Best looper pedal: Create your sound with these amazing pedals
Choose the right looper pedal for your needs, from reliable budget offerings to powerful looping workhorses and beyond
Whether you need a practice tool, a way to expand your sonic horizons or a platform to arrange entire suites of music, the best looper pedals out there can become the secret weapon in any musician’s arsenal.
Deciding on the right looper pedal for your needs and budget requires a little investigation, however. When buying a looper you need to think about how you’re going to use it, as the complexity of high-end pedals can be overwhelming. The last thing you want to do is spend more time reading a manual than making music.
Everything included on this list will do the basics – record, overdub and erase audio loops – but there’s a lot more you can do if you’re ready and willing to explore. If you’re not sure what you need or what features to look out for, then read on and our buyer’s guide will cover the basics to help you find the right pedal for your needs.
To avoid confusion, this article will only cover audio looper pedals – pedals that record and play back – not switcher pedals that put pedals in a “loop” and control the signal flow on your pedalboard.
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Best looper pedals: At a glance
- Best looper pedal for starting out: TC Electronic Ditto
- Best-value looper pedal: Boss RC-5
- Best for advanced users: Boss RC-300
How to choose the best looper pedal for you
The perfect accessories to any creative process are highly personal: the right notebook for an aspiring author, the right brush for a painter and so on. This is no different when it comes to musicians. Obviously, a guitar can be an individual expression of style and lend itself to the style of music you want to play, but pedals can have just as much of an impact. If the hardware doesn’t fit into your creative processes, you just won’t find that groove you’re looking for.
What do you want the looper pedal to do?
Looper pedals can be incredibly simple or chock full of a baffling array of creative opportunities. They can be dirt cheap or eye-wateringly expensive. One channel? Three? Some modern loopers are now implementing touchscreens and are getting close to becoming full-on recording studios at your feet.
This list highlights a number of different options, and choosing the right one for you depends on some key criteria. Naturally, budget is a pretty big factor: looper pedals start cheap and work their way up to big money. The choice really comes down to the interface and what you want to use it for.
Are you going to be using this looper as a rehearsal tool, or is it going to be replacing a laptop and backing band to become the launch pad for your solo career? Are you going to use it stand-alone or do you plan to have the looper integrated into a wider interconnected MIDI rig?
How to make the right choice
Once you know what you want to achieve then you can begin to look at the options that meet your needs. There will almost certainly be half a dozen or more options that will fit the bill, but we’ve combed through the market and found four pedals that cover a wide variety of use cases. Hopefully one will be the right fit to get you looping with the best of them.
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The best looper pedals you can buy in 2023
1. TC Electronic Ditto: The best looper pedal for simplicity
Price: £180 | Buy now from Amazon
One button to start, stop and erase, and a single knob to control level – what more do you need? Since 2013, the Ditto has been a go-to for musicians of all levels who just need a no-nonsense looper.
The Ditto is perfectly suited to recording a rhythm part, which you can then loop while you perform a melody over the top. Its tiny footprint also means it can squeeze onto any pedalboard ready to expand your options.
While you might be able to find similar loopers for even less, TC models are known for their bulletproof construction and reliability, and it’s worth paying the premium for that reassurance.
Key specs – Dimensions: 48 x 93 x 48mm (WDH); Weight: 77g; Power: Runs on a standard 9V centre-negative power supply; Features: True bypass, 5 minutes’ looping time
2. Electro Harmonix 720: The best step-up looper pedal under £150
Price: £162 | Buy now from Gear4Music
Electro Harmonix offers a huge array of loopers (and delay pedals with looping functionality), but the 720 offers the most bang for your buck.
The biggest advantage of the two-button design is that you don’t have to worry about accurately double-tapping a single button to stop your loop perfectly in time. On top of that, you get reverse and half-speed effects, ten memory slots and a fade-out function of up to 60 seconds.
If you’re looking for an affordable looper pedal that can open the door to more creative looping ideas, this is a great place to start.
Key specs – Dimensions: 102 x 120 x 89mm (WDH); Weight: 400g; Power: Standard 9V centre-negative power supplies or a 9V battery; Features: Buffered bypass, 10 memory slots, 12 minutes recording time, stereo I/O
3. Boss RC-5: The best compact looper pedal
Price: £179 | Buy now from Amazon
Boss has shaped the entire effects pedal industry, and its Loop Station line has been an industry stalwart for many years now. The latest iteration, the RC-5, packs a massive amount of features into Boss’ familiar compact pedal enclosure.
It provides a generous 99 memory slots with up to 13 hours of recording time, and includes TRS MIDI I/O and an external switch input for greater control.
It also has 50 different rhythm accompaniments, which can be invaluable for rehearsal, composition or even live performance if you can’t fit your drummer in the back of the van.
Key specs – Dimensions: 73 x 129 x 56mm (WDH): Weight: 450g; Power: Standard 9V centre-negative power supplies or a 9V battery; Features: 13 hours recording time, 99 memory slots, rhythm accompaniment
4. Boss RC-300: The best looper pedal for complex performances
Price: £325 | Buy now from Coda Music
The RC-300 looper is the “go big or go home” option in this line-up. Its huge dimensions encompass enough I/O and flexibility to perform full arrangements with ease. In fact, you’ve probably seen one of these being used by any number of innovative performers, from solo cellists to beatbox maestros.
You get three independent tracks of looping – each with their own independent two-button control – a ton of effects, a mixer, a global start/stop button – and that’s just the similarities to our previous entries. There’s an XLR input with phantom power for microphones, 5-pin MIDI in/out/thru and even a full-on expression treadle for gentle fades or control of the onboard effects. It might sound clichéd, but the only limitation here is your own imagination.
There is a more recent and upgraded RC-600 version of this model, but Boss has kept the RC-300 in production, maintaining its great value at this price point.
Key specs – Dimensions: 536 x 231 x 76mm (WDH); Weight: 3.9kg; Power: Included 9V AC adapter; Features: 3 hours of recording, MIDI in/out/thru, XLR input, three channels of independent looping
