The Boss RC-50 was the flagship looper for Boss for quite a few years and I've used several of them for what must be ten years or so now. One had to be sold as that's how survival goes but the other has gone the entire distance ... up until this moment. It's not dead but it's definitely dying so that makes it worth a review tour of the newer Boss RC-300.
There are two salient points about the Boss RC-300:
- the unit costs $549
- the unit is worth it
One striking difference is in the way the phrases are managed. The RC-300 permits use of all three phrases simultaneously and that's difficult, maybe impossible, with the RC-50. What that means is I can record a primary phrase with a nice mix of instruments and leave that going while I start a second phrase with distortion guitar. The second phrase can be kicked in or out of the overall loop whenever I feel like it with the looper handling the start sync (i.e. so long as I'm in sync when I make the loop, it will keep it that way). That's the flexibility that makes the unit worth the money as it's a huge leap beyond the RC-50.
(Ed: so where will you find the money?)
Well, Dagwood, that's always the sticky part, isn't it.
In real-world arithmetic, that would be four months or so of no reefer but I might as well join a convent or become a Republican after that horrible experience.
Maybe putting a Donate button back up is ok as that process was about to get started and then some horrible thing happened in the world. People were taking up collections for it so putting a Donate button on the blog would have been more insensitivity than I could manage at the time.
Emphasizing the RC-50 is not dead yet or I refuse to accept it is dead. There will be a showdown this afternoon but results may not come until tomorrow because there's been very little sleep and no expectation of any before the Vocalist arrives. Today has been a day of medicines arriving, blood pressure dose changes, and eventually the music gadget arrives. Good chance I'll be in a coma not long after it gets here and experimenting will wait until tomorrow.
The problem remains bringing the distortion under control. It's extremely not clear as to whether the clipping that comes is because of the RC-50 from being bounced off the highway one too many times. It was on the scooter when I crashed it in Nice and in my pack when I did a personal tumble in the Schiphol airport. It's an amazement any of the stuff survived so I can't get too troubled over it failing now; I will but I shouldn't.
The plan is to do whatever devious things I can imagine to isolate why the bass tends to over-drive the loop as I want a big bottom end. I can get it with the drums but the bass is being a sissy about it and I need that bass sounding like a real bass because it is a fookin' real bass, playing through real fookin' speakers, and it should sound like it knows what loud means instead of screeching about terrorists and hiding under the bed.
Epiphany: sell the laptop
That makes me instantly non-portable so it's a huge thing. Nothing will happen quickly and there will definitely be offline discussion before any action.
That sets a whole lot of thought in motion (i.e. circles) and none of that is blogworthy / blogsuitable.
One of the thoughts is whether it will fit between her legs.
(Ed: say what?)
The keyboard stand for the synth has legs and the RC-50 fits between them almost perfectly. The RC-300 may have a bit more girth than the RC-50 so that's a problem for playability because it pushes me farther away from the keyboard. So it has to fit between her legs.
There are two salient points about the Boss RC-300:
- the unit costs $549
- the unit is worth it
One striking difference is in the way the phrases are managed. The RC-300 permits use of all three phrases simultaneously and that's difficult, maybe impossible, with the RC-50. What that means is I can record a primary phrase with a nice mix of instruments and leave that going while I start a second phrase with distortion guitar. The second phrase can be kicked in or out of the overall loop whenever I feel like it with the looper handling the start sync (i.e. so long as I'm in sync when I make the loop, it will keep it that way). That's the flexibility that makes the unit worth the money as it's a huge leap beyond the RC-50.
(Ed: so where will you find the money?)
Well, Dagwood, that's always the sticky part, isn't it.
In real-world arithmetic, that would be four months or so of no reefer but I might as well join a convent or become a Republican after that horrible experience.
Maybe putting a Donate button back up is ok as that process was about to get started and then some horrible thing happened in the world. People were taking up collections for it so putting a Donate button on the blog would have been more insensitivity than I could manage at the time.
Emphasizing the RC-50 is not dead yet or I refuse to accept it is dead. There will be a showdown this afternoon but results may not come until tomorrow because there's been very little sleep and no expectation of any before the Vocalist arrives. Today has been a day of medicines arriving, blood pressure dose changes, and eventually the music gadget arrives. Good chance I'll be in a coma not long after it gets here and experimenting will wait until tomorrow.
The problem remains bringing the distortion under control. It's extremely not clear as to whether the clipping that comes is because of the RC-50 from being bounced off the highway one too many times. It was on the scooter when I crashed it in Nice and in my pack when I did a personal tumble in the Schiphol airport. It's an amazement any of the stuff survived so I can't get too troubled over it failing now; I will but I shouldn't.
The plan is to do whatever devious things I can imagine to isolate why the bass tends to over-drive the loop as I want a big bottom end. I can get it with the drums but the bass is being a sissy about it and I need that bass sounding like a real bass because it is a fookin' real bass, playing through real fookin' speakers, and it should sound like it knows what loud means instead of screeching about terrorists and hiding under the bed.
Epiphany: sell the laptop
That makes me instantly non-portable so it's a huge thing. Nothing will happen quickly and there will definitely be offline discussion before any action.
That sets a whole lot of thought in motion (i.e. circles) and none of that is blogworthy / blogsuitable.
One of the thoughts is whether it will fit between her legs.
(Ed: say what?)
The keyboard stand for the synth has legs and the RC-50 fits between them almost perfectly. The RC-300 may have a bit more girth than the RC-50 so that's a problem for playability because it pushes me farther away from the keyboard. So it has to fit between her legs.
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