DataLooper: Hardware looper pedal for Ableton Live just got funded
A month ago I reported on the State of The Loop Kickstarter campaign for a hardware foot controller for the Looper device in Ableton Live. It’s only a day away from the deadline and they’ve still got to find £8000 to reach their goal. Meanwhile over on Indiegogo DataLooper which is a very similar product doing a very similar thing has gone through their goal with over a week to go. What makes DataLooper more successful?
Crowd Funding
It could be any number of things. Their promotional video is certainly a lot more relaxed and cooler. But the biggest factor is probably the goal amount. DataLooper only wants $10,000 whereas State of The Loop was after €30,000. In fact, State of The Loop has attracted more investors than DataLooper, but DataLooper has managed to go through their much lower goal with 10 fewer backers.
There are clear differences to the hardware as well. The DataLooper has far more footswitches. State of The Loop appears to focus on clarity and simplicity whereas DataLooper is all about the functionality. But who knows. They are priced similarly and both tackle hands-free looping in Ableton and it’s a shame that both of them probably won’t make it to market. But maybe the market for these sorts of products is just too small. Crowdfunding is tricky.
DataLooper
So what is the DataLooper offering? You have hands-free control over 3 Loopers at once with auto-sync to backing tracks or pre-recorded clips. There are super bright LEDs giving you the state of the Looper and more that blink in time with the project. It can sync up to multiple DataLoopers with Ableton Link (genius!). There’s a Session View mode as well as a Looper mode so you can create clips with it. One key difference to the State of the Loop is that it doesn’t require Max For Live to run. They also have a software editor to let you map the switches to whatever you like.
The hardware’s 12 switches are arranged in 3 rows to feed the 3 tracks. The first button on each row is record/overdub/Play, the next is Stop and the third is Undo. The last column is Stop all Loops, Mute all Loops and Clear all Loops.
Here’s a video of it in action:
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DataLooper is looking like a competent and useful solution to hands-free looping and live performance in Ableton Live. If you want to benefit from the $199 pricing then you’ll need to back the Indiegogo campaign, otherwise it will go up to $279 as the regular price. They say they can deliver in March.
More information
- DataLooper Indiegogo page.
Video
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