Step By Step Guitar Loop Pedal Guide

To put it simply, here are the steps:

1. Add the Clip Slot Looper to your audio tracks in Ableton
2. Add the Loop Clock to one audio track
3. Plug in the Akai APC40 MKII
4. Set up the foot controller

That’s it, you’re ready to start looping as shown in the videos on this site!

So let’s go into some detail on everything that’s required:

1. Laptop or Desktop Computer
2. Ableton Live Suite (90 Day Free Trial Available)
3. An Audio Interface
4. Ableton Clip Slot Looper (Audio & MIDI versions available)
5. GQ Visualizer, also called the “Loop Clock” (Optional)
6. Hand Controller
7. Foot Controller

Skip to Step 2

In order to use this looping setup, you’ll need to purchase a copy of Ableton Live Suite if you don’t already have it. If you’ve never used Ableton Live before, start with the free 90 day trial. You can also purchase the Clip Slot Looper here on this site with a 14 day money back guarantee. This means you can try out out this looper without being financially committed unless you decide it’s something you want to keep using.

You’ll also need a laptop or desktop computer. I use an HP Spectre x360 with 16GB RAM and an Intel i7-8550U processor. This laptop has been powerful enough to run any musical project I’ve thrown at it in the past three years.

Skip to Step 3

When considering what audio interface to purchase for looping, one way to break it down is by whether you’ll just be jamming by yourself at home or if you’ll be performing. Another consideration is how many instruments you’ll be looping.

Guitar Looping at Home (or single instrument looping: keyboard, violin, vocal, bass, etc..)

If you’re just doing guitar looping by yourself at home, something like a Focusrite 2i4 will get the job done nicely. I’ve had one of these for maybe 8 years now and it has held up very well and I’ve been happy with the sound quality. With two, single line inputs, you can plug in:

• A guitar and a mic
• A guitar and a bass
• Stereo outputs from a keyboard
• An acoustic guitar and a violin mic

You get the idea. Two inputs. The Focusrite 2i4 will also work for solo performance situations. For example, it would work well for a singer / songwriter with an acoustic and and a vocal mic.

The Focusrite has a headphone jack, two line outs as well as RCA outs – for plugging into your stereo for example.

Mutli-Instrument Looping

Convenient, multi-instrument looping requires an audio interface that has 2,4,6 or 8 inputs. I use the Focusrite Clarett+ 8Pre. The Scarlett 18i20 is less expensive, still giving you 8 inputs. There are of course many other audio interface options out there.

The Clip Slot Looper for Ableton is where the magic happens. This device turns all of the “clip slots” in Ableton into loopers. When combined with the midi controllers below, the Clip Slot Looper allows one touch looping in Ableton. “One touch looping” means that you trigger the start of the loop and the loop closes automatically based on the loop length you’re working in (i.e., 2 bars, 4 bars, etc..).

You’ll need to purchase the Clip Slot Looper. There is an audio version and a midi version. If you’re just doing guitar looping, you only need the audio version. You can get both the audio and midi versions, along with the loop clock, as a pack.

Once you’ve downloaded the Clip Slot Looper for Ableton, just add it to the tracks you want to use it on.

If you’re just doing guitar looping, this audio clip slot looper for Ableton is all you need, though you may want to have the loop clock as well.

This version is for looping MIDI instruments. Both the audio and midi Clip Slot Loopers are available in the looper package at a reduced price.

This loop clock gives you a large display that can be seen from a distance. It shows where you are in the loop cycle, responds dynamically to different loop lengths, and works in any time signature.

All three devices are available together with some savings included.

Set up the hand and foot controllers to control looping. I use and recommend these controllers.

The Akai APC40 MKII is plug and play so just plug it in to your computer and you’re all set there. Use this device to trigger loop recording. Because you now also have the clip slot looper in Ableton, each button on the APC40 is now a one-touch looper. What I mean by that is that you trigger the recording of the loop and it automatically stops recording after the chosen number of bars.

For the foot switch, this article will give you the script needed and explain how to use it:

The foot switch is totally customizable. I use the three switches as follows:

Left: Restarts a loop recording – either during recording or right after
Middle: Start/stop playback
Right: Restarts a take recording in Ableton’s arrangement view (this could be called the songwriting mode)

As you become familiar with Ableton, you can customize the foot switch to send whatever keystroke commands to Ableton that you need.

So to wrap up, here are the steps:

1. Add the Clip Slot Looper to your audio tracks in Ableton
2. Add the Loop Clock to one audio track
3. Plug in the Akai APC40 MKII
4. Set up the foot controller

That’s it, you’re ready to start looping as shown in this video: