Boss RC-500 Loop Station

Bad MIDI implementation

Be aware that MIDI is not working as it should.

The Boss RC-500 is supposed to respond to CC# midi commands, you can assign up to 8 commands.

Unfortunately, the BOSS RC-500 will not easily react to Control Change sent with a MIDI pedalboard (like a Behringer FCB 1010).

It needs a high AND a low signal to function ( a Control Chain with a value of 127 and then a CC with with a value of 0)

That's the workaround that people have found but you ALSO need to double-tap for that to work.

It's a pain...

Always been faulty

Never worked properly, wasted my money.

A very helpful instrument with a lot of power.

Great piece

Would recommend.. This is a great loop station

More than enough

I had tried this out before purchasing and it was everything I was expecting. It has lots of options and an easy user interface. If you're looking for something like this, go ahead and grab one and don't look back.

MIDI In is Useless

I truly do not understand the point of this looper having a MIDI In port. It's meant to keep up with external gear and synchronise with the 'clock in' signal from other sources. In my case it's the MPC Live MK2, which works fine with any other piece of gear I own. The Boss RC 500 does not play along as a slave device, mangles the loop I've just made, making it sound unusable. Boss's advice is to disable Tempo Sync feature, which defeats the purpose of having a MIDI In, Clock Sync port. The unit cannot adjust to slight clock variations and therefore time-stretches the recorded loop, making it sound like it's skipping frames, all jumbled up. Also, if Tempo Sync is disabled, the recorded loop plays at random intervals, when the unit feels like it. I can't make any sense of it.

The unit does work as a Master Clock, however, so not all is lost.

I've tried using different devices as a master clock to sync with RC 500 as a slave but it doesn't work smoothly.

I think what Boss needs to do in a software update is to make it ignore the slight BPM changes of an incoming clock, or at least average across time, and disable the time-stretching algorithm, or at least make it an option to disable time-stretching without disabling the Tempo Sync.

Absolutely fantastic loop station.

Very solid build, full of features, great sound. Overall fantastic product.

The best so far from Boss.

I've had almost all of the other Boss loopers over the years and this is the best so far. Takes time to get to grips with it and I'm still evaluating getting an additional midi controller to get instant access to all its features but for now I'm good. Better sound quality than anything I've had previously too. Was contemplating the RC-10r for a while but in the end I'm glad I held out for this one.

One of the best pieces of equipment I have bought...

... ever. The pedal is so versatile and applicable in practice and musical performance. It is made very high quality and robust. It can be programmed in a million different ways and customized to each user.

The disadvantage is the volume sliders that need to be set significantly below the middle position for normal playback volume.

I hope Boss will work on that in firmware updates. Also, the mic preamp is weak, so if you use dynamic mic you will need set up mic gain very high, or your guitar/keyboard input quite low.

General presets should be applicable to all memories, it would be easier to program the device.

GREAT

Pros:

1. Fully customizable: inputs, outputs, footswitch functions, external footswitch or midi, recording options, etc. It will CERTAINLY adapt to your own workflow (you just have to spend some time with it and set it up right).

2. 2 tracks.

Cons:

1. Not that big of a deal but the drum patterns could be a bit more sophisticated and let you import your own pattern, which it doesn't. the 3/4, 5/4 and 7/4 patterns are VERY unconvincing though, they just feel like a chopped up 4/4.