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Boss RC-50 Stereo Loop Station Pedal

7 footswitches for intuitive control; realtime control of playback speed. Play up to 3 stereo phrase tracks simultaneously, all synced to an internal or MIDI clock.

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Description
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For those awaiting the arrival of a new industry-leading looper, the wait is finally over. Introducing the RC-50 - the most feature-laden Loop Station BOSS has ever built. It's the best live looping tool ever built for that matter. Housed in a spacious seven-footswitch floor unit, the RC-50 lets you manipulate three stereo phrase tracks simultaneously, with each track supporting multiple overdubs. In other words, you can record phrase upon phrase, one by one, on each track, resulting in a monstrous stack!

Features
The new industry-leading looping tool for live performance!

7 footswitches for intuitive control; realtime control of playback speed

Play up to 3 stereo phrase tracks simultaneously, all synced to an internal or MIDI clock

Ultra-long recording time (up to 49 min., mono), 99 patches (3 master loops per patch)

Undo/Redo function for recording and overdubbing

Center-cancellation feature, "flat" amplifier simulation feature

Stereo input, dual stereo output, XLR phantom-powered mic input, stereo mini-jack Aux input (for recording from an MP3 players, etc.)

USB port for data/audio backup, import/export of loops as WAV files

Loop, Layer, Rock!
Ready to blow your audience away? With a single RC-50, a guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, or vocalist can create a perfectly synced wall of sound live onstage. There are three simultaneous stereo phrase tracks on the RC-50, each with a dedicated footswitch. Each track can contain dozens of loops/phrases that you stack one by one, so you can imagine how massive your arrangements or solos can become!

In Sync
Whether used as a master or slave, the RC-50 can be connected and synced to a MIDI network. For bands that incorporate digital audio tracks, sequences, and/or video elements into their live gigs, sync is not a luxury - it's a necessity. For scenarios such as these, the RC-50 can be locked to a master sequencer or clock source, ensuring that your loop performances are absolutely locked. Internally, the RC-50 offers Loop Quantize for easy loop recording, Loop Sync (which enables all phrases to start in sync), and Tempo Sync (which matches the tempo of multiple phrases during playback).

Rhythm Guide
To make recording as fun and inspiring as possible, the RC-50 provides a total of 379 play-along Rhythm Guide Patterns in a wide variety of time signatures. Why record to a stale click track when you can jam with rockin' grooves instead?

Impressive I/O
The RC-50's rear panel is well stocked with connectors, offering a true stereo input and output path, but that's only the beginning. There are four ways to get audio into the RC-50: 1/4 in. Inst input (L, R/mono), XLR input with 48V phantom power (great for vocal mics), mini-jack aux input, and USB for importing WAV files from computers. Audio can be output via 1/4 in. main stereo outs (L, R/mono), plus 1/4 in. sub stereo outs (L, R/mono), headphone out, and USB for data/audio backup. MIDI in and out jacks are provided. Two 1/4 in. TRS inputs are also provided to accommodate an optional Expression pedal and footswitches; up to four footswitches can be used simultaneously.

Bonus Features
The RC-50 has plenty of other noteworthy features on offer, for example: Phrases can be played forward or backward. Phrases can be retriggered in "free time" or on a time-aligned grid. Errors can be corrected on the fly with the Undo/Redo switch.

Technical Info

AD conversion: 24 bit

DA conversion: 24 bit

Sampling frequency: 44.1kHz

Program memories: 99

Nominal input level:
-- INST: -10 dBu

-- MIC: -50 dBu

-- AUX: -16 dBu

Input impedance:
-- INST: 1 M ohms

-- MIC: 1 kilohm

-- AUX: 100 kilohms

Nominal output level:
-- MAIN OUTPUT: -10 dBu

-- SUB OUTPUT: -10 dBu

Output impedance:
-- MAIN OUTPUT: 2 kilohms

-- SUB OUTPUT: 2 kilohms

-- PHONES: 47 ohms

Available recording time*:
-- STEREO: Approx. 24 minutes

-- MONO: Approx. 49 minutes

Control
Front panel:
-- REC/PLAY/OVERDUB pedal

-- STOP pedal

-- TEMPO pedal

-- UNDO/REDO pedal

-- PHRASE 1 pedal

-- PHRASE 2 pedal

-- PHRASE 3 pedal

-- PATCH/VALUE dial

-- PARAMETER buttons

-- TAP TEMPO button

-- NAME/PATCH button

-- CTL/EXP PEDAL button

-- SYSTEM/USB button

-- EXIT button

-- WRITE button

-- PLAY MODE button

-- LOOP SYNC button

-- AUTO REC button

-- INPUT MODE button

-- OVERDUB MODE button

-- LOOP QUANTIZE indicator

-- OVERDUB MODE indicators (OVERDUB, REPLACE, MOMENTARY PUNCH-IN)

Phrase edit:
-- PHRASE LEVEL knobs (PHRASE 1, 2, 3)

-- PHRASE buttons (PHRASE 1, 2, 3)

-- REVERSE indicators (PHRASE 1, 2, 3)

-- ONE SHOT indicators (PHRASE 1, 2, 3)

Guide:
-- LEVEL knob

-- SELECT button

-- START/STOP button

Input level:
-- AUX knob

-- MIC knob

-- INST knob

-- PEAK indicator

MASTER: LEVEL knob

Rear Panel:
-- PHANTOM switch

-- POWER switch

Others
Display:
-- 16 characters, 2 lines (backlit LCD)

-- 2 characters, 7 segment LED

Connectors:
-- INST jacks R (MONO)/L (1/4 inch phone type)

-- MIC connector (XLR type; supports use of phantom power)

-- AUX jack (Stereo miniature phone type)

-- MAIN OUTPUT jacks R (MONO)/L (1/4 inch phone type)

-- PHONES jack (Stereo 1/4 inch phone type)

-- SUB OUTPUT jacks R (MONO)/L (1/4 inch phone type)

-- EXP/CTL 3, 4 PEDAL jack (TRS 1/4 inch phone type)

-- CTL 1, 2 PEDAL jack (TRS 1/4 inch phone type)

-- USB connector

-- MIDI connectors (IN/OUT)

-- DC IN (AC adapter) jack

Power supply;
-- DC 9 V: supply AC adapter (Roland ACI or ACB series)

Current draw:
-- 450 mA

Accessories:
-- AC adapter (Roland ACI or ACB series)

-- USB cable

-- Owner's manual

-- Roland service (information sheet)

-- Sound library for RC-50 (sample phrase CD)

Options:
-- Foot switch: FS-5U

-- Dual foot switch: FS-6

-- Expression pedal: EV-5 (Roland), FV-500L/H (Roland)

-- Foot switch cable: PCS-31 (Roland) (Stereo 1/4 inch phone plug-1/4 inch phone plug x 2)

Size and Weight
Width: 472 mm; 18-5/8 in.

Depth: 198 mm; 7-13/16 in.

Height: 64 mm; 2-9/16 in.

Weight: 2.9 kg; 6 lbs. 7 oz. (excluding AC adapter)

* The times listed above take into account the amount of memory needed for the actual recording combined with the memory required for the RC-50's operations (e.g., Undo/Redo).* 0 dBu = 0.775 Vrms
A must-have for loop lovers! Up to 49 minutes of mono recording time. Play up to 3 stereo tracks at once to internal or MIDI sync. Change playback speed on the fly. Control it all with 7 footswitches and an intuitive knob interface. Stereo I/O, phantom-powered XLR input, minijack aux input, plus USB port for Mac/PC file transfers.
11/09 Just back in stock, New, order before they are gone!

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Boss RC-50 Stereo Loop Station Pedal Reviews

64 People rated this product :
           8 out of 10
           4 out of 10
  zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.
"Great if you keep it simple, not so good with other gear"
Feature:
Good features, they just don't all work as you expect or with the quality you expect from a $500 looper. Again, examples are sample mangling on tempo change, horrible midi implimentation, etc...

Quality:
Seems like good build quality, but why can Roland/Boss not fix the bugs in the firmware!?!?

Value:
For me, the value was poor. I was excited when I got it, but I am putting this thing on Craigslist now.

Desirability:
I want to get rid of it!

Sound:
This is a strange case. Some people swear this is the mother of all loopers (well, other than the Echoplex). Others, like myself, are incredibly annoyed with this thing! Why? The flaws are not apparent if you are using this stand-alone. What I mean is if you just want to get this, plug it in, and start looping your guitar or whatever, it will work fine. However, if you want to get this thing and integrate it into a more complex MIDI configuration BEWARE!!! It is terribly flawed for this tast. You are practically forced to use this as yoru midi master, and the start/stop buttons on this do not send out CC messages, they send MIDI stop/start, so your DAW is going to start and stop playing if you stop any one loop on the RC-50. This can be fixed with filtering using MIDI-OX or an Motu MTP. What cannot be fixed is how horribly this thing works as a MIDI slave. There is no excuse for a $500 looper to resample the audio so horribly! I am not being an audio snob here, if your tempo changes the least bit the loops are mangled!!! My Kaos pad and Ableton live do this almost perfectly! So basically you are stuck with a single tempo, losts of midi filtering to make it behave in a comprehensive mannor, and you better hope your other hardware/software can operate properly as a slave.

Ease of Use:
Again, if your doing a one man show, or you never have to change your loops tempo (which means anyone your playing with has to keep time with YOU, which will piss off your drummer!) this thing is great. Techie users beware!

Support:
I love Roland. You would think they sponsored me if you saw my studio, but the way they have handled the issues with this product is horrible. Problems are discussed all over forums, atleast hundreds of people have complained about these major flaws and roland refuses to fix the firmware! This is very bad Roland, tighten up!

Overall:
Again, it may work perfect if your going to keep it simple. This review is for anyone expecting to integrate this device with other gear! BEWARE! Read up on Loopers Delight forums.

Submitted: 12/11/2008
Style of Music: Anything that someone put their soul into
21 of 21 people (100%) found this review helpful. Did you?    
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           3 out of 10
"Incredibly attractive, but terrible in bed..."
Feature:
There are many great features on this pedal, but I have to give it an 8 due to the usability of many of them. A feature that doesn't work as you would expect (tempo shifts, as noted above, for instance) is hardly a feature worth having.

Quality:
This unit is very well built, and I would give it a ten if I were referencing that aspect alone. However, I don't trust it yet for live gigs due to the firmware/operational issues I described earlier. I want a piece of gear to improve my sound, not make me sound like a novice or like I don't have my material down, and any experimentation in a live setting can lead to that pretty quickly when using it as stated earlier.

Value:
I should not have bought it. I would have been better off with Abelton Live and a MIDI footswitch of some variety, which was the other setup I was contemplating.

Desirability:
Before I actually owned one, the unit had incredible sex appeal. But now it's kindof like one of those situations where you're incredibly attracted to someone, and then get involved only to find they're not nearly as great as you were expecting (in bed or otherwise).

Sound:
With a careful setup (instructions are included in the manual for the order of which you should make volume settings in your equipment chain) the audio sounds great. However, there are two big issues, in my opinion, with this product. As a previous reviewer mentioned, the resampling ability of the RC-50 is deplorable. Here's a scenario to demonstrate that I dealt with: I use a lot of old analogue keyboards and such when building loops with this thing. In one case, I had recorded a guitar part at 130 BPM. I then decided I wanted to lay a "beat" from an old analogue keyboard over this. The keyboard had preset tempo settings that did not list actual BPM, so in order to match it, I had to tap the tempo pedal on the RC-50 and find the tempo of the beat. The tempo ended up at 133 BPM. A very minor difference when resampling in ANY other setting. I would not expect to even hear the manipulation of the guitar part. However, at the new tempo, the RC-50 resampled my guitar loop so badly that it sounded as if I had taken it down 3/4 of it's original speed (choppy, gappy playback). So, the thought I had was "oh, well, it sounds bad, but I'll record the beat and then return the loop to it's original tempo and the guitar should sound fine again." Right? Right?? WRONG. For some unknown reason, once the overdub was completed, the RC-50 apparently adjusts that tempo destructively, so returning to the original tempo did nothing for the original, now horrible, guitar loop. But, of course, the beat laid over top sounded fine. Go figure. Like the previous reviewer said, from a $500 looper, I would never expect such poor implementation of resampling capability. The second issue with the sound is thus: If you manage to clip the audio at input, the RC-50 handles the surge pathetically. A loud pass will cause the audio on the unit to drop out completely for a good 1-2 seconds, before it recovers (slowly) by fading back in gradually. You need to be very careful with levels on this device, something I always do, but in a spirited moment of playing, what was a good overall volume for most passages can become way too loud for the unit with a little emphasis, and lead to the dropout I mentioned previously. Finally, a huge issue for me (and what is likely going to lead to me selling it if I can't find a suitable workaround) doesn't necessarily fall into the sound category, depending on your point of view, but I don't know where else to put it, so here it is: Each bank has three patches or loops. I write music with a lot of changes, so for a 5 minute song, I can easily require 5 or 6 patches if I want to record each phrase separately without tying them together (the most efficient use of memory in the unit). However, when playing live and switching between banks, there is a noticeable pause before the next loop begins, throwing everything out of time. It's impossible to adjust for when playing live, and the amount of time the unit pauses varies. I use it in stereo mode (guitar running to one channel with the output to a guitar amp, bass running to the other channel with that output running to a bass amp) and this may be less of an issue when working with mono files, so if you only plan to use a single instrument in mono, test one out and see if you have problems, but it's definitely a problem for me, and renders the RC-50 nearly useless. The only workaround is to record whole sections of a song as segments and string them together. This takes up much more memory and is a ridiculous way to have to use a looper, since it is essentially no longer a looper, just a sampler tagging phrases together.

Ease of Use:
If you're just sitting down with this and a guitar, it's a cinch to use (I figured it out in 5 minutes when demoing it at a local Sam Ash). And since this is how I expect most users are working with it, I have given it an 8. However, as the previous reviewer stated, don't expect it to play nice with your MIDI gear. MIDI is very poorly implemented.

Support:
I have not dealt with technical support on this product yet. I just discovered some of these bugs tonight, and will be calling tech support to see if they at least have any recommendations or can explain why some of the issues are what they are. But for the very fact that these issues exist, I am giving support a 5, since this device has been around long enough to have had these issues corrected by now.

Overall:
I'm likely to sell mine, and I've only owned it for a month. I'm incredibly disappointed. I think for some people this is probably a great product, but if you need a high-precision device, this ISN'T it.

Submitted: 01/29/2009
Style of Music: Experimental
11 of 11 people (100%) found this review helpful. Did you?    
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