Garageband sync with Boss Looper

barnsleyboy

I was jamming along to a Garage band drum sequence playing on my phone last night. I recorded a looper tack on my Boss RC-500 to add an extra layer to things. All was going well but the timing gradually started to drift out. I'm guessing that the correct way to do this would be to get the iPhone and the looper to talk to each other through midi so that the midi clock matches. Unfortunately I haven't got the foggiest idea where to start on implementing this. Also I want to do this as cheaply as possible preferably without involving my computer. I'm thinking portability and possible live use. I'm guessing that I would need a midi interface of some kind.

Would any of you kindly gentle-folk be able to advise me on this?

Jono111

you would need something like a CME WIDI jack which will convert your phones bluetooth to the mini TRS for the Boss (if the RC500 has mini TRS, I have a RC10). Don't know if it works with Garageband though

goldtop

IIRC Garageband's #1 limitation is not sending out MIDI.

So you'd have to send MIDI clock from the RC-500 and (hopefully - needs checking) Garageband will follow the MIDI tempo/etc data.

barnsleyboy

goldtop said:

IIRC Garageband's #1 limitation is not sending out MIDI.

So you'd have to send MIDI clock from the RC-500 and (hopefully - needs checking) Garageband will follow the MIDI tempo/etc data.

Hmm - This ain't gonna be as easy as I thought! Problem is that the looper needs to match the tempo of Garage Band. My idea is to start the drum loop, a few tasteful chords/ chaotic noise looped and synced with the drums then some light noodling over the top of that. Looks like I'll have to get a few real life band members to do it properly.

goldtop

I like Garageband, but Apple neutered it so that it didn't impinge on Logic sales.

For your use case, I am pretty sure there'll be a MIDI-friendly alternative in the App Store. 

ETA: do the Korg apps work on iPhone? There's a Black Friday discount on at the moment.

Stratavarious

My old Boss RC can play back loops from internal memory.  It has 99 slots and up to 4 hrs I think.  16bit ,wav

or Boss Tone Studio lets you do it too I think. Not tried it.

So if you export the cut to length loops from GarageBand, you should be able to loop extra over them and keep it all in the pedal.  Even whole song backings.

My RC has a selection of drum loops and a metronome built in and it will quantise to the beat of them when adding layers. 

https://youtu.be/OaJ2dJ_phrE?si=On7kH0I424ZpoWqw 

barnsleyboy

So, Here's my big idea:

Once I get my *rse in gear and pluck up the courage to do it, I'm going to try some of the stuff I have had bottled up since playing in the band at University. I've recently been writing and I've got some ideas which are gradually hatching. At the moment there's only me, so @Strativarius as you suggested, my plan is to extract the bass and drums out of Cubase and stick the songs into slots on the RC-500. I can then click through and start them when I need to - band in a box type stuff. Fingers crossed, foolproof!

The idea of using Garage Band has come about because I have found a particularly oppressive and industrial sound that would be suited to a song/ spoken word piece. I can't cut it up and stick it on the Boss as it entails a bit of twiddling of knobs and a large dollop of special treatment which would happen live.

@goldtop Good idea about finding another app, but I'm settled on the dirty sound that I already have. I've tried recording it into Cubase and fiddling with it but like I say it's the special treatment that brings it to life.

The looper isn't esential as the song is relatively simple, and has some Helix based off the wall sounds. But it would be a nice to have. @Jono111 ;The WIDI looks interesting, but If GB has no midi, then I may need to rethink things.