The short answer is that it's a "looper" - a special kind of sampler, designed to record audio live, in real time, and then instantly play it back as a loop. You can then add new elements to the recording, edit the material, and play over/into/around the loop, while the sound you just performed is being played back, all live and instantaneously. It's sort of like being a DJ, except that instead of spinning a record of pre-recorded music, you're creating the recording from scratch right then and there... at the same time that you're spinning it.

The Echoplex Digital Pro (or "EDP") has occupied a unique place in the looping world since its introduction in the early '90s. Even now, a decade after its original release, it has yet to be surpassed in its specific feature set and design angle as a seamless, real-time performance tool. By the same token, however, a large part of what makes the EDP so special has to do with its very unique and ideosyncratic architecture, which may seem strange, intimidating, or overly complex to the newcomer.

So it's my hope that these pages will help to de-mystify the Echoplex, offer some possibilities for how to deal with it as a dynamic performance tool, and demonstrate some of what makes the EDP so special. For all of its electronic origins and software-based possibilities, the Echoplex is ultimately designed as a real-time performance instrument, and as with any instrument, it takes some time to learn. I also hope that people who are new to the concept of real-time looping can get a better understanding of how this craft is approached, and discover some of the many ways it can be used in various musical situations.

Some of the information here will be very basic and introductory, and some of it will use fairly advanced EDP-specific terminology. So regardless of whether you're an Echoplex novice or an experienced loopist, you may want to refer to the Echoplex manual for a more detailed listing of specific terms, functions, and parameter settings.

There are several different sections to these pages, covering a variety of Echoplex angles: