Boss RC-20 Loop Station

I bought this pedal to help me with writing my own compositions. It's a very good tool to have when writing music bacause you can layer your riffs and simulate a whole band. If you play in a band and don't have a rythum guitar player then this can be used to simulat one. It holds 11 patches with 16 minutes of recording time. You can also plug your ipod or other mp3 player into it and jam with your favorite band. The pedal it's self is complicated to use but the manual that comes with it walks you through step by step.

It's not noisy at all. It records in mono but sounds very good.

If you've ever owned a boss pedal then you know that there built like tanks and this one is no exeption.

never dealt with them.

I play heavy metal music and I like to write alot of my own compositions so i use this pedal to help me play leads behind my rythm parts. I've been playing for 12 years. I would buy this pedal again if something happened to it. The only thing that I don't like about this pedal is that you can't delete your riffs without reaching down and turning the knob to delete.

I got mine a few years ago. All was well until recently. When it worked, I never had any issues, trouble, difficulty etc... Very easy to operate if you're used to tweaking pedals, gear etc...

Sound quality was very good...I never had complaint.

Worked flawlessyly for a few years. Recently, it went belly up. When you power it up, it blinks through all the various lights like it's intitializing or something and finally stops. Then, it has power but nothing functions. I had my local GC guy call Boss. They're rep cut him off and said bluntly "it's broke". When he asked him if it was a common problem, he said "yes."

I've sent it off (almost two weeks ago) to Boss and have yet to hear anything back.

Worked well while it lasted. I've heard of two others locally that had the same problem and while I was actually in GC, a girl came in with a dead one.

all you need to undersand the basics of this pedal is litterally whats written on each stomp pad. the manual goes more in depth, its helpfull, but anyway, really easy to use. well thought out and arranged.

sounds..just like youre instrument..through a looper. only thing to watch out for is the "instrument" or "mic" level, if its too high youll have some nasty distortion going on (..duh..) but if thats set correctly youre good to go.

...boss. need i say more? its been dropped, kicked, submerged in puddles, litterally dropped down a flight of stairs, and has so few scratches to proove it. A+

never dealt...its boss.

i play..well..music. doesent matter what im into, this thing works. in many situations. i've used it to loop a bassline and play a second over it (think, lou reed's walk on the wild side..two basslines..easy as pie to do live (with one bassist) with this beautifull machine!) ive used it to loop something for solo slots at concerts, ive also used it to record numberous full songs! it can save up to 16 minutes of recorded..stuff. i set the metronome to any disired tempo, put down a bassline (or rhythm guitar..or even piano) then put drums to it, and it goes from there. you cant record any full songs longer than 7.5 minutes..but hey, it works! you can also combine tracks when recording full songs with it to be able to put on more tracks. you have to press the save button then turn the 1-11 track knob (if you have it youll know what i mean) to a differnt number and save it on a differnt slot. then delete the old one for more space, and youve combined the tracks, and can add more. very fun, not protools, but i'm really enjoying recording my CD with it. A+ to boss for a great machine. only flaw is that $250 is a lot of money, but yes, this is WELL worth it!

Pretty straight forward to use. Like any looping pedal it has its quirks with catching the end or begining of a phrase correctly. Editing is brutal - you CAN NOT change the tempo of a loop on the fly - you must first write the loop to memory.

Manual is ok.

Does suck some tone - decent controls for in/out levels. Using it with a Parker Fly Deluxe through a variety of pedals into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. It's at the end of the chain and I had to remove it due to the tone sucking properties and its uselessness in a live situation.

Built like all Boss pedals, like a tank. I wouldn't use it on a gig in the first place - read below.

N/A

I play everything from jazz to rock to classical. I was trying this pedal out with a improv fusion trio to add some texture - I definately chose the WRONG looper for this situation. I've been playing for over 15yrs and have too much gear to list here, if this unit were stolen I would thank the thief - after writing this I am listing it on eBay. The worst part about this unit is that it claims you can change tempo on the fly - this is only partly true. Here is the reality: Let's say you record a loop on the fly, ok so far so good - now you overdub another layer or texture on it - good, ok - it starts to slip a little out of time with the drummer or the DJ or whoever - so you want to use the tap tempo to get it back in sync - whoa, wait a second - you can't! You have to bend down and hit the 'write' button with your hand which stops the loop playing completely - only after you write the loop to memory can you adjust the tempo on the fly. This unit might be ok for home use or for practicing on the road but with home computers able to operate as a recording studio or what a portable hard disk multitrack recorder can do I don't see any justification for this unit for home or live use.

Fantastic.

Not perfect, but personally I like the muddy effect that happens after many many loops.

Sadly, my RC-20 XL stopped working in December -- don't know what happened, but the whole thing just seemed to short out. Wasn't getting any sound. Lost all the loops I had saved. I love this pedal and call Boss immediately to as them what I should do. They told me I could either send it into them for repair or bring it to an authorized dealer. Since I since in Manhattan, there was a dealer here in the city, so I brought it in. That was 9 MONTHS ago!!! Please continue reading below...

...NINE MONTHS LATER... I am still waiting for my looper. I have called the repair man several times, and he tells me a part's on order from Japan. I called boss's inventory department to see if this were true, and they confirmed that a part was on order. So, at least the repair guy's not lying to me. So I asked Boss if they would provide a loaner for me and they said sorry that's not what we do. I was very dissapointed by this, especially since I've been using Boss pedals for about 15 years and have developed quite a loyalty towards their product. Of course, the common knowlege is that Boss products are built to last, and they usually do, but in the rare instance when their product fail, they must provide better customer support and should be more willing to provide a complete replacement for their product if it dies. I was seriously disappointed by this lack of customer support and appreciation.

A great pedal. I made beautiful music with it, and I can't wait to get it back, but as stated above, I was very disappointed by Boss's lack of customer support... So that's the story, maybe I'll write an update for you all when I get it back...whenever that will be...

This is ridiculously easy. It even has it's own 4/4 metronome.

The only reason I don't give it a 10 is because it's mono. Besides that, I am using this unit with a Rane TTM-56 Performance mixer (and what ever hard/soft synths I have on my mixer channel inputs).

I use this unit all the time. It's nice way to keep my own loops on it and it's for overdubbing (in case if I want to practice and hear my self or just perform).

No problems at the moment.

If it were lost or stolen, I would definately replace it (unless if I could find something similar that works in stereo). I wish it had more memory for dub control (keeping the audio in various channels instead of one).I also wish it had a 3/4 or other offset metronome tempos (I like play keyboard on a 3/4 beat). Aside from that, I am very pleased with this unit.

It only took 1 healthy session in the can with the "how to book" to fully understand how easy it is to use this thing.

The sound quality is just fine for my primary use. (hard drive)

I've been using this for just over 1 year, and I love it! In fact, I would recomend this unit to everyone. NO PROBLEMS AT ALL.

I havn't had to go there yet, so I dont know

I use this unit to dump sound files from a cd for dramitic show intros. I have my tech start this machine right after he tunes up and it seems to work well... The looping part is very cool. It takes a little practice, but once you get it its easy... it helps to have a good body clock though. Also, if you want to use it for a looper, it works best to change pick up settings or have some kind of different tonal options- so when you start stacking phrases it doesn't end up sounding like a bunch of mudd packed in a coffe can. (frequency competition).. seperate your records.. like first .. Use a base tone, then stack a lo-fiish brittle tone for a lead.... and grab your e-bow with a delay setting... and boom! you are a freak with a boatload of s&^t going on!.. Honesty this pedal is a ton of fun!

Recording, overdubbing and saving loops is very easy with this unit: Press the pedal to start and stop recording, press it again to overdub and press the write button twice to store the loop! However, you cannot select different phrases without bending down, or buying a momentary switch which will only allow you to move up through the phrases not down !!!

The unit has no noticable effect on the sound quality and there are independant volume controls for instrument in, mic in and loop out. Overdubbing multiple parts does not seem to add any noticable noise to the output.

It seems very sturdy but I would have reservations about using it at a gig without a momentary foorswitch because of the inability to switch between patches without bending over.

N/A

I mainly play funk and rock on electric guitar and this unit allows me to make multi-layered loops very quickly on the fly. The loop quantise/click-track function is very useful if you want to record an accurately time loop. The unit is ideal for jamming/practising and a very useful composition tool. I think it also has potential as a gigging tool: A solo performer could loop on the fly, or use pre-recorded loops as a backing track and it could even be used for second guitar parts if your band are able to play in time to it! My only criticism would be that it is not possible to step backwards through the saved phrases without bending down ! However given that it gives you 5:30 of high quality recording time and you can save 10+ loops it is still exceptionally good value for money.

Very easy to use. NEver needed to use the manual.

I plug a midi synth into a laptop then plug the laptop into my loop pedal. great sound.

It worked great until I put it in my closet for a few months when i wasn't playing much music.

I took it out and now it doesn't even power up.

It has a 5 year warranty, but BOSS only honors the warranty if you have the receipt even if you registered the product with them.
Who keeps receipts for 5 years?
Needless to say the warranty is pretty useless and i'll need to pay to get this repaired.

A great product, but i wish it had been more than a year before the thing died on me.

Useless warranty, so i have to pay to get it repaired even though i believed it had a 5 year warranty.

I bought this on eBay without a manual. Figured out the basic functions pretty quickly, but I've had some experience with Boss gear. There is a copy of the manual on the Looper's Delight web site.
It's not very good, but you may need it.
This pedal is easy to use during performances, but not in a band situation. The most important features (Rec/Play/Overdub/Stop) can all be done standing up. The less useful ones (Reverse etc.) require fiddling with switches and/or additional pedals.

This is a live tool, and the sound quality is fine. This is not an effects pedal (except for the Reverse setting) - it's a recorder, and what you put in is the sound you get out of it.

It's well built. The pedals require a bit of leg strength, as is typical with Boss gear. I have a problem with the Reverse footswitch input on mine (and yes, I'm using the recommended FS-5U).

Their service is acceptable.

This is a very musical pedal which inspires new ideas & creativity.
The sound quality is good enough for playing live in any setting.
This is a pedal for solo playing more than anything else. I play a Chapman Stick, and it allows me to create instant backing tracks as I go. The important features are all easy to use. There is a lot of "stuff" on the pedal which I will rarely use, including Reverse, 10 of the 11 loop patches and the metronome drum sound.

After a few tries, the Rc-20 was as easy to use as any Boss pedal. The only problem was timing. When I played along with my band it was a little tricky trying to time the loop so that it melted into the music without causeing a an off beat sound. This takes practice!

I have found that digital equipment gives any bass sound a weak kick to it. Not sure why. But the Rc-20 matches up to any other pedal out there for what it does and how it sounds. I even thought that I sounded better after hearing myself looped. lol

Come on..its a Boss pedal. They ain't kidding either when they say "it's built like a tank."

Can't say I ever needed them.

I bought it on ebay and never had any problems with it. I listen and play a lot of Trey Anastasio's (of Phish) stuff so I wanted somthing to help me recreate that sound. He loops several different guitar licks and tricks at once and does so with a Boomerang sampler. I personally think that the Boomerang sucks compared to the Boss RC-20. I would totally buy another one if I needed to. But only on ebay, they are way too overpriced anywhere else.

I thought it was pretty easy to use. You can peak into the manuel to see how to save loops and delete loops and what not to do if you don't want to lose your saved loops etc. I'm a plug and play kind of guy who never dips to deeply into manuels, programming, and advanced technology but, the pedal is not hard to understand how to operate. It can be used live with some practice on punching in and out on time. I have a solo/duo act and I use it live, but you won't be able to synch your loop to your drummer or drum machine. I use it on the songs that I do that has no drum machine. I'm giving it a 9 because you get use to setting your instrument and input levels when making loops otherwise, the volumes are going to be off on the different phrases that you might play over one another

When playing live, my setup is guitar>A/B box>POD>RC-20>PA Mixer. I use an A/B box because I sometimes lay down a bassline live, then grab my accoustic or electric guitar and start adding on top of the bass line. Getting to the subject of sound quality, I don't find it that great. I find my guitar tone degregated pretty much and any distortion comes out a little 'glassy'. I still use it live because after you overdub your 4th or 5th phrase, and assuming you have a cool-sounding loop going, you don't notice the sound degregation as much because the loops are so cool. I definitely turn some heads at my gigs with it. Also, it does introduce a little noise into my chain. Not much of a problem with an electric guitar the signal isn't as strong on an accoustic therefore you have to compensate by cranking the levels on the sampler, thus bringing more noise into the chain.

Looks sturdy to me. Don't have a backup. Right now, I'm only using it for 7 or 8 songs in my show. Not quite enough to justify getting a backup.

I gig with a bass player and a drum machine, and also gig solo. It adds to my show as a solo artist. I play blues, a little jazz, and some accoustic stuff from the classic rock era and later. The looper allows me to change the dynamics of my solo act. I can give my voice a rest and do some instrumental stuff, I can put my accoustic down and play around with my electric guitar and a bass. I can even do a whole song with drums with this machine. I said earlier you couldn't synch it with a drum machine and you cant but, what you can do is send your drum machine through the looper, and if you punch it out at the end of a phrase, you now have your drums in your loop and you can easily overdub bass and guitar over that once the drums are in your loop. Another thing that sounds good and gets people's attention is when I lay down a haunting bass line, overdub some delta blues chords over it with my accoustic, then add some slide guitar with delay. Real spooky sounding. You can overdub a harmonizing slide phrase over everything else and on and on. You can really create some stuff with it without the stigma of using backing tracks or midi sequencing because you can do it all live. I've been having mine for about 2 months and haven't begun to exhaust all the possibilities of this thing in a live situation. I would have to get another if something were to happen to this one.
I haven't tried any of the other loopers so I can't really compare this one to another but I'm pretty sure this one has far more sampling time than any other. There's plenty info on the sampling time and how it can be used in the other reviews so, I won't go into detail about this. Overall, I find it very useful.

I don't like to read manuals, but this is the first one I had to read. To learn basics like saving and deleting loops, and what the auto start function does.

Honestly I'm a looping maniac with no money. So this is the only loop pedal I've ever owned and I can't compare but this is what I know:

The GOOD: Great sound and easy to use. Gives you the option of having a mic and an instrumemnt plugged in at the same time. Allows control of the level of the loop, and current input.

The BAD: You can't mess up. If you loop somthing bad over the first loop, then you're screwed, you either got to suck it up or start over. It doesn't give you the option of choosing which loops you want to play and which to not. Once you've added something, it's added, and you have to stick with what you got. The guide (which is a cheesy drum and cymbal) is useless, it was basically put in their for people who bought this to practice learning the guitar.

boss builds them like bricks for a bomb shelter.

don't use it.

This pedal is created for beginners who want to practice, but it can still be used for some great looping. THE BEST PART ABOUT IT IS THAT IT IS A CHEAP AND RELIABLE LOOP PEDAL COMPARED TO THE EXPENSIVE ALTERNATIVES, SUCH AS BOOMERRANGS. I give it a nine because it gives you a lot for your money, but if you're serious about having fun with looping, than save up for one that is more useful, that's what I am doing right now.

Very simple if you have a good sense of time. I only wish there was a way to save by stomping and not bending over. And the fact that the sound stops during a save is annoying.

Doesn't mess up the sound TOO much. There is a noticable amount of high end (treble) loss, but not bad. I usually EQ the amp to compensate. The sky is the limit in terms of sound layering. The loops retain a pretty good spectrum of lows, mids and highs. Not quite CD quality, but much better than mp3 quality I'd say. I use a Boss OC-2 and EH Q-Tron in front of it. I like to drop a bassline out of the OC-2 to start sometimes. The octave effect seems to sound better through the looper than it does live! It's also fun to feed some analog delay in at about 500ms. Loop the intro for "where the streets have no names" then I can fill in the other parts over the top.

I've owned many Boss pedals over the years and I never had a problem.

Keller Williams got me into this whole Looping thing. Check him out if you need some looping Ideas. I think this pedal is priceless as a practice machine. Especially for lead playing. A good loop forces you to jam over yr own playing. It's like having a really tight repetitive band playing with you. I wish I had this thing when I first started playing. I would probably be a much better lead player for it. The RC-20 is also priceless for solo musicians. You can really make some jaws drop if you use this at an open mic.

Loopers in gerneral require a learning curve to get used to. After you get experienced, they're all relatively easy to navigate.

Here's the deal. I own 2 Loop Stations (yes they get used)and a Jamman, and I have owned a Line 6 Delay Modeler, a Headrush, a 1 MB Boomerang (years ago), and I recently traded for a 4 MB Boomerang +. I know, I'm a freak. Anyway, the Boomerang + had this annoying electronic pop when I engaged the play/stop button (after a loop was recorded into it). What a disappointment. I actually tried 2 different Boomerangs and they both did it. The Boomerang sounded fine, save for the popping noise. Needless to say, they both were returned (I'm getting a H-K Tube Rotosphere instead). So... what's the point to my story? The Loop Station isn't perfect but it does the job, is more reliable, sounds as good, and is smaller than a Boomerang. The Loop Station doesn't sound as good as my Jamman, but offers more loop time and is way more durable (I won't take my Jamman out of my house since it's basically history if it breaks). I feel the Loop Station is better than the Line 6 (more loop time, but less options overall- I have plenty of delays) although the Line 6 doesn't sound bad at all. The Loop Station blows the Headrush away on all counts. I hope my ramblings help any of you considering getting into Looping. The best thing is to try them out, consider what options you want/need, and let your ears be your judge.

I have 2 Loop Stations, over a dozen Boss pedals, a V-Wah, a VF-1, and a BR-864 and have never had one problem.

Never needed to deal with 'em. Now that's great customer support.

The Loop Station is a great piece of gear for the money. My only wish is that it could be used in stereo (like the Jamman or Digital Echoplex Pro). I'd even trade some of the 5+ minutes of loop time. Or better yet, I don't use the rhythm guide tones nor do I need the quantize function so I'd gladly trade those features for stereo (are you listening Boss?) I like its size, sound quality, and its reliablity.

At first, I thought it was extremely complicated, but after a good read through the manual, it made perfect sense. Very simple to work now.

I play a rickenbacker 4003 through an ampeg cube. I don't do loops on the fly ... i make them all at home, and play them direct to the PA (i.e. i don't ever plug my bass into this). If you've ever plugged this thing in direct to PA, look out: the hiss is deafening ... it was easily fixed, though, by putting an active direct box (Behringer) between this and running an XLR to the PA. Now, it is so quiet, and the loops are unbelievable! Sounds like thay are coming directly from my computer.

my whole pedalboard is boss ... i slam my feet down on the whole board for fun. indestructible.

haven't had to yet ....

This is a good match for the dubbed out brit-rock post-punk stuff we play ... maybe we should just hire a keyboard player. Either way, I have two enhancements that i would find very useful:
1. After recording the loop, being able to change the pace of the original sample, and storing the new pace. obviously, you can change the pace of the original loop on the fly, but you can't change the stored pace.
2. a visual adjustment of the pace ... i.e. what if i just wanted to speed the loop up 2-3beats per minute ... i have to tap everything.

... my problems are all with manipulating the pace .... i think the quantize feature is amaxing, by the way ... i ahve no idea why people wouldn't ifnd this useful.

I think the RC-20 is very easy to figure out once you have glanced over the manual. I got mine yesterday and was able to start using it in 5 minutes or less.

I guess the best I can say here is you get what you put into it. I have a clean guitar and get a clean input I have a noisy one and can get noise. If it sounds good going in, it sounds good comming out!

I got this second hand and it was missing some silver labels on the knobs. I was not at all reluctant to buy it because it is built like a horse and rides like one too ;)

I checked them out and Boss rules

If I lost this one after just one day, I would have to get another. I looked at the Boomarang pedals but they were too cheap in my opinion. Not built as tough. I play rock and contemporary music. I have 7 guitars and 2 amps. My main gear is a 95' Les Paul Standard with a TSL 100 Head playing though 4X Green Back Marshall Cabinate. I have some Vintage 30s that also sound awsume but that is another story. My sugestion is to record loops before you gig if you don't have timming problems with your drummer you can record the loops with him or alone if you don't have a drummer. Then when live, just do the loop live and then hit the pedal to keep it alive while you add lead or picking or more cords etc.

This pedals pretty easy to use, given an understanding of it's limitations. Good manual and straightforward setup, but it seems this pedal could easily do more with some simple changes in design.

It's a little noisy. My guitarist has one that's noisier and i've heard some that are really clean, so who knows? I use it with bass and some other effects but it's at the front of my line just behind my tuning pedal. It's touchy about the recording levels of the input and out put i've noticed, but it doesn't seem to color the tone of my bass to any noticeable degree.

Very reliable, i primarily use it a sampler, in the sense that i make ambient melodic loops, no beginning really, just single notes from arpeggios, feedback, harmonics, all mishmashed and over dubbed and reversed so it sounds like, i dunno, notes breathing, i guess. It's never crapped out on me.

NA

I wish this pedal had a few things. The click track should be much less aggresive, and there should be a headphone out that has an output signal with a click track, so you can use it live and sync up with a drummer with out that ridiculously loud THOOM THOOM THOOM CLICK coming out your speaker. The mic input should be XLR. Also, it would be nice to be able to use the tap tempo pedal to set time signatures instead of that tiny little button. Of course, more Time is always great, and it would also be nice if there was a way to scroll up and down through the memory banks with a footswitch, instead of just sequentially up.

easier to use than headrush and line 6
just as easy to use as boomerang
not quite as eay as jamman
can't say about echoplex digital pro
i've owned all of the above but the echoplex
you don't need the quantize or rhythm guide features (they're a waste)

what you put in is what you get out
you do need to feed the loop station a strong signal otherwise the sound can be slightly choppy
as long as the signal in is good and strong the signal out is good and strong as well
i use my loop stations (i have 2) with tech 21 trademark 60 and bronzewood 60 plus a bunch of pedals and results are as good or better than what i used to get with boomerang or line 6 and way better than headrush and jamman is better but you only get 32 seconds
don't know why there's so many low ratings, it has not been my experience

i have a plethora of boss stuff and have never had a problem

i've been looping since 1998 and have owned 2 loop stations, a boomerang (older model), line 6 echo modeler, akai headrush, and lexicon jamman
as of now i still have the boss and the jamman loopers
i like the sound quality, the smaller size, the ability to store loops if i want (even though i don't usually), and the 5+ minutes of available time
i don't like the quantize or rhythm guide features
loop station works great live and in studio, is great for solo jamming and practicing
i'd get another if need be (although i would at least check out the new version of the boomerang)
the only thing i like better about the looper on line 6 is ability to add delay while in loop mode (but you only get 14 seconds)

This pedal is crazy easy to use. There are volume knobs all over the place and two simple pedals for playback, overdubbing, stopping and tap tempo. It took me five minutes to learn how to use it, but it can create things as complicated as you like.

It plays like its goin directly to the amp. No added sound, except when i plug a mic in...but that's because my mic is hella shady.

This pedal is savage. It hasnt failed yet, but it is fairly easy to erase the entire memory when turning the power off...But it wouldnt ever crap it its just too damn beastly

The Boss website, and everything included with the pedal were all helpful and should i ever run into trouble it wouldnt be that hard to get help

I've been playing for a couple years now, but this isn't a pedal that is specifically for beginners, or pros. I was debating between the Line 6 DL4 and the RC-20, but in the end i got the RC-20, because it is great for practicing alone, jamming, and even for playing live. If it was stolen or lost i would be so sad i would probably cry for a while, then sit in the corner for a couple months then sell my soul to raise enough money to get another one. IF you can get a good deal on it, its definately worth it, but retail is pushing it...at least for my budget. It would have been nice to see some effects other than reverse on it, but nevertheless it is still a ritriculous pedal.

It's relatively to easy to use after a once-through of the manual and 30 minutes or so of experimentation.

I generally connect it (via the instrument input) to the effect loop of an amp or mixer and keep both the input and output controls at 12 noon. I'm satisfied with the sound. I have noticed that, straight from the guitar, for some reason the instrument input doesn't seem to pick up the signal as well with an acoustic guitar (fitted with a soundhole pickup) as it does with an electric guitar. I don't use the microphone or auxiliary inputs.

I've had it over two years and it's been quite reliable.

No opinion.

I'm an amateur player, playing just for friends and fun. I record jazz and blues using a modest-cost living-room set-up. I bought the RC-20 Loop Station shortly after it appear on the market and I've definitely gotten my money's worth from it and more.

My recommendations to the manufacturer (or anyone else who wanted to make a competing product):

The following features are not good; the device would be better without them:
- quantize
- reverse
- metronome
- aux input (especially since you can't use it simultaneoulsy with the instrument input)
- microphone input (especially since not XLR)
- tempo adjustment
- one-minus function

In order of inmportance, the following enhancements would be much appreciated (provided the cost could be kept at about $300 for the hobbyist/enthusiast):
- the ability to "subtract" the last overdub while the loop is still playing
- overdubbing should go onto a second channel and the unit should have stereo output
- the ability to shift the phrase backward as well as forward
- the ability to "copy" a phrase from one track to another
- more memory (5.5 minutes is great but how about 10 minutes?)
- an off/off switch.
- 2 9V batteries instead of 6 AA.

It's pretty easy to use...not a lot of options for using it live. Just record then loop, or record, stop, and loop later. You can also overdub. It's a little hard to get loops to work seamlessly, especially live. If you set the loops ahead of time, you can get them working smoother.

I use this with an acoustic-electric Guild F47 with a Fishman Blender system. The box preserves the tone of the guitar fairly well, but is noticeably noisy (there's a hiss, even when nothing is plugged into the input). The preamp on the instrument input is horrible...I keep it as low as possible, since that's where most of the noise comes from.

It hasn't screwed up yet. I use it live...Boss seems pretty reliable in general.

n/a

It works well enough for simple stuff. I keep it on a line selector so I can take it out of my signal path when I'm not using it...that fixes the noise problems for me.

Very easy to get it to do what it says, loop, take it out of the box, put some batteries in and your good to go. I've had it for about half a year now and I've not read much of the manual and I think it's great but at the same time there are still some functions I'm not sure how to use exactly. Easy to tell what each nob, button, pedal does and easy to use them.

I play..everything, I love Tool and A Perfect Circle, I love creating soundscapes, wierd timings, Jazz, trippy sounds and loops, and of course jamming to 12 bar blues.
My setup is a custom built guitar(Mahogany base, maple top, Seamore Duncan JB's in bridge and neck, tune-o-matic bridge(like on a Les Paul), old Morley wah/volume pedal and a V-amp(Line 6 POD but cheaper) into a Marshall twin speaker combo job. The sampling is not as good as on some delay pedals but not so as you'd notice, I get a certain amount of hiss(low but noticable) when I add it in but it's not realy that intrusive plus I have a lot of gain on the amp and to get clean tones just turn down the volume on one of my humbuckers and switch to that one so there is allways a lot of gain going through. I've never had any trouble with sounds getting lost when you overdub and multitrack, as long as you don't put your new signal in too loud in the first place.

I do gig without a backup. It's Boss, like anyone else would say if you asked them about a boss product, thats enough reasurence. I am not gentle with this unit, it gets stood on(not just stepped on) and knocked about in transport and has been dropped etc. and the worst thats happened is a few scratches around the bottom.
I seem to have a bad effect on electronics, no matter how nice I am to them, so am allways slightly uneasy about them, hence the 9.

This has been the most usefull learning tool I have ever had if nothing else, you can get absorbed in working out harmonies and solo's over riffs for hours. For song writing too, it's become irreplacable, working out lyrics over your riffs etc. and multitracking different parts, just to hear yourself back is realy usefull.
Using it live can be hard, you have to be very carefull about looping it at the right point, it does have a "loop quantise" function which will automatically make it 4/4 amoung other times(I think), but I use strange timings a lot of the time and they frequently change more than once throughout a song so this has turned out to be effectively useless, where you do use it your band may have to adjust to suit it, and god knows drummers hate being told what to do. But thats ok, during live performances I mostly use it for vocal/noise samples, things that have never come from a guitar, this can sample and store 5 mins of anything if it will sit still long enough to be plugged in.
The only annoying thing is you can't jump from pre-recorded loop to loop from the pedals and even if you buy the add on pedal you can only go from 1-10, but I play bare foot and have developed fairly dextrous toes and twiddle about with nobs that way.

But all in all a wonderfull tool.

Initially, it was a little confusing at first, but now that I have the hang of it, it's super easy. I think it's ideal use is practicing solos on top of your own rhythm tracks. It also good for recording small ideas you want to save. I could see using it live, though only if I were playing solo or the song started out with solo guitar. Pretty neat product, though a bit expensive.

Sounds ok to me. Again I primarily use it for practicing but I think the sample sounds pretty damn good.

Only had it a week so I'm not sure, but feels pretty rock solid.

I like this product a lot, though a few additional features would have been nice. I'm curious as to how cheap digital recorders compare to this unit (as one of the above reviews states) especially given it's price. But I have a feeling this thing is gonna improve my soloing skills a lot!

Pretty easy concept - just push to record, push again to loop, again to overdub, etc.

The guy in the store told me how to do it and in a few minutes I was looping away, much to his chagrin!

It is an extremely valuable tool for practicing, composing, and learning/transcribing. With that said, it does have its limitations.

I use this device with any or all of the following: Ibanez GB-10/Epiphone Dot hollowbody guitar(s), boss oc-2 (for bass sounds), EH small stone phaser, wah, distortion, and delay into a fender hot rod deluxe. Sometimes I will patch my laptop into it for some drum loops. There isn't a considerable amount of noise, but it does thin out my tone a bit, which is a pretty rich, thick hollowbody sound.

Another thing is that if you do a bunch of overdubs over a loop, it gets very loud, and some of the original ideas get buried, but that is something that can be expected of a unit such as this.

The guide tone is ridiculously annoying, loud, and abrasive...totally unnecessary.

This is where I have my biggest pet peeve. This thing is built well and with proper care will last a long time. However, using it in a live setting (with drummer, other musicians) is a disaster. I play a mix of jazz/funk and experimental instrumental music consisting of a lot of symcopation, tight rhythms, etc.

Trying to get a funkyassed drummer to slave his time to a looping pedal is impossible.

And the quantize function, which could be used to fix this problem, can only be used on a loop that has already been stored. In other words, you can't loop on the fly, and then fix the tempo when it gets out of sync with the drummer.

For this reason, I don't really bring it to gigs, unless they are solo gigs.

If it was lost or stolen I wouldn't but another one. I'd probably wait for a better one to come out, or build up a computer based live looping rig.

Haven't dealt with them.

This pedal is cool, but has its limitations. A huge improvement would be to be able to adjust the tempo to loops done on the fly. I would also like to have more routing choices: stereo outputs, maybe a direct out for the loops, efx looping options, etc. And the guide tone, that shouldn't have made it past the drawing board.

However, it is a great tool for practicing and writing, which I do quite a bit of, so I'm not at a complete loss. Going ito it, if I knew what I know now, I probably wouldn't have thrown down 300 for it, but you live and learn...

Very easy to use the basic recording and playback features. Changing the time signature can be a pain, but 4/4 is default and that's probably what 90% of songs are anyway so it's no big deal. There's two input knobs to adjust the recording volume, one for guitar the other for mic, another knob for playback volume, another knob for guide track volume, and one more knob for pinking the recording slot to use. There's ten slots plus one extra for a one-playback only (i.e. "one-shot") recording.

My setup: Squier Double Fat Strat->Big Muff USA (Reissue)->Danelectro Pastrami Overdrive->Fender Princetone 65->(effects loop)Danelectro Pepperoni Phaser->Danelectro Dan Echo->Boss RC-20. The unit adds no noise unless you crank the input knob, so don't. I keep it halfway up myself. The reproduced phrase sounds slightly degredated to my ears, but it's still completely usable. The guide track volume is extremely loud, even at the lowest possible setting, and it's a very unrealistic and just plain irritating sound. It's OK for practice if you can tolerate it but is useless for gigging. A few decent-sounding drum patterns would have been nice, oh well.

Boss generally makes very tough gear, although this doesn't seem quite as solid as their standard single pedals. Still, it seems tough enough. The knobs do look a bit questionable though, and a peice off the silver covering was already off one of mine when I got it.

I called them once about repairing another pedal of mine (the ME-30) and they wanted $75 an hour plus parts plus shipping. They bill time at fifteen minute intervals, but still, that seems kind of stiff.

The few faults it has doesn't keep the RC-20 from being the coolest pedal I own. You can do so many things with it it's insane, and for the price has a ridiculous amount of sampling time. The reverse feature is like a nice little bonus feature, though you probably won't use it a lot. The center cancel and flat amp simulator for the line in jack is kind of pointless, though. I also could've done with a third footswitch, though you can buy one for $30 that will either change from forward to reverse playback or move up one phrase at a time (when you reach the last phrase, that's it though- you can't go back or start from the first phrase). Kind of stupid. Still a great pedal, especially if you are a one guitar band.

This is my first looper. It is very very easy to use. Hit the left pedal to record , hit it again to play and again to put you in overdub mode. You stop the loop by hitting the right pedal. The pedal is a great size for what it does. to erase a loop just h old down the left or right button for 2 seconds and it is erased. That is the most basic way of using this pedal. The manual explains how to save loops and how to erase saved loops. this is also very easy to do. You can quantize a loop by tapping the tempo with the right button, then you can either have a 1 measure count off and start recording or set it to auto start where you hit record and it will start recording as soon as you play. Quantize will make your loop start and end in sync so that beat 1 is still beat 1 , several measures later. I found I could get accurate loops using the auto start. Some people have complained about the guide track, which is sort of a built in metronome. There is a volume for this so the volume of it is really not that big of an issue. It helps keep you in sync for making an accurate loop that you want to save. one word of advice - you can not tap a tempo with the pedal of a loop that has not been saved. Also some p eople have said that the buttons for reverse and next loop are inconviently on the floor. I used a keyboard sustain pedal and it worked fine for reversing and advancing loops. You can only advance to the next loop in the sequence and not backwards. As far as using it in a live situation I have recorded intros to songs that only have the guitar, so I can add the fills, or played short rhy thmic parts. As far as playing a long loop on the fly and having your drummer play, it is very difficult because your drummer has become a slave to your loop and without a click its game over.Beat 1 may move an increment or two if your not totally accurate. The trick is to start and end record on the down beat. This is an amazing practice tool.

I use a Boogie Mark 2 B with a Gt6 running into the front of the amp. The siganl is sent to another amp sometimes from th e slave ou t of the boogie and sometimes from the Gt6. I run the Loopstation to the effects loop of the boogie or off of th e slave output so that the loop is only coming through one amp. this adds a little seperation. The loop station is mono. The sound I get is really accurate as long as you have your levels set correctly. There is a slight bit of hiss from the pedal as you turn it up but I can't say that it really changes my tone. It definetly dosn'et if I use the slave out. I use mostly a Strat with EMG pickups. I would recommend trying different ways of running the loop station. I run it so that only the sound that I send to it goes through th e loop station. Any effects or distortion after have no effect on that sound.

So far so good. Batteries are a great plus. I have the adaptor. It would be nice to try it using the mic input and instrument at the same time. Haven't done that yet

I've been playing for 25 years. I play all styles. Currently play in a variety of bands.I also teach and I can't wait to use this with my students. This unit is a great learning tool for guitarist of all levels.

Very easy to use. Makes producing multiple layers very easy. Can be akward at first, but after a little practice its very natural.

I have been playing a Talyor 314CE with Fishman Prefix electronics through a Marshall AS100. When bypassing the RC-20 it has a clean full sound. However, when going through the RC-20, the sound was rather degraded. There seemed to be a loss of brilliance, and a new presence of noise. Also when looping, it seems the sampling rate must be low because it really kind of mushed together and was not clean. I tried playing around with the setup, but I was never really satisfied. I sold the pedal on EBAY for this reason.

Yes, Boss is a generally good company. I would use this by myself, but not in a band setting.

Didnt use it

For any functions that can be controlled by the two footswitches, it's easy to use. For the rest, you have to bend over and find the right button (they are small) or twist the appropriate knob. You can record, start, stop, overdub, tap tempo change (haven't been successfull with this) and erase loops with the footswitches. The reverse, *set* tempo, loop selection, mode and volumes in & out are contrlled by knobs and those small pushbuttons. There is two jacks on the back for footswitch control of the reverse and to switch progressivelly to the next loops that you have saved. Those extra footswitches DO NOT come with it, and I haven't been able to find that particular switch anywhere! Just any footswitch won't work, it needs to be their type of switch, and they don't tell you what type, just their model number for their switch.
Most of the time it's easy to use, but it can be a hassle when changing things with those little buttons.

If my setup matters, my setup is Guitar -> Loop Station -> Amp. Guitars used are Fender Jazzmaster, a couple of Strats and a Tele. Amps used include Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue, 65 Twin Reverb Reissue and Fender 8 Channel powered mixer PA system.

The Loop Station sounds like whatever you plug into it. In other words, the sound you put in is what you get out. It isn't noisy in the least. For me, it couldn't sound better. It's just what I wanted - a phrase sampler with zero noise of it's own.

I've only had this for a few months. So far, So good. Hopeing for the best. We'll see, on down the road.

I don't know. I Haven't had to deal with the company ( and hope I never have to)

This thing has been a great help to improve my playing and to help the creative process. One of the most usefull pieces of equipment I've found. If it matters, I've been playing since the early sixties and play a wide variaty of music, but my favorites are 60's surf and jazz.
Why this one - I wanted a 'Looper' and bought a Akai Headrush first. That was a mistake (it was noisy and customer support was nill)(see review by 'Heads Up People!'). So, I bought this hoping for a better product. I 've been very pleased, so far, with this Boss product and my current feelings about it are I would buy it again if it were lost or stolen.
A BIG thumbs up!!

Alright, the main reason I'm writing this review is for this guy below me who has problems syncing the Loop Station to the rest of his band. I too, use mine in a live situation with a band, and yes, it is VERY hard to sync loops to the rest of the band (because it is just human nature for the drummer and the rest of the band to speed up and slow down very slightly. Humans don't run on quartz!), but I find the Loop Station particularly useful where either (a) the guitar is just playing without the drums or completely solo, (b) you are using the looper for short snipets just to harmonize parts, or (c) you are using guitar parts that don't necessarily have to be rhythmically accurate (IE: noise tangents, volume swelled parts...). Using this mentality, I've actually come up with a lot of parts with the looper I use live with my band, and with typically good results (although I've screwed up the loop once or twice on occasion, but managed to cover it up well). For instance, we have a song where in the middle part of the song, the only instrument playing is a lone, dry signaled guitar with reverb, where I first record these chordal strums, but then go into this arpeggiated part, then play the strums back in reverse behind the arpeggios, record the arpeggios over that, record a harmony part over that, then record another melody over that, harmonize that, and then the drummer crescendos and comes back into the song. It's somewhat Mogwai-esque. Similarly, we have anothe song where I play a short guitar lick between these chordal riffs, where I record the lick the first time, and then play it back and harmonize with it the second time it comes around. It's only about 2 or 3 seconds long, so it prevents me from screwing it up too badly. Last but not least, we have a song we're working on which segues from the end of another song using these volume swells over delay and phaser with a bit of overdrive; the volume swells just consist of chords played from the tonic of the key of the last song, so it doesn't really matter if it stays in sync when the band comes in because it's so seamless where it begins and stops, so I just record those chordal volume swells, and we go into a short jam part (with a nice, swelling, noisy backdrop to boot). It'd be nice if I could control the volume of the loop while I'm playing, but I could probably get a volume pedal and an AB/Y switch and do that. But hey, the Boomerang is much more suited to doing that, as it has a volume control design for being used by the foot.

The sampling rate is pretty low, but you'd never be able to tell in a live setting (and hell, it'd be somewhat convincing in a studio setting too...). The pedal definitely does add a bit of hiss and definitely color your sound a bit, but it's not incredibly audible. If you isolate it in an effects loop you should be pretty well-off.

It's a BOSS. Depending on getting it in sync is another story ;)

Haven't dealt.

I'd definitely say this is worth the cost; the ability to save loops is very nice feature too, although I rarely use it. If I had to buy another looper I'd probably get the Boomerang instead (although, they could have stood to have made it smaller). I'm pretty happy with mine though; just wish BOSS would have made it a little easier to use in a live setting.

This is my second review of this product. I first reviewed it back in Jan 2001 shortly after I bought it. I thought it would be worthwhile to reflect on what I thought of it now that I have had it for the better part of a year.

I can honestly say that, the things it is capable of, I never had any problem figuring out.

Currently, I am into sort of a one man band setup. I have keyboards, guitar & GT-3 pedal, Electribes, DR-5, and mike going into a Mackie mixer, which in turn has four line outs going to a Korg D1200 Digital Recording Studio. The RC-20's sound quality is quiet enough and distortion-free enough for my gear.

But, and this is a huge but for me, it is impossible to sync up the RC-20 to the rest of my rig. Which is why the RC-20 is now in my closet where all my other devices which are no longer useful reside.

I've had the RC-20 for the better part of the year. Everything still works, so I would say it is a pretty reliable box. But, if was lost or stolen, I would not replace it. Truth be told, I may just sell it some day.

Now, to the pertinent point I wish to make. Quite simply, all the things the RC-20 does well can be done better with a digital recorder.

This box is a bear to sync up with anything else. I have seen a bass player use it with a live band, but they got it to work by making sure the rest of the band sync-ed up with the RC-20.

Many reviews of this product tout how it makes you a better player by being able to jam against previously looped ideas, or better yet to layer several ideas together. And, this is true. The problem for me is that a digital recorder does these things so much better, is so much more versatile, is so much easier to sync up subsequent tracks, is not limited to 10 tracks (my D1200 has 96 virtual tracks), is not limited to a few minutes time (the D1200 can record 122 hours of audio on its 40 Gig hard drive), and the list goes on and on. The D1200 is four times the price of the RC-20, but note that there are now entry level digital recorders you can buy for around the same price or less then the RC-20. Such devices record to a smart media card instead of a hard drive like the D1200.

You are better off spending your money on a Digital Recorder than a looper such as the RC-20. A digital recorder was an expensive alternative back when I purchased the RC-20, but that stumbling block has now been removed thanks to entry level digital recorders such as Zoom's MRS 4 and PS-02 recorders.

With the two pedals, it's pretty easy to set basic loops and overdubs are simple, but there are some nagging quirks: you can't set a loop less than a couple seconds, the tap tempo is finnicky; the beat is onoxious and is WAY too loud even at its lowest setting, rendering it nearly useless unless you want to blow your eardrums out, smoke crack and worship satan. Actually, that sounds kinda fun. i also think the instrument and output knobs don't work very smoothly--it's hard to set even levels quickly. finally, the reverse and save buttons are a nice feature but they're tiny and you have to bend over and search around for them--try doing that in the middle of a song! i think boss sells a pedal for the reverse feature seperately--nice to squeeze a bit more money out of us, but for three hundred bucks i would think that the reverse should just have its own little stompable pedal built int! my biggest bitch is that once you set the loop it's louder than the guitar was while you were recording it--this makes it really hard to lead to without getting buried by the loop--you have to turn yourself up whether it's convenient or not, and if you're up all the way, you're out of luck. if anything, it should get a bit quieter, or optimally be perfectly even. this is something boss needs to remedy. it loses a couple points for this cause it really annoys me!

it could be worse though. if you just want to set basic loops and jam with yourself, this will work fine.

i have run both acoustic/electrics and electrics through this into several different amps, but mostly my fender hot rod deluxe--i've also run direct to a p.a. usually when i think digital i think clear sound with little if any noise floor, but the rc-20 is more on par with a cassette tape--it's a but mushy and with a slight bit of noise. servicable, but could still be better. and the metronome beat sounds worse than your mom farting.

i only use the line/instrument input; i don't use mic cables with TRS's anyway so i can't say anything about that.

it's a boss so it's pretty sturdy, its overall haft makes me think it wouldn't be qutie the tank that boss' single pedals are--i wouldn't want to drop this one--but you can still stomp the living crap out of it. i also use and highly recommend an ac adaptor--i don't want to be throwing all those AA's in it all the time and let me tell you, when the batteries get low, the thing pretty much just craps out with little warning. that said, i'd depend on it, with no backup necessary.

never dealt with them. i thnk it's got a decent 5-year warranty though, which is nice.

i play all kinds of music from rock and heavy stuff to blues, folk, jammy stuff, and so on...been playing about 2-1/2 years now, and have come a long way in that time. My gear changes around a bit, but i play an alvarez pf90sc acoustic electric, '99 schecter t-1 (p-90/neck duncan '59/bridge), a fender jazzmaster, an old fender p-bass ripoff and various friend's guitars have been plugged into this pedal as well. for amps i have a tweed fender hot rod deluxe, and a shitty little peavey blazer as well. also have a morley pro-wah, chandler rack-mounted tueb driver, lousy boss hm-2 an ibanez fuzz which seems to have died and a dod which i, um, broke. if the rc-20 were lost or stolen, like say i tossed it through someone's windshield and they drove off with it, i'd consider a new one if i had the cash, or at least something similar. i didn't really compare it to anything. i'd seen other people using them and it works ok for i wanted to do--make simple loops with maybe an overdub or two and play along with them--and for that it's a useful tool. i wish it sounded a bit cleaner and i wish

easy but not always good for improvising.
no loops under two seconds.
it takes two seconds to eraes or save a loop and ther is no way to subtract or quieten portins of the loop. you must bend dowen to save a loop
BEFOR you have the opertunity to make a non destructev mistake, ie ther is no undo.
also it is not posable to save subsiquent vershons separetly without bending down.
no dry out , an fx loop wold be good.
no separet meranome out , the sounds are horid.
lots of potentil and very fun but frustatingly flord.

sounds good, even the mic pre sound ok.

myn has started to make a loud glitch ocashonly, power suply i think.
but atherwise fine in a live situation, tough i wold recomend a volum pedel and a/b as ther is no way to fade in or out other than bending down .

not as good an expresiv devise as the haed rush and not as flexibl.
no half speed like the line 6 machean.
good for inserting tieny fragments but my old 4 sec boss delay/sampler could fade segmants as well.
but 5.5 MINUTS of looping is very usful. and the unit is solid and atractev
i play it alot and am only a littel frustrated with its short cumings
biecos i love it so mutch.

Nice petal it works great. a simple over read of the the instruction
will put you on your way. The unit comes with a cd filled with a few sounds however if you are into hame recording your going to have a lots of fun. It would be nice if the unit came with a slot for a smart
media card I guess the unit was oready was on the drawing board way after the big storage hipe came around. I think you will see this option on future units

Sounds pretty good. Very help full in determining what you really sound like. also the sound, sounds great boss did a great job with this petal.

What's to say its Boss

I have called boss in the pass they then to be very reliable.

I cant really give a response on this matter because I just got the petal however I see it to be a great overal tool for today's musician.

Incredibly easy to learn and operate, it is easy to edit the patches because there isn't too much you can do to it. I picked it up easily in a day.

Crisp and Clear,very nice. I have used it with an acoustic/electric Alvaraz Koa, and a Gibson Les Paul special, both through a Fender performer 650.

Very Dependable, have only had it for a short time. The only thing is I would not be reckless with it like you can be with other boss pedals, because this is bigger with more chips inside and I feel like it could knock something loose or bust a circuit.

Haven't tried yet.

Awesome.

Read the small manual, play with the knobs. Ease of use is the biggest advantage of this looper.

I play it direct into a sound board and through headphones at home. I haven't noticed any degration in sound quality.

Seems solid. 5 year warranty. Boss has good rep.

Don't know.

I use it for song writing and to add depth to live performances. I don't over rely on it for live performance. If I've practiced with my band and it worked in rehearsal then I'll use it but only if I feel there's no other viable option. If you're not using an electronic drummer and running everything through a sound board with perfect whole band monitoring your drummer will need a headphone feed to be able to sync to it. The unit seems to have little competition. It ain't perfect but it ain't bad. It's a very popular gadget as can be seen by the # of guitar players singing it's praises. There's room for improvement but is Boss the only company out there smart enough to pull this off ?

The unit is pretty easy to use. Manual is okay. I bought mainly to practice with. It really enhances your playing. The only thing I don't like about it is that the Tap Tempo knob is difficult to get to a decent volume. On my unit, the distance between too loud and too soft is only a hair. It could just be my unit though. I've had it for about 2 months now.

As I said I use it mainly for practice and I love it! I plug my G&L Legacy right into the unit and from there into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. The sound is fine for me.

So far, no problems. But then again, I haven't taken it out of the practice room.

N/A

If this unit was stolen I would replace it. It really helps you get the most out of practicing. I've only been playing for 5 years. Since I've had it I can honestly say that I've gotten better at playing.

I have been using the RC-20 for about a month now. The loops and layers sound pretty good in my opinion. The manual is easy to read and in theory is pretty straight forward on how it works. I bought this unit with the intention of using it a live band situation. I'm still working out the best way to use it for gigs. It is cool for special effects and sound bytes that you can record into the RC-20 such as electronic sounding effects. As far as layering guitar licks during a live performance, I'm finding it very difficult. First of all you better have a drummer that keeps a very steady beat otherwise it will throw the whole loop off. You must also be very precise and also have a great sense of timing and rhythm. What I would suggest is when your beginning a loop, to have the entire band bring the volume way down so they can hear you making the loop. Let the loop run for several measures until the rest of the band is comfortable with the tempo that the loop is going at. Basically the band must follow your tempo. Once that is established than you'll be set to record the layers.

Some obvious excellent uses for this pedal is for practicing licks, solos, and substitution chords. If you use this as a solo act than it will be fairly easy to get the loops in synch.

I play a Les Paul through a Marshall Valvestate. And use a Korg effects unit. I don't use much distortion but like to use a lot of delay and auto wah effects. It sounds great, it's just getting synched up with the rest of the band that is a major challenge. You'll need a patient band.

So far it is dependable and sturdy.

Never dealt with them yet.

I play rock,jazz,funk,latin styles of music and I will be able to use this for many different functions. I've been playing for about 15 years. Using this pedal in a live situation with a full band is the biggest challenge. If anyone has any tips or recommendations on how to make that easier please email me !

This really isn't an effect so much as a tool. The sound that goes in is the sound that comes out. As far as I can tell no color is added nor sound degradation evidenced. Very clean. The manual is very clear and there's a cd which I haven't even checked out. I rated it an 8 because it's a little tricky to get used to the timing although I can't imagine how it could be simpler. A little practice and you'll be spot on perfect.

This unit doesn't color the sound, it simply records what you play and then loops it, allowing you to add more layers if you like. You can run anything through it. I run it in the effects loop of my amp so I can record a particular eq/distortion setting then play over it with another. The digital sound quality is as near perfect as I can determine. This tool will make you a better player, guaranteed! You can lay down your own rhythms and play over them or layer bits and pieces to produce very complex loops. It has the capacity to record 11 loops and with an optional outboard switch pedal you can rotate between these loops. Very nice performance tool. It also has the ability to reverse the loop or reverse a track as you lay it down providing some very interesting effects.

Been stomping on this for about 4 months now with no problems whatsoever. I'd be confident using it without a backup, but if someone will loan me a few bucks I'd like to get a couple more of 'em.

Never needed it.

The usefulness of this box goes beyond styles. It provides the opportunity to jam with yourself or to perform solo on a very complex level. I've been playing for over 40 years and this is the best money I've ever spent. I don't know that there's anythings else like it on the market. I only wish it had more versatility in switching between recorded loops. The ability to rotate through loops is nice but the ability to choose a loop sequence or to switch to any loop rather than the next one in sequence would be marvelous and probably will show up on subsequent models.

This unit is very easy to use, yet there is a trick. You have to be fast with your feet to correctly loop your phrases so they flow togethter nicely and evenly...but I'm finally use to operating this unit.

I love the fact that you can store up to 10 loops and play them back when you're playing in a live situation. Even though, I think I would store up to maybe 4 loops and use the remaining time to create loops "on the fly."

The manual was also very informative regarding tempo changes, reverse playbacks, and how to save and delete loops on this unit.

The sound quality on this effect is superb! No cracks, no hisses. I am still using my Guild Bluesbird for my electric guitar, and a nice Ibanez classical guitar for my acoustic stuff. It's all going trough a Mesa Boogie nomad. I'll admit that I do have good sounding gear, but even through a nice PA system, the Boss RC 20 still gets the job done.

My favorite artists are Earl Klugh, Chet Atkins, Lee Ritenour, Pat Metheny, and Larry Carlton. It's so refreshing to have a loop sampler with good sound quality, that will allow me to play in my own unique style, because I do write my own songs in a "smooth jazz" format. The Boss RC 20 also allows me to keep track of my songs when I'm performing them live. Just write down what particular songs you have a the loops (1-10) and play back the saved loops in a live situation when you need them, and you have it made in the shade!

Boss has been making quality and consistent products for over 25 years. This unit is built tough, and I know that I can depend on it, if anything should happen to it.

I have never dealt with the company, but they have a 5 year warranty on all of their products. Now that's customer satisfaction!

I highly recommend this unit to anyone who would love to expand their musical horizons. It has made me become a better guitar player in this sense: by listening back on your overdubbed phrases. From this I can key in on my own strengths and weaknessess.

I have been playing for over 7 years. I was selected as the All-State jazz guitarist in the state of Florida, and I made FSU's top jazz band. I know quality when I see it and hear it. With all of the other gear I own (including a Boss DD-3 delay and a Yamaha acoustic) I can honestly say that this unit is a keeper, because it enhances my musical abilities.

If this unit were stolen I would buy it again, even though I'd have to save up for it, but it would be worth every penny!

This unit is easy to use except for the tempo matching to a drum machine or live drummer. The manual does not dive deep into the functions of this unit, and I found it for the most part useless. The unit is easy enough to use without a manual

I am using it with a Les Paul, and a Marshall AVT150 Stack. It is noisy when NOT being used (lots of hiss coming out of the amp when the unit is not being used). I had to put a noise gate on it to dampen it.

I would not use this on a live gig. I have tried several times to use it in sync with both a drum machine and a live drummer and found it extremely frustrating to use. By myself on my acoustic with no one else it worked great.

I originally got this so I could play a chord progression and record it, let it loop so I could play lead with it during live performances. I was originally looking at the Boomerrang, but it costs a lot more. I think it would be a great mistake to use this box during a live show; but for messing around it works fine. I do not think it will take the place of a good digital recorder. For the most part I feel I wasted my money buying this thing since I already have a digital recorder that has a drum machine and a programable bass synth on it.

Overall easy to use, got it working perfect on 1st try, no manual needed. I got even more proficient after reading the manual. One concern, I bought an FS-5u to switch phrases but your original phrase is repeated before it goes on th the next phrase automatically. Wish I could switch phrases, mid-song without having to bend over and do it by hand.

Sounds good enough for me. I pumped my Korg Karma playinng midi files into it...saved the phrase it works great.

Only had it 4 weeks and it seems ok.

Haven't needed support yet.

Its a great match, I play a solo gig. I could either lay down background phrases then play leads to it or lay down leads and strum behind it. Works great either way. Only other issue is the tempo button...it doesn't seem to match perfectly to what tempo I tried to create (while being in sync with a drum machine). I have to experiment more.

The RC-20 is very easy to use, I almost didn't even have to look at the manual at all. I wish there was a foot control to switch from different phrase banks.

I think the sound quality is good, You have to be careful how you set the levels. I think the metronome is to loud and and heavy, a simple rimshot would have sufficed.

all BOSS products have been very durable, and reliable.

If I got my RC-20 stolen, I would replace it right away. I even thought about getting two of them. For the price, you can't beat it. It is great for practicing and recording, and with a little ingenuity you can use it live just as well as the more expensive loop stations. You're only limited by your creativity and talent, that is all up to you, after all folks,.. BOSS can't do everything for you.

This thing is VERY easy to use. The only challenge is knowing how to loop properly, but the pedal is as easy as can be. The manual is OK as long as you know how to read.

The sound quality is pretty damn good. What yo put in is what you get out, as long as you do the levels right. I use a Conklin GT-7 through a SABDDI to a Composer to a Mackie 1400. It may very marginally darken the sound, but it's almost imperceptible.

Boss stuff is heavily armoured. I have a few of there things, they all work after many, many years.

N/A

The five and a half minute time, the selectable loops, the quantize function (for those that are intelligent enough to know what that actaully means) all make this a very useful option for those that don't have the $$$ for a repeater.

Good grief, this thing is TRIVIAL to use. I checked around before buying it, and based on comments here and elsewhere was able to plug and play. I still haven't looked at the manual: it's self-explanatory.

It's not perfect: your sound will be colored; a little darker or maybe muddier, even when not in use. It adds a little noise (not much, but it's there) when in use, and the noise gate that cuts things out completely when volume is down can be annoying. Otherwise, the reproduction quality (never-minding the tonal complaints) is quite good: what you heard the first time you played through it is EXACTLY what you hear each loop, and the loop is instantaneous - no pause whatsoever.

I haven't had it long enough... seems sturdy, and I've never had a Boss pedal go bad on me (out of about 5 that I've owned) but I won't rate it.

Again, n/a.

First off, I got this thing so that I can practice guitar solos by myself, and for that, it's PERFECT. I just play the progression I'll be soloing over, and loop it. Then I play the solo over it until I've got it licked. I can make up a few "just in case" solos, too... or just mess with it long enought that I can feel the changes coming, and improv over the whole thing. Whatever I want to do... anyway, that's the only reason I got it, and for that purpose, it's a to-die-for piece of gear. Absolutely awesome, worth every dime, and yes, if I lost it, I'd get another one and have them overnight-deliver it.

I've been playing about 14 years and can't believe I never had one of these or even anything like it. Occasionally I would tape something and play it back, but that is time-consuming and annoying to stop/rewind. This is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered for practice.

I've been a bit of a gear junkie the past several years, going through numerous guitars and amps while searching for a tone I could call my own. I think I have that, but recently I got back to working on my chops... one generally doesn't through the name "Boss" around for "must-have" pieces of gear, but the RC-20 is definitely a "must-have". You won't play it on stage (probably not, anyway) since it colors your tone. But you'll use it for practice more than any other pedal you own... you will if you want to be a monster guitar player, anyway - nailing a solo that fits the progression perfectly.

Anyway, for these reasons, I have to give it a '10': fantastic value.

Start/stop/rec/playback very easy. Little hard to tell which phrase is selected for rec/play from standing up (LED would be helpful), but I've got poor vision:-(. Very compact, sturdy unit (good!). Must use knob to change selected "bank" (or buy add-on footswitch that moves up only). Auto-start recording is very handy.

Not pristine, but good enough for live and practice situation. Wouldn't record vocals with it, but good enough to jam along with (and would track guitars if appropriate). Playback level seems inconsistant with different "takes", but could be I haven't found the sweet spot yet. Play '76 Strat (JBJr p/u) thru POD w/both metal (rectified) and outlaw-country (chunky Twin) sounds, and also Martin-D18 ac direct via Fishman Rare Earth Hummer. It "dulls" the sound a bit, but is still quite usable! Upshot of "duller" tone is that what's being played over the loop cuts better.

Only had it short time, but it's built like a tank.

n/a

My goal was a product I could QUICKLY lay down a rhythm track/groove of whatever I'm working on, and then practice soloing over it. This is the perfect tool! Been playin' nearly 20 yrs but very little lead gtr in that time. Workin' on R&R, metal, and country soloing. UNEXPECTED STUFF: overdub feature handy for workin' out grooves (and just great fun!); might bring it out "live" for open mic/acoustic stuff. GREAT STUFF: 5.5 min of samplin';sample memory survives being unplugged; dual-pedals; tiny!. NOT-SO GREAT: sound quality; quantize/guide track (could be I just don't "get it", but I don't need it either); AC Adapter extra. If lost/stolen, I'd beg, borrow, or steel to get another.

not bad, but it takes some time to get used to.

It colors my sound, and I can for sure tell it's not true bypass. Using carvin guitars, yamaha dg amps, boss cs1 and nf1, morley badhorsey wah with fulltone inductor.

Boss, reliable, do you need to ask?

Okay, her goes. I had this thing for two years, and I liked it fine. I saw my buddy play in a club, using a boomerang, and I went out and sold this pedal the next day. The rang blows this pedal away. I think, if you don't have the cash, go for the boss, since it will get you through, but the rang is the shit!!

Hey Shane. Enough already. You got a lemon, get over it. Even great car makers have a lemon roll off the production line once in while.

The Loop Station is butt easy to use. I reviewed it in October 2001 and have since chaged my opinion regarding using it in the effects loop. I've found it sounds much better at the end of the signal chain (the volume drops are far less inconsistent than they are through the effects loop) than it does through the effects loop.

Very good sound quality compared to Boomerang, Headrush, Line 6 DL4, and Jamman. I have had the Boomerang and Headrush, which don't match tonal quality with the Loop Station. I have the DL4 & Jamman and the Line 6 equals the Loop Station is sound quality but you only get 14 seconds of loop time (60 with the Echo Pro) and the Jamman easily sounds better than the Boss but only offers 32 seconds of loop time (not to mention that you'd be hard pressed to find one for under 300-400 dollars). Sure the Loop Station can be a little tempramental with regard to volume. You need to send a strong signal into it or the loop volume can sometimes sound as if a noise gate is turned way up. My opinion of the quantize function is: why is it there? I can't figure out its purpose. I never have trouble tapping in the right tempo so it's pretty much worthless to me. Also, the rhythm guide is worthless. The good thing is: you don't have to use them. By the way, I own two loop stations with no problems whatsoever.

I own two Loop Stations and have never had problem one with either of them. Add to that the dozen Boss pedals I own along with a VF-1 and BR-8, all without a problem. Shane, sorry about your luck, but it seems that it's not just your Boss gear you're having trouble with. Why don't you treat your gear with a little more respect and you might be surprised at the results.

I like the Loop Station. It's not perfect but nothing is. For the money it's as good as the other loopers within the $150 to $400 price range and easily outdoes the loop time. Be prepared to spend some time with it before you pass judgement on it.

As simple as gets. Pulled it out of the box, glanced at the manual and was off looping in minutes.

You have to adjust the input signal and effect level a bit to get the right volume level compared to the original signal. But then again you have to do those fine adjustments with every pedal.

Looks really solid never had a problem with BOSS pedals. Sorry to hear about some of the other comments made about the reliability of the pedal. But then again I take really good care of all my equipment.

never had to call

I DJ and play guitar and the pedal is the answers to my prayers. Compared to your other options which in my opinion there is only 1 other option. The Bommerang thats the size of a diningroom table, costs twice as much and is made of plastic. The RC-20 is easy to use, dependable, the overduband quantize functions are great! I would like to have an option to erase overdubed passages. Other than that I am more than pleased with the product. Thank you BOSS!!!!

Update.

Update.

So, I got the store where I bought this POS from to call them.....

They are waiting for a part.....

Since October.

5 months for one part.

If this was a automobile manufacture, someone would have had there HEADS by now.

Line 6 and Roland suck.

End of story.

I am buying a Digitech GNX 3 with the hard disk recorder/looper.....

Lets see how long that lasts.......and the support they give me.

This pedal is a mixed bag when it comes to ease of use. As far as using pre-recorded samples accessable in a stomp box format, this peadal shines. When it comes to looping on the fly, I'm sticking with my Line 6 dl4. Perhaps its the disistance the pedal travels before switching on that makes timing my loops problematic with this device. Whatever the case, I find the dl4 easier to use. As far as the loop quaticize and guide tone aspects of the pedal, they're more a hinderance than an aid. Fortunately, it is possible to work around these features.

Loops sound great. No complaints. Unfortunately, this baby sucks tone. This pedal degrades my signal more than anything else I own: the prementioned dl4, a rat, a klon, a vintage mxr dynacomp, a crybaby wah, a boss tu-2 tuner, a small stone--all on my pedal board.

? I certainly hope it doesn't break.

Because this pedal allows me to realize a dimension to my performance no other pedal offers, I'm giving this baby a high mark in this category. As a stomp box sampler, this thing shines, and being the only one on market doesn't hurt my positive feeling about it.

You can get decent sound out of this although there is a noticible differnce between straight amp plug in.

The overdub function is a delight to have, but the problem is you are unable to correct your overdubs. I also think that the overdub function only works for as long as your original loop is so that is somewhat disappointing.

The manual is excellent. Easy to understand.

I have been using a standard Fender Strat US and all I have used at the moment is a Crate practice amp so, sound quality isn't the greatest to begin with. You lose some depth in the tone when going through the looper. It's not that bad though.

I've had it for 3 weeks and so far so good. I'd use it for a gig since at the moment I mostly play solo performances.

BOss definitely needs to come out with an addition to this looper to include many, many more functions.

Overall, for the price I paid, I'm satisfied althought I'm not a die-hard looper to begin with. I wish I would have looked around a bit more first at the other products and may have been willing to shell out more money for a product with more functions. The RC-20 needs to have a correct function on the overdubs as well as better mixing control (cutting multiple microphones from pre-recorded material). Since I use it mostly to create loops and improvise over them, it meets my needs, but it would be more fun to be able to use it as more of a mixer.

How would I know it has been in the shop longer then I actually GOT to play with it

None.....Still in the shop

Big fat zero. See above

Don't bother with roland, they will send it back broken, you will send it off again, and again, they will send it back Broken.

Though the guy from phone support was rather nice.

I sent it of in October to get fixed again after it was back for three days.

Still not back.

I am selling it ASAP.

Garbage, pure garbage.

I find it rediculous that it takes 3 month to fix a pedal. Insane infact.

This could be the last Roland product that I buy....which would be a shame, since I own quite a few Boss pedals, and like some of the newer ones. Oh well............................................

I downloaded and browsed thru the manual before going to the store to try it out. At the store, I had no trouble figuring out how to use the box and, in fact, the salesman (who did NOT know the box) decided to save a loop I made to demo to other customers. So, I would say this is not a difficult box to use.

I have a stereo setup, which creates a MAJOR problem since the RC-20 is NOT stereo. I am forced to cable the RC-20 before my GT-3, which then goes stereo into a Crate GFX-212 combo amp and 4x12 cabinet on each channel. This means that the saved loop and live playing must use the same effects (dumb, dumb, dumb).

I have owned one for about 3 weeks. It seems sturdy enough and no problems yet. Everything it was designed to do works fine. And, I did buy one, despite its limitations, because, well, what else even comes close for the price?

I will be EXTREMELY upset if Boss doesn't come out with an upgrade with improved features. This box is okay, I guess, for a first release, but I could give Boss a long list of improvements for the next time around.

In this wonderful age of electronics, modelers, etc there is no excuse for a pedal which costs over $200 bucks to not be stereo. I own a lot of Boss gear, so I would have to say that I am a loyal Boss customer, but they really dropped the ball in a lot of ways with this product. People give it high marks because nothing else is better for the money, but Boss can do a lot better. Sorry, Boss, but you taught me over the years to expect really great things. I own the Boss DR-5 drum machine and I keep finding myself thinking of all the neat things I have been doing with the DR-5 for years and how easy it should have been to build these features into the RC-20 ... stereo output ... being able to step backwards as well as forwards .. being able to concatenate individual loops into songs ... being able to load and save loops to and from a PC. Come on, Boss! Stop teasing me! I know you can do it. Lock those DR-5 and RC-20 engineers into a room together and don't let 'em out until they have a plan for a RC-21 ... or, even better ... a DR-51 with all the features of a RC-21 PLUS a built-in DR-5 for rhythm to back up your loops.

If you can not figure this pedal out you will most likely have a hard time making it through life. :) This is as straight forward as one can expect a pedal to get that has so many features in such a compact unit. When I received this device, I plugged right in without ever opening the manual and just started to loop bass tracks one after the other. After about 10 minutes I had a pretty fat jam going on, 6 tracks + or something like that. All of my loops were different lengths in time, ranging from 5 seconds to 2 + minutes. I quick referenced the manual and saved the track so I could work more with it at a later time. When our drummer came over we plugged his V-Drums into the instrument input and had him lay a nice groove over it. Since I was already running everything through my Roland 1680, I just started the loop, pressed record on the Roland and let it play for a few minutes. The amazing thing was we had no problems at all with volume levels and there were 6 bass tracks, one drum track, and 2 percussion tracks all looping at once. You just need to listen to the levels before you start recording and remember to always save after each track, this way you can redo your loop if you screw up. But never save unless your sure you like what you hear. Once saved theres no turning back, which is to de expected, this is a loop station not a multi track recorder. Damn, I was happy I even had the option of saving at all. After wards we burned it all to a CD and brought it to my guitarist to work with. Doesn't get more easier then that.

No problems here and I'm picky about sound. My play a Ken Smith Bass into a Fodera Pre Amp which runs into a ASH Down 500 EVO head. To top it off I have a Epifani 2x12" cabinet perfecting the overall sound. I did not have any trouble adding this piece of hardware into my setup and did not find it to enhance/diminish my sound at all. I may have added a little more high end after plugging into the unit come to think of it. But that's to be expecting when ever adding or taking anything out of your rig. The important thing, NO NOISE!

Not sure yet, I've only had these pedal for a week or two. I am nervous based on some of the reviews I have been reading on this unit. However, the same people this pedal seems to be breaking for are the same people that say it's hard to use or it's changing their sound. My gut feeling says this pedal will be a part of my rig for some time to come. As far as using it on a gig, I can't wait too! And if it breaks oh well, improvise, your a musician remember. If you need something like this to get through a gig theres much more you should be worried about then just your equipment. :)

N/A

I think this unit was originally intended for guitarist. However it's IDEAL for bass players. When I don't have my hold band in the room I have to use a lot of imagination when writing songs. But if I lay a solid groove with my bass I can start to improvise some of the other parts to get a better idea of what it is I'm trying to write. For writing solos it works great. And most of all it's fun to use. Every time I plug in I seem to be successful with working out ideas and coming up with new ones. That's something you just can't put a price on.

Update on a old review.......

Update on a old review.......

I got it back for three days, it's still broken.....sent it back to Roland AGAIN.....

I'm getting mad.....

It has spent more time in the shop then it has being used......

Update on a old review.......

I would not buy one again.........Personally, I wished I bought a Repeater or a Boomerang, they cost more, but MAYBE they would ACTUALLY WORK.

Then again, I have bad luck with these.....my Line 6 is dead as well.....second time it's been in the shop in a year......

I do not abuse my gear....I EXPECT it to work everyday, and I do use it for long periods at a time......I expected these two companies would make gear that lasted.

I'm now going to save for a boomerang......why not, I have read that many bad things about them, and they seems simple enough......

First two things about the RC-20 Loop Factory; it's not as simple as it looks, and it's NOT a Delay/Looper like the Jam Man or the Line 6 Delay Modelers. Sound quality is relative. It will probably take you a while to tweak the Input and Output controls to get the right balance between your direct sound and your loop. The first time I used the RC-20, I found that my loop was coming out at a much lower volume than I would have expected, given the setting on the knob. There is nothing in the manual to help you find unity gain, but overall, this manual is a little less obtuse than the usual Roland-speak. I think a lot of people are going to be fooled by the simple format into thinking that this is also a Delay pedal. If you love doing lo-o-ong "Frippertronics" style delays on a fully loaded Jam Man, the RC-20 isn't going to do that for you. It's more of a hybrid Sampler pedal, really. You can store loops, of different lengths, up to a total of 5 minutes and 30 seconds of recording time. Unlike the Jam Man, the length of one loop doesn't determine the length of the others; you can have a 2 second loop, a 4 second loop, a full minute loop, all stored as different "phrases." One improvment over the Jam Man and the Delay Modelers, you can store your loops even when the RC-20 is turned off, which is sweet if you've worked up a really great loop that you want to use again. The downside is that there's no good way to load loops from the RC-20 to anything else, no MIDI Out, no SmartMedia card slot. You can use the single Output jack to record your loops into some other Sampler, or recorder, that's all.

I usually use a GT-3, a Line 6 Delay Modeler (the pedal) and the RC-20, with different Gibson and Hamer-style mahogany-plank guitars. Mainly I play a Hamer Special with stock P-90's. My live signal chain runs Guitar -> RC-20 -> GT-3 -> Ibanez VL10 Volume Pedal -> Line 6 DM4 Delay Modeler. From the Delay Modeler's Outputs I go direct to a mixer, house sound system or recording deck, depending on where I'm playing and what's there. I've gotten used to setting the levels on the RC-20, but it took me a bit of experimenting. The loop Output seems to be independent of the direct signal, which takes some getting used to. You can set the Input knob to where the peak indicator is lighting, but when you hit Play, your loop may come out as a faint whisper if the Output level isn't set high enough. Set the Output too high, and you'll bring up some noise, too. If you change instruments, or gain levels, often, you'll spend a lot of time turning those two little knobs. Otherwise, the sound is fairly clean; if I overload the input, I expect to get a noisy loop, but I've also found that I need to drive a pretty good signal into the RC-20, so I don't add noise turning the Output knob up too high. I usually put the RC-20 in front of the GT-3, for three reasons; it allows me to have a constant gain level going into the RC-20, it lets me use the stereo jacks on the GT-3 and DM4, and it lets me add some Delay after the looper so that my loops don't just cut off abruptly. I strongly recommend placing a volume pedal after the RC-20, if you want to get a controlled fade on your loops. A lot of players have complained about the quick cutoff, and a volume pedal is the best solution I've found.

Like most of the folks who post reviews here, I can't afford a backup for every piece of gear I own. I buy Boss gear because it works for me; I also take good care of my gear, so it tends to last. I've used the RC-20 live, with no problems. I feel sorry for the folks who've had bad luck with Boss/Roland gear, but so far, my Boss/Roland gear has never failed me.

Never had to deal with them, except to order a manual for another piece of gear; they got my order right, that's all I can tell you.

I play what some people call electronic guitar, using the guitar almost as a tone generator, then abusing the signal with effects, while driving loopers, sequencers and long delays in place of backing musicians. My approach to music is less cerebral than Robert Fripp's, and more aggressive than David Torn's ambient textures; I don't tend to map out my solos before I play them, and I like a guitar sound with some serious bite to it. You can dance to some of my music, although I wouldn't classify it as "dance music." The RC-20 works well for me in most ways; I love the long loop time, and I find the pedal format very handy. I chose the GT-3 and the RC-20 for live use so I wouldn't have to haul around a rack, a pile of pedals and a monster amp, and I'm pretty happy with my setup. I do wish the RC-20 had stereo jacks like the DM4. It seems kind of shortsighted to design a looper with mono jacks. The Line Level/ CD Input accepts a stereo 1/8 inch plug, but within the RC-20, that signal is collapsed to mono. I haven't used the little CD Input jack at all, and I don't expect to. I'm not sure who will, really. It seems more of an afterthought, or a wasted attempt to push the RC-20 at DJ's, who already have plenty of Boss/Roland toys available. The pedal format isn't ideal for DJ's, who don't spend a lot of time looking at their feet, and there isn't really anything else that DJ's will want. There are no onboard effects, and the quantize function is less useful than it seems. The RC-20 is clearly aimed at guitarists/bassists who want to make loops on the fly, and I think most of us would have preferred to have stereo jacks. The lack of MIDI Out, or access to any other storage medium is another letdown. Really good loops deserve to be saved in a more durable format. One other minor gripe; I agree with the reviewer who was "peed" about having to buy a power supply, too. I know that adding more knobs, switches or jacks to the RC-20 would raise production costs, and therefore retail prices, but by the time you buy two more footswitches and a power supply for the RC-20, you'll have spent another $75 or so. If my RC-20 were lost or stolen, I'd have to give some serious thought to the cost of replacing it. I got mine at a really good price from a local store, a price I wouldn't expect them to match, now. Most catalogs are selling the RC-20 at right around $320; add $75 for the footswitches and power supply, plus shipping, and you're over $400, up into the price range of the least expensive samplers, most of which have stereo jacks, MIDI ports, or some kind of SmartCard slot. I'd really have to think about the pedal format vs. more jacks/outboard memory. Right now, I'm glad I don't have to make that choice.

The line 6 delay or the Akai headrush are a little easier to use....the choice of on/off switch for a phrase sampler are not the greeatest since you have to account more for the footswitch to stop recording then you do with thoughs boxes

I did it's job....easy to use......

10 slots to hold samples in.....

Totally servicable......A fine Looper.....

Here is a shock......6 weeks after I bought it, it's dead....

Got home from work....Plugged it in and everylight started to flash on/off....tried a adaptor, different batteries.....Nothing.....

Reliability is up there with the line 6 delay modeler......It is also sitting BESIDE my Line 6 delay at a local music store waiting to be repaired......

I called Boss too see if they knew about the problem.....they were very nice actaully....

Also, the new website does not suck.

Solo musician........play almost anything......used this pedal on everything from a guitar, to a sitar, to my vocorder......

It is in the shop now......

I don't know.....If I had it over again I would have bought a Electrix repeater........I love his pedal....But it just does not seem reliability enough for me to right now....Maybe I just got a dud, and it will be fine....

Own or have owned tons of Boss pedals.......Name one....I've had it, sold it, or didn't bother with it (like the Slow Gear.....the most overrated pedal in history) and this is the first time one has failed....

Now, all I have left is an AKAI Headrush.....and it seems to be on the way out too....

I'm buying a Repeater.....My filter Factory and Vocorder have not failed me yet.........

If you're using this as a basic looper for live applications then the Loop Station is great. It's as easy to use as a Boomerang or a JamMan in that regard. If you're using saved loops then it requires a little more pre planning with regard to order of loop and volume of loops. I haven't tried to use it in any other applications so I can't comment. But then I bought it to use in real time, so I thinks it's a no brainer to use. The manual is okay.

I use the Loop Station with a variety of set ups and it works well. You do have to be careful with getting a proper mix between the input level and the loop level. Once you figure that out you're golden. It's only noisy if you don't have your levels set right. I use it with a Peavey Transformer 112 and a Fender Powerstage 100 and a Parker Nightfly and Takamine LTD 98. I am able to get great sounding loops with any combination, plus I always have some effects before the looper. It works best if you use the send/return loop on your amp instead of going thru the front end.

It's a Boss so I'm pretty confident in it. I recently used it in a gig where it rained (I was under a tent) and it got a little and there were no problems then or after.

I play solo jam-based stuff and the Loop Station is great for it. I have a JamMan (which I love but it's not as portable and has less memory) and I've had a Boomerang (much bigger unit with less memory). I've also had an Akai Headruch (too noisy, less memory, harder to use) and I have a Line 6 Delay Modeler (less memory, sounds just as good). The Loop Station is good sounding, more portable, and has way more memory and options. None of the above mentioned items let you undo an overdub (you'll have to spend way more $ for that options) but they all work well. For the money, the Loop Station is great.

Pretty straight forward though finding changes in level between inputs after switching off to be quite weird

Not quite CD or HD recording quality but does not interfere with mastering straight to CD

Only had it 8 weeks

Never needed to speak to them.

A bit peed off about having to buy a separate power supply though.

Having used a PC for hard disk recording for about 6 years and a 4 track for about 6 years prior to that it is a pleasure to get back to producing a useable track in less than 8 sessions!

It's just like the good old days witha 4 track where ideas can be generated quickly with a minimum of hassle.

We're prone to writing quite a few instrumental tracks in a variety of styles and this unit is ideal for creating soundscapes and moods very quickly.

If you don't have a plethora of outboard effects & effect racks be prepared to get some as the RC 20 has none of it's own.

We use a variety of Boss distortion pedals, Kork Pandora's Box, Zoom 9001, Zoom 1202, Alesis Midiverb II and a few other bits and pieces. Since I took the RC 20 out of the box nearly every effect I own has been spread all over the studio floor.

This thing kinda grabs you this way and you just want to get sounds and ideas down as quickly as possible.

You have to be a bit cute with how you use the RC 20 and plan memory spaces in advance to ensure that a psuedo 'undo' is available as the unit does not have this built in.

I tend to save a good loop into another memory/loop space keep the original and build over the copy. There appears to be no degradation in quality using teh unit this way as long as the effect you use is not noisy. This also helps create peakes & troughs in atmosphere and allows a 'mix on the fly' element to recording to CD.

I looked at purchasing various other loopers before deciding on the RC 20 due to it's long sample time and obvious cost advantage over other competitors (e.g. Boomerang).

I've seen David Torn use the Jamman in a live situation although never used one myself. Some of the features reputed to be include in there would be nice but obviously for Roland in the cost vs functionality curve the RC 20 unit has been produced to compete at the budget end of the scale.

If you're fed up with programming and want to get back to being a musician again I'd recommend the RC 20. - It will force you into learning how to programme those pesky effects units though....

needs some looks into the manual for some tricky details, but ok

I use it for 2 things: as a sampler to blend in some loops and ambient sounds live with my jazz trio, guitar double bass, singer, and to do live loops on guitar.
Both applications create some severe problems:
1) the sound of my Lowden with fishman internal mic is unusabe, there is a severe change in sound, the mic input is muddy and middly,
2) I tried to sample some loops straight from the pc-what a pain in the ass! The thing has a nasty function that automativally tries to straighten out your loop siuze to make shure it's cut neatly-BUT as it does not have a bpm dial, it is virtually impossible to cut a 4 bar beat right by hand, meaning that tha tap tempo will NEVER be accurate enough to let the machine know exactly what length the loop is supposed to have! The result is that it can take 20 minutes to accurately record a 4 bar loop and make it bite its tail precisely without hickups or minimal pauses. The same thing can happen with played loops, if youre unfortunate the loop will hickup from the start and you'll need to be VERY precise with your foot.Even though you can supposedly record without the auto quantizer, this thing will alway calculate a tempo and structure the recorded material accordingly and then the tempo led will blink anyway, indicating some try to fit it into a bar structure-but hey-what if I just wanna record a phrase out of tempo??? It needs a bpm indicator for real drumloops !!! cut out this quantizer!

guess it's solid, looks like it.

no idea.

the boomerang is rediculously expensive and you can't save anything. the liottle akai s 20 is fine but only a sampler, not a real time looper. I guess I 'd rather buy a good multi fx with a sample and hold function of 10 sec or so, this unit is a misconception, but could have been fine with some thought.

needs some looks into the manual for some tricky details, but ok

I use it for 2 things: as a sampler to blend in some loops and ambient sounds live with my jazz trio, guitar double bass, singer, and to do live loops on guitar.
Both applications create some severe problems:
1) the sound of my Lowden with fishman internal mic is unusabe, there is a severe change in sound, the mic input is muddy and middly,
2) I tried to sample some loops straight from the pc-what a pain in the ass! The thing has a nasty function that automativally tries to straighten out your loop siuze to make shure it's cut neatly-BUT as it does not have a bpm dial, it is virtually impossible to cut a 4 bar beat right by hand, meaning that tha tap tempo will NEVER be accurate enough to let the machine know exactly what length the loop is supposed to have! The result is that it can take 20 minutes to accurately record a 4 bar loop and make it bite its tail precisely without hickups or minimal pauses. The same thing can happen with played loops, if youre unfortunate the loop will hickup from the start and you'll need to be VERY precise with your foot.Even though you can supposedly record without the auto quantizer, this thing will alway calculate a tempo and structure the recorded material accordingly and then the tempo led will blink anyway, indicating some try to fit it into a bar structure-but hey-what if I just wanna record a phrase out of tempo??? It needs a bpm indicator for real drumloops !!! cut out this quantizer!

guess it's solid, looks like it.

no idea.

the boomerang is rediculously expensive and you can't save anything. the liottle akai s 20 is fine but only a sampler, not a real time looper. I guess I 'd rather buy a good multi fx with a sample and hold function of 10 sec or so, this unit is a misconception, but could have been fine with some thought.

It's fairly complex for a pedal, but I was up and running within 10 minutes. The buttons and knobs can be controlled with bare feet for total hands free operation. The auto-start and quantize feature make creating loops easy. Be carefull feeding it a signal with excessive hiss, or it will trigger prematurely. The manual is fairly well written and should be read front to back for best results.

I use some stomp boxes in front of it, then to a tube combo. I would say it is comparable to a good cassete player, but not CD quality. Slowing or speeding up the loop is not so good. Practically useless for more than minor tweeks. The preamp is nice and loud. You can really boost your guitar signal if needed.

It's built like a regular boss pedal, but the knobs seem alittle flimsy.

Never delt with Roland. I hear they're not so accomidating.

I use it alone for practicing, and with a drummer. This is a grat practice tool. I've been playing for many years, and used many toys, but this pedal is by far the most fun. Great for writing leads and harmonies. I would definately replace it if it were stolen. My bigest complaint is the loop selection. With the pedal you can only go through the loops 1-10 once. It would be nice to program it to run through a selected range of loops, then repeat. Say 4-6, then back to 4 again. None the less, I think it's a great peace of gear for the cash.

The RC-20 is extremely easy to use. Plug your instrument into the input and you're ready to go. Step on one pedal and you're recording. Step on the same pedal again and it begins to play back the loop. Step on the other pedal during recording and it stops the recording, creating a loop just waiting for your use. the only shortcoming with the RC-20 is that there is no way to go directly from recording to overdubbing.

How easy is it to get a good sound out of the RC-20? How hard is it to plug your instrument into this device? What you put in is what you get out. I can't tell a difference between my preamped Martin and the RC-20 loops I generate, which is great for live playing. I play some 12 bar blues (for example), record the first verse, then have it loop for the rest of the song. You can't tell a difference between the live playing and the loop. If the tune has a verse with breaks, I just turn off the loop and play the change. No one seems to notice any tonal difference at all. When the original form reappears, I just kick the loop back in, and away we go. It's seamless in terms of tone from the original source. I have also used it with a couple of electric guitars (a Tele and a 175) running through a Boss GT-3, and the loop sounds identical to the pure guitar sound. Now, if you do multiple overdubs, things can get a little strange, but that can be put down to operator error. When you play at what you perceive to be the correct volume for the overdub, the top layer is usually a little louder than what it sounded like when you played it in real time. But that's a lesson that is quickly learned. The sound is consistent whether I used it through a regular guitar amp (Fender Blues DeVille) or directly through a PA. The RC-20 is absolutely quiet; I can detect no hiss when I use this device unless I record something at an EXTREMELY low volume.

I have only had the RC-20 for about three weeks now, so I shopuldn't comment on this, but if it is anything like other Boss products, I should expect to use it into the next millenium. The device is ruggedly built, as is the Boss standard. I do not have a backup, nor do expect to need one.

N/A

I am using this in live playing situations, in a duo with a female singer. as the only instrument, the arrangements have been sparse, to say the least, despite my feeble attempts to play like Tuck Andress or Charlie Hunter. With the RC-20, we have essentially added a rhythm guitarist on many of our tunes. And I only use the RC-20 in real-time situations. (In other words, I don't have any prerecorded tracks stored in it.) As long as I remember which part of the song I need to loop for a particular song (e.g., the chorus, the second verse) and step on the pedal (as they say in Parliment) on the one, life is good. With such a sparse musical setting, any sonic shortcoming would be readily apparent. I've used in all types of music, including but not limited to rock and roll, pop, country andf blues. The only thing that I am wary to try is to incorporate it in band situations. If the drummer can't hear it (and play along with it), it could very quickly turn into a train wreck on stage.
I've been playing in bars for over 20 years, playing everything from top 40 and funk, to classic R&R, to jazz and even classical.
As I use this in live situations only in small group situations, I have no need for MIDI capabilities, which the device does not have. The device also has a quantize feature that will allow for more accurate stop points, given the beat that you give the device prior to recording. I have not used this feature live, but tried at home and seems to work fine. I just step on a pedal "on the one" to start recording, and again "on the one" to either stop recording or to begin the loop, and it works flawlessly. In terms of features that would be welcome additions, it would be nice to have an undo function, where if you goof on an overdub, you could retain the original loop (pre-error). An expression would also be nice, but this is a $300 device. the fact that it does what it does for that price is AMAZING! Did I mention that it has 5 1/2 minutes of recording time? One more time for the world - five and one-half minutes of recording time! You can work your way through most standards in that time, and solo over top of that until the cows come home.
Bottom line - it most definitely helps me make music. And money. The aforementioned duo now sounds so full we can get work in clubs that usually just have bands, and make the cut. Highly recommended!

imagine you want to create a loop and stack more ideas onto the same loop: you can do that easily. the problems arise when you played something bad. you cannot undo the last thing you played, only the whole thing you created. so you have to start from scratch/silence again. very bad for stage...
so: THIS MACHINE LACKS OF AN UNDO FUNCTION.
if you save a loop, you can write a new idea onto it after saving and by pressing one of the footswitches you can erase that last idea, your already saved loop stays intact. but while saving your first loop the loop stops. silence again...
so that doesn't help in a wet/live situation if you want to put several layers on top of each other.
too bad...
besides that: incredible long loop time for that kind of money!

If you have a little rhythm and are playing in 4/4 it is pretty easy to use. Start recording, stop recording, overdub...not too hard. I run mine through a mixer so I can control input and output levels and send anyone of our instruments/vocals to it...works well.

I wouldn't expect studio quality sound from a $300 sampler but for club gigging it has worked great. Yeah, there's a little hiss but it isn't even noticeable when the overall volume is up.

We also play a two-man acoustic gig and for a club, through a PA you can't even notice the hiss. Be careful with the input levels, though, if they are too high or there is too "big" of a signal coming in it seems like the thing works kinda funky (even when the overload light is not coming on).

Also, on one occasion we had the mic input all the way up on accident but there was nothing plugged into it and we couldn't get a good sample, there was a delay when we hit the stop recording/play.

Overall, great for club gigging, even acoustic, but expect a little hiss.

After 5 all night gigs and many hours of rehearsal the thing works great. It's solid and the pedals feel just like my other boss pedals...super durable.

I do use it without a backup but I am only playing small clubs and we don't absolutely rely on it. It is just another effect.

No need yet.

Overall this is a great sampler at a very good price. It is geared towards live performance and that is where it excels. It is also a great tool for practicing. We have and do create samples on the fly and loop them during live performances. We have stacked around 10-12 samples at a time and it still works fine...including a drum kit, horns, percussion, bass, digiredoo and guitars.

I haven't used the loop quantizer, don't need too. If you play in 4/4 or 2/4 just tap your foor to the beat, in and out on 1 and it's there everytime...just like the Boomerang. Of course it takes a little practice but I found it really easy to use and was creating loops and overdubs as soon as I plugged it in.

I really like the RC-20 and I would buy another if/when this one is gone, simply for the fact that it is relatively inexpensive, works great, its durable and it does exactly what I need it too. And unlike some other samplers it is compact and easy to transport.

I'll give it a nine to be reasonable but for me and my use of it I would give it a ten.

pretty intuitive. it can get a little much to deal with when playing in a live situation, but it should be treated like another instrument that you must learn how to use.

it sounds ok to my ears. digital, yes, but you can't get this kind of flexibility any other way. it's just something you have to accept. overall it's pretty good, although it sounds to me like there is some sort of built in noise gate which is kind of annoying. also getting the levels even for the input level, and they delay output level can get kind of tricky.

seems pretty well built, although a bit complicated to deal with, which to me can be seen as unreliability because i'm a bit absent minded sometimes and if you forget one thing, like forget to clear the last loop you were working on, when you try to record a new one, the old one will instantly come up. but if your a clear headed sober individual, you might think otherwise

roland customer support licks mule ass. it sucks that they make so much cool stuff, because they seem to either a) have their collective head up their ass or b) don't give a shit what happens to their products once they've been sold. either way, i'd give a negative point value for this category if i could

i'm looking for interesting ways to incorporate textures and loops in a live environment, and this little thing may be just what i'm looking for. music is all based on repitition and loops anyway, so it's cool to have the ability to capture sections and play around with them in different ways. this is my advice for a loop stations 2.0 however...
1) must, must, must...have a wet AND dry output
2) needs to deal with the programed loop situation beter. i think it would be a lot easier to deal with if instead of dialing the various loops in with a knob, there was a digitally displayed number indicating what loop you were on, and that way you could save WAY more loops (there is 5.5 minutes of recording time after all)
3) needing to buy the extra pedals to do the whole throw it in reverse thing/scoll between saved loops thing is kind of a tease. it's like the POD selling all that extra shit that costs twice as much as the pod itself.
4) must, must, must...have some funtion which makes the loop fade out. it would be much easier for me to work the pedal into my playing in a more musical way if i were able to have the loop gentle go away instead of abrupdtly stop.


all in all, it's a great idea and hopefully the can perfect it in coming years. it has great features and i'm looking forward to exploring it's possibilities.

You have to play around with the input levels depending on what you are sampling from. I sample voices, records, and noise with this toy.

The sound is o.k.

I believe I can depend on it, I haven't used it for any recent gigs but, the one coming up will let me know.

I play in Los Angeles based alternative Rock/Sample Sound band[thanks to Rc-20]. It is a cool tool to add to the sound. I have been playing for????well, since I was 9. I have a Peavey Transfx Stereo Pro Head, NR custom speaker cabinets, Sunn 212 amp, a custom Flange-Reverb-Delay stomp box that a friend of mine made for me in Essex, and a Gretsch Tennessee Rose Hollow Body Guitar. If I were to lose this...it would break my heart. I just love the fact that it's a portable loop station! The battery life is excellent! I wish it had a memory card like my Peavey Head. That way I would be able to save my loops and not start from scratch. With this-----> The sky is the limit!

Purchased this unit from mars in florida.The sound quality of the unit is 5 out of 10.Iam getting a his out of the unit and have to turn
the level in and out all the way to to hear the sample.Editing is a breeze on this unit and the manual is easily understood not like some
other Roland manuals I've gotten(VS880EX).overall its ok for the price
I paid but a little unsure using to gig.

I'm currently using a Mesa boogie 4x10 nomad and fender blues deville.
I'm going into a fulltone octafuzz then zoom 5052 and then the loop station.The prerecorded sample play louder and clearer than you can actually get with your guitar and the signals cracked all the way up.

Roland customer support is horriable.If they really cared they would
have a decent FAQ and automatic updates would be sent out to there customers. For that matter that might do a little more research and
development.

The Boss RC-20 Loop Station is a deep beast. There is a lot going on inside this little box. The manual is 40 pages long and fairly well written. It took me a while to figure it out, but once I did it was easy to create seamless loops. The package contained a CD full of loops and sound effects. There was also a single sheet with a "Not to do" list on it. The RC-20 came loaded with a number of cheesy loops, so the first thing I learned was how to erase loops. You have to be careful what you step on because it's easy to mess things up by pushing a pedal twice or stepping on it for more than two seconds.

Sound quality is excellent. What you put in is what you get out. If you load from a tape there will be tape noise, but if you EQ it you should be OK. You can slow down or speed up loops, but not to extremes. Enough to make it a great learning tool. The loop quantize function is very nice and makes for perfectly timed loops, but it's a difficult process at first. I am using a Godin LGXT guitar with 3 outputs. The synth out goes straight to P.A. as does the acoustic output. The guitar out goes through some Boss stompers and then to A POD and then to PA. I initially put the looper in the pedal loop, but this doesn't work because your samples will be effected by the pedals. You have to think about where you place this device in your arsenal. Anything after it will effect it's output.

It's not as heavy duty as most Boss pedals, but seems to be sturdy. It's not as tall as most stompers either. I will use it without a backup because I am not a Rockfeller. I seem to be collecting one of each. Every toy ever made. I have an equipment jones and probably need counseling.

Huh! Whazzat? They have have a web-site thats great for keyboardists, but if you're a guitarist there's not much available. If you send them an e-mail they will answer with a "we'll get right on it" and then you'll never hear from them again. There customer support is as sturdy as a folding waterbed.

I play classic-jazz-rock-space-punk. This is an excellent tool that should bring hours of fun and enjoyment for the entire neighborhood. Enough high frequencies to freak out your neighbors pets and good enough lows to induce orgasms. Crank it up until your family leaves and then you can watch porn in peace. If it were stolen I'd go postal and get a paid vacation in lockup. It is a much better product than jam-man or boomerang. I am quite pleased.

Fairly intuitive and well laid-out. Kind of like any boss pedal in that sense. Editiing and storing was relative easy and

I use a '79 Strat equipped with Seymour Duncan Antiquities through a reissue Vox AC-30TB (Blue Bulldogs) and a '73 Fender Deluxe Reverb. Pedals: Vox wah, boss volume, boss super phaser, boss analog delay, hot cake overdrive, old proco rat, diaz tremedillo, boss rv-3, and a digitech 2-sec delay.

I found that the rc-20 was clean and quiet and doesn't alter the sound in any way. i use a morley A/B/Y switch from the last of my pedal chain to split the signal to the vox and to the rc-20 to the deluxe - thus isolating the loop.

some cool features are that you can store loops in it's memory, you can bring in loops from a microphone, instrument or even a prerecorded sample from a cd player. you can also easily change the tempo of a prerecorded loop on the fly and you can overdub with your loops on the fly - and you can footswitch your loops in reverse!

Built solidly like any other boss pedal. I would definitely replace it if it were lost or stolen.

N/A

I play alternative rock. My band has been incorporating loops into our music more and more lately. I had a Jamman, but it was limited by 32 seconds vs 5.5 mins, being a rack mount unit vs a compact pedal, and having no storing capacity vs storing uo to 11 unique samples.

Here is what I thing would improve the unit:
If it had a dry output in addition to the affected output. If it also had delay built-in. This unit is a looper/sampler, period. At around $300, it's fairly limited in scope, but it does what it does extremely well.

The RC-20 is a loop station that does not generally modify the sound, that is, unless you uses the quantize function to either speed up or slow down the sample. When you speed up or slow down the loop, the sound degrades, but it is still passable.

As far as creating loops - it does a very good job. Stomp on... stomp off... Reverse.

The strangest thing though is using the quantize function. First, you tap in the tempo. You must watch for the red light to tell you where the 1 is, all other beats are green. If you do not record to the end of the measure it will grab whatever is needed from counting backwards to complete the sample.

As the previous reviewer said, you can store up to 11 samples persistantly. If you add the optional footswitch, you will be able to step upwards to trigger new loops, but not down.

I use this with a Line6 DL4. It doesn't seem to add any noise. Sometimes when you use the batteries the sound will fade in and out. It's doesn't do that when you use the power adapter - so my suggestion is to get it.

Not as sturdy as the Line6 DL4, but it feels like it's built to last.

This can be used basically for any type of music. I use it as a woodshed tool. Type in a tap tempo then enter a phrase to practice scales/arpeggios solo riffs and soloing.

I probably would not replace it if it were stolen because I have the Line6 DL4, which does have the ability to loop.

I think that it is better than the Boomerange, simply because it A) costs less. B) Has more sampling time. C) Has persistant memory. D) It's smaller.

The only thing that I wish it has was a little bit of delay, but other than that, it's a fine piece of equipment.

With a little help from a friend at the shop and about 15 minutes with the pedal at home I was into my first song. Manual average.

Out of the box, hooked up a Music Man Silhouette (3 single coils) to the RC-20 direct to my '57 Tweed Princeton. A bit noisy, but start playing and it blends right in. No effects with it yet, sounds great clean, the Tweed didn't know it was there.

Boss should be good, but it's only 12 hours old. I'll play out with it next week.

Never dealt with them.

I play a bit of everything. Tend to improvise. Been playing for about 10 years now. If it were stolen I'd be bummed, just got it. Already feel like I've got a rhythm guitarist in the house to play/practice with. So far my favorite pedal in that it allows you to create, not just another sound.

I give this a 8 because it's not intuitive at first. I look through the manual and you should be able to figure it out. For comparison, I would rate the loop function on the Line 6 DL-4 as a 10.

Bonus points for having 5.5 minutes of total recording time!!! You can split this time up any way you want between 11 different "loop tracks". I loved the DL-4 for ease of use, but only 14 seconds was sometimes a little restrictive for my song styles. Bonus number two--you can save your loops in non-volatile memory! For someone like me who loves to compose with loops, this is a blessing.

Contrary to it's advertising, this is NOT a tool for playing loops live in the sense you might think. You can record/play/overdub a loop live like with a DL-4 or a Jam Man, But playing multiple loops is not easy. The "play once" feature is reserved for only one of eleven memory location, which totally sucks. If you want to play multiple loop patterns, you have to pre-record them in the sequence you want to play them into adjacent memory locations. You can use an external foot switch to trigger it to play the next loop after the first one hits the end. However, the looping is infinite. If you want to play loop one once, then stop, and play another loop, forget it.

If you want to do lots of overdubs on a single loop a la Les Paulverizer, then this is a easy to use, very cool tool for that purpose. The two pedal configuration is very simple to record, then play a loop, then start overdubbing very quickly. You can set a tap tempo for the quantize function or just use the tap as a metronome guide. Setting the time signature and tap tempo are simple functions which are very handy for practicing.

After about an hour and a half, I had 99 percent of the functionality nailed down. This is not brain surgery.

My setup is simple - Ovation shallow body 6-string or Standard Strat w/ EMG SA pickups into a GT-3, straight into mixer and out to a monitor. The loop station is in the FX loop of the GT-3 so I can move it around between different effects for different songs.

The sound quality is just fine, but the folks at Boss did something stupid with this unit. The instrument input has a mid-boost EQ on it to simulate a guitar amp. The only way to avoid this is to use the flat amp setting, but then you have to plug your input into the 1/8" input meant for a CD or minidisc input! And it's only a mono unit, so they lose a point for not having stereo outputs.

It's a Boss pedal, and I've never had trouble with any Boss gear. This is one of the new double pedals, but it's built like a tank like all the Boss units.

Never had to deal with them, but I will call them with some questions on this unit.

Overall this is good tool for practicing and composing. I play lots of ambient/new age and use a guitar synth in addition to my basic setup. I have only had it a day (I got the first one in the store!), so I have some tinkering to do before I decide to keep it forever. If you are one of the people who bought a Line 6 DL-4 JUST for the loop recorder but were disappointed in its limitations, then the RC-20 may be worth the extra 50 bucks to you. If stereo is important to you, don't get it. If you want to have the ability to record and overdub a nice long loop live, then this is a good buy. If you want a neat tool for practicing with a nice metronome feature and a cool composition/improvisational aide, then this is also a good buy. If you want stereo, or you want to be able to record and play different loops with a one shot capability on the fly, then you may have to wait for something else to come along (maybe the Electrix Repeater?), or invest in a big $$$ sampler. For the cost, this is a good value.