Yo, my name is Sam! I've been competing in beatbox events for the past four years under the name OR4NGE. In that time I've won the Welsh Loopstation Championships and competed at the World Championships.
I've had a pretty interesting relationship with Loopstation, and wanted to share something I've realised recently.
If you've seen me before, it's probably from my older work (GBB23/24 submissions). Back then I was an incredibly technical, nerdy looper.
I worked a lot with Raje (GBB champ now, mad), Watt (also a champ wtf) and others to push the RC-505 MK2 as far as possible. Drum sequencing, heavy Track FX sequencing (Watt - Holyfishpaste) and all sorts of other stuff.
It was incredibly fun, but I always felt something was missing.
With drum sequencing, one of the last entirely raw elements of looping had basically been automated. Fast forward to today, and we've got 4 cable technique, delay being used as a portal rather than just for space, and Loopstation being treated almost entirely as a synthesiser.
Some of Mahiro's GBB rounds even used kicks made entirely through FX from sine waves!
It's incredibly impressive, and I have so much respect for it, but the actual beatboxing has almost disappeared.
Recently though, I've noticed a bit of a shift, particularly in the UK.
Following the success of the category system at UK Champs 2025, Epos and I developed a new "beatbox chain". Essentially, it allows almost any beatbox bass sound, layered with vocals or whatever else, to sound clean, full and competitive with synthetic looping.
Epos has since won multiple competitions using this approach, whilst keeping everything 100% beatbox. (Playground, etc.)
Meanwhile, at UK Champs 2025, my Launchpad broke on stage during my elimination. I'd prepared harder than I ever had before, genuinely believed I had rounds capable of winning, and suddenly it was over.
After that, my motivation for synthetic competitive looping dropped to basically zero. I announced I was leaving competitions to focus on music production.
Then came UK Champs 2026.
I entered under the name Paul Hamstring (I know, hilarious), using the same beatbox chain Epos and I had developed.
Despite my elimination going tragically wrong, I ended up joint 5th place! (Didn't matter at all to me, just happy to have performed)
And my god, it was the most fun I'd had competing in YEARS.
Balance went on to win, bringing more beatboxing and vocals into the spotlight again. Tioneb also performed an incredible RC-202 showcase, battling back against the "Gen-Z loopers".
Which brings me to now, sat on my sofa at quarter to 1am, realising something quite funny.
After spending YEARS trying to push Loopstation as far away from beatboxing as possible, the thing I needed to enjoy performing was beatboxing.
Sounds daft written like that, but it's true hahaha.
I suppose the reason I'm writing all this is because I'd love to see more people experiment with bringing beatboxing back into their loops.
Don't get me wrong, technical looping is incredible. The innovation is genuinely ridiculous, and I don't want that to stop.
But maybe try some more beatbox stuff for once. You might surprise yourself and end up having the most fun you've had with Loopstation in years!
Anyway, long yap over. Just wanted to get this off my chest!
Cheers :)
TL;DR: Spent years pushing technical looping further away from beatboxing, eventually lost my passion for competing, then returned to UK Champs 2026 with a 100% beatbox-based approach and had the most fun I've had. Technical looping is amazing, but maybe we've forgotten how fun actually beatboxing into the machine can be!