Line6 Spider Jam v. JM4 Looper – which for what?
Review by: Joe Gillespie – Joe runs a web site, www.joesjamblog.com, dedicated to these great devices that offers information and tips to get the best out of them.
Line6’s Spider III Jam and JM4 Looper are basically the same product in different packages. Although I could start by rhyming off a whole list of features, I will instead explain what these products are all about;
They are to help you improve your playing. They will! Not many other products can make that claim.
‘Jam’ is the key word here. These products provide backing for you to jam along with. You can change key and maintain tempo or slow down a track keeping the same key to help nail down some tricky solo. You can just play for hours until your fingers hurt – but you will end up being a better player! Guaranteed.
The difference between the two products is the Spider III Jam has an amplifier and speakers in a combo cabinet whilst the JM4 Looper is presented as a floor pedal that has to plug into a separate amplifier. There is very little difference in the prices of the two products so which one you buy comes down to what equipment you already have and how you want to use it.
With the Spider Jam, you get a Line6 Spider III 75 Watt amplifier plus everything that is in the JM4 Looper. On top of that, you get a wide-range speaker system (12″ speaker plus tweeter) that is able to handle a plethora of different instruments – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, keyboards and even bass guitar. A regular guitar amplifier will generally be a one trick pony by comparison. The Spider Jam is, in reality, more like a mini PA or hi-fi system.
The JM4 Looper can be used through your regular guitar amplifier but it’s better to plug it into a PA or hi-fi system to benefit from the wider frequency range that they offer so that the backing tracks sound as they should.
If you want to sing along too, there is a microphone input with its own mixable channel of effects. A third AUX input can be routed to either the MIC or GUITAR channel. If you want to plug-in a CD or MP3 player, there is a mini jack to do that too.
Having identified the purpose of the products, let’s look at how they do that. If you can imagine an amp simulation device connected to a bunch of stompboxes offering distortion, flanger, phaser, tremolo, echo and reverb and all connected to an MP3 player and digital recorder you will start to get the idea. Stick a mixer on the front that can accept input from guitar, keyboards, XLR microphone, a CD/MP3 player and just about anything else that you throw at it, you will appreciate the versatility. Then, if you factor-in the hundreds of built-in drum loops and backing tracks in many styles all done to the highest professional standards by big name session musicians, you will begin to see the possibilities.
So, you can dial-up a drum loop or a complete backing track and jam along with that or, using the built-in recording facility, you can build your own backing tracks. The internal memory is good for about 30 minutes recording (once you have listened to and erased the demo songs). Any songs you record can be saved to SD card for archiving and to free-up internal memory.
The recording facilities allow you to record short loops and, with a touch of a button, layer more loops on top (if you are into that sort of thing), or you can just play a backing track and play along with it, recording the whole session.
The bundled backing tracks cover many styles from country to heavy metal at different tempos. If you want specific backing tracks, you can usually download them from the Web and, either record them off your computer with an audio connection or you can use an audio editing program to convert the downloaded MP3s to the necessary mono WAV format that these devices use and transfer the sound files by way of an SD card.
On the Guitar channel, there are 12 amp simulations going from Clean through Twang and Blues to Crunch, Metal and Insane. These correspond to various Fender, Vox, Marshall and boutique amp tonal palettes so whatever style of music you are playing, you will be in the right ballpark. With each amp model you have an appropriate set of controls – Drive, Bass, Middle, Treble and Reverb. You can save these models and tones along with the modulation or echo effects into custom presets to you own liking, or you can just choose from any of the hundreds of excellent preset tones.
When you start using these products for uses that are not intended (eg. for gigging or live performances) you might be disappointed. A hammer is not good for putting in screws. A Spider Jam is likely to be lost beside a loud drummer where a dedicated 75 Watt guitar amp would cut through. Used as a backing device for a solo performer or duo in an intimate environment either device would be fine provided that you setup all the tones beforehand. Navigating though tiny menus on a small LCD screen in front of an impatient audience is only going to bring embarrassment all round!
If you’ve ever used a Swiss Army Knife, you have probably marveled at the ingenuity then cursed when something flicked back and bit your finger. The knife is not great, the screwdriver sucks, the corkscrew is hopeless. Nevertheless, if you don’t happen to have a better knife, screwdriver and corkscrew in you pocket, it can be a godsend.
Where the Spider jam and JM4 Looper are concerned, yes, there are better amp simulators, effects units and looping devices on the market. There are much better solutions for doing multitrack recording. What Line6 has done is to put all these facilities together into two easy-to-use units at very affordable prices. They are immense fun to use, they will improve your playing – and that’s, after all, what it says on the tin!
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