you cant listen to a loop and record a separate one on top, they are both being mixed together, like you said, with the internal processing

however if you are recording external input you can press "source select" so that the loops you have playing wont record with the input from the mic or line in, or even usb i believe.

so basically practice and memorize the part you are going to layer in pads, then hit the metronome, set the loop length and record.

so if you are recording your kaossilator try doing that instead of just getting all the loops on there at once

so is that how you do things? Do you use the 555 for all your looping? Or do you do it outside the machine then bring em in through the usb?

I just have a feeling that the machine isnt actually designed to be a loop making device in itself and I might be better off finding an external way of doing it.

For example, the loop capture and pads have different processing speeds....so you cant build up loops live through the loop capture over a sample already rolling round in the machine.

You cant listen to a sample and record another over the top without using loop capture which is going to cause problems because of the above.

You cant play over samples in sample standby mode. You also cant play over the metronome in sample standby mode. As the internal processing is different for loop capture and internal, anything you play over the metronome could drift when u bring it onto the pads (the manual says admits this...)

So I am still stuck...i would be grateful to hear from anyone who uses the 555 alone for looping....

the looping isnt really meant to be a full on performance thing (although it can if used right) because of the audio stopping when you save.
think of each loop as a brick in your song

you can combine each brick to form a bigger piece.

the only thing that comes close to the way you build songs on the 555 is ableton live.
the interesting parts come in when you resample and overdub loops, something that would take much much longer to do on an mpc. you would have to send the cables out to a looper, then reverse the cables and send it into the mpc again.
so despite the flaws, you have access to some of the best workflow around.

i think this is at the root of my issue tho....i can see how the machine would be great for messing with those bricks and making interesting new sounds....

what im having problems with is making those bricks the same size and shape and fitting together in the first place.

after 4 days straight of trying to find a way in to do this im about to turn on my crappy old zoom sampletrak and use that again and just feed through the 555 for its effects. I feel a bit let down!

I appreciate all your advice, but without a way of editing loops to the degree I need to Im always going to be hitting problems. Also the issue of the loop capture and internal clocks being different means that using an external loop pedal that u can at least punch in and out in time and it will stay syncd.

Looking back through the forum it seems that this issue arises over and over and the answer is usually use external software to begin with and then bring in clean loops in Which is cool....but far less than you would expect.Thats what you do right? And Jaylost?

Its a good machine with ace effects and if ur starting off with a bunch of clean regimented loops (no longer than 15 seconds tho!) its pretty impressive. But when it comes to recording external stuff in to loop...people seem to be going elsewhere which is very telling...

no i dont always bring in sounds from usb. you can get clean loops anywhere, even from just micing yourself tapping on the desk

dont feel defeated, its easy to use the loop capture once you get the hang of it

i did this song only with the 555 and things i recorded and resampled through the loop capture

http://www.box.net/shared/1qjlh2d4vr
go to the battles section and listen to more of the sp only beats

any time things drift i run it through the loop capture so it doesnt drift. the problems you have come into have been solely from using the autostart and marking the end of the loop. so if it drifts, set the measure and run it through again hitting the pad and record at the same time.

if your problem is actually not being able to hit record at the same time you want to start recording, which in a round about way thats what it sounds like, then get a sustain pedal for an electric keyboard (reallllly cheap) and use that to start the loop recording. it will make things much better if that is indeed your setup

yo i couldn't of said it better myself man you hit it dead on with this and also i back all your other post on this. i think the 555 is perfect for looping but i also think you need to be musically inclined and you have to be able to judge when to start and stop your loops. i mean really alls you need is the 555 and a record/cd/mp3 player and you can make great grooves but also having another program such as ableton live makes it fun but really not needed...for me i use the 555 with live 7 and reason but in the beginning i made some of my best beats with just the 555 and a portable cd player. so what im saying is your ears are your best tool when it comes to beat making and the 555 is way fucking dope for this. hehe sorry hope this helped...peace!!!!

if you dont already do this - try recording the loop you want on the kaoscillator loop recorder first then bang into the 555.
i dont own a 555, but i have 404 and a kaoscillator as well
also this is just my opinion/theory but i noticed what you(og poster) said about various shades of any bpm and i think its because these sp's dont do decimal points in the bpms - dont know how different the 555 is from the 404 though