Chords for Guitars and Gear Vol. 21 - TC Electronic Ditto Looper Pedal Demo

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[C] _ _ _ _ _ Hi, I'm Mitch Gallagher.
Welcome to Sweetwater's Guitars and Gear.
This time out, we have what just may be the world's most compact and easy to use looper pedal.
And I've got a tech tip for you on the difference between analog dry-thru and true bypass.
Let's get started.
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If you're looking for a looper pedal that will fit on any [D#] pedal board and that's super easy to use, then you really need to check out the TC Electronic Ditto.
The Ditto is a looper that has up to 5 minutes of loop time.
It only has one knob for controlling the loop volume and one foot switch which provides all the functionality that you need.
Now with the Ditto, you can record in a bass loop and then you can overdub as many times as you want on top of that.
The loop can be as long as you want, up to 5 minutes long.
It has 24-bit audio quality, so the sound is excellent.
Using the pedal is super easy.
You step on the foot switch once to start recording, step on the foot switch again to stop recording and go into playback, and double-click on the foot switch to stop the playback of the [E] loop.
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_ _ _ _ To erase a loop, just step on the pedal and hold it. _ _ _ _ _
The looper's memory has now been cleared out and we can start over. _
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_ [F#m] _ _ [G] _ _ [E] Then you double-click the switch to stop playback.
Now to overdub into that loop, go into playback mode and hit the switch again.
The light will turn red and you'll be overdubbing. _ _ _ _ _
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Again, you double-click the switch to stop playback, or if you want to, you can single-click the switch which takes you out of overdub mode and puts [E] you into playback mode.
Once you've recorded an overdub, you can also undo and redo that recording.
So if we start playback and we step on the switch and hold it, we'll undo the last recording.
If we then release it, if we step on it and hold it again, we'll redo that recording.
Here's how that works. _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ [C#m] _ _ [Bm] To [G] completely clear the memory of the [E] looper, we hold down the foot switch while playback is stopped. _
_ _ _ _ _ The only other control on the Ditto is a volume knob which controls the volume of the loop playback.
The TC Electronic Ditto looper pedal is not only compact enough to fit on just about any pedal board, it's also very affordable and it provides all the functionality you need for basic looping.
So if you want to record chord progressions in to practice over to play over, it'll do [D] that for you.
If you want to use it for more complex arrangements that you can use on stage, you can also do that using the Ditto.
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_ As guitar [N] players, we're all very finicky about our tone and we don't like things being inserted into the signal path that change that tone in any way that we don't want.
Now there's a new feature that manufacturers such as TC Electronic have been implementing called analog drive-through.
There's been some question as to what analog drive-through is in comparison to true bypass and to just regular bypass.
So let's talk a little bit about those three things.
With many pedals, when the signal enters the pedal, it actually goes through a buffer amplifier.
Now this buffer amplifier conditions the signal so it's better able to withstand being processed by effects, especially if you have a lot of pedals in a chain or if you're running long cables between your pedals and your amplifier.
This is a good thing because it maintains the signal integrity as it goes through those processors.
It helps it to better withstand the challenge of running through long cables.
You don't lose highs, you don't lose dynamics, and so having a buffer amp both at the beginning and the end of your signal path as far as the effects are concerned is a good thing.
Now some players feel that they can hear the effects of buffer amps, especially if there are more than a couple of pedals in the signal path.
So if you have more [B] than a pedal at the beginning and the end with a buffer in them, you may hear cumulative effects from those multiple buffer amps.
To combat this, some manufacturers make what are called true bypass pedals.
A true bypass pedal has no buffer amp inside it.
The signal comes in the input jack and is routed straight to the output jack so there's no additional electronics that are coloring the signal.
Now let's talk about analog dry through.
With a standard digital pedal, when the signal comes in the input of the pedal, the entire thing is converted to digital.
So the dry signal that passes through with no effects on it and the affected signal are both converted to digital where they're blended at the output and converted back to analog.
_ Now some players feel that converting the dry signal to digital can have an impact on the tone.
Because of that, analog dry through takes a different approach.
With analog dry through, the signal comes into the pedal where it's split in half.
Half of it is converted to digital data and processed to create the effects that you want to hear which are then sent to the output.
The other half of the signal that's coming in the input is not converted to digital.
It remains analog and it's routed straight to the output where it's blended with those effects that are coming out of the digital processor.
_ Because the dry signal has never been converted from analog into digital, some players feel that this gives you a more pure result.
_ If you're dialing down to the finest points of your tone and you're using multiple pedals, you're going to want to be looking at these aspects of the pedals that you're using.
You can find out whether a pedal has true bypass, buffered bypass, or analog dry through in the specs for the pedal.
Manufacturers like TC Electronic are using analog dry through and others are as well.
There are buffered true bypass pedals from a variety of different manufacturers.
They all work great.
It just depends on what you're doing with your pedal board.
Thanks for joining me for this installment of Sweetwater's Guitars and Gear.
Be sure to tune in next time.
We'll have more guitars, effects, and amplifiers, and we'll be making a lot of music.
I'm Mitch Gallagher.
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