Boss RC-50 Loop Station Pedal

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The Boss RC-50 Loop Station is a new high watermark for loop pedals. Housed in a 7-footswitch enclosure, the Boss RC-50 offers 49 minutes of track time.

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 Loop Station 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 Boss RC-50 Loop Station, 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 Loop Station, each with a dedicated footswitch. Each track read more 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 Boss RC-50 Loop Station 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 Loop Station can be locked to a master sequencer or clock source, ensuring that your loop performances are absolutely locked. Internally, the Boss RC-50 Loop Station 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 Boss RC-50 Loop Station 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 Boss RC-50 Loop Station'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 Loop Station: 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 Boss RC-50 Loop Station 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.
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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

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 2 out of 5 stars. (54 ratings)
Submitted December 11, 2008 by a customer from yahoo.com

"Great if you keep it simple, not so good with other gear"

Overall: 2 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
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.

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 read more a slave.

Features
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...

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!

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.

Manufacturer 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!

The Wow Factor
I want to get rid of it!

Musical Background:
Musician/Producer

Musical Style:
Anything that someone put their soul into
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