RC-50 Impressions

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

I had an RC-50 here for a couple of days, enough for a rough evaluation.

sure most of this is old news

one thing...I now have greater admiration for anyone who can make this 
box work for them.

Note: in RC50-speak, each patch has 3 loops which are called "Phrases"

Negatives first:-


1) Sound quality is a bit disappointing. My guitar distorted on playback 
without having
   lit the overload LED.  With more time, maybe I would have sorted the 
levels better,
  but certainly no headroom. Microphone input seems equivalent to that 
on a cheap mixer.
  My very subjective impression was that Boss/Roland had saved a few 
pennies on the
   analog chips (which I've noticed before on their products).
2) Playback volume for phrases is meant to match dry volume at a setting 
of 100.
    It doesn't, seemed to match at about 85.
3) Midi implementation is a horrible joke.
4) No quick way to clear all 3 phrases. ( probably a workaround by 
shifting to new patch).
5) Difficult to find things in the manual, even after reading it through.
6) The famous "gap at the beginning of the first repeat" can be got rid 
of by following
    the steps described in the manual. Hidden in the appendix. ...but 
when I recorded
    a second phrase I often heard it return.
7) Before reading the manual, I had a play with it. First there was the 
pre-recorded stuff,
    then the drum machine, and when those had been avoided, it is 
actually possible to
    start looping.
8) A lot of features are only accessible by menu.
9) Not possible to make 3 unsynced loops.
10) Shortest loop, 1.5s  
11) Reverse produces clicks. Glitchy, but not in a nice way.
12) Manual describes the onboard drum machine as "ultra-high quality" and
     " a match for a dedicated unit".  That's just 2 outright lies.
13) Overall, the user interface is not well thought out.
14) Software version not shown on boot-up.

Positives:-
1) Able to select the next loop for recording/playback  while in record. 
    That would have been nice for the EDP, which always ends record when
    the Nextloop button is pressed.
2) Pretty easy to get looping, to record a phrase, select new phrase, 
record  the new
   phrase which is a multiple length of the first. Then the 3rd phrase 
can even be a different
    multiple of the first.
3) Time stretch has an interesting sound, especially on rhythmic material.
4) Onboard drums may have a use for some, possible to record a loop then 
bring
     the drums in (if loop starts exactly on downbeat).
5) Tempo button can be reprogrammed to Reverse, or Select Overdub mode. 
This
     can be programmed per patch.
6) Looks pretty easy to use the alternative mode where you can record 3 
serial loops
    as parts of a song and switch between them.
7) Undo works for Record as well as OD, so provides a *relatively* quick 
way to re-record
    a loop.
8) For anyone into pre-recorded loops


"I've learned something today":-
1) There's one feature which I would like to see in the EDP emulator 
(Next doesn't end Recording).
2) This is my first encounter with a Multi=track looper. There's a great 
impression of not being in
     control of the music any more compared to EDP.


andy butler