Summary
• Pros: The Mooer Groove Loop X2 has 121 drum patterns, stereo looping, and a variety of useful looping features.
• Cons: Drum patterns aren’t all great, though you can certainly find some that are usable at home. More storage would make the pedal more useful in live settings. The software is a little glitchy, especially on a mac (though updates are slowly fixing these issues).
• Overall: An excellent practice tool for sketching out song ideas, and you can save a bit of money over comparable loopers from brands like Boss.
Compare Prices:
• Amazon: Mooer Groove Loop X2
Full Review of the Mooer Groove Loop X2
If you’re a guitarist on a budget who is interested in creating loops at home or to use in smaller live settings, you might be interested in the Groove Loop X2 by Mooer Audio. This is a stereo looper and drum machine pedal that combines two essential tools for guitarists. In this review, I will share my experience with this pedal and why I think it is a great addition to your arsenal of guitar gear, especially for home use.
Your Built-In Drummer
The drum machine on this pedal is very cool for both practicing at home or for simple drum backing in smaller live situations. It has 121 different drum grooves in 11 musical styles, including Pop, Funk, Blues, Rock, Metal, Jazz, Fusion, Punk, Latin, Hip-Hop, and Disco. You get 11 different patterns available in each genre. This lets you jam at home with the feel of playing with a live band.
You can easily select the genre and pattern with the knobs on the top of the pedal. The drum machine also has a tap tempo function to set the tempo manually, or it can sync with the looper automatically.
Looper Features
The looper has three recording modes: count-in mode, automatic mode, and normal mode. Count-in mode gives you a four-beat count before loop recording starts. Automatic mode detects your guitar signal and starts recording automatically when you start playing. Normal mode starts recording as soon as you press the footswitch.
Recording a loop works as you might expect after that. For example, you can press the left footswitch to begin recording (in normal mode), then press it again to stop recording and play back the loop. If you want to record an overdub (add another layer of sound to your loop), just press the footswitch again to record. One more tap of the footswitch stops the overdub from recording and plays back the entire loop.
The Groove Loop X2 also has an Undo function so that you can undo the last layer of your loop by pressing and holding the left footswitch. This is helpful so that, in case you made a mistake in your overdub, you can undo the last part without erasing your whole loop. It’s also useful for building variations into your songs so that you can have, for example, a difference in the loop between sections of a song such as your pre-chorus and chorus.
Memory Is Good For Home Use
The X2 allows you to record up to 14 loops of up to 10 minutes each and store them in different slots. You can also use the editor software to import and export audio files. While this is certainly plenty of memory for sketching out and saving song ideas at home, it’s still probably not enough to be useful for a live gig where unless you are able to swap out your stored loops between sets. For the sake of comparison, the Boss RC-10R Loop Station can store 99 loops, which is plenty for most live settings.
Other Useful Features
In terms of using the pedal as a song writing tool, you can use the time stretch function to change the speed of playback without affecting the pitch, which is useful for practicing songs at different tempos.
You can also use the fade knob to control and toggle the fade out function for each loop, which makes the transitions smoother.
Ins and Outs
The Groove Loop X2 has stereo inputs and outputs, which means you can use it with stereo effects or amps. You can also split the looper and drum machine audio into two different outputs for more flexibility. This is great if you want to, for example, send the drum loops to your PA system and the loops through a guitar amplifier.
The pedal also supports an external footswitch controller that can perform various operations like cycling through different parts of the current song bank. This is helpful on-stage, for example, so you don’t have to be constantly leaning over and fiddling with the pedal between songs.
I have been using the Groove Loop X2 for a few weeks now and I am very impressed with its performance and features. The sound quality is excellent (44.1 kHz/24 bit), the loops are easy to record and playback, and the drum grooves are realistic and varied enough for home use, though they might be a bit limited for larger settings. Nevertheless, I think you could get away with it in a coffee shop or other small gig.
As a songwriting tool, however, I really like how I can practice different styles and techniques with this pedal, or just have fun jamming along with it to practice playing lead. The pedal is also very compact and sturdy, and it comes with a power supply and a USB cable.
Conclusion
The Groove Loop X2 by Mooer Audio is a versatile and powerful pedal that offers a lot of functionality in a small package. It is ideal for guitarists who play rock and blues, or any other style that requires a solid rhythm section. It is also very affordable compared to other similar drum/looper on the market like those from Boss. If you are on a budget and looking for a looper and drum machine combo pedal that can enhance your playing and creativity, I highly recommend checking out the Groove Loop X2.
Where to Buy the Mooer Groove Loop X2
• Amazon: Mooer Groove Loop X2
Mooer Groove Loop X2 Demo Video
Quick Answers
How many drum rhythms are on the Groove Loop X2?
The Groove Loop X2 has 121 different drum rhythms. You get drum rhythms in 11 different styles, with 11 variations for each style.
Can the Groove Loop X2 record and play back in stereo?
Yes, the Mooer Groove Loop X2 can record and play back in stereo.
How many loops can you store on the Groove Loop X2?
You can store up to 14 loops of about 10 minutes each on the Groove Loop X2.
How many hours of recording time does the Groove Loop X2 have?
You can record up to approximately 140 minutes of audio on the Groove Loop X2.
How many independent loops does the Groove Loop X2 have?
You can only play with one loop at a time on the Groove Loop X2, although you do get Undo/Redo to add some variation, and you 14 memory slots.
Is the Groove Loop X2 MIDI compatible?
No, it’s not MIDI compatible as a slave device.
Does the Groove Loop X2 have an XLR mic input?
No, there is no XLR input on the Groove Loop X2.
All you Snares etc are programmed too loud it’s obnoxious. you will sell more x2’s if you remix the drums, people are not idiots and don’t need 2 and 4
blasted in their ears just for practicing
There is no fade function on the X2. I think you’ve cut and pasted a previous version without actually checking out this one. I’d like to know if there is a way of downloading more drum loops on it. The jazz one on here is very limited.