Hello music friends,
Given that BiaB and today's DAWs are so feature packed, does anyone have hardware loopers in their toolbox as part of their workflow to compose and record songs? Can they help to inspire and push a preliminary musical idea closer to a finished song?

If so, care to share your experience and maybe a sample recording?

Ditto, Boss and Pigtronix are a few that offer loopers and I wouldn't be interested in live performance, only home recording.

Thanks for sharing any experience (good or bad).

FWIW here is my view. You don't need hardware loopers for what you want to accomplish.

In your DAW record a drum track, or any other track being either a BiaB track or one that you record yourself, for a few measures, loop it, then jam with it. If you play something you like record it then jam with those two tracks with another instrument or synth sounds. Continue that process until you have a complete song or a song partial that you can expand on.
Been there - done that.

I hope that helps.

Thanks Mario,
I think I already know what you are saying. I have looped a phrase in Studio One or in BiaB and have played live to it on my bass or on my Korg in the past. Although almost 100% of the time I will wait until all of my voice elements are sequenced in S1 then as a last step play and record my bass thru the entire song beginning to end.

I'm curious beyond this if anyone finds hardware loopers useful.

Here is a scenario I run into frequently. I will concieve a phrase on the Korg (Dan calls this a motif). It may range from 3 to 10 notes. So I will record this phrase in S1. If I like it I then have to copy, paste and align this phrase multiple times in it's track. Even though I can take advantage of copying 2 phrases at a time, then 4 phrases then 8 phrases, etc, it still can be error prone and a bit tedious. If I have multiple motifs in a song (synth, strings, organ, flute, piano, etc), this process is repeated.

I'm thinking one benefit of the looper would be to record my phrase and loop it while recording it in S1. No copy, no paste, no alignment errors; just one perfectly continuous repeat of the motif. Then of course in S1, I'd use volume automation to mute it where I want it muted.

I know I don't need a looper but it may be useful in the above scenario and possible other scenarios.

Just looking for some ideas.

PS> I can understand the reaction to a multiple dB gaseous expulsion during an important event like a wedding. In which case it may be wise to avoid beans the day before unless it's a shotgun wedding, in which case, let em rip