Boss RC10-r Looper - I hope you're not into 12 bar blues!

grappagreen

All,

Just  bought one of these as it looked like the perfect device for practice.

If anyone else has one can they check something for me as I'm either going mad or there's a 'slight' issue if you wanna play a 12 bar blues..

Select Blues - 12 bar and (with Play Intro = ON) hit play rhythm. The intro that's programmed into mine is completely out of time and impossible to count-in over  

I'll share this just to make peops smile a little and I've got broad shoulders; not the most auspicious start last night when I plugged it in and started to mess. I could hear ghost notes on the rhythm and after 30 mins of late night messing/searching through manuals, menus etc. I gave in frustrated, cursing and in a generally bad state of mind. Whilst brushing my teeth 10 mins later like a good boy I looked in the mirror and uttered those immortal words 'you tw4t' - I've got it plugged into an AER 60 and had the fookin effect level up feeding the drums into delay and verb... I do wonder sometimes..

Going well then so far

Si

andyp

I’ve been looking at these over the last week or so and can’t make up my mind if it’s more suitable for me than my current Trio+. I’m not going to use the word “better” because I think they seem to be slightly different, but the Boss looks more useable for me.

I’d be interested to hear how you get on with the RC10R. The bit that appeals to me is being able to just start up a drum beat and play along. Can you just put a loop in and jam to it, like with a Ditto for example? (Without the drums)

My problem so far with the Trio+ is that I don’t know how to get it to give me what I want. I play chords into it and get something I can’t use back. I am 100% sure this is a Me issue and not a Trio issue, but the Boss looks much more like what I want to do with the Trio. Just sit down, start some drums or a simple loop and go. I looked at Beat Buddy or some other variation too, but the Boss one seems to be exactly what I had pictured in my head.

Fuengi

New MXR Clone Looper arrived yesterday, it took me about three minutes to work out how to use it. Reverse and Speed settings are brilliant, especially tapping in a percussive beat and reversing it. 

grappagreen

@andyp - I'll feed back more when I've spent a few more hours with it. There are some immediate niggles at the mo but I'm not going to comment until I fully understand/explore as these may well be due to my level of competence rather than the device itself

You can use the looper section (just like I use a Ditto currently) independently of the rhythm section if you want to do that and obviously you can set up a beat and then just loop/jam to your hearts content i.e. Ditto with some rhythm action which is exactly what I was looking for. 

Will feedback after the weekend however I'm still optimistic it will meet my requirements.

Si

andyp

@grappagreen ;

Perfect, thanks! I'm a basis level player but think this could really help me improve and seems much more "streamlined" and straightforward than the Trio+.

grappagreen

So confirmed today that the single 12 bar blues rhythm pattern intro on the device is effectively broken. Lol... useless.

I you're looking to use one of these to practice anything 12 bar bluesy then don't unless your prepared to import your own. I've downloaded the Rhythm editor and after reverse engineering the product (no bloody documentation on how to actually use the thing!!!!!) I'm now building grooves in EZDrummer/Reaper and exporting/importing. Not as painful as it sounds but obviously not quite as easy as I was expecting i.e. purchase, read manual, use

On the positive side the grooves out of EZDrummer sound/feel great (better than the built-in I would say) and it means that I can now do anything with it. The structure of the groove implementation means that if you wanted to you could create/import a complete song and play with a single press of a button...opens some further possibilities for me at least.

The device actually works really well for what I wanted excepting the above! The killer thing for me is loop quantise; even with all the practise I put into using my Ditto it didn't matter how accurate I set the loop; when playing with a rhythm track on my Mac it would always drift out of sync eventually. With this it's perfect...

Will give a full review here after the weekend.

Si

RaymondLin

By broken, what do you mean?

grappagreen

@RaymondLin - the intro pattern that was created by Boss is out of time and then has an extra beat - sorta like 5/4... basically it’s impossible to count in when using the ONLY 12 bar groove built into the unit! In fairness the target demographic Boss had for this device is probably not 12 bar blues players but none the less..

MagicPigDetective

What happens if you turn the intro off? 

RaymondLin

grappagreen said:

@RaymondLin - the intro pattern that was created by Boss is out of time and then has an extra beat - sorta like 5/4... basically it’s impossible to count in when using the ONLY 12 bar groove built into the unit! In fairness the target demographic Boss had for this device is probably not 12 bar blues players but none the less..

I guess if you can import your own then hopefully there will be a community of people sharing their own backing tracks to practice on.  12 bar blues included.

grappagreen

MagicPigDetective said:

What happens if you turn the intro off? 

The rest of the patterns (1&2) are fine albeit somewhat lacklustre. It's actually pretty hard to get the timing right for the first chord without a count-in on this (although in fairness I'm still getting a feel of the response of the pedal). Anyway a none-issue for me now I've dug deeper with importing and TBH one 12 bar groove was never going to be enough and I should have checked this before buying!

Si

andyp

I'm pretty surprised by this, surely they should've noticed that when they were testing it before release? Anyway, it was 12 bar stuff I was hoping to use this for, at least for a chunk of the time I expect to use it. Interesting. I'm not clued up enough to programme it / reverse engineer it. Is there a way to import files / samples from the net or anything?

It sounds great otherwise and this could well be a non-issue, I'm just curious before I look properly into getting one.

grappagreen

andyp said:

I'm pretty surprised by this, surely they should've noticed that when they were testing it before release? Anyway, it was 12 bar stuff I was hoping to use this for, at least for a chunk of the time I expect to use it. Interesting. I'm not clued up enough to programme it / reverse engineer it. Is there a way to import files / samples from the net or anything?

It sounds great otherwise and this could well be a non-issue, I'm just curious before I look properly into getting one.

Andy,

Yes - pretty crap QC..

You can use Boss's tool (I can talk you through this if you go down this route) but you ideally also need something you can generate/view/edit the source midi data. The way the Boss tool works you give it a midi file and then select the bars that you're gonna use for the various parts which, without viewing/editing the midi, makes it hard if you're gonna use commercial midi clips. Reaper is fine for the midi editing and free.. depends how much you wanna dig in tbh..

At the moment there don't appear to be any third party grooves and given the lack of Youtube content not many people using the editor.. I couldn't find a single resource to help me work out how to use it..

If you give me a week or so I'll have a fair few high-quality 12 bar grooves in various styles/meters and I'd be happy to share if you go for one.

Si

andyp

Wow, that's great. Thanks for that info. I'm not in a hurry or anything, but I had been looking at these again after forgetting about them for months and then this thread popped up and it got me interested.

I've wanted a drum machine sort of thing for ages and the Trio+ isn't quite that...

Cheers!

mrkb

How many of your own midi grooves can be imported?

MagicPigDetective

Caved in and ordered one, will be here Monday  

grappagreen

@mrkb - manual is not specific. Just states 208 patterns or more...

@MagicPigDetective - good work..

Si

ICBM

The 12-bar intro was probably taken off a John Lee Hooker song

MagicPigDetective

Spent last night and today trying to make sense of the two button control. It is baffling at first but I’m getting there and can get a rhythm and loop going with two parts, and I’m starting to have fun with it. The drums sound good through my katana, in fact there is a setting specifically for playing it into a katana amp. For quickly putting down a rhythm and loop to solo over, it seems ideal for the job. 

Haven’t tried the 12 bar yet. Starting to play the loop at the right time is a bit tricky, though the lights in the intro show when it starts. Will take some practice. 

MagicPigDetective

It’s a good pedal, exactly what I need. I can within a few moments of grabbing my guitar get something good going to play over, which is what I need to help improve my rhythm and timing, as previously I’d been spending far too much time widdling away unaccompanied. The  drum beats are great, a lot of them I find much better slowed right down. For me it’s just a practice tool, and a damn good one at that. 99 save slots is incredible. Deeper setting yet to be investigated.

andyp

Thanks for the update again.

I’m gonna order one next week I think. It sounds like exactly what I need too, for similar reasons to yours.