I've been looking at the Boss RC20/30 (and others) loop pedals with interest for some time, as I see it as a nice why to catch ideas on the fly, particularly with analogue gear.

Looking at the specs, I'm still not entirely certain on all functions, so would like to ask a few points that an owner may be able to answer.

Sorry if these seem dumb

1. I'm assuming when a phrase is recorded, it can be held in memory. Can this be transfered in any way to PC as an audio wav, and incorporated into a music program?

2. Is the recorded loop able to sync to midi whilst playing, (as I see it, this device would be ideal as a bass riff generator/recorder)

Cheers

btw, this vid is very inspiring regarding looping!

I have the RC20. It has 11 memory slots which can store a total of (something like) 5 minutes of audio total. You can get the audio out only by playing it through the output jack. No midi sync.

It is noisy as hell in the signal chain, and the sample rate/bitrate is pretty low. Expect anything to come out of it sounding pretty lo-fi.

The RC20 is ok for storing & triggering samples, tho it's pretty clumsy to have to bend over & use a knob to switch another memory slot (easier for keyboardists who use it up top instead of on the floor), and matching the input & ouput levels takes some getting used to. For generating & manipulating loops on the fly it's pretty limited, a boomerang is much more flexible and awesome for that application, but the boomerang doesn't store samples.

I stopped using mine in my instrument's signal chain because the signal degradation & the added noise was too much. Mine just might be getting old & creaky tho, i've had it a damn long time & it's got some miles on it.

The very new Boss RC-30 has USB 2.0 port which allows you to connect to a PC and import/export WAV audio!

I just sold my RC-20XL & I'm getting (might be today) my Boss RC-30!

BTW, I didn't find my RC-20XL noisy. It was pretty decent to me.

The Digitech Jamman sounds better, but you are probably better of with a 4track. Thats what I did.

If you want something to sync to MIDI the only option, from Boss, is the RC-50. But it only works as a master. As a slave it drifts. If you want something to MIDI sync to or from the Gibson Echoplex is the ticket. But they are no longer made and expensive.

I am abit confused , why you ask about loop pedals, as I can see from your signature you got reason and since version 5 reason can do live sampling .

The new model looks greatl! Used to have a rc-30, but had to sell it.

Does anyone know if there's any loop pedal which actually stores the individual wav files which make up the loop? E.g. say the loop was composed of four separate recordings, is there any loop pedal which lets you get these as four tracks rather than one summed one, which is the only thing the Rc-20 would let you get.


????

This is a typical example of hardware over software heh

The reason (sorry, no pun intended) is that a loop pedal is very immediate, to catch an idea. For example, sometimes I will have just one or two synths turned on and get something going, and I want to catch the moment sort of thing. Normally I have to turn on the PC, wait for it to all load up and settle, load programs etc etc... by this time, idea/inspiration gone. A loop pedal seems the ideal 'scratchpad' for the early stages of a song idea.

I know some people have their PC/Mac on 24/7, but I actually use mine very little. I actually prefer working around hardware, but of course thats my personnal preference. heh

Thanks for all the info everyone. Seems the RC-50 is the only device that midi-syncs (although not very well from what I've read.) Still, a looper seems a very handy device, as demonstraited by the young lady in the vid, (in my first post).

I use hardware 90% in my songs, so I can feel how you feel about this. But I think that REASON can give you some more flexibility on this , especially if you can midi map the sampling button to a foot pedal , I dont think a loop pedal will offer you any additional advantage. Afterall its a very crude one button process.

I am not sure if this is possible but my experience with reason is that most if not all features are midi mappable. And reason tends to be the most well behaved daw with midi controller. If it was a rather complex synth sure I would vote for hardware, but this is too simple for reason to fail in term of immediacy with the condition that is midi mappable.

+1 for software looping. I went from a RC-20 to 2 RC-50's. Found out that the 50's don't sync and sold them. Then bought a Gibson Echoplex. It was great but it crapped out in 3 months and I had to get it repaired and then it went out of production. I decided then to try software looping and have been loving it ever since.

Thats what appeals to me heh

(to be fair, you might have missed my 'going back to basics' post, in one of the year ahead threads)

Anyone?

I've got a digitech JamMan.... It's ok, it has usb connectivity and it's set up so you can cue a new loop to play right after the current one finishes. good for a guitar player that does not have a band.

no, i don't think any loop pedal stores the layered loops separately

i've got the digitech jamman (the 2-pedal) and it's great, very immediate to use, line/instrument input and mic input, CF card, 99 positions in memory. one of my favourite pieces of gear ever. Regarding the comparison to software, sometimes less is more, specially when it comes to do things fast.

i think the only loop pedal that syncs to midi is the boss rc50, the big one (pricey)

Mobius can do that.

I've told the story before around here, but I went through a whole bunch of hardware loopers but nothing, not even the top end, would satisfy.

So, I adopted Mobius - which is free - and set up a laptop rig around that. I use an FCB1010 to run it. It's the ideal solution, and if it doesn't do what you want it to do, it has its own scripting language to make it do what you want it to do.

It only operates at 16/44 though, and the dev is aware that some people might like other options there, but not enough people have asked to make it a priority.

Cheers. Not really looking for a software option - can do looping in Ableton Live anyway, its just really nice to be able to make music without using a computer. Its a shame the Boss one doesn't let you do this - you'd think it would be fairly easy to implement, but perhaps not.

thats what appeals to me too, afterall it terms of music production seems we two think alike. That is why I will closely follow this thread as I am interested too in this. Foot pedals are the next step in my evolution, I have become more accustomed to using both hands and now its time to learn to use the feet as well, the more real time control the better.

Using pedals to trigger performances , synth setups and shortcuts, seem like a an excellent idea to me , live sampling is something I would love to do too. Bring the suggestions on.

I adviced reason because you can keep it simple on the one hand but you can keep it flexible on the other , reason comes with some pretty neat audio effects and midi effects via matrix pattern, i think you could make some crazy setups with it and trigger all of them real time while you play with zero mouse usage , right from your keyboards /synths .

I no longer own reason through legal or illegal means . But it is on the list of things that I consider buying in the distant future. Not as a daw, but as pure performance tool, its actually the easiest to setup midi with and pretty much anything is midi mapable and the software has a very simple architecture. I have spare self on my A shaped keyboard stand , I was thinking placing there both my bcr2000 and My remote 37sl and use both controllers for real time performance together with andy and motif es with foot pedals underneath for extra control. Its seems like an ideal setup.

as a huge looper fan myself, i can highly recommend the EHX 2880... it has a card slot for transfer to the computer and is a 4-track (unlimited overdub) looper with pitch control. it's quite basic, no delays or effects (beyond pitch) but it definitely gets the most use out of my collection.

loopers ARE fun, way more fun than ableton live... better to not look at computer screens when you're writing music, IMO.

warning porn video

etudeEH on Vimeo

now I see some potential here.

The EH 2880 syncs to MIDI and works well as a dedicated looper. The Line 6 M9 has a sync-able looper but the interface is very limited. The Strymon Timeline and Eventide Timefactor also have loopers that sync to MIDI but they are limited to 30 seconds and 12 seconds, respectively.

The LP2 from Looperlative would probably sync to MIDI if it wasn't vaporware.

Looping tools

i'm very happy with my akai headrush e2 but it doesnt have any midi functionality or storage. you may be looking for a sampler.

I'll just throw in a +1 for the 2880. I've had the jamman, the boss, and (for a short time) the boomerang. Though they all have strengths, I've been happiest w/the 2880--especially for integration with the modular.

I have an LP-1, and its midi sync is dodgy at best if its Slave. LP2 is based on the same code. The code was recently updated, and it did get better....but still not really usable for live performance. Rumors of better still code have been floating around from the dev for over a year. In a nearly a year, there has been ONE posting by the dev to update his customers and potential customers. Virtually NO support! It seems LP1/2
is indeed vaporware.....and its reputation is based on conjecture, not reality.

EHX 2880 has the best hardware midi sync as slave, I have one too. My only complaint is it requires a midi-start command in slave mode, which limits its standalone functionality. I have had to resort to using MidiPipe on a Mac with a separate midi foot-switch to fake a midi start command.....but then now I'm tied to a computer again....ugh! WHY is there NO hardware looper in 2011 which has decent stand alone midi sync as slave!!!!???

I went from an PDS-8000 to a JamMan, from the Lexicon JamMan to an Electrix Repeater and from the Repeater to a LP-1 Looperlative. The LP-1 being the biggest disappointment as the developer assured me of some of the functionality and later claimed he had not tested it and confirmed that what he was saying actually worked!

But I digress. If I were going to get back into hardware looping (and I'm not) I'd get a used Repeater or an electro-harmonix 2880 (had that one too, it was pretty awesome) The RC-X0s seem... well like toys to me. No MIDI sync? Fail.

But honestly, what I can do now with Mobius (free), Augustus Loop, Ableton's Looper and a $129 MIDI pedal runs rings around any of the above mentioned hardware. It's what got me to start using computers more than just glorified sequencers.

Wow, I'm so glad I returned mine to the developer. I was an early adopter and I got a lot of flack from the idiots on Looper's Delight for expecting it to work as advertised and "be patient." Now years later and it still doesn't work right!

i use a Repeater, 2 EDPs, and soon i'll be re-integrating a DD-20.

they all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and quite frankly i'm glad i put my money into repurchasing loopers i'd abandoned instead of dumping it into the LP-1.

the LP-1, presuming it works right, has a horrible user interface. you pretty much have to use a footcontroller with it, and quite frankly i don't want to _have_ to use a footcontroller.

the fidelity and midi sync problems i had with the EDPs back in 1997 can be fixed with the Loop4 software and 2 resistor changes inside the unit.

the fidelity issues with the Repeater can be fixed by sending it to Condor Electronics, and the last OS made it much more usable.

i've owned a lot of loopers, and these are the ones i like the best (until i design one. don't hold your breath.)

the 2880 really pissed me off because you can't go immediately into overdub from record onto the same track. i argued with a friend of mine about how stupid that was for an hour and he didn't see why it was a problem. i'm sure that it's very useful for the people who like it, but that kept me from buying one.

I did find that a bit annoying too, but I just used the work around where I'd record a blank loop first so my first "record" was really an overdub.

Exactly! Ditto.

Hey I am a musician who writes mainly with loops. I was wondering what everyone's set up is like? For example I currently have a 1402 VLZ3 Mackie Mixer. I plug in two keyboards into this, as well as a Boss DR-880 Drum Machine. The Mixer outputs to a DL4 which outputs to a Digitech JamMan which plugs into my bass amp.

Now, this current set up sounds like a**. I am looking into getting a PA with stereo EQ as well as a compressor. I'm wondering what most of you have set up currently, and more over if any of you are knowledgeable on the set up of Dosh or Andrew Bird. I would really love to loop live drums but it seems like he is the only one who can make it sound good. I know that he uses a Akai Headrush ( or so I have read) I just don't understand how.. he must be running everything through a mixer an then into the looper, right? but I've noticed that if you build too much on a loop it ends up sounding like a jumbled mess, but he seems to keep a clean sound the whole time.. Anywho..

It'd be cool to see how you all are currently setting up to loop multiple instruments, and if any of you out there know how Dosh sets up as far as what plugs into what, that would be excellent to know. Thanks!

I used a boss RC-50 for a while, had all my synths plugged into a mixer, and the mixer's stereo out into my audio interface. It worked pretty well, here's a song I wrote while jamming with it:




After a while I got tired of the mediocre converters on the RC-50 and the fact that I couldn't tweak any sound after looping it - so I decided to switch from audio looping to MIDI looping and bought an MPC 2500 - which is much, much more convenient when working with synths and drum machines. Now I can easily loop anything and then tweak and change the sound to my heart's content, record on seperate channels on my DAW etc.