I used to be a big fan of The Cure, a British mope rock band from the 80’s and 90’s, but I moved on to cheerier tunes when my outlook on life improved. Still, their old songs are a big part of my music education, and I still hear their influence in my music. “To Wish Impossible Things” was a depressing breakup song on their 1991 “Wish” album, and I learned how to play it when I was a teenager from the tablature songbook that I borrowed from a friend. These days I like to play the song with a swing feel, which makes it considerably more upbeat than the original droning Eeyore ballad.
Anyway, the MOD Dwarf has a looper plugin, and I have wanted to play with a looper ever since I saw Chet Atkins perform Jam Man live in 1997. “To Wish Impossible Things” has a lot of potential for layering, as all Cure songs do, so I thought it would be a good tune for my first adventure with SooperLooper.
The video shows how I tweaked the SooperLooper pedalboard, but I made further changes after that clip was recorded. Here is a screenshot of the final pedalboard, which also included a stereo panner, tremolo, and delay that I could switch off and on by foot switch:
Towards the end of the recording the MOD Dwarf locked up. Obviously that could be a major concern if it happened during a live performance. In all of my practicing for this video I don’t remember it locking up, but it would sometimes get in a state where it wouldn’t record the first sample and I would have to reboot it. Not sure if it’s user error or a software glitch, but I suspect the problem is in SooperLooper.
I also wanted a looper that could allow for a bridge in the song, like in Jam Man, but I don’t think this one can do that. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Info and Stats
- Production dates: 25 February 2023
- Equipment:
- Guitar: Ibanez AM53
- Effects Pedal: MOD Dwarf Founders Edition
- Interface: Behringer Xenyx 1204USB
- Behringer Ultra-DI DI400P
- Software:
- Dragonfly Plate Reverb
- TAP: tremolo, Stereo Echo
- MOD: Mixer Stereo, Stereo Gain
- GxSupersonic
- Ardour 7.2
- x42-plugins: parametric equalizer, dynamic compressor, digital peak limiter
- Total tracks: 1
Sanderson 