Loop, as the name suggests, is a module designed to help you record and perform loops, which have stayed pretty popular for many years now. That said, it also includes scenes which help with the monotony issue (there, I said it) which by nature is the trap you can fall into by simply looping over short sections.
Polyend‘s new kit is also a drum machine, which is useful for building beats for looping of course.
Loop features four main tracks on which you can record instrument, line, and mic-level sources or load in loops from microSD card; four sample-based drum tracks; over 100 effects; 1000 scenes for setting up song sections, sets and so on; and full synchronisation.
User loops can be set to loop forwards, backwards or ping-pong, mixed together and with a shedload of effects.
Rhythms are formed in the dedicated hardware sequencer with each scene holding 16 patterns with 16 steps each. These can be queued or chained into longer arrangements. There are factory samples on board or custom kits can be recorded from your own samples.
Synchronisation is obviously important in looping, unless you’re wanting to create an interesting mess, so everything in Loop follows the same clock. Cueing patterns or scenes while playing brings them in at the end of the current bar. That said, if you do want that ‘mess’ (only kidding, it’s experimental) then loops can be set to run at free length, while a Varispeed function lets you choose whether speed and pitch follow the set tempo or not.
Each track can hold up to 52 seconds of sample, in mono or stereo, and there’s unlimited overdubs.
Loop comes loaded with 500+ drum kits, 350+ rhythm patterns, 2000+ drum samples and 180+ loops.
Scenes help with breaking up loops, meaning it’s easy to use the Loop in more traditional songs with various sections — simply switch between scenes to play intro, verse, chorus, bridge and so on. Anyone who has played with arrangers or even home keyboards with auto-accompaniment will know what that’s about, only with 1000 scenes available, Loop takes it to another level.
For more subtle variations in certain genres of performance, you could even have alternative scenes which alter beats ever so slightly. As far as I can see, there’s no randomisation and the like built in here — that said, you could also hook this up to a MIDI device or DAW and control other plugins and effects which employ their own randomness. The Loop could be a really interesting trigger for other modules and plugins.
Loop seems like a decent piece of kit, rugged enough for use with foot control if required, and with enough expansion and connectivity options to make it a versatile little unit. At around $600 it’s not the cheapest, but it could certainly be made to work hard for the outlay.
Specifications
- Product type: Four-track audio looper with a four-track sample-based drum machine and hardware sequencer.
- Audio loop tracks: Four independent mono or stereo tracks.
- Recording time: Up to 52 seconds per loop track
- Recording sources: Instrument-level, line-level or dynamic microphone; stereo or two simultaneous mono signals.
- Overdubbing: Unlimited overdubs.
- Undo: Single-level undo of the latest overdub.
- Playback modes: Independent Forward, Reverse and Ping-Pong mode per loop track.
- Timing: Tempo-synchronized or free loop length per track; Varispeed can follow tempo or remain independent.
- Loop mixing: Independent volume/gain and panning per track
- Loop effects: One independently selectable effect per loop track from more than 100 built-in effects.
- Drum machine: Four sample-based drum tracks; four samples per kit, one per track; factory and user-created kits.
- Drum patterns: 16 patterns per scene, 16 steps per pattern, with cueing and pattern chaining.
- Factory content: 500+ drum kits, 350+ rhythm patterns, 2,000+ drum samples, 180+ loops and 100+ effects.
- Tempo: 30–280 BPM with external MIDI clock.
- Stored scenes: Up to 1,000 scenes with bar-quantized next/previous switching.
- Foot control: All operations except parameter-value editing and drum-sequence editing. Hands-free parameter adjustment via expression pedal or MIDI.
- Audio input: 1 × 6.3 mm TRS stereo/mono input for instrument, line-level or dynamic microphone sources. No phantom power.
- Audio outputs: 1 × 6.3 mm Left/Mono output and 1 × 6.3 mm Right output.
- Expression: 1 × 6.3 mm TRS expression-pedal input with assignable performance control.
- MIDI: USB-C with bidirectional USB MIDI only.
- Storage and file transfer: microSD for scenes, samples, loops, individual WAV track files, firmware and file transfer.
- Dimensions: 180 × 120 × 57 mm / 7.09 × 4.72 × 2.24 in (W × D × H); height includes knobs.
- Weight: 0.93 kg / 2.05 lb.
- Power: 9–18 V DC, minimum 500 mA; centre-negative or centre-positive; power supply not included.
