Hello brave fellow Aeros users! I have purchased the looper several months back shortly after it’s immediate release and have been overall happy with the slow-going changes that are starting to happen. I personally do not use a beat –buddy or midi control, though I know many do and that has been a high priority for Singular Sound to iron out so I understand the slow pace of other issues.
But with other features such as manual saving and the freeform mode (sync mode almost there, you can do it!) I am slowly becoming faithful that they will have THE best looper in the current market once a few more things become available (SD card storage, renaming songs, etc…).
Anyways, here’s my point of this message: In deciding to purchase the Aeros I was weighing the two most recent high end loop pedals: Aeros & Headrush Looperboard. I have used loopers for years and currently own a Boss RC-3, Boss RC-50, Digitech Trio +, & Boss Rc-10R. When I use loopers for live gigs I don’t quite use them in the usual fashion of live building for the most part, though occasionally. Instead, I have been using the Trio + to prerecord backing track song parts at home and trigger the song sections to play on top of. I keep the RC-50 to do the traditional live loop building.
So during my weighing of Headrush vs. Looperboard when making the decision I stopped in to Guitar Center where a friend of mine works and he set me up with a Looperboard in the back room for about 2 hours to just mess with and get familiar with all the ins and outs of it. Obviously there is a lot of features included with the Headrush that the Aeros lacks such as more ins and outs, built in effects and drum beats… but the main thing (even though it’s such a small factor) that really stuck out to me was the way you could Label the Tracks by double clicking the track icon. Such a simple thing but this would make life sooo much easier for me. As I mentioned I primarily use the Trio + for solo gigs and after building many songs I have to have a separate notebook where I keep all my scribbles as far as song sections and orders. It’s quite the hassle but I suppose manageable. This idea of being able to label the parts on the Headrush seemed like it would solve a lot of my headache when trying to keep everything organized.
Here’s the bigger thing: Headrush is only 4 tracks per song. Aeros could be up to 36 (potentially)! So imagine after having constructed 30+ songs and then after loading one trying to keep organized about which track is the bass? Which one was the drums? Which part did I record the chorus on? Every time I load a new song (unless I write down on a separate paper to keep organized) it seems the only way to recall what is what is by muting things until you find what you are looking for. Having some form of PART & TRACK LABELING system would solve all of this and keep all the songs organized and easy to find things.
I had sent a message to Singular Sound several months back regarding this and received a message from Jay as well as David. They both seemed intrigued by the idea and Jay even stated he “loves the idea” and would discuss it with David. I did hear back a response from David a while back and he mentioned he really liked some of my ideas, but was concerned the programming may be difficult. Though he did say he would look further into implementing something once bigger things become functional (such as freeform sync).
My current thought in order to easily achieve the labeling is to allow us to click the dot on the far left side indicating track part and replace the dot with a single letter (example: I-intro V-verse C-chorus B-bridge T-transition O-outro). This would solve the problem of Part Labeling. Then inside the mixer menu either shortening (or even removing and replacing) the Mute button icon with an empty box we can click to label perhaps a 4 letter abbreviation of what instrument or track we would like to label it as. The mute button icon in my opinion is not useful as the switch at the bottom achieves the same function.
My point in sending this message to you all is to see if you agree if having labels on the Aeros would be a priority to you. As I mentioned I don’t use a beat buddy or midi, so once the free-form sync mode and sd card storage become active, it practically will be as good as I need it (aside from the labels).
I have attached a sample picture of what I described above so you can get a sense of what I had in mind. Please let me know your thoughts or perhaps you have better suggestions. If you all think this is perhaps a good idea, maybe if we all make enough noise they will hear us.
Cheers!
Here is my original idea of how a labeling system could be laid out on the Aeros. I sent this to Singular Sound as well.
The idea is to replace the dots on the left side and replace it with boxes labeled Part 1, Part 2, etc… the box would most likely have to be extended to the right a slight bit. The box could then be clicked and labeled as whatever you want to call the Part.
On the right side of the screen add an additional box similar to the left hand side only with the Track labels instead. Track 1, Track 2, etc… These could be clicked in order to name the track parts.
(picture demonstrating this is attached below)
With this layout I think everything is much easier to navigate and just like it is set up now, the left footswitch would cycle through the song parts on the left of the screen and the middle button would cycle through the track parts on the right side of the screen.
In my opinion this layout is much more visually appealing and easier to navigate than the current screen layout with both Part and Track selection labels on the main screen; however the tradeoff in this would be the waveform display would be shortened, though that wouldn’t bother me too much in trade for being able to navigate the parts and tracks easier.
I am pretty clueless when it comes to programming but I would imagine changing the Aeros to this display would be much more involved than the idea mentioned above which more builds upon the current layout of the Aeros. I would be happy with either system or perhaps a different one if anyone has any suggestions or ideas on how to achieve the best method of organization for songs.
I really hope Singular Sound does keep these ideas in consideration once all the main initial functions are in place. This is a high priority for me so as I mentioned in the previous post if everyone is in agreement that labeling is a worthwhile for them to reprogram the layout, please continue to help get their attention on the matter.
Again, please let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions on how a better labeling system could be put in to place. Thanks!
It’s a good idea, but it should be offered as an option, as the current system works fine, for me. I don’t want to spend 10 minutes typing in labels on a tiny touchscreen, as that’d be a bit workflow issue.
Of course if a labeling system were implemented it would be optional. If you didn’t want to bother with labeling things you could just leave it blank as is when the song first loads. Having the ability to label the parts would be so helpful when returning to a previous project so rather than having to mute things one at a time to find out what they are you can easily see what track contains the bass or drums, or which part is the verse or bridge and such…
I understand that when looping in a live situation, it is not practical to record something then bend down and label it, then record another part, then bend down and label it. However, it would be nice to pre-set up your song structure labels. We could load a new song and preset all the labels as which tracks we are intending to record what on then save it with no audio recorded. Leave all the recording empty so you can build the song live but the labeling will already be in place to easily keep track of where everything is.
I have a whole notebook filled with songs I’ve created on the Aeros and I have to manually write down what parts and tracks are involved in each song. It would be SO nice to have a self-contained unit that can handle that so I don’t need to carry around a notepad if I use the Aeros to gig.
Just a thought. Anyways I really hope enough people keep an interest in having some form of labeling system. One thing I am very impressed with Singular Sound is how they listen and respond to their customers and seem to be putting their priorities of functionality based on what we as the consumers are requesting. It is very rare to get this level of feedback directly with the company. Knowing this, as I mentioned in a previous post if we all make enough noise regarding an issue perhaps they will bump it up on their list of priorities!
That would be awesome! Maybe a kind of individual labelset you can predefine in settings would be a good idea. If desired later you can choose from your individual set before or after the gig.
While this thread is a little old, I would like to add another
“+1”
to ths request for part and track labelling (as laid out by Opus87 (Jason). I have found myself wishing for this feature a lot in the last week!
