Item: TC-Helicon Ditto Mic Looper
Price: $149 (US), £119 (UK)
Mic Rating: 5/5
Quick Singer Assessment:
If you have never tried looping before, then the Ditto Mic Looper is the perfect way to get started and it will also appeal to more experienced loopers who want a rugged and great sounding device. However, there are more versatile loopers on the market.
At a Glance
TC-Helicon’s Ditto Mic Looper provides an easy way to experiment and perform with live vocal looping (or, actually any mic’d instrument). Everything is kept as simple as possible – one knob, two buttons – a mic input (with phantom power) and an XLR output to go to your PA system. It can record up to 5 minutes audio for looping at uncompressed 24-bit quality to ensure a great sound, and has unlimited overdubs and Undo/Redo. It has a compact and rugged all-metal construction, and it even stores your latest loop and overdubs between power-ups.
High Notes
The Ditto Mic Looper offers automatic gain adjustment of your microphone so you do not need to worry about clipping or setting gain levels. There are Dedicated Loop and Stop/Clear switches and a LED-indicator to show Play/Rec status. If you don’t fancy the idea of using a pedal, the Ditto Mic Looper also works with microphones with a “Mic Control” button (such as the MP-75 or e835 FX microphone) allowing you to create and perform with loops directly from the mic. On the device, there are selectable overdub modes as well as an instant one-tap Stop feature that is particularly useful for live performances.
Off Pitch
There are more versatile loopers on the market (including those from TC-Helicon) that offer a lot more options for controlling, manipulating and adding effects to your loops. However this would be an unfair criticism, as it isn’t really intended to directly compete with these products or functions.
Audio-Savvy Reviewer Says…
If you have never tried looping before, then the Ditto Mic Looper is the perfect way to get started. Its simple operation, however, will also appeal to more experienced loopers who want a rugged and great sounding device to create basic vocal loops on stage.
It is also worth noting that there is no reason why you could not use the Ditto Mic Looper for things other than vocal looping (such as percussion or guitars) as it will loop and record any signal you perform into your microphone. Overall, the Ditto Mic Looper is a well thought out device that lets you focus on the performance and not the technology. Whether you want to use it as a compositional tool, for live performance, or just for fun; it is a great sounding and affordable way of working with live loops that will no doubt appeal to many singers, beat-boxers and instrumentalists alike. – Chris Kennedy
Manufacturer’s Website: http://www.tc-helicon.com
More on Vocal Effects for Singers
Getting Started with Live Vocal Effects
Using Vocal Effects at a Venue
Chris Kennedy is a songwriter, producer multi-instrumentalist and freelance journalist from the UK. He has performed extensively over Europe and written and produced over a dozen albums. Chris also has a passion for music technology and was the principal product reviewer and tech expert of the original Voice Council magazine.
