AITONE Phrase Loop AT07 guitar looper review and tutorial

AITONE emailed and offered to send a looper pedal to me for free to review. I accepted.

Any time I accept a pedal for review, it has to offer something good that separates it from other like pedals. With the AT07, it offers are few good things I really like.

At the tail of this is my full video review, but here's a quick rundown of how it works and my thoughts on the AT07.

Transparency notice: Consider this a sponsored review since AITONE sent the pedal to me for free. I was not paid, but did actually get something (the pedal itself), so yes that technically counts as sponsored.

Firstly, if you want to see how much it is, that's here.

Before getting into the features, operation of the AT07 is thankfully easy.

Recording a loop: Pick a record slot with the center knob, stomp once to start recording, stomp again to stop. Any slot with a recorded loop is indicated by the LED light blinking blue. For any slot that's free, the light stays out.

Playing back a loop: Pick a slot with a recorded loop on it, stomp once to play back, stomp twice to stop playback.

Overdubbing: Pick a slot with a recorded loop on it, stomp once to play back, light illuminates blue. Stomp once during playback, light changes to red indicating overdub recording has begun, record, double stomp to stop.

Undo: Record overdub first. Play back loop. A long press of the footswitch is undo.

Redo: Undo first. Play back loop. A long press of the footswitch is redo.

Using the bank toggle switch: This is what the top toggle switch is for. You have bank 1 slots 1-16, bank 2 slots 1-16 and bank 3 slots 1-16. This is how you get 48 record slots out of the AT07.

Adjusting volume: Use the Level small knob at top left.

Using the threshold function when auto-recording: See the video below for instruction, as it's better to see and hear that in action to understand how it works.

Good things that the AT07 brings to the table:

Being able to set an audio threshold is a very welcome feature, and every looper pedal should have this. This feature defeats a common annoyance with loopers where you can manually set the auto-record audio level so it doesn't start recording accidentally. Very nice to have.

What I like best however is the fact the AT07 operates using no screen whatsoever. You get 100% access to all the functions it has without having to read a screen, and that's great.

In addition, you get to your loops faster than if you were using a pedal with a screen on it.

Take the BOSS Loop Station RC-5, for example. Yes, it has 99 slots. But if you're in a situation where you want to go from loop 3 to loop 47, that requires looking directly at the screen, turning the knob and finding the number you want. You have to read the screen.

An example of the same situation with the AT07. You want to go from bank 1 loop 1 to bank 3 loop 5. Flick of the bank switch to bank 3, turn the big knob so it points left to 5, done. The only reading you have to do is to look at the number printed on the pedal, and that's optional. You can almost operate the AT07 100% by feel alone.

Also, you don't have to think of numbered loops in the AT07 as 1-16, 17-32, 33-48. Bank 3 slot 1 is not "loop #33". It's just bank 3 slot 1, which is easier to remember where you are in the pedal when locating loops you recorded before.

If you couldn't tell, I am a bit anti-screen when it comes to pedals. It's always better whenever something can be done on a pedal the no-screen way, and the AT07 absolutely gets it right.

My only complaint is that it's a mini pedal. Great for pedalboards to save space, but it would be nice if a full-size version of this was offered. Other than that, this pedal ticks all the right boxes. It's easy and it offers other genuinely useful features that other loopers don't have.

Published 2024 Jul 30