Looking to add some looped vocals to your next performance? You can loop vocals on any looper using a 1/4″ jack, but the loopers listed below all have XLR mic inputs for high-quality vocal looping. They range from ultra-simple like the Jamman Vocal XT all the way up to the fully-featured Boss RC-505 Loop Station. Take your vocals and/or beat-boxing to the next level with layered vocal loops!
- Boss RC-505 MKII Review
Boss really re-imagined the looper with the RC-505. Before that, loopers were mostly intended for guitarists but could still support microphones. Things changed with the rise of musicians (like DubFX) who incorporate looping into non-guitar music. The RC-505 changed the rugged footswitches for bigger, softer buttons, becoming the first true tabletop looper. The RC-505 did a lot right, and they don’t have to improve the formula too much to produce something amazing. So, have they succeeded? Or should you just stick with the old model? Check Amazon Price - TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 Extreme Review
Many companies have a kind of tiered approach to their pedals. Boss doesn’t just offer the RC-300, for example, they put out the RC-3 and RC-30 too, which package basically the same core features into different-sized units, with some of the capability shaved off as you get smaller and smaller. Digitech’s JamMan Delay vs. the Stereo and the Express is another example. So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that TC Helicon hasn’t just left it at the standard edition of the VoiceLive 3, their feature-packed vocal effects, guitar effects and looper pedal. Check Amazon Price - TC Helicon VoiceLive Play Review
The rise of vocal-focused loopers has really helped open the benefits of looping up to more musicians. As guitarists, most of the pedals we talk about at least have the option to plug in an instrument. That doesn’t capture the whole world of looping these days, though. The VoiceLive Play from TC Helicon is a combination of a looper pedal and a vocal-focused multi-effects unit, all packaged in a fairly compact and very user-friendly device. Check Amazon Price - TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 Review
The VoiceLive 3 is a pedal clearly designed for live use. The bulk of the body is taken up by a selection of ten footswitches, evenly spaced apart and each surrounded by a ring of lights so you can see which are active at a glance. It’s 35 cm (13.8 inches) wide and 21.6 cm (8.5 inches) back to front, so definitely a sizable unit, but when you consider the selection of effects and features on the pedal it really doesn’t take up much space at all compared to the number of stompboxes you’d need.Check Amazon Price - Digitech Jamman Vocal XT Looper Review
For most of their history, looper pedals have been largely aimed at guitarists. The appeal of looping for a guitarist is easy to understand. Having a tireless jamming companion and being able to turn yourself into a one-man band opens up a wealth of possibilities. But if you sing or play an acoustic instrument, many of the available looper pedals don’t have much to offer. However, the Digitech JamMan Vocal XT is one of the few options – also including the Boss RC-202 and the TC Electronic Ditto Mic Looper – created with vocalists in mind. The question is: does the looper offer enough to make it worth the investment?Check Amazon Price - TC Electronic Ditto Mic Looper Review
The thing that separates Ditto pedals from the competition is their minimalist style. Many looper pedal manufacturers try to cram in so many features that they end up having more dials and buttons than the Starship Enterprise. In contrast, Ditto pedals are simple, well-presented and compact. The Ditto Mic looper follows this aesthetic down to a tee. It has just two footswitches and a single dial on its 5.4 by 3.5 inch (140 by 90 mm) body. Throw in the typically sleek Ditto look and the result looks polished, professional and inviting.Check Amazon Price - Boss RC-202 Loop Station Review
Boss’s RC-505 took looping in a new direction. When it was released, looping was really all about guitarists, and it still is today to some extent. But the behemoth of a looper was expressly designed with broader goals in mind. The “tabletop” looper was designed to be operated by hand, and vocalists and beatboxers (like DubFX) were the intended audience more than six-string wielding guitarists. Check Amazon Price - Boss RC-505 Loop Station Review
Loopers are traditionally a plaything for guitarists. Boss has played their part in establishing this status quo, putting out numerous looper pedals of varying sizes from the RC-3 style stompboxes through to the behemoth options like the latest flagship, the RC-300. For beatboxers like Dub FX, this meant the only option was to use the supplied mic jacks and use the guitarist-centric pedals their own way. With the RC-505, Boss has thrown out the rule book and made something specifically for beatboxers, synth players, keyboard players and singers looking to enter the world of looping. Check Amazon Price - Boss RC-30 Loop Station Review
In 2011, Boss updated it’s line of looper pedals by releasing the RC-3 Loop Station, the RC-30 Loop Station (reviewed here), and the RC-300 Loop Station. The RC-30 Loop Station is Boss’s updated twin pedal and the mid-sized option of the three. It’s a multitrack looper with two synchronized stereo tracks and built-in loop effects, and hours of recording time. Overall, Boss offers several improvements over Boss’s older twin pedal, the Boss RC-20XL. More recently, however, Boss has released the Boss RC-500 Loop Station which is now Boss’s flagship looper.Check Amazon Price - Digitech JamMan Stereo Review
After amazing success with the original JamMan, Digitech improved upon it and unleashed three brand new loopers: the Jamman Solo, the Jamman Stereo (reviewed here), and the Jamman Delay. The JamMan Stereo is the mid-sized version, the one Goldilocks would have chosen. The question is whether being in the middle really does make it ‘juuust right.’ Users of the original JamMan will be right at home with the layout of the Jamman Stereo. There are a couple of extra footswitches, but apart from that, there won’t be any teething problems.Check Amazon Price
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