Falconetti
Synchromatic
I'm pretty much retired from playing in bands these days and have recently got into using loopers as a way to beef things up when playing on my own. Takes practice but so long as you can count, sing, play and tap dance all at the same time.......you are golden.
I started with a Boss RC-1 and liked it well enough. It's a simple on the fly looper which is easy to control and does most of what I need but no rhythm track. I borrowed a Ditto looper but didn't think much of it compared to the Boss. Then I tried an RC-3 and found the inclusion of rhythm tracks to be a useful feature although the ones on the RC-3 are pretty limited. I added an FS-7 external control switch so I could set tempo and control start/stop/ scroll. Again tricky to start with but with time ....pretty good. I am able to play most of what I want so long as the rhythm track is turned down fairly low and sits in the background because they are little more than a glorified metronome really. There are some much more interesting rhythms in the pre-sets but in truth they aren't really any use to an old dog like me and are just there to fill the slots available.
So....a few weeks ago I did the review of the market and having had good success thought I would try a Boss RC-5, Boss latest and complex stomp box sized looper. Much more realistic drum kit sound, 99 pre-sets and ultra controllable...blah blah. I plugged it into my little rig and happily hit the 'Rhythm' button and the noise which erupted almost gave me a heart another attack. It takes me a while to find the right press then turn knob to calm the drummer down a bit so I plug my guitar in and HOWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLL !!. All of a sudden I'm going full Jimi Hendrix. Turns out the RC-5 is PRESET on every one of the 99 channels with the volume of both the loop and the rhythm at 100 and there is no global volume control. I don't know how high the volume goes but 100 is quite loud enough for me thank you. If like me you want to set up loops quickly on the fly at different volumes and drop them in and out then it looks like that is going to involve grovelling about on the floor pressing and holding then turning a little knob. Not great and totally impractical for how I have been working with my other loopers so far. This looper looks like it is designed for players who have pre-prepared loops or backing tracks with everything set up all fine and dandy before venturing out to play. It is a very powerful tool with lots of options but most of them don't seem to me to be accessible during live use. Unless you know something I don't ? I would like to hear any real world experience of this looper and how you get round the RC-5's obvious design flaw of having 2 pre-set volumes that are mega-fiddly to change and no global volume control. I will put some time in and get to know the thing in detail then pre-prepare some nice loops but I doubt I would use them live because thats just a step too far towards karaoke for this old dog. As it stands I will probably sell this one as it is just not suitable for the way I play. Shame.
I started with a Boss RC-1 and liked it well enough. It's a simple on the fly looper which is easy to control and does most of what I need but no rhythm track. I borrowed a Ditto looper but didn't think much of it compared to the Boss. Then I tried an RC-3 and found the inclusion of rhythm tracks to be a useful feature although the ones on the RC-3 are pretty limited. I added an FS-7 external control switch so I could set tempo and control start/stop/ scroll. Again tricky to start with but with time ....pretty good. I am able to play most of what I want so long as the rhythm track is turned down fairly low and sits in the background because they are little more than a glorified metronome really. There are some much more interesting rhythms in the pre-sets but in truth they aren't really any use to an old dog like me and are just there to fill the slots available.
So....a few weeks ago I did the review of the market and having had good success thought I would try a Boss RC-5, Boss latest and complex stomp box sized looper. Much more realistic drum kit sound, 99 pre-sets and ultra controllable...blah blah. I plugged it into my little rig and happily hit the 'Rhythm' button and the noise which erupted almost gave me a heart another attack. It takes me a while to find the right press then turn knob to calm the drummer down a bit so I plug my guitar in and HOWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLL !!. All of a sudden I'm going full Jimi Hendrix. Turns out the RC-5 is PRESET on every one of the 99 channels with the volume of both the loop and the rhythm at 100 and there is no global volume control. I don't know how high the volume goes but 100 is quite loud enough for me thank you. If like me you want to set up loops quickly on the fly at different volumes and drop them in and out then it looks like that is going to involve grovelling about on the floor pressing and holding then turning a little knob. Not great and totally impractical for how I have been working with my other loopers so far. This looper looks like it is designed for players who have pre-prepared loops or backing tracks with everything set up all fine and dandy before venturing out to play. It is a very powerful tool with lots of options but most of them don't seem to me to be accessible during live use. Unless you know something I don't ? I would like to hear any real world experience of this looper and how you get round the RC-5's obvious design flaw of having 2 pre-set volumes that are mega-fiddly to change and no global volume control. I will put some time in and get to know the thing in detail then pre-prepare some nice loops but I doubt I would use them live because thats just a step too far towards karaoke for this old dog. As it stands I will probably sell this one as it is just not suitable for the way I play. Shame.
