TC ElectronicWireTap Riff Recorder Pedal

Great addition to my pedalboard! Very useful tool for songwriting and making backing tracks.

Inspiration often strikes when one is playing their instrument without an agenda in mind, sometimes even absent-mindedly. You're just noodling around, and suddenly, you come up with a simple, yet distinctive chord change, or a complex riff that could be the beginnings of a good song, or would fit in perfectly with a song your band is working on. It's sooooooo good, and so fresh-sounding that you are certain you won't forget it. Yet mere hours later, you play it again, and something's missing, a note, a chord, maybe just a mere inflection, and whatever made it special now eludes you.Frustrating, right?I'm sixty years old. I began playing instruments when I was about seven years old. Over the last fifty-three years of my musical life, I simply cannot count how many times this has happened to me. By the time I might have even set up to record it, *POOF!* It's GONE. Now that piece of music will float around until it strikes someone else. The muse must be courted, or it will move on to the next musician!THIS HAS NOT HAPPENED TO ME IN OVER FIVE YEARS! Why? The TC Electronics WireTap Riff Recorder has a permanent place on top of my amp, at the very end of whatever signal chain I am using. I plug in my guitar, a keyboard, or a bass, and play away. The very SECOND a flash of creative inspiration occurs, I step on the pedal, play the still-fresh bit of music, press the button again, and I am DONE. No fuss, no muss, no bother. The high-quality WAV files can be loaded into your PC or Mac via a simple USB connection. You can also use their smartphone app to download, manipulate/ and rename the recordings via Bluetooth, as well as using the WireTap app to record further clips onto your phone.This little pedal had improved my songwriting by leaps and bounds, because ideas I might not have taken the time to record in the past are now saved with a simple step on the pedal. This pedal is a must for me, and it may be for you as well.PS: I bought my first WireTap in 2016, and it was lost when a vindictive ex kept a bunch of my equipment. It was $100 then. Imagine my surprise when I went to replace it in 2022, and it only cost FORTY DOLLARS!! At that price, I am going to get one more to give as a gift to my best friend. Get one – you won't be sorry!

TC electronics discontinued the app. You can still record with it but you can't use it with your phone the way it was designed to be used. Shame. I returned it.

I have a lot of pedals and 2 amps for stereo with a 5 band parametric rackmount EQ in the FX loop, with 4 mics (one on front and back of each) for recording.I got tired of trying to crouch over the pedals while trying to play the guitar and turn knobs at the same time. Play, guess at turning knobs, play again, adjust again... It takes hours to dial in everything.I needed something to put at the beginning of the pedal chain that would record the dry guitar signal and play it back on a loop while I dial in everything and decide which pedals to use, so I can hear the changes as I make them.This does just that. I don't need an actual looper because I don't need a seamless loop, I don't need overdubs, I don't need to save the files or transfer them to the computer. I don't need the 8 hours of storage space that this has.It really should have a level control, though. But it does play back the recording at the same level it was recorded, and sounds as close to the actual guitar signal as a digital recording can.True bypass, so I don't have to disconnect it when not in use.I tried 2 other cheap loopers first. One was good for 3 hours, then it started distorting everything (the loop and the guitar signal when bypassed). The other cut a lot of low end and brightened the high end, so I couldn't accurately set levels and EQ with it altering the base tone that much.This does what I need it to do. I just wish I didn't have to pay this much for it, since I just need it to do a really basic function.

This is great to use at the end of a pedal board after loopers and your can save whatever you want if you do something that you really like. Much easier to use than looper pedals. If you get a great riff going, you can just tap this pedal and save it, ready to review, save to your laptop or computer, and use it to build up musical ideas. With the Wiretap app on your phone (Connect with bluebooth) you can connect to the pedal and edit all your clips, clean them up, or simply delete them.

This pedal is a gem!! 8 hours of recording time add CD quality 44.1 .. fantastic tcelectronics does it again! It's great for ideas or even REAMPING! imagine recording your guitar parts and plugging it into different sound sources and being able to test amps pedals without having to replay things over and over on your guitar! I even play to a click track record it all my guitar parts plugged it into a studio and dumped everything onto the guitar track channel ... I want to record my guitar live placed it at the end of my pedalboard and recorded a three and a half hour show on the unitwhat are the best pedals out there it requires your imagination and creativity anyone who gives it less than 5 stars is feeble-minded in dim-witted!Anthony

The pedal itself is great. I mostly use it to record a quick idea for later. I also use it to re-amp tracks when I’m messing around with recording. I’m deducting stars due to the terrible app. I gave up trying to use it, when I try to transfer files from the pedal to my phone the app crashes 100% of the time. Thankfully the pedal has a USB port and you can just drag and drop your files on to a computer or tablet. But they advertised the Bluetooth features as being a big part of the value of the purchase, so shame on them for leaving their app unattended for years.