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Electro-Harmonix 2880 Super Multi-track Looper

 

Review of the Electro Harmonix 2880 Multi-Track Looper by The Man in the Jar  

This looper is actually very much a portable digital multi-track recorder

Features of the Electro Harmonix 2880 Looper

Construction - This compact little unit is made with the familiar formed sheet metal method in common with much of the EH range. This does leave the various knobs, buttons and sliders exposed to damage on the flat upper surface. 

Ins and Outs - There's a Left and a Right in together with a Left and Right out for stereo use. If working in mono simply use one channel. There's and Auxillary in on a mini-jack and a headphones output. There's a jack connection for the dedicated 2880 Foot Controller and a Midi in and a Midi out. All these, together with the power socket are on the back of the unit. Around the corner on the side are a USB socket and a memory card slot.

Power - The unit is supplied with a dedicated power supply.

Controls - Across the top you'll find some general level controls for both input channels, the headphones and the built in metronome. On the left hand side are three soft-touch buttons, one to select which of the four tracks you are using, one to toggle between stereo and mono operation and one to put the unit into "New Loop", which is "Standby to Record". Next along are seven sliders, the first five having Left/Right pan controls. The first slider adjusts the volume of the dry signal being fed to your amplifier or monitors. The next four sliders are the four recording channels. After that is a channel for mixing down the four tracks to a stereo mix-down track. The last slider is the tempo control that allows you to set the bpm of the metronome and alter the tempo of tracks going down onto the mix-down track. On the right hand side of the panel are seven soft-touch buttons:

Ext Clock - This allows the 2880 to follow an external MIDI Sync signal;
Quantize - This feature gives you a four beat intro before recording begins and then extends the loop at the end to the nearest full bar. This ensures you have the opportunity to begin playing at the very beginning of your loop and that the loop will be in time with itself when it is looping continuously;
Reverse - Allows you to play the loop backwards;
Punch In - Allows you to overdub fractions of a loop to fix duff notes and other mistakes;
Octave - Lowers the pitch and tempo of a loop by one octave;
Record - Toggles the recording function;
Play - Toggles the play function. 

Overall Impressions of the Electro Harmonix 2880 Multi Track Looper

This unit comes with a very comprehensive manual, but I was happily creating four track loops with just a brief look at the Quick Start Guide. The whole experience was very immediate because as soon as you've finished a track it starts looping, inviting you to improvise over the top of it. The sound quality of the WAV files was really very good, my guitar looping back through my amp sounded no different to the dry feed going through live.

To get the best out the unit you will need the foot controller, especially if you are working alone, but the Quantize feature allows solo use without too much problem. All in all a great little piece of kit that can be used both creatively on stage or in the studio or as an inspirational rehearsal and improvisation tool. Very impressive.

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