Free Browser Looper

The 3-layer blueprint — from mud to music

Loops turn to mud when every layer lives in the same register at the same density. Build them in this order and each part keeps its own lane.

1. The foundation. Bass first — roots and fifths on the low strings, tone rolled off, more space than you think you need. Everything else hangs off this.
2. The harmony. Shell voicings only, 3rds and 7ths, placed short on beats 2 and 4. Leave the low strings alone — the bass already owns them.
3. The voice. Now the melody or the solo, in the register the first two layers left empty. Flowing lines, real rests. If a layer fights another, one of them is in the wrong lane.

Record over the click and it snaps your take to a whole number of bars, with the seam crossfaded so the loop point is inaudible. No pedal, no tap-dancing, no landing exactly on the '1'.

Why bar-snapping changes the practice

On a loop pedal, the length of your loop is whatever your foot did. Hit the stop a hair late and the loop is a hair long, so it drifts against the click and every pass gets worse. Most players end up practising their footwork instead of their playing.

This records against the metronome and rounds your take to whole bars, crossfading the last 80 ms into the head so the seam does not click. You get to be sloppy about when you stop and still end up with a loop that sits in time — which means the thing you are practising is the music.

Build the stack in this order

Roots first: eight bars on the sixth and fifth strings at 120 with a swing feel. Then shell voicings over the top — 3 and 7 only, nothing else. Then a chorus of triads. Then a chorus of enclosure cells. Each layer is a different job, and stacking them in that order means you always have a bass to hear against.

Trading fours with yourself

Set eight bars. Comp for four — sparse, leave holes, put rests on 2. Then solo for the next four, and quote the rhythms you just comped. It sounds like a game and it is the fastest rhythmic-vocabulary drill I know, because you cannot fake having heard your own phrase.

For a density drill: build one loop with a lot of space and another that is denser and more syncopated, then practise switching between them without rushing. Rushing on the density change is nearly universal and almost nobody notices they do it until they hear it looped back.

Common questions

Why does my looper sound out of time?

On a pedal, your punch points are off — the loop is as long as your foot said, not as long as the bar. This looper snaps to whole bars against the click, so that whole failure mode disappears.

How do I practice with a looper?

Bass, then chords, then melody — each layer simpler and quieter than the one before. The discipline of leaving room is the actual exercise.

What chord progressions work best for looping?

Short forms loop cleanest: a ii–V–I, a I–V–vi–IV, a minor i–♭VII–♭VI. Eight bars or less and the form stays audible instead of becoming wallpaper.

How do I keep overdubs from turning to mud?

Change register and density per layer, not just notes. High parts sparse, low parts simple — if two layers occupy the same space, cut one.

Can I practice soloing with a looper?

It's the most honest duo partner you'll find: it plays exactly what you fed it. Comp four bars, solo four bars, and quote your own comping rhythms — trading fours with yourself.