Top 10 Best Looper Pedals

Looking for the best looper pedal? There is no one-size-fits-all “best looper pedal” for every musician, but the following list contains what we consider to be the Top 10 best looper pedals. The list is not necessarily in order as each looper pedal has different features that may be more or less appealing for different musicians. For example, not everyone may need 3 independently controlled loops, stereo looping, or midi-sync, while those features may be essential for other musicians. If you need a little advice, be sure to check out our Tips for Finding the Best Looper Pedal below.

EDITOR’S PICK: I’m currently using dual Boss RC-10R loopers for any gig where I don’t have a drummer because the sound quality is excellent and I like the huge selection of drum patterns with Intros, Outros, and fills. Read my full review of the Boss RC-10R here.

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  Boss RC-600 Loop Station Review
  The Boss RC-600 is the new “flagship” looper for players who want as much functionality as possible, despite the size. It’s intended as the successor the older RC-300, boasting six independent tracks for an unparalleled looping experience. But does it live up to expectations?
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  Pigtronix Infinity 3 Looper Review
  Pigtronix made a big mark on the looping world through the Infinity 2. Now they’re aiming to build on the successful formula with the new version. And it definitely looks great: clean, well-presented, with rugged metal footswitches but not too much cluttering up the body. It touts features like the option to run dual loops in parallel or series, the ability to easily switch up the pitch or speed of your loops, new synchronization options, and more. But is it really all it’s cracked up to be? Can they justify charging more than the Boss RC-500, for instance – or could you get better value for money elsewhere?
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  TC Electronic Ditto+ Looper Review
  The original Ditto Looper broke the mold when it came to looper pedals. While other manufacturers were cramming in as many features as possible, the Ditto focused on its core functionality. It stood out from the competition by focusing on a clear, well-captured tone. This was immensely popular even with pro players who just wanted something that sounded great. The lack of memory was a pretty big limitation, however. TC Electronic listened to its customers and fixed this with the Ditto+ Looper. It is essentially the Ditto, plus, memory and a few other things. See what they did there?
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  Boss RC-5 Loop Station Review
  Boss pretty much dominates the looping world. Their RC series of pedals have been among the most sought-after pedals in the field since they were first released, and they also do a pretty admirable job of meeting the varied needs of people looking for looper pedals. In particular, you don’t have to pick up a behemoth unit like the RC-300 (and now 500), because they have some stripped-down, stompbox-sized options out there too. The RC-3 was awesome, but the RC-5 aims to improve on the same formula.
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  Boss RC-500 Loop Station Review
  The RC-500 is a bit of a departure from its predecessor, the RC-30. While the older unit had a just two footswitches, supplemented with a fairly busy upper section, the RC-500 adds an extra switch and streamlines the top. There are three metallic footswitches on the lower half of the body, angled towards you as you play, with a series of buttons, a couple of dials and two sliders on the top section, surrounding a small LCD display. There is around the same number of buttons, but the design has more of a focus on minimalism and simplicity so it’s less daunting as a new user.
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  Singular Sound Aeros Loop Studio Review
  The more features you add to a looper pedal, the more it tends to blur the boundaries between different types of pedal. For example, the JamMan Delay is a Frankenstein-style combination of a looper pedal and a delay pedal, and the Nu-X JTC Pro Rhythm Looper is like the love-child of a looper pedal and a drum machine. But any looper, especially a multi-track one, blurs the boundaries between looper pedal and multi-track recorder almost by definition. The Singular Sound Aeros Loop Studio, though, takes this to the extreme.
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  Boss RC-10R Rhythm Loop Station Review
  For a long time, the rhythm section on looper pedals was kind of crap. Not that it’s not a nice additional feature, more so that it was just something tossed in with some token patterns and often synthetic-sounding drums. But the RC-10R sets out to change all that. It’s essentially the love-child of a traditional, Boss-level looper pedal and a drum machine, complete with interesting patterns, the option to throw in fills and a choice of drum kits so you can change up the sound to suit your compositions. This all seems great on paper, but how does it work out in practice?
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  TC Electronic Ditto Stereo Looper Review
  The original Ditto Looper is a legendary pedal. In making it, TC Electronic cast aside complexity in favor of top-notch sound quality and ease-of-use. Since then, the Ditto X2 and Ditto X4 versions have taken the concept further, incorporating effects and more footswitches into the same core framework. More recently, the newer Ditto+ Looper has also added 99 memory slots to the original formula. But the follow-up pedals lose some simplicity in the process. If you loved the minimalism of the original Ditto, you might be looking for something similar but with a few more powerful features. TC Electronic has answered in the form of the Ditto Stereo: an upgraded, stereo-looping version of the original.
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  TC Electronic Ditto X2 Looper Review
  If you loved the Ditto looper but wanted just a little bit more in terms of features, TC Electronic may have hit the nail on the head with the Ditto X2. It’s the same great sounding looper pedal as the original, except it has two footswitches instead of one, lets you import and export loops and jamtracks to your computer, and gives you reverse and 1/2 speed effects. Just like the original Ditto Looper, the Ditto X2 is easy to use right out of the box, with all the features you need, and none of the fluff you may not.
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  Boss RC-300 Loop Station Review
  The Boss RC-300 Loop Station is the new “flagship” looper from Boss. Being hailed as the second coming before it was even released, the Boss RC-300 has a lot to live up to. Not only was it’s predecessor, the RC-50 Loop Station, loaded with features, Digitech’s competing looper pedal, the JamMan Delay, is similarly large and loaded with cool features. With such stiff competition, the RC-300 Loop Station has to deliver something very special to stand out from the crowd.
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Tips for Finding the Best Looper Pedal in 2022

Need some advice? With so many looper pedals on the market, it’s hard to know exactly what they can do and how or when you might need some of the more advanced features. The first step in choosing a looper pedal is to decide how you will use it. If you are going to use it for practicing at home, you won’t need all the bells and whistles of the bigger pedals. A smaller pedal may even be preferable because it takes up less space and lets you get right down to practicing your licks. Then again, if you want to incorporate loops into your live or recorded performances, you may want to pay attention to the following features:

Memory/Recording Length

Memory is of course an important consideration when buying a looper pedal. Looper pedals all have at least some built in memory, and many are now expandable via SD memory cards and/or USB ports, which can be used to plug in external hard drives. Memory is especially important when you need a lot of pre-recorded material to use for a gig, or if you want to record loops in stereo at CD quality. As an example, the Boss RC-500 has 13 hours of recording time, so there’s plenty of room to store saved loops for gigging. Compare that to the Digitech JamMan Stereo which only holds 32 minutes of stereo recording, but also has a slot for a 16 GB SD memory card, and a USB drive to plug in additional memory. While you can change out your SD card for potentially limitless memory, would you really want to be swapping SD cards at a gig? 

Can You Play Multiple Loops Simultaneously?

Some looper pedals merely let you play one recorded loop at a time. If you are merely using your looper pedal for practicing solos, this is not that big of a problem. If you want to use your looper pedal to build an entire song, however, the ability to play multiple loops simultaneously gives you the ability to use loops interactively, adding layers of complexity to your songs. Examples of pedals that let you play multiple loops simultaneously are the Boss RC-500, RC-30 and RC-300, the TC Electronics Ditto X4, the Pigtronix Infinity, and the Digitech Jamman Delay/Looper.

Stereo or Mono Output

Most of the time, mono output is fine for jamming in front of your amp and just having fun. If you want to record in stereo, however, you will need a stereo ouput. Many pedals today provide ways of playing with stereo sound, such as chorus pedals that let you split your sound into stereo. Some examples of stereo loopers are the TC Electronic Ditto Stereo and the TC Electronic Ditto X2.

Number of Pedals/Switches

The number of pedals and/or switches on a looper pedal can make a big difference, especially if you plan to use a looper pedal in live performances. The pedals/switches are used to activate different features of the pedal such as turning certain loops on or off on a multi-layered loop. If you have only one foot pedal, you may be required to turn different dials on your pedal to trigger or stop various loops. This can obviously be disruptive if you are playing live. Fortunately, many single pedal loopers offer an option to purchase additional footswitches you can plug into your pedal to extend its capabilities. Of course, if this is your plan, you have to factor in the extra cost of the additional switches. You may find what you are looking for by paying a little extra up front and getting a looper pedal that has multiple pedals and/or switches such as the Boss RC-300 Loop Station or the Digitech JamMan Stereo.

Reverse Looping

Reverse looping is when you record a loop, then the looper pedal will loop it backwards rather than forwards. This is sort of a specialty feature that not everyone will use, but it does allow you to create interesting background textures for your music. Certain pedals such as the Boomerang III are great for this types of audio experimentation. Most of the newer pedals have this feature on board.

Midi Sync

Midi sync is a technology offered by some looper pedals such as the Boss RC-500 that lets you synchronize your loops with external midi devices. This can be useful, for example, if you want to synch your loops with other electronic instruments and/or musicians in your band. Other pedals boasting midi-sync capabilities are the Boss RC-300,TC Electronic Ditto X2, and the TC Electronic Ditto X4, which have proven to work quite well in conjunction with pedals like the Beat Buddy. The Pigtronix Infinity Looper also offers midi-sync capabilities.

Whichever looper pedal you choose, be sure to come back later and post your review in the comments section of this web site. We look forward to hearing your opinion! We also have recommendations in the categories of Best Cheap Loopers, Best Voice Loopers and Best Compact/Micro Loopers.