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At 02:29 PM 1/21/2006, Doug Cox wrote: >Sorta blows my mind that very few of the new mass-market loopers have >feedback control. Of the new stuff at the show, both Looperlative LP-1 and Electro-Harmonix 2880 Super Multi-Track Looper have feedback control. Looperlative seems straightforward. You can set feedback independently on any track, and feedback is always happening. In the EH 2880, feedback only happens on the active track, and only while in overdub. It shares the feedback control with the output level for the track, which seems kind of odd. So if you are setting feedback for overdubbing, it affects the track mix while not overdubbing. And if you have a particular track mix set, it affects feedback when you go into overdub. I asked them why they did that, and they didn't have any good explanation. I also asked why they restrict feedback control to just one track, and only while overdubbing. They didn't understand why anybody would want feedback any other time. They just have it as a way to prevent the loop from overloading. It almost seemed accidental that they have it at all, but it is there. Boss RC-50 is unclear. The fade in/out function can be set over a complete range of values, but I don't know if overdub can continue while it is fading. (for that matter, I don't really know what this function does exactly, since I didn't see it demoed.) It definitely is not a featured thing about the product. The looper in Guitar Rig does not have feedback. (there is a delay module with feedback control however.) The NI marketing guy who demonstrated it to me was again clueless why anybody would want feedback in a looper. He said it would be impossible for them to do it because it is a sample based looper, and it wouldn't work in the design architecture. >The Boss demo-guy not even knowing what it was seems to reinforce the >fact >that this (IMO) fundamental feature is getting ignored. at least at Roland, yes. The RC-50 engineer was at the show, and the demonstrator went looking for him for me but could not find him. I left my card, hopefully he contacts me. I'd like to ask him why. >Hello static wall of sound! yep. Their ad copy even says "create a perfectly synced wall of sound live onstage". although if you just use loopers to play guitar solos over pre-loaded rhythm loops, maybe this doesn't matter so much. that is how it was mostly being demonstrated. However, other than the feedback thing the RC-50 is pretty cool. It has 3 stereo tracks in a loop preset. Each is like a separate RC-20xl. You can have 99 presets, with different pre-loaded loops, parameter configurations, and whatnot for each preset. The tracks in a preset can either operate in parallel (all playing together) or sequentially (for verse-chorus-bridge type stuff). Tracks can be different lengths or sync'd together. The tracks can be independently put into reverse or overdub. It can do time stretching per track to match up tempos. Nice big pedals for selecting tracks. No deeper functions like multiply, insert, copy, etc. There is a quantize mode for lining commands up to loop boundaries. It has a USB port and loads .wav files directly. Also midi in and out, with claimed midi clock sync both ways. It does not have a CF card. They said Boss prides itself on making products that are very reliable and can hold up to a lot of abuse on stage, and CF cards are not reliable enough. that is probably true. the CF connector spec was definitely not intended for rugged industrial applications like music performance. Price is supposed to be $785 list or something like that, about $500 street. It will be nice when some people really get RC-50's and report back on real-world usage. It is very hard to get a the details at a NAMM demo in the Boss room. kim ______________________________________________________________________ Kim Flint | Looper's Delight kflint@loopers-delight.com | http://www.loopers-delight.com