Boss RC-50 Loop Station

If you know the Loop Station Line, it's not terribly difficult, but as someone who has owned a couple different Loop Stations, an Electrix Repeater and worked within Reason, it was even a bit more daunting than I thought it would be. That said, I had all my archived loops (from my old Loop Station which I sold to buy this one) loaded and ready to play within minutes of the first time I used it. (It was AFTER a solid readthrough of the manual which is a bit confusing).

One of the best features in this new unit are independant volume settings for each patch and loop within the patch...that was such an important feature, especially with the option of a submix out etc...
however- I would definitely say that I was frustrated with the output routing features...I had really hoped to choose Headphone, Sub-out AND Mains rather than the lumped together configurations that you are given.
case in point: rhythm guide...you should be able to route the rhythm track to the Headphones only in case you want to just use the Rhythm Guide for your drummer as a click, as it is now, you have to send it through either the mains or the sub mix, kind of a bummer because I REALLY can not see who would seriously use the rhythm guide as an accompaniment. I was hoping to be able to loop my guitar live, while also using the submix for keyboard or samples, and running the click through the headphones to my drummer when neccesary.
Also- there should be a solid CLICK as opposed to a bunch of drumbeats...the closest is a high hat sound that just isn't loud or high enough to really be heard well over a band...as it stands, we're running the midi out to a separate unit and slaving that to get a decent click. But I suppose it's a someone nitpicky complaint, though I reallly was hoping to do something like that without an external unit.

Aside from that, it's EVERYTHING I hoped it would be and more...

What you put in is what you get out....way better than the RC20 or RC20XL

Boss.

never have....

Overall, it is totally rad...I think what small things they need to fix could be done with a software update, so it should be rather flexible, though, more independent audio routing is more likely a hardware issue (DAMN!)

This unit is not terribly difficult but, because it does a multitude of things, there is some required manual reading involved. That said, the manual is marginally effective and not very user-friendly. This pedal would certainly benefit from a "RC-50 for Dummies" book due to the amount of features and options.

The good news is that it is a Boss and follows the basic Roland/Boss methodology for getting the basics out of it which might suffice a number of users. For that, I rate it accordingly.

Excellent sound as compared with any other looper product. The key is that you're not having to stack loops over each other which deteriorates the original passes. Instead, having 3 discrete loops allows users to stack minimally thus retaining sonic clarity.

I've owned a Boomerang, JamMan and, of course, the RC-20XL. The RC50 blows them all away. And, it's stereo!

It's a Boss...built to last! Definitely can be used without a backup but I would always have my loops stored on a flash drive in case of a surge or sudden loss of power.

Great support...no long wait times. I've called a few times already regarding future OS upgrades and the support team is very helpful.

As a long-time looper, the RC-50 satisfies most of the items on my wish list for improvements and features. It certainly can be improved by including a removeable media device, a larger internal drive and perhaps more control via the pedals like the Boomerang...namely the master volume knob which is finger-controlled.
My biggest peeve is that the unit has a cumbersome naming convention for imported WAV files. Although I can undersatnd the reasoning for this, Boss needs to come up with a small application that will allow loops to be stored in their original names so that it is easier to identify where they are placed on the unit. Korg has done this with their portable recorders so it's not beyond the technology. This can be fixed with a simple OS update.

There has been some mention as to the latency but I don't find it bothersome or obstructive. If it were stolen from me I would probably seek to replace it but hope for a price reduction as the price is somewhat steep.

Overall, I think loopers in general are great learning tools for any level musician. They are very addictive and I find that I use it on almost every practice session. Good job Boss!

To me a well designed effects unit allows you to do most of the basics without consulting a manual, and with the RC-50 I was able to create loops easily without even cracking its manual. I did have to consult it for some complicated things, but it is well layed out and easy to follow. At first it looks daunting but you then realise how well it is designed and how everything you need is at your fingertips.

Very good, much better than the RC20XL. Drum guides MUCH better and the volume is adjusted so anything beyond "2" doesn't split your ear drums.

Hmm, just got it, but like everybody says, it's a boss, nuff said.

I waited quite a long time for this puppy, it was originally supposed to come out in February of 2006, and here I am in July, but it was well worth the wait, it is one amazing looping pedal, in fact it's probably the greatest out there, and certainly the best one I've tried. It has every feature you could ever want, stereo connections, a monitor seperate output, assignable bpm tempos for you loops, lcd display for easy editing, usb connection, midi. If you are thinking about getting the RC20XL, consider what you are trying to do. It you just want to do really simple looping, then this might be overkill and the RC20 will probably suit your needs, but if you are a looping junky like me who creates huge stacks of contrapuntal goodness, this is the pedal for you.

My only complaint is that in order for you to send just the loop to a monitor amp, for instance to your drummer, you have to assign it to its own phrase, which seems like a bit of a waste. It would have been much smarter if in each phrase you could split the loop, i.e. MAIN+SUB means ONLY the loop goes to the sub and everything else that gets put on top gets bypassed on the sub channel but goes through to your amps. Thankfully they included loop synch among phrases so at least you can accomplish this, if in a convoluate manner.

This is of course relative. I have had a GT-6, and so editing menus in this way was not new. It is definitely not self-explanatory. When I demo-ed it at the store I was frustrated. But upon purchase, a quick read through the manual, and spending some time it all came together fairly easily. Plan on spending a few good hours before you feel comfy with this one.

What you put in is what you get out. No coloration of the tone, just an exact, high quality replica. I am running it through my effects loop in a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, after a Boss DD20 and Line 6 Tone Core Reverb (two other excellent pedals imo). I do notice that it can ad a slight bump in overall noise to the signal. I think that if you tweak the master volume and the line in volume (two great features by the way) you can get it to the managable level. I owned the RC20XL, and the sound quality on this is by far superior. You can hear each new loop very distinctly. Some folks actually like less sonic quality, you know, the lo-fi junkie types, but I think this is just right. I am not into mangeling the sound. This will not improve your sound at all, so you should like your basic tone to begin with. If you do, then you'll like this as well.

Have you ever had a Boss product quit? Nuf said.

Haven't had to use it, so I cannot say. This is actually a big plus. I mean, seriously, who wants to call some phone center in India, where its 3 in the morning to them, and tell some 19 year old recent college graduate you can't get your mojo going?

I can't imagine a looper doing more or doing it better than this. In order to top this they are going to have to 1) have a direct interface to your PC and allow you to tweak parameters and drag-and-drop new loops on the fly, like Abelton Live; 2) allow ten prhases instead of just 3 - but that pedalboard would get a bit long; 3) teach it to make coffee. I use this primarily as a jamming and inspiration tool at home, in the privacy of my own home. Everytime I have used it I simply lose track of time and must force myself to turn off my amp and leave, often in tears. It will provide countless hours of sonic bliss for anyone who loves to play their guitar, and yes, play with themselves. No flakey drummer, no amateur bass player, and my favorite rhythm guitar player backing me up ; ) An introverts playground indeed. And as an added bonus, you could actully do a one man band thing with it, though that is not my thing at this time. I do not want my self-indulgance to seep out beyond my house and scare people.

A powerhouse of features that can be tricky. Patiently read the manual carefully & spend the time getting acquainted with the unit.

Compared to it's predecessors, it's not as easy as RC-20 or RC-20XL but it does a hundred more things than either of them so it is a fair tradeoff. It is a very feature rich pedal & it will require some time invested. Not Plug & play!

Editing patches requires a basic knowledge of working with sub menus but not too complicated. It is fairly intuitive in the edit mode.

The manual explains things fully but not concisely. It doesn't give the easiest real world examples to demonstrate it's features but that is so subjective that I can't say how everyone will react to it. I personally found myself frustrated with the manual being too spread out constantly having to cross reference previous sections. I read it cover to cover but with some confusion due to an overwhelming amount of info to process.

Suggested uses could be given a dedicated section of the manual (ie: quickstart) for chapter skipping types of people who don't have the patience to read 200 plus pages on how to create cool basic or 3 channel loops.

Ease of use for connecting to computer: A USB connection ensures connectivity & software updates & storing saved loops on computer, usb drive, etc. Good choice by Boss.

I use only live loops on stage to promote a "live only" enviroment. This unit is not geared towards or setup solely for this, it is more geared towards the pre-recorded saved loop type of artist looking to economize without giving up lush sound. RC-50 is feature rich for this type of application. Live only loopers will wish for some small improvements.

Default settings on patches all include guide tracks regardless of guide track volume knob position, quite annoying hearing drum tracks with guide track volume set to zero. (FYI; From factory this is default though you can select knob postion to be the default instead of factory settings) I adjusted this setting because it's much easier for me to view actual knob positions or settings prior to recording instead of being surpised by factory default guide tracks popping up unexpectedly. Another example of strange defaults, there is no all erase for three loop channels...one must manually erase all three channels one at a time. (tedious) An ALL ERASE function could help a live user tremendously. An ALL STOP(all 3 tracks) function is only avail by adding another add on pedal or pressing two buttons at same time. Kinda tricky but not impossible.

I used a mono setup (right output is mono instead of typical left-unusal but no foul)with an acoustic guitar into a Mackie 808S in mono mode.
The RC-50 noise floor is very quiet which gives it high marks for quietness. I can easily dial up a very good sound! Stereo must sound really great.

The prerecorded backing/guide tracks sound great & are a fun way to rehearse or jam & explore the features of this unit.

Overall sound quality is excellent.

I would trust this unit (if Boss provides a software update correcting the latency problem) on any gig as it is a Boss & I've never had problems with any of their products failing on gigs & I do nearly 300 a year.

Boss products are road durable & deserve our trust. My RC20 is three years old & still works well though status lights have burned out but will be covered under the 5 year warranty, I will only pay labor, sweet. Nice warranty. I bought an RC20XL until the RC-50 is improved.

The RC-50 has a one year warranty so who knows if it will take the same beating & still hold up...history dictates Boss will hold up.

For now, I returned the RC-50 until they fix the latency issue. I hope they do because this unit has potential but needs some tweaking or a competitive product in the marketplace to mandate some one upsmanship which we can all (including Boss) benefit from.

Excellent Customer Support-Polite & very helpful.
No long hold times at Boss-thank you!
A good company to deal with & I will continue to buy their products with confidence.

Much potential but one BIG ISSUE: Latency problems!
This has very very bad latency (a delayed response when actuating a feature or switch) when switching from record mode to playback mode when performing live....I estimate nearly a half second or the equivenlent of an entire eighth note (at approx 120BPM) elapses unheard before sound plays back or another way of saying it is the phrase very beginning is inaudible until the second playback pass or loop turnaround when in the multi-mode. There is slightly less latency when in single mode but still extremely noticable unless the musician is overlapping "the 1 beat" with your playing completely masking the problem. In all fairness to Boss, the RC-20 & RC20XL don't have this problem or have no noticeable latency problems when switching from record to play on the fly...the audio is there nearly immediately. (I bought another RC20XL because it works better) I contacted BOSS regarding this issue with the RC-50 & they were unaware of it until my phone call in early June 2006. I demo'd the problem over the phone & the tech support (FYI-extremely helpful & no long hold times! Kudos)called me back after replicating the problem on site which they did after second returned call. They advised that they would let Roland/Boss/headquarters know about the issue. I asked if a software update was available to correct the issue but none is available as of June 2006.

OVERALL CONCLUSION: THE RC-50 has a great deal of potential but one serious latency issue which needs addressing from it's designers & it's pedals are very close together requiring add on pedals (user assignable) for the serious live only looping musician. It will demand very accurate footwork to use live regardless of any user with the best timingkeeping skills. The pedals are very close together but if you are careful you can use it well. There is a great deal of bang for buck here to be found & I feel the average user will find this pedal very exciting to explore their musical ideas & will enjoy good luck creating & saving lush hifi sounding loops. The serious professional musician may be dissapointed unless Boss fixes the latency problem.

Ease of use depends on the user. It is well thought out for the most part, and the manual is pretty infomative. The pedal/button/knob layout is fairly intuitive, but this unit is not without its quirks (see below).

While the sampling quality is better than a lot of other loopers out there, don't expect to put this between a good guitar and a good amp and not hear a significant difference in your tone, even when the unit is off. There is also an omnipresent (although slight) latency, which leads me to believe that the signal is always going through the A/D and D/A converters, not just on recording/playback. This is a BIG bummer to me - parallel processing would have been much prefered (as in 99% of Boss's other digital pedals). If you have a stereo effects loop, you can put the RC-50 into it and bypass the "through" sound in the setup - this is a good feature, but doesn't apply to me. I will need to build a stereo bypass box to get this thing out of my signal path when I'm not using it.

Don't know, haven't had it for long. I've had good luck with Boss products, but this is a brand new design - who knows. Looks well built.

N/A

Overall this is a well thought-out and intuitive unit. However, there are two BIG issues for me that I don't know if I will be able to work around:

#1 - There is a slight delay upon retriggering a loop after recording it - ie, if you record a loop, then hit play to play it back, there is a 50ms or so pause before it plays the loop back. It does play back in sync, but there is a gap when it is being retriggered. Very awkward in live performance.

#2 - I was delighted to see that there is an option to go directly from record to overdub mode by pressing the record pedal (instead of record, then playback, and then overdub). This is something that only the Line 6 DM-4 does to my knowledge, and it's VERY usefull for creating pad-like textures. Hit record, swell a chord in with the volume knob, then hit record again and you seemlessly go back into overdubbing, so you end up with one continuous sound. This is probably 80% of what I do in live looping. Now unfortunately, on the RC-50, the jump to overdub mode is NOT SEEMLESS. There is a full 1-2 second gap when you go from record to overdub mode (and keep in mind this is with one pedal press and is designed to do just this). This is a HORRIBLY implemented feature, and I am very likely to return the RC-50 just because of that.

I know I am not exactly in Boss's "target audience" for this pedal, but I'm sure there are others like me who need to see these features implemented properly in order to consider using the RC-50. This pedal has a lot of potential, and the issues I pointed out here MAY be addressed in a future software update, but who knows if/when that will happen? They may also be a physical limitation of the processing power and/or memory speed of the unit.

Not that easy to use, but certainly manageable. I've had a number of loopers before (e.g. Boomerang, Line 6 green thing, Boss RC20 and lately the Digitech Jamman). There are a ton of different settings to tailor this thing to the way you want to use it. I'll trade a steep learning curve for the ability for all of the extra features any day. The manual is pretty straight-forward, albeit long.

No problems. Very clear. I am using it with the Bose PAS, a Taylor T5 and my acoustic (Olson SJ).

I think it looks very reliable. I have no real way of knowing, however. Boss/Roland gear has never failed on me yet, though.

Never needed them. Their website is pretty good.

I play folk/rock. I've been playing for a long time. I think this looper is great. I love being able to control the volume of the loops without affecting my guitar's signal. I also like the different ways to synch the phrases. Very cool. Bring in a bass part. Stop it. Bring it in later and it is still in synch with the main phrase rhythm.

This is a complex piece of gear. Well worth the money, IMO. Thanks Boss/Roland for listening to the community and giving us the features we requested.

My only complaint: why only 49 minutes in mono and 24 minutes in stereo? C'mon. I don't want to conserve time. Memory is cheap.

Rating this depends. If you just use it like it's a couple of RC-20s it's very easy to navigate. It's not so easy to get around it though if you want to use it to do everything else it does beyond the basic Loop Station. The manual is so so: too long, not specific where it nees to be, poorly organized. It can be a useable tool, it just has a steeper learning curve than a basic looper. I've only had it about a week and a half so I'm not an expert. I have or have had the RC-20, the RC-20XL, the original JamMan by Lexicon, a Boomerang, and a Headrush (in fact I'm having one now (@:) so I'm pretty experienced with looping.

This is as good a sounding looping device as I have used. Better than the original RC-20 (although I'm not dissatisfied with it) and easily as good as the Lexicon JamMan I used to own. Infinitely better than the Boomerang or Headrush. Being able to use it as 3 independent loopers or being able to stack your loops on 3 separate phrases probably helps with the improved sound quality, as does the 44.1 sampling rate. I use it with acoustic and electric set ups with various pedalboards and it reproduces whatever I put into it pristinely. I run it into the 2 effects loops of my Fishman Performer acoustic amp I can loop my guitars and my vocals! Very cool. The only complaint I have so far is that jumping from phrase to phrase when the loop sync feature is off tends to mess up the timing of the loops I have already made. I'll most likely stick with my RC-20 when playing live since the RC-50 is so complicated, but so far, the RC-50 is awesome for the studio.

It's a Boss as they say. I've had so many Boss and Roland things over the years and have never had a problem so I feel confident in the RC-50.

Never have I dealt with them. I thinks that's pretty good customer support.

I'm mainly an acoustic folkadelic player (traditional, bluegrass, Dead, Dylan, Beatles, classic 60s stuff) and the RC-50, while on the complicated side to learn, is definitely going to make me take my music to a higher place. I haven't delved too far into the "drum" machine, but I don't really need it. I happy that Boss finally made a loop station that can be used in stereo (my biggest complaint on the earlier versions). It's expensive but it's like having 3 loop stations in one box. Peace.

Firstly, I've never used any loop station before. I ordered this unit based on a video demo I saw, and then waited about 4 months for it to arrive. I believe the manual was written by someone who probably does not speak English as a first language, (but that's another story). After I got past the manual, (which took about 2 days) I must admit, it was worth the patience to deconstruct the already-installed patches, which is what I used as my learning tool to figure the machine out. I agree with the first post here, in that in order to use features, such as determining how the phrases change (i.e., loop end, or IMMEDIATE), should be easier to access, instead of inside the (paramater) button. Also, it would be nice if that feature did not have to apply to ALL of the phrases for that patch, and could, for example be set to (phrase 1 -- loop end) (phrase 2 -- immediate), etc. However, I also like that it does not take up too much space, and I can't see how they could cram more buttons onto it. I like the additional CD samples that come with the unit. Some of the features that I'd like to be able to use in a "live" situation are "buttons" and not "pedals", (although there may be a way for an aux. pedal for those features), but for now, making changes in some ways (such as going from (multi) to (single), would be challenging (until my toes become a little more talented).
Each day, I'm becoming more comfortable with it. Hope to add it to my live performance within another week.

I'm running the my guitar through some slight effects first, then into the unit, then into a p.a. So far it sounds terrific. I will add though, that when overdubbing (after several overdubs), the phrases become "louder" from the layering and I have to compensate for that when singing over the layers.

so far, so good.. It needs a roadcase for sure. Is there one?

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I perform, blues, r&b, jazz standards, etc. It's perfect for me because I can't stand cheesy pre-recording backing tracks. It's a great tool for me. I can get lots of use out of this.

It's fairly easy to get going on this thing. I'd give it a 10 if you didn't have to play with a click track. It forces you to play to a tempo. I can't get it to record the moment I press record. It forces you to play with a "tap tempo" (even if you silence it). I'm wondering if I may be missing something.

It's great for if you're interested in playing with a drum track. Otherwise I can't figure it out!

It sure ISN'T true bypass but the sound is fine. I'm thankful they didn't try to cram a bunch of amp models in. Drum machine is pretty colorful and it has a setting for playing the drums through a guitar amp which I'd imagine could be useful.

I haven't dropped it down a flight of stairs. But I'd bet this thing is pretty road worthy. (I'm being especially careful because I'm planning on returning it if I can't figure out this click track thing.)

I've dealt with Boss with other products and they been quite good.

I thought this would replace my Echoplex. I was wrong. It kind of reminds me of a sophisticated karaoke machine. I'm just not for what I do. Though I'm sure it will serve many well.