As we mused last year, Ed Sheeran did have a signature looper pedal in the works. Actually, he has two.
The Sheeran Looper X and + are very different propositions, and their $1,199/£1,199 and $299/£299 price points reflect this. Both come from intensive R&D at the feet of the highest-profile looping musician on the planet, a musician earned his reputation creating a one-man-band sound with a a Boss Loop Station.
"I just thought having it all in one thing would make it a lot easier," says Sheeran of the X model. "People can really deep dive into it… because looping is a wider thing than just me playing Bloodstream.
"The reason this is what it is comes from years of, 'I would like this in a pedal… and this in a pedal'. It does everything I need it to do – and more."
The proof is already available: the X is what Sheeran is using to play stadiums around the world. "It far surpasses anything that I'd ever used before," says Sheeran. "The key is they sound great, and they're easy to use – I use them."
- Both the Sheeran Looper + and X are available to order and shipping now at Sweetwater, Andertons and Thomann
The songwriter shows X in action on Shape Of You but the smaller + pedal gets the spotlight below for a performance of older track You Need Me, I Don't Need You, hinting at its suitability to upcoming performers like he was when he used the Boss RC-20XL when he was starting out.
The $299 Sheeran Looper+ is a dual-track workflow pedal. with 'stadium-grade' die-cast aluminum pedals, 1.8” color screen with RGB LED loop status ring.
Both pedals were designed Ed and his production team, with a custom DSP powered by HeadRush plus 32-bit audio capture. Designed by Ed Sheeran and his production team.
Functions include Undo/redo, solo, fade, reverse, 1/2 speed, solo, and mute performance functions, with inputs for combo XLR + 1/4” (6.35mm) to accommodate microphones, stereo 1/4” (6.35mm) inputs for connecting guitars, basses, keyboards. There are stereo 1/4” (6.35mm) outputs that can be run in stereo, mono, or split modes.
A 1/4” (6.35mm) external footswitch input is included for connecting additional footswitches, plus a 1/8” (3.5mm) MIDI input for external sync and external MIDI feature control.
As well as 9V power supply, the Sheeran Looper + can be powered with 4 AA batteries to offer over six hours of battery life for average use.
Musicians are able to save up to 128 loops with over three hours of audio to the pedal's internal storage, import/export loops via USB and record to Mac/PC via the integrated USB audio interface.
The Sheeran Looper X is an investment for the deep-divers who want to push the possibilities of looping with a unit that will encourage them and deliver for ambitious needs. This is the same pedal Sheeran himself uses live, and it goes far beyond looping – it's a multi-effects pedal too, for starters!
Here's there are eight aluminium pedals and a 7” touchscreen with real-time metering and waveform rendering to back a 'complete toolkit of loop creation and remix functions.'
There's a lot on offer here from Looper X so here's the full list of bells and whistles for you to peruse:
- 5 intuitive looper modes: Multi, Sync, Song, Band, and Free
- Customise your own unique looper workflows
- 360-degree navigation wheel with full RGB LED loop status indicator system
- Unlimited loop lengths with 99 layers per track and limitless bouncing
- Undo, Peel, Reverse, Fade, Transpose, plus Multiply/Divide Length and Speed on the fly
- Auto loop tempo detection
- Intelligent Time-Stretch maintains pitch when changing tempos without artifacts
- Multi-effects suite onboard including auto-harmony and auto-vocal tuning, 26 individual effects and nine different multi-FX racks with 159 different custom presets designed for guitars, vocals, percussion, and more
- Onboard chromatic tuner
- •Tap tempo and click track
- Multi-touch audio mixer with fully customizable audio I/O routing
- Built-in backing track player
- Over 300 drum and percussion loops included
- four mono Combo XLR + 1/4” (6.35mm) inputs with switchable 48V phantom power
- Stereo pair XLR outputs and Stereo pair 1/4" (6.35mm) outputs
- 1/8” (3.5mm) auxiliary input for connecting a mobile device
- 1/4” (6.35mm) external expression input assignable to controlling volume and FX
- Five-pin MIDI IN/OUT/THRU and USB-A input for MIDI sync and external MIDI control
- Save over seven hours of loops to internal storage; import/export loops via SD and USB
- Record your performance to Mac/PC via the integrated USB audio interface
Sheeran has taken his time, and paired with an experienced DSP provider with Headrush. The results could be a new benchmark for looper pedals in the market because of the musicians' extensive years of experience using loops in tiny venues and stadiums. That counts for a lot, and in the case of Looper X, there's a lot to digest.
Sheeran's emphasis on these units being easy to use could be a huge benefit if it bears true. Who knows, they could inspire the next generation of stadium-fillers and bar-thrillers.
You can order both models now at Sweetwater, Andertons and Thomann
