Looper

I've been a bedroom guitarist for about 2 years, with a Mustang L25 amp that has all sorts of built in filters, so that I haven't really needed to buy any pedals before this. The two things missing from the Mustang are a drum machine and a Looper, and I've reached a point in my development that I wanted to start experimenting with those things. This unit offers both in a compact, easy to use box. First of all, it's a drum machine. Everybody says to practice with a metronome, but practicing with a tireless drummer is even better. It has 10 different beats of 10 different styles, for a total of 100 beats. Most other drum machine boxes I looked at had a fraction of the number of beats. You can adjust the volume and tempo, and it is easy to navigate between beats. Super simple, the beats sound real, and it's very intuitive to operate. Then there is the Looper. I spent about an hour playing with it, and figured it out in that time. It was that easy to operate. I quickly found out that once I laid down my first track, I could instantly dub a second track over it. It has up to 40 different memory tracks, and you can dub over those, so you have far more tracks to loop than you'll ever need. After that, if you want to save your project, you have the ability to download it into your computer. I haven't played with any of that yet, but I doubt it would be a problem. The box is metal, solid, and a bit heavy, and feels substantial. The paint and decals feel thick and substantial as well. The entire unit feels like a high quality piece that isn't going to crack or fall apart. It was clearly created to be a professional piece of gear. It operates off an AC adapter that I had to order separately so order that with the Looper, or you'll find yourself disappointed when you can't use it until you order an adapter. My only wish is that it had an on/off switch. I have to unplug the adapter when I'm not using it, but that's not a big enough deal to deduct a star. This is the first piece of gear I've ordered from Donner, who I've been curious about, and I am 100% satisfied. If this is the kind of quality I can expect from Donner, I will definitely be buying other Donner products in the future.

Great value - even though you can't modify presets with the pedal. The loop function is pretty forgiving when I don't stomp the switch at the exact right time. I think the best feature is the memory bank. You can load 40 sound clips of up to 4 minutes each. My only gripe with the pedal is that I can't lock the tempo while I'm browsing the preset beats. Each beat has a preset tempo, so if I have a specific BPM in mind, I have to press buttons and tweak knobs to correct the BPM every time I browse to a different beat. Other than that, it's nearly perfect.

Pros: - relatively easy to figure out (good, because instruction guide is miniaturized) - decent sound quality - priced well for features - loads of memory for saving loops - drum tracks sound better than expected, and recorded loops store and play the drum track/tempo - rhythm track synch works well Cons: - absolutely needs an power on/off switch. Plugging/unplugging the power adapter is not a reasonable solution when a switch is pennies to install. - stopping a loop shifts by default to “dub”, so any additional sustain or sounds after you hit stop get recorded before you can hit the footswitch again to kill dubbing. This is really, really annoying. - a slightly larger display would be so nice for some of us older players

This thing is pretty great, I must say. I am impressed. I have owned a couple of Donner pedals before. I still use their TubeDrive overdrive pedal that is pretty killer (especially for 25 bucks). I also owned their original looper, that was essentially a white Ditto looper, but it quit working after a few months. I was hesitant to try this, but I had been seeing signs of a company trying to rebrand and step things up a notch. Also, you can't get these features in a looper unless you pay close to twice as much. After messing with this for a bit, I must say I am impressed. The build quality (especially the switches) is better than the old pedals that have been discontinued. The printed designs look of better quality, and the digital display is very nice. The knobs are solid. Fairly easy to use. Didn't need the manual much except to explain how to slave the drum machine to the loop, and it also explains the software interface. It sounds great and is a cool practice buddy. 100 beats to choose from (including plain metronomes). 40 memory bank presets to save on. The two knobs allow you to easily toggle either loop or beat settings independently. You can either use the drum machine independently or slave it to the looper. If you slave it to the loop before recording a track, you actually get a count off. It's awesome! The digital display is clean and easy to see. Very nice all the way around. Stereo inputs/outputs are truly independent. Line 1 and 2 are dedicated to outputs 1 and 2, respectively. Comes in a nice box and brings a USB cable. Great deal!

Bottom Line Up Front: I would recommend this item if you are looking for a drum pedal and/or looper. The pedal housing, switches and knobs all seem to be built very well and should hopefully last a while. I removed the rubber feet from the bottom to add Velcro for the board without an issue. The feet are just stuck on with some adhesive. The drum tracks sound much better than expected. When I play it through a clean amp, they come across fairly realistic compared to some drum pedals I have used in the past. Another thing to note is that the drum tracks have a lot of groove and flavor compared to some that are just fancy metronomes. There are some consistent fills at then end of the bars on some of the tracks which can be useful and distracting. A real drummer would probably not fill/crash as often, but it adds some character to your solo jam sessions. The LCD screen is bright, easy to read, and responsive to the knobs as you make your selections. There are 40 memory slots to up to 4:00 minute recordings. You can link it up to the computer and download some very simple software from the Donner website to Import/export the recordings. ** BONUS** You can load files into the memory banks from other places, not just your recordings so if you have a track you are trying to work out parts for, you can load the file and save it in the pedal to mess around with at your leisure. I downloaded some drum and bass tracks from a website to jam over and am having a blast. The only downside which I hope we can get a fix for is that it seems as if you can’t name the tracks. Not a huge deal, but when there are 40 spots it would be better if we could save them by a name and not just default number. Overall this does more than I expected and the build/sound quality is higher than anticipated at this price point. I have purchased a few Donner items and have yet to be let down. It’s really a blessing in our current times that musical instruments and gear can be so affordable and of superior quality.

The Dooner looper crashed after 4 months of moderate use. Donner customer product support is non-existent! They stated they needed a video under 10 MB before they could do assist me. I stated that 10 MB was unrealistic for such a request. I sent them quality photos showing my set up and basically what the video would show. I emphasized that the device had no displays or indication of it operating. They continued to harp on needing a video. I provided a copy of their warranty, which had no requirement to provide a video in order to receive product support. I went ahead provided them a video which had to be uploaded to Google Files which validated the device didn't not work. The video also showed another Donner Octave pedal being connected to the same power source as the Donner Looper. The Octave pedal worked fine. I after several follow up emails finally got a response asking if my power supply met the looper power supply specifications. I confirmed that it did despite already showing this in the video. There has been no response from Donner despite my sending several emails direct to customer service and to their website contact us prompt. I was apprehensive about buying this product but took a chance since the Octave Dooner pedal worked okay. I cannot believe a company with several industries awards has such bad customer service support. I will not buy from Donner again and would urge anyone contemplating buying any of their products to read the reviews and buy with caution. It should be noted that they have no phone number for contacting the company. Amazon customer support was much more responsive in resolving the problem!

First off let just commend Donner for an excellent product, well done guys. The drum tracks are really well done, almost everyone is useable although the metal genre' is a bit slight by way of the cymbal sound. The controls are great, my favorite is ability to adjust BPM with a nob. Very easy to use, it doesn't take days trying to look up how to work it. GREAT price, this has alot for your money. A couple things bummed me out though. When you record a a loop the drum track isn't recorded with it. Yea so if you forget what track and BPM's you used it's a bit confusing lol. Also you can't split the signal. I don't like drums going through my good amps so I've been using it like a basic drum machine running through a Crate 150 bass amp. Also I like a bit more looping time, 4 mins is tight. They gave you a smart tap on the loop switch, but it adjusts BPM's. I would rather it have been on your rhythm switch and enabled a fill. But it is what it is All in all a good pedal at a good price. I'm sure you'll be able to find any answers from you-tube and hear the actual tracks. If yer looking for this type of pedal I'd pick one of these up because with all the features it offers it is a good buy. I'd recommend it even though I have some issues with it. Great Price ✌ After a few weeks now of using this pedal I have to admit it is really nice. The drum tracks are great, they sound very real and offer a wide range of grooves. Mix that with the ability to adjust BPM's and ya end with multitudes of tracks. Even with the issues I have this pedal is about one of the best I've purchased so far.

Ok, so, it is somewhat painful for me to give this only 3 stars because the basic functionality of the Circle Looper pedal is very intuitive and cool. However, I need to take points off for Donner's misrepresentation of certain features. Again ...! What is disappointing is that this is not my first Donner device where they simply did not provide essentials to how the device ... works (I bought the B1 Bass Synth from Donner and there are no midi CC controls available anywhere, despite the device having the ports for midi I/O). Back to the Circle Looper - To even understand what one needs to do to try to import / export via usb you need to first dig on the web, as their manual is useless in this regard. Finally, I was able to find a Mac OS version of their Circle Looper software. It registers the device… exists. From there, it does nothing. One cannot export loops they have written at all. I tried to import a 7 second bass hit to test the import function and the device / application both froze, never progressing. Of course, the out not working over usb is not the end of the world, since I can plug that into my interface. But, I find this really sneaky of Donner - To boast usb compatibility which is not really there. C’mon Donner - You make good stuff usually - Stop skimping on MAJOR features. Especially ones that are main selling points for the item! That is really some BS, IMO. Otherwise, the thing is pretty nifty. Can’t say it isn’t. Buyer beware, I guess *shrug

Exceptional Customer Support

This is the looper you have been looking for (Or at least, it's exactly what I was looking for). 1. The drum machine is very good. There are an incredible number of beats, mostly 4/4 and 3/4, as well as a metronome that can do a whole bunch of timings. It can also be used separately from the looper (turn off the green Merge button in the middle) when you just want a straight drum machine. The beats themselves are good, with appropriate fills for their respective genres. 2. If you're merged with the drum machine, you get a click-in (1-2-3-4!) to start recording, and it will "round" your recording to the nearest bar if you stop it a fraction of a second off (which I always do). For non-pros, this makes it a lot more functional and your loops will sound much better than if the time is a touch off, as often happens when amateurs like me play with manual loopers. 3. Controls are really easy, though there is a bit of a curve. There is a sound level setting for both the drum beat and the loop, so you have quite a bit of control, though setting a good volume on your instruments is still important. 4. Build quality is excellent. It feels like a solid box you can stomp on over and over. And the stomp switches have good action and feel as good as the ones on more expensive brands. In short, for the price, this does just about everything the RC3 does, and does some things better. The only missing features are the ability to run off a 9V battery and it has less memory for loops (40 loops, vs 99). VERY happy with my purchase!

Great price for an excellent looper pedal, live it!

Arrived quickly, works great.

Some very interesting drum patterns, but then some that are too intricate to use, but having odd meters is also welcome. It works really well you just have to be very careful with your switching combinations or else you erase entire tracks instead of last single track but that's not a design issue, just a user watch out. One thing I don't like is how tempos and patterns can change on already recorded loops. Gets frustrating to have to reset but again, that could be a user error. Overall, remarkable unit for the asking price.