Digitech Trio+ Band Creator and Looper Pedal Review: Reimagined

Controls:
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The Trio+ Band Creator and Looper from Digitech will make you rethink all that a looper pedal can do. With some intelligent and innovative features, now you really can be a complete ‘one-man-band,’ all at a price point that – while a little more than some of the competition – feels well worth it. Band practice just became a lot easier!

Features

The Trio+ takes the traditional looper to a completely new level in a manner that just blows us away. With this impressive unit, you can play a song and watch as bass and drum tracks are generated automatically to match the key, tempo, and style of what you’re playing. How unbelievably cool!

It allows you to create your own band for up to five different song sections (think verse, chorus, bridge, and so on), while there are also 12 different styles that align with your song (such as rock, jazz, or folk). We dare you to play a country tune using the metal genre… you may never be the same again.

Of course, it can function as a true looper pedal as well. On first hearing this, we thought the Trio+ sounds like something that should be in a fancy rackmount unit, but Digitech has managed to squish all of that functionality into a foot pedal-sized package with a rugged metal construction, powered with the industry-standard 9V adapter. It even has an effects loop, and it can be controlled by an external Digitech footswitch (not included) for more hands-free operation.

Topping things off, it has USB connectivity, a headphone jack, and support for a microSD card as well.

Controls

For all of the power under the hood, the controls on the Trio+ are fairly straightforward. There are six knobs along with a series of LED-illuminated buttons across the top and two stompbox-style foot switches. Knob functions include Tempo, Genre, and Style (to select the different types of auto-generated tracks), and controls which adjust the looper, drum, and bass levels.

The buttons across the top control the different song sections that you can save, and the footswitches act as the overall Looper and Band controls (turning recording and band generation functions on and off, among other things).

Performance

It would seem that auto-generation of bass and drum tracks wouldn’t work all that well, but we were pretty pleased with how wrong we were. It’s truly feasible to program entire songs to act as complete backing tracks for the live solo performer. A microSD card can typically hold up to around 12 songs – just about the length of a normal set. Carry a few cards with you, and you’re set for the entire gig.

The generated bass and drum sounds are more than usable, and when used in conjunction with the unlimited dubs and loops the Trio+ gives you, you can be assured that amazing results will await your audience. Does it sound exactly like a bunch of musicians in the same room? To the extremely-discerning musician, maybe not. To the general public? Yes, absolutely!

Looper pedals are typically designed to be pretty beefy, considering how they take a lot of pedal stomps and tweaks throughout the night. The Trio+ is no exception in this regard – it feels extremely robust and should last for many performances.

Conclusion

Loopers are so versatile and wide-reaching in their functionality these days, but the Digitech Trio+ Band Creator and Looper sets the bar one notch higher. For the money, and the fact that it’s still a relatively compact foot pedal, the incredible flexibility that this pedal offers is mind-blowing.

For more info about the Digitech Trio+ Band Creator and Looper Pedal, click here.

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