As I said in my review of Pigtronix’s feature-packed Infinity Looper, there seems to be something in the water that’s making people gravitate toward the one-man-band setup. The proof is in the gear. Complex programmable loopers, in both hardware and software, are becoming extremely popular, but today’s subject, the Ditto Looper by TC Electronic, is all about the simplicity. As a matter of fact, it has a meager 1 foot switch, 1 knob, 1 input, 1 output and 1 multi-colored LED. Yet, it is still pretty darn feature packed considering the footprint and minimalistic interface.
The Ditto hardly takes up any space on your pedal board – so you don’t have to leave it at home for bedroom jams only. But what really amazes me about it is that despite its simplicity it still has everything I usually want in a looper.
To accomplish this, TC has cleverly expanded the functions of the footswitch. For instance, you stomp once to record, once again to loop, and that’s ok but…
- One more stomp allows you to overdub,
- Pressing and holding will take the last element out (undo), and pressing and holding again will put the last element back in (redo).
- Press twice to stop, and press and hold while stopped to clear, once cleared it goes back into true bypass.
It couldn’t be easier. The knob handles the loop level, and the sound quality is 24-bit uncompressed audio.
It would have been nice to see a switchable stop mode option via an internal DIP switch or external toggle so one would have the ability to choose between a fade out, abrupt, or play-to-end stop mode. Other than that it’s perfect.
If you take looping very serious and base your whole rig on it, you will probably want something with more features and the ability to save presets like the Infinity Looper or TC’s Flashback. However, if you appreciate the simple way of life the Ditto Looper does an excellent job of giving you the must-have features without hassle or confusion. I like it a lot and appreciate that it’s just so easy and fun to use.
And last but not least, it sounds really good! – Gus Green
