You sir are an excellent source of info. Thank you to all the replies to me and others here!
Really happy to see a few RC300 experts here, I also have an RC300 and desperately want to have it be more stable. I can control the BB ok with the RC as a master, and not noticed strange tempo’s but it does wander over time and lose sync…I need to engineers stops and starts in my songs to kick it back into synch.
I assumed it was the RC since its rep for midi is so bad, but if its a BB problem, I am filled with hope that someone will fix it and I can add proper beats to my looping efforts
On the subject of midi sync and loopers, I also have a Voice Live 2, hooked up to my RC300 of course, but I never use its loop functions, however I’ve resisted the urge (and frankly can’t afford it just now) to upgrade to a VL3 even though it looks like a beat of a machine…but this is interesting…but I am going to persevere with the RC for a while and hope my syncing issues go away
Any news on this Daef?
I’ve been really busy several recent months, and I wasn’t able to totally fulfill my plans to check out every possible piece of firmware code for potential errors, but I’ve looked through the MIDI sync code. The codes are sent in a different timer than the rest of the sound generating code is running, yet they are started precisely in time and stay in sync really well.
The only thing I’ve found is that every time the pedal screen goes from any non-green color back to green (plus the very start and the very end of any song), some processor heavy task (haven’t yet had much time to find out what specifically) gets executed that may delay the MIDI event sending, but very slightly. These possible tiny shifts never accumulate and always average out in the long run - the next MIDI event is sent when it should be as absolute time (from when MIDI Start was sent) is used and not relative (from the previous MIDI event).
Almost any good looper out there (Rang III, Infinity Pigtronix, etc) is really good at keeping an average weighed tempo, and somehow Boss (and only Boss) is really boss (pun intended) at making troubles out of nowhere - either making disproportional amplifications of tiny time shifts, or simply generating new ones.
ok you say they are sent out stable from the BB… but we know the Boss is terrible as a slave…how about the receive signals,… Ideally of course we would want the BB to be the master as its the beatmachine, but the Boss wants to be boss, so is the Buddy taking the signal correctly?
I haven’t tested this extensively yet.
I am very curious if this fractional bpm is the cause, I’ll try a bit more playing this week with fixed bpm’s and see if it helps
I fitted my BB into my board now
so I really want to try to get full functionality with the looper. As much as I feel the Pigtronics and Infinity are fine beasts I do like my RC300 and this is the only time its ever been a pain to use
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ahh I thought I did it 
Hi. I have a Ditto looper and I am waiting on my Beat Buddy to arrive. I am not as knowledgeable about the technical stuff as everyone here. If I am setting the rhythm track on a loop with the BB will I have issues trying to play a guitar lead along with the looped track? I was thinking I would have to start the looped rhythm track perfectly in beat so I wouldn’t get out of beat. Does that make sense?
The pigtronix will save loops but if you are midi syncing then you have to have the tempo exactly the same on the beat buddy the next time you recall that loop. At least in my experience if I play back a loop with a different tempo then the loop changes tempo and pitch as dictated by the tempo of the beat buddy. If you are just looking for backing tracks then you could record the beatbuddy first. I have a couple of loopers and the Digitech Jamman stereo is great for this. It has sofware to store and retrieve loops . It is also in stereo. When our keyboard player is not available I use on channel to run a click to our drummer and the other for the keyboard parts. Works great. The digitech does not have midi sync so you would record the Beatbuddy first. Kind of defeats the purpose of the beatbuddy but it all depends on what you are after.
The Ditto Loopers, like the Digitech and the RC3 and most of the TC-Helicon units (up to the latest ones) do not have midi sync, so you can’t really expect them to keep time with the BB…
In theory you can manually kick them on and off on the beat that comes out the BB, but humans are not really precise enough to maintain the rhythm so after a few loops the lack of sync will become obvious. This is why human drummers, who are far more used to keeping time than us guitar players can’t play well to loops, they need to adjust to the loop beat rather than create the beat. It can be done though, but it takes a lot of practice and precision.
In an ideal world you need the BB to send a signal to your looper to say, this takes x amount of time, your phrase must therefore take x amount or a power 2 of it…that will keep your looper and your BB in sync, but we RC300 owners don’t live in an ideal world.
The RC300 issue is that Boss never really intended it to be a slave, so it has terrible synch, but it does work well as a master…apparently…here’s how I understand it when using the RC as the Master
I think you need to make sure of a few things, the RC quantizes the phrase you record based on the drum patterns it knows about, so your BB needs to be playing the same type of pattern you have set in your rhythm section (volume down though). Dont’ have the BB playing 4/4 but your RC playing a silent 6/8 it won’t produce the same length of bar even if the BPM matches.
When you start to record the loop, with the RC triggering both the record and starting the BB, you need to get your phrase to stop as close as possible to the last beat of the BB If the BPM is set the same, and you are close to that end beat but no longer, it will quantize(stretch) to the end of the calculated phrase time. The total time of the phrase should match the total time of the BB’s beats and you have a synched phrase. Boom you get drums you can control and a phrase you can overdub and create new phrases on the other channels of the RC…
But there seems to be some issues…I can get the RC-300 to trigger ok, and stop the BB, but after a few phrase plays it loses synch, though stopping and starting the phrase brings it back…not ideal though. I have been too busy the last few months to really play with my gear but will try to do something this weekend and report back. The issue of tapping your own tempo and getting fractions is an interesting one, this is usually what happens when you freeform your own phrase, the phrase time between stop-start dictates the time and it might provide fractions that the BB can’t handle…
Also if you try to record a phrase without the RC-300s drums…you have no idea what the tempo is until you press the play, so the BB will be in one start up tempo when you hit record, which will be the default BPM that’s currently in the RC, and that almost certainly will change when you set the phrases length…so the tip about having the drums playing but silent to ensure quantizing occurs is essential when the RC is a master.
I will try to work with fixed BPM’s and see if that helps.
With my Rang, I am more than able to record a loop with the BeatBuddy and play for pretty long time (like my signature video), and then wonder how came MIDI Stop didn’t make it to my looper - when BeatBuddy stopped and Rang continued looping. And the reason is always that I initially forgot to plug MIDI sync cable!
So BeatBuddy keeps tempo surprisingly well and it is pretty able to keep sync with the Rang even without MIDI sync cable.
you must have a cracking sense of timing
I would say it is also because Rang III pedals have very low step - like 2-3 mm. At first I thought this was strange and inconvenient, but it helps enormously and allows to do wonders
[SIZE=4][/SIZE]
I have a Tascam DP-32, 2 boomerangs & sidecar, and the BeatBuddy. I set the DP to MIDI master, and MIDI Clock. Cables go DP>sidecar>rang1>rang2>BB. [SIZE=4]The DP and rangs sync perfectly and stay in sync for at least the 20 minutes I tested. The BB will start in sync, but within a minute or so, slowly goes out of sync with the DP and rangs (DP and [/SIZE]range[SIZE=4] stay in sync). The start/stop work fine, but the BB [/SIZE]will not stay in sync over time.[SIZE=4] Same result with DP>BB>sidecar>rang1>rang2. Could not get the DP to work as slave with the BB master. The BB [/SIZE]does[SIZE=4] work perfectly as master with just the rangs as slaves (no DP). My goal was to allow me to capture live BB + rang loops to the DP and then add another layer of live loops sync’d [/SIZE]with the[SIZE=4] 1st set and so on. I guess I could [/SIZE]capture the BB drums in the first set of loops and not bother syncing the BB with the DP at all, but I think the BB should stay in sync better. Anyone else try this sort of set up? Or any other with the BB as a slave to another non-looping device?
You have the Rang slaved to the DP… why not also slave the BB to DP since the DP is your master clock? Might give you a better indication as to what’s causing the hiccup, the DP, the Rang, or the BB.
That is what I do:
MIDI Cables go DP>sidecar>rang1>rang2>BB
The rangs stay sync’d, the BB starts and stops fine, but quickly goes out of sync, while the DP and range stay sync’d.
I personally have never slaved my BeatBuddy to anything, so my knowledge is pretty limited at this time. But you can check the MIDI options in your BeatBuddy. Press both Tempo and Drum Set knobs at the same time to enter main menu. I am definitely sure I have seen somewhere there a setting about MIDI. I also believe I’ve read about it shouldn’t be set to something like “auto detection”. Try playing with that option to see if it affects the overall synchronization. Please share the results, as I would love to know this as well!