Getting to Know the Digitech Trio Plus Band Creator and Looper Pedal

The DigiTech Trio Plus Band Creator and Looper pedal puts a versatile backing band at your feet, helping you turn your ideas into songs in an amazingly fun way. And the Trio Plus is a superb learning tool too: it’s simply much more fun to keep time with the Trio Plus than a metronome. But how does the Trio Plus work? What’s the best way to connect your Trio Plus pedal? Is the Trio Plus right for you? Our No Fear Guides — Jay Leonard, Sean Daniel, and Sean Pierce Johnson — plugged in to see what they could do with the DigiTech Trio+ Band Creator and Looper pedal.

$349.99

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Voltage	9 volts
Amperage	300 milliamps
Audio Output Effects	Modulation, Distortion
Controls Type	Knob
Power Source	Corded Electric
Hardware Interface	HP-HSC
Signal Format	Analog

What is the DigiTech Trio+ Band Creator pedal, anyway?

The DigiTech Trio+ is an intelligent looper pedal for electric guitar and acoustic-electric guitar, with a built-in rhythm section ready to play in a variety of styles. The rhythm section will automatically detect the tempo and key of whatever you looped: in other words, the Trio+ plays along with you, not the other way around.

The DigiTech Trio+ also allows you to construct complete songs with intro, verses and choruses, fills, and an outro. If you capture individual song sections as loops, apply appropriate drum and bass accompaniment for each, and then sequence them into a song, you can then play the drums and bass back while you perform over them: you’ve just created a backing track generator you can put on your pedalboard.

Beyond its unique Band Creator and looper capabilities, the Trio+ pedal also packs built-in guitar effects appropriate for each musical style, plus an external effects loop to integrate other effects pedals. Best of all, you can store all of your loops on SD card storage so that you never lose an inspired riff or chord progression.

As a practice tool, the DigiTech Trio+ provides all the benefits of a metronome while being much more fun to play along with. For songwriting sessions, Trio+ makes it easy to nurture an idea into a full song, with no need to open up DAW software or mess with an external recorder. And if you’re a solo live performer, you could pre-program your Trio+ pedal and hit the stage with a backing band on your pedalboard.

How Does the DigiTech Trio Plus Work?

Getting started with the DigiTech Trio Plus is super easy — press the Band switch and play a chord progression to teach Trio Plus the tempo and key signature information. This is called “training the band” — Trio Plus generates bass and drum parts to match. And if you need to adjust the tempo, you can use the Tempo knob to adjust the global playback tempo of the drums and bass.

Once you’ve trained the band you have a ton of options: you can add new guitar layers (overdubs) to your loop, add effects to your guitar tone, select from variations on the drums and bass while keeping the overall vibe, and even arrange parts into full songs that you can play along with like a backing track. And you have a lot of options with how you connect the DigiTech Trio Plus to your amplifier or sound system depending on whether you’re playing at home or performing on stage.

You can be a solo performer and use it to create a band behind you… you record guitar into it, and you get bass and drums back! — Sean Pierce Johnson

How the Trio Plus works

• Tell Trio+ you want to create a new song part.
• Press the Looper button, play a chord progression, and press again to end loop recording.
• Trio+ will analyze the tempo and key of what you played, and generates bass and drums to match.

Tips for training the Trio Plus pedal

• Effects pedals can potentially confuse Trio+, so consider placing your effects pedals in the effects loop instead.
• Getting your stop and start times with the Looper footswitch is crucial — start each training session with a strong downbeat, and end on the same downbeat.
• Remember that what you play during training is not your final loop for that part: try playing simple chords with strong timing to teach the band, and then use more complex chords and rhythms after the band is trained.
• If Trio+ creates a band part that sounds too fast or too slow, press the Alt Time button: this switches to half-time or double-time and will likely sound much better.
• You can access 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures: select styles 1–9 for 4/4, or styles 10–12 for 3/4.
• Stick to simple major/minor and 7th chords while training the band for the best results.
• It’s easier for Trio+ to interpret shorter song sections, so break longer sections down into multiple parts if Trio+ is having trouble generating appropriate rhythm parts.
• Pre-select a Style before you begin training to make that style stay in effect for all following parts (you can still change the style of a specific song part later if you want to).

What styles are on DigiTech Trio Plus?

The Trio Plus gives you 12 musical genres to select for the bass and drums. This determines the sounds used in the drum kit, with options for Blues, R&B, Rock, Alt Rock, Metal, Pop, E-Pop, Hip-Hop, Country, Folk, Latin, and Jazz. There are a lot of different drum sounds between these kits, so it’s worth exploring them all even if you don’t think a Genre will match your style.

Once you’ve selected a drum kit with the Genre knob, you can explore 12 variations of drum patterns with the Style knob. When you first record a loop, Trio Plus will light up LED indicators to show you which styles are best-suited to your loop. Turn the Style knob to see if you prefer other styles than the automatically-selected style.

The Style knob also lets you select between 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures: styles 1–9 will always be in 4/4 time, and styles 10–12 will always be in 3/4 times. That’s important to remember if you’re trying to teach the Trio+ a chord progression in 3/4 time: if Trio+ mis-understands your target time signature, you can force it into 3/4 by selecting one of the last three styles.

• Genre determines the sound and vibe of the drum and bass.
• Style determines the pattern the bass and drums will play.
• Select styles 1–9 for 4/4 pattern variations, or styles 10–12 for 3/4 pattern variations.

How do I connect the Trio Plus?

For home practice and songwriting, the simplest way to connect your Trio Plus pedal is right into the front of your guitar amplifier like any other effects pedal (connect your guitar to the Trio+ input, and connect the output to your amp’s instrument input). Use your amp’s clean channel with low gain, otherwise the bass and drums may sound crunchier than you want. If you want some overdrive, distortion, or other effects on your guitar tone, you can use the Trio Plus’ built-in FX or connect your own pedals in its effects loop. It’s worth noting that some effects pedals can affect Trio Plus’ ability to analyze your loops, so you may want to connect your effects pedals in the Trio Plus’ effects loop instead.

If you want to use your amplifier’s preamp for overdrive or high-gain tones, connect the Trio Plus in your amp’s effects loop so that the drums and bass remain clean. Connect your amp’s effects send to the input on your Trio Plus, then connect the Trio Plus output to your amp’s effects return. Adjust the signal level being sent to the pedal with your amp’s effects send control if it has one. By placing the Trio Plus in your amp’s effects loop, you can shape your guitar tone with the amp’s gain and EQ controls without effecting the drums and bass.

If you’re performing with the Trio Plus on stage, you can send the drums and bass directly to the mixing board for the PA system instead of hearing them through your guitar amplifier. Connect the Amp Out on the Trio Plus to your amplifier’s input, and connect the Mixer Out to the mixing board or powered speaker. Your guitar signal (including loops) will be sent to your guitar amp, and the mix of drums and bass will be sent to the mixer. This is also a great way to connect your Trio Plus for home recording: send the Amp Out to your guitar amplifier, and the Mixer Out to your audio interface to record the bass and drums.

It could be a performance tool if you wanted. — Sean Pierce Johnson

Tips for connecting Trio Plus

• Mixer Out is a line-level output to send the drums and bass to a mixer or audio interface.
• Amp Out is an instrument-level output to connect to your guitar amp.
• If only the Amp Out is connected, Trio+ will apply advanced equalization to drums and bass to make them sound more natural through your guitar amp.
• If only the Mixer Out is connected, speaker cabinet emulation will be applied to your guitar signal, and a mono mix of guitar, bass, and drums will be sent.
• If both outputs are connected, drums and bass will be sent to the mixer output, and your guitar will pass through the amp output.
• If you connect headphones, both the Amp Out and Mixer Out will be disabled, and speaker cabinet emulation will be applied to your guitar signal.

How do I create a loop on the Trio+? When adding a loop do I have to press a button?

You can create loops on the Trio+ even if you haven’t trained the band already, just like a traditional looper pedal. The first thing you need to do to record a loop on the Trio Plus is to set the Tempo knob to the 12 o’clock position — this will turn off the “Audiolastic” LED above the tempo knob. Later, you can adjust the global playback tempo using the tempo knob, but it “Audiolastic” must be off to record into the looper.

To use the Trio+ as a traditional looper pedal without the band, the first thing you need to do is select an empty Part (press a Part button that is not lit). Once you’ve selected a Part, you’re ready to record a loop: press the Looper button to begin loop recording, and press it again to end recording and begin loop playback.

When you press the Looper button to end recording, you can continue to play and add new layers to the loop in overdub mode. If you press the Band button instead to end recording, loop playback will still begin, but you won’t be recording in overdub mode: you can play freely without adding new layers to the loop. This allows you to build up more complex loops with overdub mode, and then improvise over your loops when you’re ready.

There is a way that you can begin loop recording without having to press a button at the same time. If you press the Looper button but don’t begin playing immediately, the Trio+ will wait to hear your guitar signal before recording. As long as you keep your guitar quiet, you can begin playing when you’re ready and not worry about hitting the footswitch on time.

YoTrio+ will auto-save everything that you’ve done… you don’t have to press and hold to save anything you’ve come up with. — Sean Pierce Johnson

Tips for creating a loop on Trio+

• Make sure you first select a Part to contain the loop.
• If you press the Looper switch but don’t play, Trio+ will wait to hear you play before recording.
• You can enable a count-in to help you nail the timing of the downbeat.

How do you delete a loop on the Trio+?

There are a couple of different ways to clear loops and overdubs on the DigiTech Trio+ pedal. If you’ve recorded a loop or overdub along with the band, and you’d like to delete it, simply hold the Looper footswitch for two seconds while the loop is playing. This clears the last recorded loop or overdub. 

If you want to clear a loop (including the original loop and all overdubs), you’ll need to stop loop playback first. Press the Band footswitch to stop playback, and then hold the Looper button for two seconds to clear the loop and all overdubs. And if that was a mistake, you can immediately press and hold the Looper button for two seconds again to restore the loop. 

While we’re talking about recording and deleting loops on the Trio Plus, it’s important to remember that all the loops you record are automatically stored on its microSD card. The files are stored in a proprietary format, so you’ll want to download DigiTech’s TRIO Manager Software to be able to store them on your computer as audio files. The TRIO Manager Software can be used to backup all of your pedal’s data to your computer, and is also used for firmware updates when available. 

Tips for working with recorded loops on Trio+:

• Trio+ is always saving your files: you’ll never need to worry about losing loops and band parts unless you purposely delete them
• Remember that if you accidentally clear a loop by mistake, you can get it back if you immediately press and hold the Looper switch again after clearing it
• Trio+ saves all of your loops on microSD card in a proprietary file format: download the DigiTech Trio manager software to convert them to audio files for use in your DAW

How do you program a song on the Trio+?

The Trio+ pedal allows you to create five different song Parts that you can arrange into a song. To start, make sure you have some song parts created. Press the “SEQ” button to enter song sequencing mode (the button will flash to let you know you’re in this mode). Now press the Part buttons in the order you want them to play: if you want a part to play longer than once, for example to turn a 2-bar loop into an 8-bar verse, simply press that Part’s button as many times as you want it to play. When you’re done, press the SEQ button again and the Parts will light up in the order you pressed them.  Now when you press the Band footswitch, the Parts will play back in the order that you programmed them.

You can also add intensity to specific parts to add dynamic interest to your song. When you have a Part selected, its LED indicator will be green to let you know it’s playing at normal intensity. Pressing the Part button again will turn the LED indicator to red, notifying you that the part will play back with higher intensity. It’s a great way to add excitement to the end of a song, or to drive a chorus section harder. 

Tips for programming a song on Trio Plus:

• Press the SEQ button to enter sequencing mode, press the Part buttons in the order you want them to play back, then press the SEQ button again
• You can make a part repeat multiple times in your song: just press the Part button as many times as you want it to play when you’re sequencing the song
• Press a Part’s selector button to change the intensity of the part: the Part LED indicator will be green for normal intensity, or red for higher intensity

How do I reset my Trio Plus?

The Trio Plus pedal has a two different ways to reset things whether you want to try different guitar loops, or want to completely clear a song and start from scratch. If you have already trained the band for a song part, you can remove the current loop while leaving the band part in place. Press the Band to stop band playback (if it’s currently playing), and then press and hold the Looper switch for two seconds: the Looper LED will flash red to indicate you’ve removed the loop. If that was a mistake, don’t worry! Immediately hold the Looper switch again for two seconds to restore the loop.

You can also reset the saved songs on your Trio Plus pedal, essentially reverting it to its factory settings. Just press the Song button to enter song selection mode, and use the Style/Song knob to select the song you want to clear. Press and hold the Song button for two seconds to clear the song (the LED will flash red). This clears all the loops, band parts, and the song arrangement for that song, and cannot be undone: make sure you’re clearing the correct song!

How do I record my Trio Plus?

If you’re using the Trio Plus as a creative tool to explore new song ideas, it’s likely at some point that you’ll want to develop your ideas further using DAW software on your computer. If you have an audio interface for recording to your computer, you can send the band and your guitar loops from the Trio Plus to separate channels on your audio interface. Connect the Mixer Out to a line input on your audio interface, and connect the Amp Out to an instrument input on your audio interface. You’ll be able to record one mono track of the band and a separate mono track of your guitar loops, ready for further production and mixdown (if you want drums and bass on separate tracks, adjust their volume controls accordingly and record two passes).

If your goal is to capture ideas with Trio+ and then finalize them in your DAW, you can also simply use the microSD card storage to transfer files to your computer: no need for a recording interface. You will need to download DigiTech’s Trio Manager software to unpack the proprietary files, as you won’t be able to import them into your DAW as-is. This is the simplest workflow if you plan to use your Trio+ as a musical scratchpad.

Is the DigiTech Trio+ right for me?

As our No Fear Guides discovered while making the video, the DigiTech Trio+ Band Creator is a unique creative tool that will surprise you with what you can create. The results were as diverse as the musical input each player provided, and it was clear that new ideas were flowing non-stop. As a creative tool and a practice partner, the Trio+ Band Creator is a fantastic solution. Whether it’s a prime performance tool too will depend on your musical style: if you’re a solo singer-songwriter that wants the option of a backing band, but prefer to run a solo show, the Trio+ could be the ideal solution for you as well. By putting a trainable backing band right at your feet, the DigiTech Trio+ Band Creator pedal is ready to unlock endless new musical ideas for you.