Thursday, September 19, 2024

LOOP SWITCHER/POWER SUPPLY- VITOOS VMPS-4 ... a bargain if used cleverly

VITOOS VMPS-4 
Loop Switcher/Power Supply
This  company stationed in Hong Kong have had a track record for years of primarily making power supplies that are reliable and safe for many different brand names. They do however make this one basic 4 channel looper which also has 4 isolated power supplies built in.
Keeping in mind that if you have pedals that you never pair up together or indeed alway pair together they can be left in the same loop. I have 67 pedals and I only need 3 loops. Each loop has a whole board on it. Between tunes I switch on what I need for the next tune and switch off what was used on the last. So each part of the song I can go from one board to the other. Each board has a Comp, an EQ, a Delay and Reverb. One is basically for clean sounds, the second for Crunch and the 3rd for high gain. 
 
$130.00 USD
from AliExpress with free shipping

THE LAYOUT 
 Each loop has it's own power supply output but you will need daisy chains if you are going to use several pedals in each loop. All have 9v 500ma outputs. Analog pedals take very little juice but some digital take a lot. In most cases 500ma is more than enough. You could probably have 10 Overdrives on at once with 500ma.
It has 20 Banks where using its full capability you can program in which of each of the 4 loops you want to come on when you hit one of the on/off switches. Unfortunately that works best where pretty much 
each pedal has its own loop. Having 10 to 12 is 
not unusual. They are also damn expensive.  
Add to that you need an equally pricy separate 
power supply to use them. 
___
CONCLUSION ___  
A good 4 output power supply could easily cost $130.00 USD 
so this pedal is a steal. It is like getting a free conventional 
loop switcher and only buying your power supply.

16 comments:

  1. What does it mean that it is programmable?

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  2. I've got the Boss LS-2. It is a good pedal but the Opamp slightly change the signal. Does the Vito's keep the signal intact?

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    1. I do not know as I do not own either todays switcher or the Boss LS-2 first the buffer thing. It is cheaper to not have a buffer so it it may be true bypass. When I bought my Boss switcher it was the only switcher made. It has 5 banks with 5 buffers, I have them ALL turned on. Add to that the idea that true bypass is better is total nonsense if you have several pedals. Pedals add distance to your signal Anything longer than 18 feet from your guitar PU to your amp and lose highs and lows. With 10 pedals without a buffer your amp could sound like you have a heavy wool blanket over your speakers. If you any of the classic pedals like Boss, ibanez, MXR etc they all have a buffer that is part of the sound. Like the beautiful crisp highs from a my old Boss Chorus. The original Klon has a buffer. You can not turn it off.
      The electric guitar is all about turning the signal on its head. It is enough to love a sound if it works for you. A vintage Tonebender v.1 has only 7 parts on its board. Those parts were picked because they were reliable enough not to fail over a 3 month warranty but otherwise as cheap as possible to buy.In short if you do not like the Boss it is to a great deal subjective. 100% or all pedals are NOT transparent. What goes in does not come out the same no matter what. If you like the sound coming out of a pedal with it off, great but it has changed a little or a lot. Either it got a kick from a buffer or had some highs sucked off. as for Op Amps they all sound different but 99% of the time they are nothing but a nano clean boost and make squat difference to the sound. Diodes make huge differences.Even different makes that have the same value. They are like car tires. Same size and dimensions BUT...

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  3. You have 4 switches. You can program it to on switch (A) that you want loop 2 and 4 to come on when you click it. Then on switch (B) you want just loop 4 to come on. Then on switch (C) you want loop 1 & 4, lastly on switch (D) you want loop 1,4, then 2. That you save in Bank #1 . You then do Bank #2 etc. you can do that for 20 banks. So if you play a certain tune you go to a Bank and all 4 switches are what you use on that tune. I use my rig really simple I go to bank 1 and use the fist 3 switches (A) for loop 1, (B) for loop 2 and (C) is loop 3.

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    1. Thanks. Does it change the signal?

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  4. I absolutely love mine!
    It is a steal for about US$100
    I bought mine at Only Pedals
    https://www.onlypedals.com/vitoos-vmps-4-guitar-pedal-loop-switcher-with-fully-isolated-power-supply

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    1. Is it true bypass like this one: https://www.thegigrig.com/quartermaster

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    2. Who knows? Google the product and look up the specs.

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    3. It is not detailed…

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    4. Better to ask Vitoos directly then.

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  5. It is a rebranded harley Benton:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoQW7UE3yBE

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  6. If you mean Vitoos makes Harley Benton? It is MORE likely than not. For one reason they have a track record for reliability. in short they will not short out and fry you pedal or start a fire. The company sell the most are the ones that get labelled Joyo. Joyo has a huge market. They dominate all of Asia which means millions of players. Many cities in China have more people than some countries and 99% of us have never heard of them.

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  7. THANX to all that write in and comment. We are ALL players so we need to help each other with good tips and cautionary warnings. The only difference between ANY of us from any country is the color of our Strat, LOL.

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