it..!

[oootini]

sounds heady!

[landtitles]

thanks for the help taylor

maybe a 2880 question

where might the benefit of having 4 tracks for looping come into play vs.  just one, i would imagine having stereo outs your bouncing this all into one or two channels in your daw anyway right

and what makes the looper on the el capistan quirky

thanks

lt

[taylordeupree]

well, the advantages of a 4 track looper are similar to a 4 track recorder... obviously, with a 4 (or multi) track recorder, you have access to different parts of your mix.. instead of the whole thing on a stereo channel.. so you can turn different elements up and down.

same with the 2880.. put some sounds on one track, others on another... and now you have independant volume and pan control for different elements in your loop.

the looper on the El Cap isn't so much a "looper" as it is like repeating part of the tape recording head.. i mean, it *is* a looper... the weird part is how much it degenerates with each pass of the loop... what you record in the loop quickly becomes a washed out blur.

the thing with the El Cap loop is that it is constantly re-recording itself.. every pass.. so if you have any kind of tape loss, wow and flutter, etc, dialed in, it will progressively get more and more pronounced until it's a big soup....

[davidandree]

maybe a 2880 question

where might the benefit of having 4 tracks for looping come into play vs.  just one, i would imagine having stereo outs your bouncing this all into one or two channels in your daw anyway right

fading in and out loops! over the course of a work it is a great feature to be able to create a loop, move to the next track and build it further only to pull out the initial loop (and even bring it back later). or build up 4 loops in conversation and bring them in and out - this makes for some creative live mix-downs fading between different tracks.

or if you use it as a composing tool, you can isolate a track/loop that you like and experiment on other tracks (without the risk of screwing up the main loop).

and what makes the looper on the el capistan quirky

it acts like a long tape delay (think frippertronics), so each time the loop repeats the signal gets fed back through the algorithm applying tape artifacts, frequency loss, and flutter (by how much you dial in of course) progressively writing those modifications to your loop.

edit: ha, too slow...

[taylordeupree]

na.. you explained it much better than me! i was too wordy..

edit: ha, too slow...

[billygomberg]

well yeah if you roll off all the settings on the Capistan it can function as a more trad looper, but who wants that?

oh wait I'm on the 12k forum.....

[landtitles]

 

i might have to spring for a 2880 and a strymon delay now, jeez

luckily my local music store offers financing and stocks EHX products
now just have to choose between a timeline or el capistan
i'm thinking though if i just got the timeline i should be good, coupled with my time factor and cassette 4-track tape loops

but oh man, the 2880

just rented a boss 2 track looper for the month, so gonna see how an extra looper fits in


thanks all 

lt

[taylordeupree]

let us know what you decide on!