CHASE BLISS AUDIO Blooper Bottomless Looper Effect Pedal Instructions

CHASE BLISS AUDIO Blooper Bottomless Looper Effect Pedal Instructions

Welcome to Blooper, the bottomless looper.

Within this little blue rectangle is an intricate machine to explore, unravel, and make your own, with infinite opportunities and outcomes. What you record is only the beginning.

And with great power comes great confusion, maybe.
We’ve designed Blooper to be extremely flexible and open ended, and this means you will wind up in some unfamiliar places. This is half the fun of course, but it could also be overwhelming at first.

We’ve made a number of support materials to help out.
This manual includes some scenarios that reveal Blooper’s abilities bit by bit, starting with the basic and familiar and working up to adventure. Play through these scenarios and you and Blooper will be best buds in no time.

For more in-depth support, check out the blooper minisite and the video manual.

To customize your Blooper, connect with the Blooper Interface Program (BLIP). This allows you to customize and update your Blooper, as well as download your saved loops. You can tweak the noise levels of Stability, choose your modifiers, and more.

Modes

Normal
Behaves like a “standard” looper. The key difference between Normal and Additive is how the modifiers / stability are treated. In Normal mode, you will be able to hear them, but they will basically be like external effects that come after Blooper (but do not apply to your dry signal). This way you can set up the sound just the way you  like it, and record overdubs without things getting weird.

Additive
Here, overdubbing while a modifier (or stability) is active will imprint it on the loop. Think of the effects just like your instrument: if you hear them, Blooper’s recording mechanism can too. If you want to use these effects but overdub your instrument as usual – that’s normal mode! Additive is the creative heart of Blooper, and it can take some time to understand its quirks. Check out the video manual for a walkthrough.

Sampler
Sampler is a simple and immediate mode, with its own workflow. At its core, it lets you record and manually trigger samples, rather than looping. BUT ALSO, it can loop if you wish. Instead of overdubbing, each time you record, the previous loop is replaced by a new one. This can be great for stutter, or fast, performative looping. By default, Sampler mode is set to loop so you can smoothly move between modes without interruptions. Deactivate this by holding the right footswitch for manual one-shot sample launching. Like the other modes, samples will go through the modifiers and stability.

Commands

ADDITIVE / NORMAL MODES

Tap Left = Record / Play
If you have some looping under your belt, this experience should be familiar. The Record / Play switch handles a number of simple, related behaviors. Tap once to get started recording, tap again to set the end point of the loop. From there, tapping this switch toggles back and forth between playing and recording.

Hold Left = One-shot Record
Useful. Thing. One-shot recording allows you to “imprint” Modifiers and Stability neatly into the loop in Additive mode. Its job is to record one full pass, then automatically turn itself off. In this way you can record effects to the whole loop without having to precisely punch the recording in and out.

Tap Right = Stop
Hold Right = Undo / Redo
This is a unique command that activates a sub menu (indicated by a green LED over the right footswitch).Once in the Undo/Redo menu, tapping the right footswitch will Undo a layer, tapping the left footswitch will Redo. None of the other commands will work in this state. This is essentially a duplicate of what the Layers knob does, so you can control this behavior by foot as well. To exit Undo/Redo, simply hold the right footswitch again.

Tap Both Footswitches = Delete
We chose a pretty darn specific command for this function so you don’t do it by accident. BUT, the delete will occur immediately, so be sure!

SAMPLER MODE

Tap Left = Record
Recording works differently in sampler mode. There is no overdubbing. Each time you tap the left footswitch, your old loop will immediately be cleared and a new one will be recorded.

Hold Left = Momentary Record
Recording will be engaged as long as the footswitch is held down, nice for recording little blips.

Tap Right = Trigger / Retrigger
Plays / resets your “sample.”

Hold Right = Activate / Deactivate Looping
Holding the right footswitch will allow you to deactivate looping in Sampler mode, allowing you to perform a one-shot trigger of your “sample.” The right LED will turn green to let you know this is active.

Controls

Volume (ramp)
Loop will be unity volume at noon, and boosted to roughly 2x at maximum. If ramping is engaged (see the dip switches section for details), the function of this knob will change. It now controls the speed of the movement.

Layers
This is a powerful feature that navigates through the different layers you’ve recorded. It essentially performs Undo & Redo – counter-clockwise removes layers, clockwise adds them back. This can be a quick way to remove mistakes, but it’s also a flexible tool for performing your loops. This knob “goes to sleep” when you aren’t using it, so that you don’t have to worry about where it’s set at all times. Keep in mind that – because it essentially performs Undo / Redo – if you go back to an earlier layer and record, all subsequent layers will be cleared out. A new layer is created each time you stop recording. So, you can allow the loop to play through multiple times, recording overdub after overdub, and this will all be stored as a single layer. The number of times the loop resets has no effect on layer creation, giving you complete control.

The Layers feature adds and removes layers, but it does not isolate them. You can think of it like a tower, where each layer is added on top of the next. If you go back to layer 3, for example, you will be hearing / editing layers 1-3.

Repeats
Enables you to have layers gradually fade away, at a speed of your choosing. The further counter-clockwise Repeats is set, the faster layers will fade away. It’s important to note that Repeats only has an effect while you are recording. If the loop is in playback, it will never fade away. This has a number of advantages you’ll discover as you begin to play around.

MOD A
Controls the A channel of Blooper’s selectable modifiers: 1,2,3. This modifier is activated by a button on the bottom of Blooper. The exact function changes depending on the mode, but there is consistency: 12 o’clock is always the “neutral” zone, with slightly different behaviors on either side.

Stability
Introduces an analog – and increasingly vintage – feel. This includes: Wow, Flutter, Noise, Filtering. Stability was specifically tuned for Additive overdubbing, so that you can gradually wear out your loop over time by recording it repeatedly. Like a tape reel aging in real-time. In the minimum position stability is bypassed, for pure clean looping. You can use the BLIP interface to configure the amount of noise.

MOD B
Controls the B channel of Blooper’s selectable modifiers: 4,5,6.

Blooper has two channels of modifiers, activated by buttons
on the bottom of the pedal. These buttons can be used as a momentary effect by holding them down, or standard on / off with a quicker press. Each channel has a toggle switch to select between three possible modifiers. For consistency, all of Blooper’s modifiers have a “neutral” zone at 12 o’clock on the knob. Each Blooper comes loaded with a standard arrangement of modifiers, but you can connect to the BLIP interface to select your own from a growing collection.

See the Blooper minisite for more detail on each modifier, and the recording with modifiers document for some tips on how to use them.

Smooth Speed
Allows you to adjust the playback speed and direction of your loop in a smooth way. This gives a natural feel reminiscent of adjusting a tape machine. You can go up to double speed, and slow things to complete stop. Going counter- clockwise from noon engage reverse playback.

Dropper
Causes small pieces of your loop to drop out, failing to play. These drops will sometimes be smooth and subtle, other times they will be abrupt and deep. Going counterclockwise produces a random stream of drops, while clockwise will produce a drop pattern: the position and feel of each drop will be consistent. At maximum you will get granular crumbling.

Trimmer
Allows you to shorten the length of your loop. Going counterclockwise will bring the end towards the beginning, going clockwise will pull the beginning towards the end. Use the Stepped version to rhythmically shrink your loop, cutting it in half, for example.

Stepped Speed
Has the same basic operation as Smooth Speed, but with a wider range and quantized intervals. This means that it jumps between precise speeds that are tuned to stay in key, keeping everything musical and harmonious. The steps are Octaves and Fifths. The maximum speed in this case is two octaves up.

Scrambler
Rearranges your loop, turning it into a pattern. Going counter-clockwise will be random, while going clockwise will create a repeating sequence. Lower levels will produce the occasional jump, while higher levels will chop everything up.

Filter
Our most practical effect, this is a simple, non-resonant tool for sculpting the sound of your loop. Clockwise introduces a High-pass filter for removing low frequencies, while counter-clockwise introduces a Low-pass filter for mellowing out the highs.

Swapper
An interactive 3-position modifier that offers different  ways to silence your loop. The two sides of the knob sweep introduce different kinds of envelope- sensitive muting – your loop will go silent whenever you play. Counter clockwise sets the threshold of an immediate muting effect,
while clockwise sets the speed of a more gradual fade into silence. With the knob at noon, the loop will immediately be muted whenever overdubbing is engaged. In ADD mode this muting effect will allow you to replace parts of your loop with new audio – hence, Swapper.

Stopper
STOP. YOUR. LOOP. Rotating clockwise introduces a gradual fade out in volume, while rotating counter-clockwise introduces a melting tape-stop effect. The effect kicks in when the modifier is turned on, and stays stopped until it’s disengaged.

Pitcher
Pitch shift your loop without affecting the speed. Clockwise from noon increases the pitch, counter-clockwise drops it down. You have a three octave range in either direction. NOTE: Because Pitcher uses a lot of processing, some other modifiers can’t be used at the same time.

Stretcher
Time stretch your loop without affecting the pitch. Clockwise from noon speeds things up, counter-clockwise slows them down. NOTE: Because Stretcher uses a lot of processing, some other modifiers can’t be used at the same time.

Stutter
Create a loop within your loop, repeating the current moment. Counter- clockwise will create a stutter of whatever just happened, while clockwise will stutter what’s coming up next. Useful as a performance effect, or zooming in on a certain moment of a longer loop.

SMOOTH VS. STEPPED MODIFIERS
A number of modifiers have both a smooth and stepped option. The stepped versions jump between musical intervals as you adjust the knob – for example, subdivisions or precise pitches – making things fast and easy. The smooth versions give you finer control and fluid response.

Saving

Blooper can save and recall 16 loops, with their layers preserved. The left and right position of Blooper’s save toggle are two distinct menus: Preview (Left) and Save / Load (Right).

Preview

Allows you to scroll through your loops, selecting a destination for Save or Load. There are two cues to help you navigate: Audio preview and Arcade button blinks.

The audio preview will play a short piece of each loop. Pressing the left footswitch scrolls backwards, pressing the right footswitch scrolls forwards. Once you have a loop you would like to load, or save over, flick over to the right position to make it happen.

Save / Load

Once you’ve selected a slot, hold the left footswitch to Save, or the right footswitch to Load. The arcade buttons will hold solid red while saving, and solid blue while loading. Once you’re done, flick back to the middle position and make music sounds.

Dip switches

You can break Blooper’s dip switches up into two categories: Ramping / Expression and Customization.

RAMPING / EXPRESSION

The ramping dip switches allow you to activate and customize built-in modulation or external control (like expression or CV) that can be applied to any (or multiple) of Blooper’s knobs. To get started, put the knobs you want to control into the on position. If you are using CV or Expression, you’re all set. Youcan use the Sweep and Polarity dip switches to customize further. You also have some other options if you are using internal ramping. In this case – once you put something in the on position – the Volume knob now becomes the Ramp knob. It controls the speed of Ramping.

There are two ways you can use Ramping:
Ramp and hold, which transitions from one point to another and stays there, or bounce, for continuous movement.

Sweep
Sets the range of the modulation. (T)op will sweep from the knob position to maximum, while (B)ottom will sweep from the knob position to minimum.

Polarity
Sets whether the movement starts at the knob position and moves up or down from there, or whether it moves towards the knob.

Wiggle
Limits the range of the movement for small adjustments similar to more typical modulation.

Random
Turns the movement into random steps that change precisely.

Sync
This handy little dip switch syncs the speed of modulation to the loop length. This means that you will get the same type of movement at the same part of the loop consistently, or you can precisely select how long ramping takes. Once activated, the Ramp knob chooses a subdivision or multiplication of the loop length for the ramping speed.

CUSTOMIZATION

Loopers are personal devices, so several of the dip switches are there to customize behavior.

Dry kill
Stops the dry signal from passing through (useful for studio work, for example).

CV Clock
CV can be used for two different things with Blooper: sync, or modulation. By default, CV will provide modulation (configured in the same way as expression). By engaging the CV clock dipswitch, the CV jack will instead look for a clock source to sync to.
Pressing the footswitch arms Blooper, but recording will only be engaged (and disengaged) when it detects a pulse. Playback will also stay synced to avoid drifting.

Play / Dub
Adjusts the default behavior when recording your initial loop. In the standard position (Play), the loop will automatically go into playback once you tap Record the second time (to set your end point). By putting the dipswitch in the Dub position, it will continue recording, going straight into overdubbing your second layer. This can be useful for ambient music, for example, allowing trails to be captured smoothly into the loop.

Bank A / B
Engage these switches to access alternate banks of modifiers. These banks come loaded with unique, complementary groups of modifiers, but you can also use the B.I.P interface to choose your own from a growing list.

Tips & notes

Additive terror
There is an element of risk involved with Additive mode. We are allowing you to record the same effect over and over, intensifying it each time. This is a dangerous thing to do, and it’s up to you to control it. There’s no safety switch (well, normal mode). If you leave things recording in additive mode, effects may get outrageous fast or distort. It depends on what you are using, and how it’s set.

Mode switching
Your audio comes with you when switching modes. This can be useful for using additive mode to effect and transform your base layer, then moving on to normal mode for some more predictable overdubbing, for example. Build a complex, multi-layered loop, then switch over to Sample mode and manually fire it off.

Mind the repeats
You may find yourself noticing that your loops keep fading away. This is not a mistake: this is Repeats. Keep it  maxed if you want standard looping behavior.

LEDs are your friend
We’ve taken some care to have unique LED feedback for each of Blooper’s various states. It would be boring and silly to describe them all, but they should become familiar and second-nature before long.

The fixed length
Blooper allows you to do all kinds of weird things to your loop in ADD mode, but the length of the loop is fixed. It will never change. This means you will start to lose pieces of your loop if you slow it down while overdubbing, for example. It just can’t fit! It can be disorienting, but it makes sense with practice. It also has its advantages. Check out the breakdown on the minisite.

Some of these concepts are much easier to explain and demonstrate on video, and we have many tutorials available on our youtube channel at youtube.com/ChaseBlissAudio.
We also love to hear from customers and answer questions so feel free to write us anytime at chaseblissaudio.com/contact.

Scenarios

NORMAL
Let’s start by exploring the benefits of simple, standard looping. In Normal mode, you can use Blooper like any other looper, except with some nifty built-in effects and the ability to bring layers in and out.

1. Record loop
   

2. Overdub twice
   

3. Navigate between layers using the knob
   

4. Add a bit of stability
   

5. Navigate between layers using undo /redo menu
   

6. Delete loop
   

SAMPLER

Now, let’s enjoy some more immediate, performative looping with Sampler mode. This is a place to play around or capture samples to trigger.

1. Record loop
   

2. Retrigger

3. Replace
   

4. Turn off looping
   

5. Trigger samples

6. Explore using modifiers with samples

ADDITIVE

Okay, now we’re going to get into it. Additive is the heart of Blooper and where the real fun happens. Additive allows you to record Modifiers and Stability as if they were audio overdubs, allowing you to pile up effects over time, or only affect certain parts of your loop.

1. Record loop
   

2. Turn on filter, set to taste
   

3. Activate one-shot recording
   

4. Turn off modifier, and behold!

5. Set stability to 10, and hit record. Listen to your loop gradually fall apart
   

DELAY-STYLE

The repeats knob unlocks a whole other side of Blooper. It allows it to function like a delay, or perform frippertronics-style looping. Here, think of your loop length as “tap tempo.” Remember that this will only work if the loop is recording (not in playback).

1. Input “tap tempo”
   

2. Play like a delay
   

3. Experiment with modifiers

4. Try additive & normal
   

5. Toggle over to play, and notice how the loop is now stable
   

6. Crank repeats, now overdub like a loop
   

Connectivity

Blooper has 4 different options for connection and expansion using external gear.

MIDI

Create a custom expander using a MIDI
footswitch, draw automation on a DAW, or lock to an external clock for tight, synced loops. A Chase Bliss Midi box is required to convert standard 5-pin MIDI cable to a ¼” TRS. See the MIDI manual for details.

Ext. Switch

Allows you to control Blooper’s left footswitch externally. This might be useful if you want to use Blooper on a tabletop. Plug any normally-open momentary footswitch in and you’re good to go, it takes control automatically.

Expression

Any (or all) of Blooper’s knobs can be adjusted using an external expression pedal, for smooth performance adjustments.

CONFIGURING CV / EXPRESSION

The dip switches in the left bank allow you to choose which parameters are being controlled by either CV or EXP. You can control multiple parameters at once – simply flick up the dip switch, and it will be under external control (if no external signal is present, it will be set to ramp. See above). The “Sweep” dip switch sets the range, and “Polarity” sets the direction. If you have something plugged into the EXP / CV jack but do not have any parameters selected via dip switch, you can control the Volume knob. It behaves like it has the “Rise” and “Bottom” sweep dip switches engaged.

CV

CV can be used to automate Blooper’s knobs, or as a clock source to sync to. Use the ‘CV clock’ dipswitch to choose which behaviour is active.

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