Thanks guys for the input. As for the timefactor sounding bad, that's the first I've heard of this. The common complaint I've heard is the delays are on the short side, but nothing of the sound quality.
As for using a laptop and Live, I can understand the attraction but I will be using logic on my laptop, and buying another laptop just to run Ableton, plus the cost of the software, and that APC40 thing would be the most expensive option of them all, even with near endless looping. And that APC40 from what I saw in the demo it looks like its mostly designed for playing back pre-recorded loops. I'm more interested in doing some live looping on the fly, not going to playback much pre-recorded loops. And probably the biggest reason I won't be going the Live route is I don't want to, or even have time to learn another piece of complicated software. This gig is coming up in a little over two months.
Scott, thanks for the heads up on that Behringer pedalboard, I'll be checking that out if I end up going the Looperlative or EDP route.
When I am saying sounding bad, it is relative...to what you compare too, all I said was do not expect it to sound like the h8000, which has a lot more dsp power. The time factor is a budget version with dumbed down algorithms similiar to the budget version of the Lexicon Processors. I would never imagine to use an stomp box as an primary delay unit, unless it is for guitar only . But for a full mix I would prefer software solution, soundtoys or echolab or of course if you have the money H8000FW.
Keep in mind though, the APC can be programmed to do what ever you want it is just a midi surface which can be customized, it can for sure record loops on the fly also, remember the the whole midi interface and all plugin surfaces can be controlled through their midi learn functions, so to program the APC to record loops in real time would be no problem.
You are right, it might not be the cheapest solution right now, if you do not own the software or if your computer is not powerful enough.
The learning curve in Ableton is quite fast though...and you will fall in love with the Ableton Session View, it is something I really miss in other DAWs cause it is perfect for live performances.
But yeah, however, if your concert is in 2 months I can understand..you do not have much time to learn new software etc...so probably best if you could find a second hand HW looper maybe you can borrow from some one..for a few weeks.., then after the concert, you can look more into software looping more.. for me the software looping solution is superior, and it might also be a reason why these old school loop boxes gets more and more rare.