djdiggla Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 This thing is a beast! I got it actually a month, possibly two months ago and seriously haven't had a chance to fuck with it until yesterday. I had looked at the little brother version (RC-20??) and some other similar ish... I picked this for a few reasons.1) I trust Boss to provide a easy to use, well constructed, solid device. 2) I wanted the ability to record and play back more than one loop (plus over-dubs) at a time. (This does 3)3) For me, and likely most DJ/producers, stereo input/output was highly desired. I'm not running this just through a mic or using it with a guitar. The RC-50 is the only device that satisfied all my needs. It appears to have been build solid as fuck. Metal body and of course has plastic buttons, pads, knobs. Good, sturdy weight. It has midi... which for me is useless... I don't have a clue about using midi devices or really understand what this would do as a midi controller, but cool in the chance I ever learn about midi. I am using this for live PA purposes to basically replace my second mpc, which I sold b/c it wasn't really getting much use. The setup I have is as follows: I have a turntable and a mpc running into my mixer then from there into a pioneer efx-500 and then into the RC-50. At this point I have only been using the mpc to get the basic feel as that will be the root of what I have in mind. I rarely read instructions at first. I figured I would be alble to plug it in and just start going. WRONG. It kept playing this retarded "rock" beat. I fucked wit it for a while and gave up and went to bed. Next day I busted out the manual expecting it to make no sense. To my surprise I was off and running within a few mins! Now, I don't know all the features and from the looks of it there is still a lot of cool stuff to learn, but I could do all the basics within 2 minutes. It is nice that the controls are simple and accurate. If you are expecting to never have to reach down to adjust something and only use your foot, then you are likely mistaken. I found myself using both hands and feet. The metronome was anoying at first and my first instinct was to turn it off and use it off the cuff but I figured I would try and just go with it. It's not so bad... you can tap in the bpm or adjust it with your hand. I still havent' tried to turn it off and make loops with no mind for the time as yet, but based on my use thus far I figure it will be easy to do so. Basically the control works great and it does everything I expected it to. Every original fear I had about it's usability was quickly dispelled. I think it's a really cool addition and can't wait to start fucking around with drumming and vocals too... I would highly recommend it and as yet can't really find a down... I guess that the "foot pedal" is more of a foot and hand pedal.. but that's about it. The price is a little steep, however I found one on craigslist for around $300. (Retails at $500). I actually got mine on jellyfish.com which is a smack shopping site. I got if for right around $350 new and including shipping. Weather you are looking to bust out some serious DJ Radar shit, live band, PA or just have a lot of fun this is RECOMMENDED. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x2k Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 I'm just about to dust of my rc-20 and start trying to put together a scratch dubstep set. One day it would be nice to upgrade to an rc-50, stereo and layers sound like a worthwhile upgrade but I think my rc-20 suits me fine for the time being. Thanks for taking the time to review it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djFatNipples Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 fookin sicc ass machine mangid be completely in tha weedz if i lost minebeen rockin it jus for under a year now a couple tips and tricks for ya:the tempo and undo pedals, can be reassigned to any function that an external on/off footpedal can achieve.i.e.reverse current phrase [this ones fun]or all start/stop [i use the tempo pedal set to this on all my patches for thee quick mutes]writeand many morecould save ya some time from bending down and adjusting knobs and sheet.all tho.. i can hit all those "parameter" and "write" buttons w/my big toe no problem :$ as for the metronome...it is possible to reroute the metronome out the sub-out of thee rc-fity.which i then run into the line input of my mixer, queing up the metronome in my headphones.this shits coo cause you can start out w/some ambient bits or random hitsin which case, overdubbing some scratchy drums could be tricky without some sort of a guide.also says a big fook you to all the loop pedal operators out thurr whopredictably start out w/a cymbal track or those who always lay down thurr drum tracks first.shits herra powerful composition-wise when the drums come in second. 3rd...there is an OS update for that thing i'd recommend.solves the problem of that missing first second of audio after you press the rec pedal a second time on that first pass of the loop. now ima workin my way backwards from you.i got tha 50, but am planning on picking up an mpc soon.slave that akais tempo to the rc 50 w/midi-clock and lay down some quantized drum trackies.sheets already what im doing w/ableton.i go mixer fx send > lappy w/ableton for fx > rc 50 > mixer fx return.now all my tempo based vsts like delays and glitchy rearranging fx are always in sync.if you got an mpc and the 50...i'd sync those two up in a heart beat.look into that midi shiete mang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdiggla Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 wow man, thanks for all the tips and info! I'm gonna be reading back thru this trying to figure it out! ...will have to buy a midi cable tonight... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x2k Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 holy shit, I didn't realise it did all the fancy stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdiggla Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 So do I just need one midi cable or two? Is it just going into the rc-50 or do I need it coming our into the mpc too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djFatNipples Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 jus one will do the trick dood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vet Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 For those who have a rc-50...I have been using thia setup 1 pdx 30001 M-Audio Keyrig 251 Rane TTM-561 Kaoss Pad 2 and here's something I picked up not too long ago to be alot more hands free: http://www.synthtopia.com/news/05_06/Behringer_Nano.html This allows me to control 3 things (since that is the max amount of midi signals you can send to the rc-50) 1. Volume for each track 2. Panning for each track 3. I switch up this last function depending on the track I"m performing a) All tracks stop/fade to stop b) Reverse c) Tempo adjust (which doesn't always work when I would like but that might be a programming mistake I'm overlooking when I program this unit) This allows me to be VERY hands free and not look like such a oddball ducking behind my deck so often during shows. I have been meaning to post up a bit of a tutorial for tips & tricks for the rc-50 as I have found a few interesting ways to perform with it over the last year. Perhaps that's something I should look back into doing since there seems to be more users within our realm (of turntables) now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djFatNipples Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 thats not a bad idea at all w/the midi controller i actually bought all the parts to make some simple on/off ctrl/exp pedals,like i did for my jamman looper pedal so i could scroll thru my loopies.have been putting off building em for months.super simple project tho.a project box, a couple of phatty push buttons, and a 1/4 inch TRS cable ripped off some old headphones and voila...controller/expression pedal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x2k Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Haha, that's proper ghetto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vet Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Haha, that's proper ghetto. Hahahaha sicccccccccc.....! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdiggla Posted April 8, 2008 Author Share Posted April 8, 2008 So you attach one end to ur nipples and the other to a car battery, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clownstyle Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 I have an rc-20 and the sound quality of it makes my cock shrivel.. As for scratching and dubstep all I can say is please dont! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdiggla Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 I no longer recommend the RC-50. It's not horrible but has some big MIDI syncing flaws and needs to have a remote display of some kind. Also overpriced. I wouldn't ever sell mine, but there are other things I would arguably suggest over it... basically every phrase looper has horrible MIDI clock sync or none at all. Lame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airnino Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 you should record a vid and post it some time dirk! still one of my alltime favorite loopstation tracks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Ni6rpG2-E a dope ken one loopstation set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siqAzavTygk ricoloop also uses an rc 50:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0NBNRae_fo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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