Boss RC-20XL

The manual is clearly written and very usefull.

In my opinion the sound is perfect only when you are playing in a clean tone. When you switch to overdrive tone the situation gets a little messy.

I agree with other users that for practising purpose at home is the perfect tool (if you learn to use it quite well), but for live performances is the worst one.

I bought it from the net. I have never upgrade it and I don't think it will be nesessary.

I like the sound that is coming out from the pedal and also two pedals that it has are very usefull for me. I don't like at all the sound of the drums. Moreover I can connect it with my CD-player and that gives more options.

Pretty straight forward for a looper. Everything is laid out well and easy to use. I'm not sure how to change the time signature but I haven't looked into it either. That's the one thing that isn't obvious from a quick glance.

I got this as a replacement for a DigiTech JamMan and I am much happier with the RC-20XL's sound quality. With the JamMan, once you finished overdubbing and the phrase started playing back, the transition from "live" to "looped" was really noticeable. To me, the Boss pedal's playback is much more "lively" and natural.

And to me, when the Boss looper gets to the end of the phrase, it seems to do a better job of restarting the phrase smoothly. The JamMan actually sounded like a CD skipping back.

Boss is known for their reliability.

Never dealt with them.

I'm not entirely sure I needed a looper but I've been pretty happy with this pedal. I think it's been a good purchase. It's been good for practicing timing and learning about soloing, harmonizing, scales and so on. It's easy to use, sounds good and has features that competing loopers don't. I also like the second 1/4" input jack, which I use for connecting a bass or keyboard. You can't do that with an XLR input.

most effects can figured out without an instruction manual, but the rc-2 isn't one of them. this isn't a bad thing, but that's just how it is with this pedal. you may have an easier time getting the hang of it if you've had experience with other loop pedals before, especially if it's a boss. but for me, this was my first and it took me a good full practice session (about 2 hours of messing around?) to fully understand how the pedal worked - and maybe a day and a half to remember it all. it's just a dense pedal, so there's a lot in it, but it all makes sense.

this is the main reason why i thought i should write a review on this pedal - to make mention of the noise issue i've been getting. this pedal will spit out exactly what you put it, without any alteration to the tone of the original passage played. HOWEVER, on top of what it plays back, there is a really high-pitched digital ring that is always there (whether it's playing back a passage or not). and of course, if you've got overdrive pedals in your chain of effects, that ring will be amplified when those OD effects are on. i'm not sure what other people's effects setup is but this issue may have something to do with it being at the end of a chain of multiple stomp boxes with the power distributed in a daisy-chain fashion. i know many reviewers have expressed that this pedal produces no undesirable noise whatsoever, but perhaps their setup is different. but regardless of that fact, i can't be the only person with an effects rig set up the way mine is set up. i'm not sure what to try in order to remedy this issue, but i'm hoping more people who have this issue will at least make it known.

very strong. but i'd be more careful with this than, say, one of my other boss effects. it just seems like it might be more fragile on the inside.

the reps were unfamiliar with the issue...so they were not able to help me too much. but they were friendly.

overall, it's a neat pedal that can be extremely useful in live or at-home situations. but i'm still trying to figure out this noise issue i've been having with the high-pitch ring.

If you read the manual, everything's laid out pretty clearly. The pedal has a fair amount of functions (switching between loops, switching guide tracks, yadda yadda) which are simple if you take the time to learn with the pedal.

Timing the loops to sync up properly and sound like natural playing through the cross-over between loops is a learned art, but if you take the time (a few hours, and at the price I can't imagine you wouldn't), you can get it right pretty close to 100% of the time.

Sound quality is almost irrelevant to this kind of pedal. As has been said, you get out what you put in.

I've noticed a very slight hiss while erasing a loop. If you're playing, it is unnoticeable.

The drum guides kind of sound like shit, but it's not really meant for performance. They are also too loud when compared to the guitar level. The lowest setting seems to be on par with 12:00 to 1:00 on the "level" knob for the loop with the volume on my guitar knob turned up.

I've had it a few months. It's solid. Boss makes good housings, which is good because loop pedals, but nature, need to be stepped on a lot.

Haven't had to deal with them.

For practicing solos and improvisation, it's great.

There are some things that would vastly improve the device, however.

1) There's no way to delete just the most recent layer of a loop. Meaning, if you've set up a bunch of layers, and you add one that you don't like, it's on there for keeps--like paint on a canvas.

2) Playing a loop and then stopping and starting another is pretty jarring. Sometimes I fade out of a loop by turning the level down by hand. I wish there were a way to attach an expression pedal and fade out. A volume pedal after the device would work, too, but it would also lower the volume of your guitar. Having a second device (Ian Williams of Battles does this with Akai Headrushes) would let you start a new loop so that deleting the old one would still present a level of coherence between the two. But that's expensive.

damn easy. no problems in getting a perfect loop. sometimes good, to play by internal rhythm.

this is why i am writing this: have a look at the rating for the RC-2. i have had it before the RC-20XL and - the same quality! what goes in will come out. a 9 cause the drums are not really usable (ok, sometimes i use THE one of those).

best

i do like their online pages.

learning and experimenting - this is what i bought it for, and it does its job.

Need some time but then it is a clear winner!

No hum, no hiss. Great sound

Built like a tank

No need for one. After all it's Boss

I bought this used, but it was in mint shape (the previous owner was stymied by it, I think). At first, even though I had been give a "primer" in it's use by a friend who uses one all the time, I too found it daunting. Then after about an hour I had pretty much mastered it. I love this thing. It is idiosyncratic, the way it operates, so you have to really get down with learning it and "let it train you" somewhat, but the pay off is worth it. I also hooked up a 1/4" stereo Fender Vib/Rev pedal and a non-latching keyboard sustain pedal to it an voila, all those functions are easily foot controllable as well! Boss makes special switches for this that come out to around 75 bucks for both but if you have comparable switches at home try them out. probably one of the trickiest things to figure out is the correct time to stop and start the recording with the pedal in order to get a satisfactory loop that will work the way you want it to time-wise, but this is a talent you have to master through use, the box itself is very predictable and once YOU learn how to do it right you'll get good results. Using the timed loop with quantization will yield better timed results. I'm not the biggest fan of that "click" sound you play along with, but it does the job perfectly. I'm trying to do everything with this box, from setting up 3-5 part loops for songwriting and to play drums with, to making ambient Bill Frisell -like loops on the fly, to making psychedelic reverse sounds to add in where appropriate. It does them all, and with the extra pedals for scrolling up and down through the 11 memory locations and the footswitch for reverse you can really get a lot done without the dreaded "having to bend over". The manual explains everything but like most manuals it probably doesn't explain it 100% exactly like you would like to have it explained, again, like any good box or keyboard or whatever, no matter how intuitive there is the matter of YOU having to acclimate to IT. Go for it, you can handle it!

Good sound quality, doesn't step on the signal/tone. i use it with a variety of telecasters, les pauls, gretsches, danos, etc etc into vintage fender tweed and blackface amps. I wish some of my boutique stomp boxes, which I often love, could achieve the quality and reliability of the Boss line. If I had the balls I'd go ALL BOSS, but they have a tendency to cancel some of their cooler boxes, like the stereo Trem and the VB-2 vibrato and the parametric EQ....wTF?

I have had some Boss boxes go bad and have them repaired, but rarely, and I drag them all over the world. I expect this one will be no different. I'm still not a fan of their tuner, but apparently everyone else is.

When I needed something fixed, they fixed it. Also have gotten good tech answers from them.

I guess unless it became a part of your overall style a box like this could be in danger of being something you only dragged out once in a while, but I expect to get some good use and fun out of it. I love making up a song in it with 4 or 5 overdubbed parts and playing drums with it or lead over it, makes sitting around with yourself practicing or coming up with ideas WAY more fun.

I've read plenty of reviews (on this site and others) stating that the user was boggled by this thing at first attempt. I would say that the most fundamental funcions, i.e looping, were immediately accessable without reading the manual. I took mine out of the box, plugged it in, and looped like. . . well, like a mad-looper. Any functuions that i had diffuculty "getting" were outlined clearly and concisely in the included manual. And the only reason those functions took some time was because I am not hip to much of the Boss lingo. It was a matter of their labeling alone, which is neither good or bad. It's simply arbitrary terms for the unit's functions. Seriously- how some of you couldn't get it rolling is beyond me. I should add that I've only owned this pedal for a week, and I can operate the unit to full capacity.

Sound quality- well, here is my current set-up: Gibson SG standard or Fender Telecaster > DOD FX80B compressor > Vox Cooltron Dual Overdrive > Boss Loop Station > Vox AC30CC2. The bypass is decent, the loop quality is decent, but nothing will sound as true as guitar > amp, if for no other reason than the addition of extra cables for the sound to travel through. That said, there definately is some sound quality lost, but not much. I don't expect anyone listening at a live performance would really notice unless they're a gear head. I don't see myself using this too much for gigs anyway. I bought it mainly as a practice tool.

This is a Boss product, and so far so good. After a week it's been fine. The build quality is such that I could use it as a weapon to thwart a ninja attack. Based soley on my past experiences with Boss products, Boss should build tanks- they'd be indestructible.

I'm sure they're really nice folks. Hopefully, I'll never have to find out.

I love this thing. As a practicing tool and creatice device, this is probably the best investment you could make. It's already improved my playing as well as present me with a new creative pallette to work with.

The 16 minutes of sample time is nice. I typically layer about 7 instrument tracks on one patch during a performance. Editing and ease of use are intuitive, except for erasing patches. I don't have a manual and I can use every function after one day of use. For guitar and analog instruments this is a great unit. The layers tend to fade when multiple layers are stacked on top of them. If you are a one man band as I am, you might want to wait for some improvements. The biggest issue for me is that I cannot get it to accurately reproduce arpeggiated synth patches. I play them and the tempo feature freaks out. The unit locks on to your tempo while recording and holds it. This is great for instruments with an analog attack, but not so good for smooth digital signal. The tempo feature freaks out on the arpeggiated patches from my Kurzweil K2500. I was trying to record an arp2500 patch into the unit and it couldn't seem to lock on. It would reduce the patch and cut out all of the quieter subtleties of the sound. That said I am still happy that I bought the unit and will enjoy playing analog instruments through it. I do wish that the reverse function was foot controlled and it had multiple ins and outs.

What you put in is what you get out, until you layer half a dozen patches. Great for up to four layers if they have a hot signal. Not too digital sounding.

It's a boss!

Hope to never need them. I haven't in the 15 years I have been using their products.

This is a good match for me to play with a band. To do my one man band I will need some upgrades or a laptop. This should do it in theory, but the lack of response to digital signal isn't going to let that happen. It is alot of fun to use for creating bass and guitar parts. I am going to wear out the inputs by constantly switching between bass and guitar. If you are a guitarist looking for a cool toy to create textures I don't think you will find a better option out there. I may just have to give up on the synth idea and use my other boss effects to create similar sounds. I would definitely replace this if it were lost or stolen though I might go for the rc-50 for its hands off approach and the ability to have three patches available simultaneously. I bought this because the rc-50 is also mono and just doesn't support its potential.

Really easy to use. Straight out of the box it's pretty straightforward. As other players have mentioned - once you've read the manual you're up and running. It's a great starter loop device - I'm only just getting into it (can't be bothered finding yet another rhythm guitarist) and it's worked live and in the studio so far. I've already figured out the quantize button and, for my money, this FX works best on Auto Start. Tempos are pretty easy to set up too. Hooked up with an FS-6 and I'm in looping heaven!

There is a slight loss of tone. I use this nearly at the end of a GT8 loop (just before reverb) and you can notice when you first hear the loop. However, seeing as I'm looping so I can overdub then that's not that much of an issue - the rest of the band make up for the slight tone loss.

I would have liked to have seen this with stereo outs (I play stereo out to two amps - VOXAC30 and Spider112) though - IMO that would have sorted the tone loss. For that reason I've set the assigns on the GT8 so that I can cut the Loop out when not in use - instant stereo again. If you're playing in mono I can't see this being an issue at all.

It's Boss. I expect it to last a long time and to do what I want it to do on command.

Never had a problem with Boss gear.

It's pretty good. I'm sure the RC-50 is totally fab but this will do me for a while I think.

This unit takes a little time to find all the features and only has two pedals for real time use. The manuel was OK. I did not purchase this as a on stage pedal but more for practice and an idea recorder.

I am very happy with the sound quality for my purposes. I do think it colors your bypassed tone though. Again I use it for practice purposes and live to check my front of house tone. I have owned a boomerang and a Line 3 DL4 and I like this unit more due to the ability to save things the looped sound is better than the boomerang which has problems with clipping and input volume. The DL4 loops are too short and you cannot save anything. I know they are different products in thems of features but the RC-20XL does the best for what I need.

I think boss pedals are built like a tank and road proven. Although I only have this boss pedal due the tone coloration of the pedal bypassed.

I have not dealt with them.

I am in a original funk and jam band and this pedal allows me to record song ideas throughout the week. I use a dumble clone, Warmoth Strat, Briggs Saturn Deluxe, Tone Junkie TS9, Voodoo Labs Ground control pro, micro vibe, TC G major, etc. I use a lot of pro gear and this pedal is my favorite looper. Again I have owned a DL4 and a Boomerang (I have actually owned 2 boomerangs including the latest version). I wish it had another button to swich between loops but I think that I could get a momentary switch to do that on this unit but I do not have room on my pedal board. I use HC reviews often so here is my 2 cents.

For the first hour and half of having it i was very confused, but now that i know how to use it it is good.
The manual is full of instructions, and if you actually read it you will understand the unit.
The only problem that i have found so far is when using the loops on the CD that came with it, it is really hard to time the push off the pedal to make it loop.

I have found that my tone is more distorted when using the unit.

After having the pedal for 1 and half months, the pedal randomly broke and needed to be rreprogamed by boss.

When the pedal was sent to boss to be repaired, it took them two and a half months to get it back to me.
Boss are good at making pedals that work and are reliable, but when one breaks they don't know what to do.

I play alot of improvised jazz, and this pedal is great for doing that sort of thing. I have never used it anywhere besides at home, but i dont imagine it would be good onstage.

This thing is pretty easy to use (at least at a most basic level). Anything more then recording and overdubbing can be looked up in the manual no problem.

Ok, so heres where the problem lies... this thing sucks tone like no tomorrow. My setup is as follows: Tele->Tonebone Trimode (true bypass, so it's not the problem)-> RC-20XL-> amp. when I unplug the looper and go through the trimode the tone is way, way better. The pedal also renders the tone control on your guitar useless, and i didnt notice any changes whatsoever when switching through pickups.

so, I will never gig with this thing, but for home use and practice, where tone isnt the biggest thing on your mind, its absolutely great.

haven't had it long enough to say.

...

Overall, this is a great looper. It does what it says, and is pretty easy to use (especially when you use the auto-start). If it didnt suck tone so much (or if it had true bypass), I would definitely give it a higher rating.

Borrowed my friends RC-20XL to try out because I wanted to buy the little brother, the RC-2, coming out soon.

The RC-20XL comes with a CD of loops for you to sample, but I found it impossible to catch the end of a loop. Always a bit too much or too little. The problem seems to be the footpedal; it's action is OK if you want to switch a stompbox on or off, but it's very difficult to predict at which point of that not inconsiderable travel distance it's going to actually switch. The old AKAI Headrush has a far more positive switch action and is much better for this type of application. Boss have simply used their stomp box type switches here. Not good.

Sound quality seemed fine. I didn't have it long enough to discover any odd glitches or clicks others seem to be experiencing. The flat amp reverse simulation is a clever addition.

I can depend on most Boss gear, but I cannot rely on getting the loop when I need it.

It has a guide click for you to play along with, and if you want, it will quantize the end of what you play to the click if you cannot hit the footswitch accurately. That's fine for practising at home, but trying to record some riffs I'd recorded on a portastudio for a gig just proved impossible.

Quantize only works with the click, so the only reliable way to catch the end of a riff is to sync the click with the recording.

But getting the click on time with recorded material nearly drove me mad, no matter how carefully I tapped the tempo (both with foot switch AND panel button), it always was off.

Summary:
There is no tempo knob for fine tempo adjustment and there is no way of trimming a loop, and catching the end of a loop reliably with the footswitch takes more skill than I possess, so for my purposes it's near useless.

Guess I'll pass on that RC-2.

It's fairly simple to use. I think the instructions could be better. They're good, don't let me misguide you. I found some mistakes...that's all. I think the TAP TEMPO should be a dial knob, or technically speaking, a potentiometer. To me, the whole tempo setup is odd, useless, the tones suck, and a pain in the ass to use. You have to hope your tapping intervals are right on the money! But close enough for praticing.

Sound quality is fine for what I use it for. Playing at home, making loops. Which means strumming chords so I can pratice solos. At the same time, learn more scales. It's a great learning tool. I don't play out with it, and probably wouldn't. It has a built in TEMPO, or metronome. The sounds suck. Everyone will agree to that

Here's what I ABSOLUTELY HATE...there's isn't a power button. That's right, no way to turn it on or off. OK, so now you're in a situation where you would have unplug the unit, and take the cables and re-cable everything to bypass that unit. You can leave it on the whole time, no problem. BUT...here's the problem. The INST (instrument) Dial controls the volume of your guitar to your amp now. And it has a gain effect. So turning it up increases gain, not only the volume!! I HATE that. I don't want this thing altering tone in anyway. So for now I'm dealing with it. I have a pedal board, so I can't just unplug and re-cable very easily. When I want to get just tone. I plug in direct. Sure would be alot easier like the rest of my pedals to stomp on them to turn them on or off. And what about if you're using batteries? I don't get it.....

Seems solid. Well constructed. Nice and Heavy. Looks good. I was going to buy the RC-2, that's the single pedal version, but glad i don't so far. I wouln't gig with it personally. I'm not a one man band. But I don't see a need for it if you play rock-n-roll. Get a rhythm guitarist instead. I think it's too new of a product to get a good response for reliability. maybe the owners of the non XL (the RC-20 original) users could help.

Well, I thought that BOSS would have an email address for support. I wanted to know more about this invisible power knob. They don't have one. I think they gave a telephone number and a fax number. But I work during business hours. And this day in age, everyone has an email address. Owners of store bought products that have them registered should have email support. VERY DISAPPOINTED :(

If I'm playing other people's music, it's Alice in Chains, The Beatles, AC/DC, John Lennon, and tons of others, but those are my influences I would say. Been playing @ 6 years. I have a AM. Deluxe Strat, an Epiphone Les Paul, MArshall 2555 head, 1960TV cab, a Fender Frontman 25R ( cheap amp but I can't get distortion out of my Marshall at lower volumes...and sometimes I need to play through headphones while my girlfriend is sleeping. I have a few pedals, a crybaby wah, chorus, flanger, delay, and an acoustic simulator. If it were lost or stolen, probably get another. I love what it does, makes loops. I stated what I hated above...no power knob. love 2 seperate pedals. Great music making tool. A necessity for all trying to get better soloing. Wish it had a power knob, if it did, it would be perfect. A drum machine, and wow, it'd be the best thing ever.

Superficially, not difficult to use at all...it's essentially a simple tool. Maybe too simple (read later). The manual's decent...you'll be looping in no time.

Problems with use mostly involve audible drop-outs when saving a loop and switching between saved loops. Firstly, when you're looping, the point is to get a continuous sound...when you save a loop you've created the unit stops playback, saves, then needs to be re-triggered to playback. Absolutely unacceptable in performances...you need to have some sort of material going to cover the interruption.

Sound quality is pretty fine, though I think the recorded phrases can sound a little thin. Takes a bit of tweaking and practice to find the correct mix between playback level and mic/instrument input to avoid feedback and to get things to sound continuous (ie like they belong in the loop). Bare in mind that you're recording, and if you mess up or play a little too loud/soft then that's how it will sound. The Undo function is fairly useful in this regard, but if you're performing live, it's too late.

The "guide tones" seem pretty useless to me even though they're presented as a major feature. It's a built in metronome, that's all...useless live or in recording. There should be a seperate headphone out for this, but it's mixed in with the loop. Stupid. They sound like cheap onboard MIDI sounds, and there's a different sound for the first beat of the bar; there should be an option to turn that different beat off, but there's not. MOST CONCERNING is that even when the level is set to OFF, I can still hear it faintly in the background...try recording that and putting it through a compressor and it's clearly, if very softly, audible. No good!

Sure, it's reliable...use a power-supply instead of batteries to be safe. Pretty rugged construction too - it'd be difficult to damage this.

When first using it, had some trouble getting a decent level out of it, and was a bit worried that it wasn't putting out sound consistently from one session to the next. It doesn't put out line level sound (which is a little surprising), so I'm treating it at mic level. Sounds good now, just make sure you know your settings.

I hit the ceiling of creative possibilities after at most 2 hours of use. As soon as you create your first loop, you establish the loop length, and any overdubbing will occur WITHIN that loop length. IE you can't create a 2 bar beat, then overdub a 4 bar chord progression, nor can you overdub a 1/2 bar loop layer...you're stuck with 2 bars.

16 minutes of looptime sounds good...but the more you layer the bigger the sound gets and eventually adding the sounds together WILL result in distortion. Depends what you're playing...I start hearing clipping after about 6 layers of clean beat-boxing with my voice. Less if I'm layering guitar. And I don't even want to think of the mess if you're using delay or reverb...

The reverse function can generate some great sounds.

I work with various styles...this is most suited to electronic music. But, saw KT Tunstall use it to great effect on the Tonight Show, and a man called Son of Dave (member of Crash Test Dummies) does fantastic stuff with it live.

Not useless, but I use Ableton Live with a Behringer FCB 1010 and can do much, much more with that; I've also written a simple patch with MAX/Msp which does exactly the same as this. But if you're not prepared to lug a computer around, or get into computers at all, then this unit will actually do fine as long as you're really smart how you use it; keep things simple. There aren't many similar units out there at all. If you're after a phrase trainer (eg to practice guitar solos or something) then you'll find those built into most new multi-effects pedals these days. The list price on the RC-20XL is around $350...worth it only if you really want it and put it to good use...expensive if it's just a toy.

I'm probably going to sell mine on.

Very easy to use as almost all of the control functions are printed on the pedal. Plug-and-play for sure, but there are some deeper functions (ie not on the pedal itself) such as fading out, etc that can easily be looked up in the manual.

Quantize is a little hard to use, but by no means a necessary feature -- it's also really weird to actually hear the looper fight you rhythm wise.

Overall, very good. It feels like it loses a little something, but I can't say for sure.

I put all frequency ranges through it, so no worries there:
6-string bass >> GR-20 guitar synth >> Digitech Synth Wah >> Big Muff Pi >> Opto Stomp compressor >> GEB-7 >> DD-6 delay >> Pulsar tremolo >> RC-20xl >> amp.


I've had a weird problem: I get a constant fast click whenever I record directly (the looper going straight to recording device). I've never heard it on the amp, but I've quadruple checked, and it's definately the looper.

Built extremely sturdily, but never attempt a gig without a power supply (not that you would). This thing eats batteries like you wouldn't believe.

Also, it has some problems with very short loops (< ~3 sec), but it's rare that one would use a loop and not a delay for a loop that short.

I talked to BOSS about the aforementioned clicking noise and they too were stymied. They had a few suggestions and that warranty would cover it if I couldn't figure it out.

A great loop station. Easy to use, good sound, and 16+ minutes of savable/usable loop time. Really excellent. Makes solo playing and song writing oh so much easier. The whole one-man-band bit is much more doable.

I took this looper out of the box 2 hours before a solo gig, played with it for 45 minutes and took it to my gig that night. I had a couple of goofs but that was user error not the product. I have played with only one other looper effect and that was line 6's delay modeler. The boss blows away the line 6! I have sine preset some phrases and will eventually fill up all the phrases except one so I can still loop in real time. The real time loop is really what I bought it for. I used th xl last week with my duo and set the rythym with the looper and played the bass line while my partner played lead. Lot's of fun!

I haven't used this with my electric yet but have been using it in line with my Alvarez stage acoustic with a line 6 modulation modeler. I keep th xl last in line for obvious reasons. Chorus & delay come thru fine. I had to fine tune my delay a little, but that was it. I have not used an amp with the xl, just straight thru th PA.

I do use it without a backup. I think it's a dependable piece of equipment. If it died on me at a gig, I would just do my old solo thing because those leads will not sound right without any background music.

NA

If this were lost or stolen, I'd definitely buy another. It's too much fun and on those night when my voice is a hurting, I can cut 4 or 5 songs out of my gig just from the real time looping. If I put a rythym & a bass line down and then add a lead to it, I have now come close to almost doubling the length of the song and that's cool!

I've spent a lot of time with loopers. (Boomerang, Echoplex, Original JamMan...) so I knew what I was looking for. I think this is no less complex than any other unit to get familiar with. I can read, so the decals on the pedal are easy enough to get you started. The manuals look very well written. I read through it once before I ever plugged in. Of course I'll be referring back to them from time to time. It was easy to get a good loop started and sounding good. I don't like having to hold the clear button for 2 seconds, which seems like an eternity for a looper like me. BUT I will get used to it.

At the end of the day I wanted a looper that records, overdubs, and corrects mistakes easily in a compact unit. Done!

I'm using this for several guitars. I'm not going to get into that. I wanted to see what happened in a "bench test" and here are my results:

First, the levels. The input and output level are very important to me. I got rid of my Boomerang because it's just way too noisy and too wide. Too bad, it's a good product. The input level on the RC-20xl is perfect right at 12 o'clock, which is what I had hoped for. The output is for the LOOP ONLY, not the "live" signal from your guitar. Again, much easier to set than the Boomerang. I haven't had to mess with the knobs once they were set. That was a problem with the 'rang: the foot roller was too touchy.

Second, the noise. All Boss pedals have a buffered circuit sucking your tone, regardless of whether the effect is on or not. The question is, how MUCH tone is it sucking. Well, to my ears, I couldn't hear a difference when I A/B'd it with my true bypass box from loop-master. I am not trying to knock anyone here, but if you have noise, it's not from the RC-20xl, or it's extremely minimal and you have a noise issue somewhere. It may be your cables, amp, ground hum or whatever. I use all George L's cabling and I perceive no signal degradation in any way from this unit. I have to give it a solid 9.

I think this will be fine. Boss single stompboxes are... you know the story. This just looks like 2 Boss's side by side. Solid pedals for stomping. The prices have come down a lot on these due to the JamMan and RC-50 coming out, so if it breaks it won't be as painful to buy a replacement.

Never had to deal with them. I guess that's a good thing, but still no opinion.

If noise (or lack thereof) is #1 on your list, this is the way to go. It's silent when the effect is on and off.

This gets the basic job done much more effectively than it's competitors. I don't get into the extra features all that much, so this is more than adequate for me. I actually think it is quieter than the Echoplex. Is it the quietest? It has to be up there near the top.

Looping is one of those technologies they keep reinventing, although the apex really has already been reached. It's more about the creativity of the artist now than the available technology. So in that case, and since it does what I want in it's most basic form, I give it a 9.

Such thing should not be sold.
The recorded sound is not good, not even 44kHz which is a shame!

But even more : it adds noise to your sound.
Whatever tha cable lenght is, in your loop or in front of the amp, it adds noise.
I think it really is not honest to sell something like that.
If your amp is not a crappy one, or if your a bit attentive to your sound, don't even touch this...

I just wanted to modify the post I already did. I gave 5 to the sound, it diserve 2.

It is usefull, but it lacks midi implementation, or an out with just the tempo (for drummers)
but the most important, IT KILLS YOUR SOUND.
Don't buy it

It is easy to start looping. Reading the manual is helpful and recommeded. The features are pretty straightforward. Someone said there is no way to play in anything but 4/4 time. This is not true. I f you hold down the tempo button you can then tap in any number of beats to set up a beat in 3/4 or whatever.

I use this on solo gigs. I have a switching box set up so I can run a bass and guitars through the looper. All effects including reverb are b4 the looper so they can be recorded as needed. I use vintage fender amps. Unit is not particularly noisy. The looper will color your sound some, but it can still sound good. If you bypass it, you will notice a difference though. The looper can take a variety of signals. It takes bass, guitars, and microphones and reproduces them pretty well. Heavily distorted guitars lose something on playback. Overall I am happy with sound quality. But there is room for improvement.

Seems rugged. I gig without a backup. 5 year warranty-nice.

never tried to contact.

This is the best thing ever for practiceing. You will lose track of time and play for hours. I have some beats fed into it so the loop is all set up. I start the loop, lay down a bass groove. Mabey some chords and start jamming. Usually I do about a 10 minute loop on solo gigs. I play some funky stuff, blues, jazz standards, and have been trying some acoustic guitar through it too. I went with the boss after reading many reviews and haven't been disappointed. If it was lost I would probably upgrade to the rc-50 although it is quite large. I might take a look at that digitech one, but am skeptical about it's quality. I think this pedal has really helped my music evolve over the last several months. Unless you want to create a crazy jumble of sound, stick with two or three layers of loop.

Fairly easy to use though the saving features to save a loop or overdub are not obvious - I still dont know what some of the feartures do
BUT SEE OVERALL RATING _ A BIG DESIGN FLAW _ NOT WORTH THE MONEY!!!!!
THE rating is not due to difficulty of use - IT is impossible to use in real time due to the quantize feature - ******WHICH can never be turned off**** Roland should refund and apologize!!!!

I havent noticed much noise - I like that it has 2 inputs I put a synth through one and the gtr through the other (Strat and various amps or recordi through a pod) and the volume controls allow you to have the input signal louder than the loop
watch out if you are using effects at the end of the path since the loop will be affected by that series of effects (If you are using a modeling amp the loop will be distorted)

I think it is pretty reliable and lasted a long time on batteries

Never called them for anything

Funk, Blues, Rock, Fusion, Mid Eastern
I am playing for 30 years and would love to start loops live with my bands BUT YOU CANNOT
$300 YET HERE IS THE PROBLEM - DOnt buy IT - the quantize function forces your loop to adjust to a specific tempo - The manual tells you that if you dont adjust the tempo the quantize function is off - THAT IS A LIE - The small print in the manual tells you that there is ALWAYS a default Tempo - therefore quantize cannot be turned off!!!
ROLAND should be ashamed of itself - all the fancy features (Who needs a reverse Loop?) and I cant use the thing live!! I am a skilled player and when I start a riff I want the riff repeated EXACTLY as played - I should be able to get that for $300 - I Will have to sell it and buy the line 6 (though limited it repeats what you play) or upgrade - I dont know if the JAMMAN has the same issue but if it does I wont buy it
WHEN ARE THESE GTR TECHIES going to consult REAL Musicians - I am pissed and so is my band!!!!

This thing is so incredibly simple to use it's unbelievable. Especially the recording auto start so you don't have to step on the start button at exactly the same time as you start playing your riff to record. The manual is very easy to read and makes perfect sense. I only need to use it for reference though because the RC-20XL is so self explanitory by itself.

I run mine out to the PA system with my backing guitar loops pre programmed and with both my amp going into the PA and the RC-20XL going into the PA I can't tell the difference in sound because it records it so cleanly.

I've only had one and I beat the crap out of it so it's definitely a top quality road dog, unlike the crappy switches inthe Jam Man that I broke in 2 days.

The people at Roland/BOSS are the nicest people to talk to. I can't get the time of day from any other company, and the Roland people are just a quick phone call away.

I play heavy music and this thing is great for filling in the open area when I need a background guitar player while I'm playing a solo. If it were stolen I would definitely buy another one without a doubt. My favorite feature is the real time tempo stretching for the loop. If the drummer is a little fast I can tap the tempo in real time and it will stretch the loop without changing the pitch. This thing kicks the crap out of the Jam Man for overall sound and quality, and you don't have to buy extra memory cards to make the damn thing work, just plug and play right out of the box. Now I can't wait for the BOSS RC-50!

abbastanza intuitivo....ma alcune operazioni necessitano del manuale

lo uso principalmente x loop con chitarra x esercitarmi su basi di accordi x cui nn mi interessa la qualita audio che sinceramente nn mi sembra eccelsa come prhase trainer ho notato che nn puoi rallentare di molto la frase....

onesto ma mi aspettavo di piu.....

It's easy and not so easy. You have to read some pages in the manual if you want to know what thas that button do with the shift etc...

A cable pluged in on the loop station and than directly to the amp. Man, you can hear quite clear the loss of quality when it is being looped, especially the high freq. But don't worry, it's good enough for performing and even recording.
Anyway it can be an advantage if you think that the thing that you record it will became not so bright for background loop.
Anyway the sound is very acceptable! I already saw a lot of great musicians from Jazz and experimental stuff performing and recording with this thing.
I don't believe that loop station from digitech it would be better. They say a lot of good things about it, more time, more sound quality, etc. But I doubt the quality of it!

Until know I think so, no problems at all until now. I just have for a week or two.

I miss some things on this station, the metro only gives you the chance to perform in 4/4! If there is possibility to change it, I haven't found it yet.
And 16 minutes to record is time enough to do what ever you want. If you are were expecting more, you've should a proper record machine and not a loopstation. This is for playing live and for recordings. Not to record at home first and then perform it live!!!
This box is very easygoing, it lets you to do whatever you want. It only depends in your imagination!

I don't give a 10 for 2 main reasons, 1st the quality of the sound which is not the best and 2nd the 4/4 metro that is always the same.

Easy enough - but NOT enough features. Only 16 minutes of saved loop time - and even less if you fill up all 10 storage locations. Returned it and got the Digitech JamMan instead, which can store up to 6.5 hours of loops on Compact Flash media, 99 loop storage locations, USB to PC compatible, an XLR mic input, can use stereo headphones AND comes with the power supply! You can read the white lettering on the blue JamMan chasis compared to the white/silver-ish lettering on the RC20XL's red chasis.

Sucks - NOISY - NOT CD Quality. Get the JamMan instead with CD quality 44.1kHz sampling rate.

1 year warranty sucks. Digitech provides a full 6 year warranty for the JamMan.

sucks. Very limited (almost non-existent) customer support. NO email support - NO toll-free phone support - NO user forums or tips - NO real usefull information on their website.

It can't be lost or stolen - I got rid of it. I expected more from Boss/Roland being one of the grand-daddies of electronic musical gear - yeah, they have "some" decent products, but the RC20XL isn't one of them. For the same price, You'd be a lot happier with the Digitech JamMan (the RC20XL on Steroids!)

This pedal is very esy to use. The guy in the showroom spent a few minutes with me before and when I got it home I was looping right out of the box. I'm sure if I read the manual I could do more with it but so far I'm having plenty of fun with the basic loops, reverse, guitar input, mic input, save, erase and undue functions. I just recorded some C and G chord strums, with a simple melody over it. Then added a harmony melody, it's hysterical...too much fun. It's been looping playback here for 20 minutes, cracking me up.

sounds freakin great. not noisy at all. I'm using it with a Roland Micro Cube, Fender Stratocaster and a Shure mic. The loop I just made sound like a goofy country thing but I've had it sound bluesy and also funky. My favorite musicians are the old blues guys...howlin wolf, albert collins, lightnin hopkins, hendrix, elmore james, albert king, etc. and also acdc

Maybe stereo output would be nice. But on the other hand, the mono really requires you to make your loop layers very distinct harmonically....kind of like brian wilson's work with the beach boys in mono.

It's only been out of the box 2 days, so far so good.

the guy who sold it to me was cool, low presure sales guy at Guitar Center

I play blues and simple stuff, and I try to play jazz but I really can't do it well. The looper is great for blues, very easy to lay down 12 bars and get it to loop perfectly.

I've been playing for 16 years. I own a Gibson Buddy Holly acoustic, a Flea ukulele, a sony 4 track minidisc recorder, a baby Taylor, a Carlo Robeli resonator, harmonicas, blues tool harmonica rack, some mics and some other stuff in the closet that i'm not sure of.

I think I would have to get a replacement if this looper was stolen

I love the fact that it loops easily and you can pile as many loops on as you want. I hate that I have to use a this instead of having my own band (but i've never been good with a band).

my favorite feature is that it runs on batteries

i compared it to the digitech looper, but that one doesn't run on batteries. I chose this one cause both my Micro Cube and this can run outside in the park with batteries.

I does indeed help me make tuns of music.

I like to share some recordings made with this unit. I'll post them on this site http://mysite.verizon.net/vze359di/

two pedals, pretty simple, a baby could use it

The sound is not very good.
If you play jazz, if you just put some chords in and the do a chorus on it, it's really a cool thing, but don't expect the sound to be identical.
Boss did NOT use a 44 Khz sampling rate which I found prett