What are you looking for in a looper pedal? Perhaps stereo performance, a long recording time, effects, and maybe some kind of function that’ll tidy up your time-keeping and MIDI connectivity? Well, Zoom might have the answer with the MS-90LP+ MultiStomp, the sixth-generation of its tricked-out looper range.
The MS-90LP+ will look after electric guitar and acoustic guitar, but also synthesizers, samplers and keyboards, too. And it gives players all of the above and more.
Furthermore, its memory is quite something; you can record loops up to 90 minutes long with the enough capacity to store 13 hours of loops on the unit, 100 loops in total.
There is a lot you can do with these loops, too. There are eight effects that can be applied to them, including a reverse effect, half speed, hold and tape stop. You can also monitor your loop’s waveform in real time via the LCD display, and the colours change to let you know when you are recording, in playback or applying effects to the loop.
Zoom has provided 68 rhythm patterns to choose from and the capacity to sync loops and rhythms so that they start at the same time. It’s a powerful tool, not just for singer-songwriters performing solo, but for practice and writing. A good looper can be invaluable in woodshedding difficult phrases into shape, or finessing a riff or melody that’s nearly but not quite there yet.
But the MS-90LP+ MultiStomp’s USP is something you wouldn’t immediately recognise from looking at it. It’s the digital architecture under the hood that’s doing all the hard work. Zoom says the MS-90LP+ MultiStomp is the first looper of its kind to feature dual ad converters and 32-bit float technology and this is what gives it its hi-fidelity performance when you’re layering lops on top of one another.
There are inputs for mono and full stereo operation. MIDI connections allow you to trigger and sync the looper, and you can import and export loops via USB.
Flexibility is the name of the game. The outputs allow players to split the signal, sending loops to your amp and the rhythm patterns to the PA.
More fundamentally, the enclosure has five footswitches, so there is no double-tapping to activate secondary modes. One footswitch toggles record and play. off. Then you have Loop FX, Rhythm, Undo, and Stop/Clear.
You can run this off USB, an AC adapter or get four hours of playing time from a pair of AA batteries. Priced £168 street, the MS-90LP+ MultiStomp is available now. See Zoom for more details.
