Workshop RC-50 Loop Station The Guide and Loop Quantize © 2006 BOSS Corporation U.S. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of BOSS Corporation U.S.
About the RC-50 Workshop Series The BOSS RC-50 Loop Station sets a new standard for performance loopers. With 49 minutes of mono recording time (or 24 minutes in stereo), onboard storage for up to 297 phrases, and massive realtime control, the RC-50 is a powerful realtime performance tool. While looping is its primary function, it can be used in many other ways as well: as a sampler, a backing track player, a practice aid, and more.
About the Guide The guide sound is silenced when phrase playback is stopped (the current phrase in Single mode or all phrases in Multi mode). The RC-50’s built-in guide provides a rhythmic backing for you to play with while you’re recording and playing phrases. The guide offers many different patterns in various time signatures and musical styles, with highquality audio using sampled drum and percussion sounds.
� Turn the PATCH/VALUE dial to the desired value. � When you’re finished, press EXIT. Guide Parameters Here’s an overview of the guide parameters. The lights on the TAP TEMPO button and TEMPO pedal flash in different colors along with the patch tempo, with red indicating the first beat—or “downbeat”—of each measure, and green indicating all other beats. • Tap Tempo An alternate way to set the patch tempo is by repeatedly pressing—or “tapping”—the TAP TEMPO button or TEMPO pedal.
• Guide:Play Count—When Guide:Play Count is set to 1MEAS, a onemeasure count-in plays prior to playback when phrase playback is started with the REC/PLAY/OVERDUB pedal. (The OFF setting disables the count-in.) The count-in level is determined by the GUIDE LEVEL knob. No count-in plays when the RC-50 is started via a MIDI clock command from an external MIDI device, or when individual phrase playback is started with an external pedal or MIDI CC #80 assignment, even if Guide:Play Count is set to 1MEAS.
The Benefit of Loop Quantize To better understand how Loop Quantize aids in phrase recording, let’s take a look at how one typically records phrases on the RC-50. When the guide’s off and you’re recording a Single mode phrase, you usually have one primary concern: closing the phrase so it loops smoothly. If you don’t close the phrase at exactly the right moment, the phrase will play with a little “hiccup” each time it repeats.
There’s no on/off switch for Loop Quantize—it’s automatically enabled when you’re recording to one of the following references: • • • • The guide. A phrase whose Tempo Sync switch is on. The phrase that determines Loop Sync playback length. An external MIDI device that the RC-50 is slaved to. We’ll cover each of these recording scenarios later.
When the phrase is closed with the REC/PLAY/OVERDUB pedal, Loop Quantize adjusts the phrase ending to the nearest adjustment point at the time the pedal is pressed (in our example, any second beat of one of the reference’s measures). Most of the time, you’ll be creating phrases that are longer than 1.5 seconds, so the minimum recording time won’t be an issue.
When you decide to close the phrase, press REC/PLAY/OVERDUB again. Loop Quantize automatically adjusts the phrase’s ending to the guide measure downbeat that’s nearest when the pedal is pressed. � Guide • It’s possible to start recording on an offbeat when Loop Sync is on, but Loop Quantize behaves a little differently—it adjusts phrase lengths to match the longest phrase. We’ll discuss this (and other uses for Loop Quantize in Multi mode) in a bit.
When you’re in Single mode and the patch’s Phrase Change mode is set to LOOP END, selecting a phrase for recording while another is playing puts it in a record standby state, and recording doesn’t actually begin until the current phrase ends. If the guide is on, this behavior ensures that all phrases’ beginnings and endings are aligned with guide measure downbeats.
Here’s an important thing to keep in mind: Turning on a phrase’s Tempo Sync switch will make it play at the current patch tempo. If you don’t want its playback speed changed from the way it was originally recorded—which you’ll probably find preferable in most circumstances—set the patch tempo to the same value as the phrase’s original tempo.
Loop Sync playback Phrase 1 Phrase 2 Phrase 3 Silence CCCCCC CCCCCC CCCCCC CCCCCC CCCCCC CCCCCC CCCCCC CCCCCC Silence CCCCCC CCCCCC CCCCCC Loop Sync only works with phrases that are set for looped playback. If you’re using Loop Sync to create a multi-phrase loop performance from a blank slate—that is, you start with three empty phrases—the first phrase you record will determine the loop playback length.
