Anyone know how to midi sync bb and boss rc300 looper
Boss loopers are known to be very bad when it comes to sync’ing.
Currently, there is no guaranteed way to make it work properly without tempo drifting. I’d recommend picking another looper (like Boomerang, or Infinity Pigtronix - latter option allows for storing loops).
By the way, even if you replace BeatBuddy with just about any other time machine, your Boss RC-300 won’t be keeping tempo any better.
Ive used Boss DR 880 fo a long time with RC 300 (and with RC 50 also). The drums always been midi slave ... That way works fine (the memory to save songs on DR 880 is not as big as Ive needed), but then came BeatBuddy and as I wanted more flexibility with drums (BB was exactly what Ive dreamed of), Ive changed to Infinity! Now Im working with two(!) Infinitys (two loops where not enough for me…) and need Midi-ability with BB!!! But I never repent to change from Boss to Pigtronix. They have a very great looper and the best user support I`ve ever experienced!
BTW, Ive also never repent to change from Boss (DR880) to BB... And Daefecator is doing also a great job to support us users!!! But Ive to reply I need Midi control (Id found ways to control even the Boss units with Midi, what was a little tricky...) as Im doing also some Midi automation (with Gordius LGX controller) and using the BB its way, Im unable to cope with singing and playing sometimes… So PLEASEEEE…!!!
Thanks, @Dennis!
By the way, as far as I know, the unwanted effects of when BeatBuddy is a MIDI Slave are being examined this week by our firmware guys. Hopefully we will get the result soon enough.
Is[/URL] there meanwhile (spring 2016) a way to synchronise RC-300 with [URL=‘http://de.pons.com/übersetzung/englisch-deutsch/the’]the BB? Does ist work today with the latest firmware? The BB should be the master. Which Settings must I put in the RC-300 to run as a slave?
The RC-300 (still) does not work well as a slave. The problem is that the RC-300 was designed to be sync’d with another RC-300 (or maybe other BOSS loopers) but not with other devices in general. Since this issue is known for years I doubt that BOSS will release a firmware update to fix this.
Some people were looking for workarounds and to my knowledge there a two approaches that work:
- Use a MIDI CC to trigger the tap tempo function to change the tempo (http://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=7678.0)
- Via SysEx messages (http://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=13332.0)
The latter one is the way two RC-300s sync and superior to the first one. It would be great if the BeatBuddy guys could make the MIDI sync mode switchable from default midi sync to RC-300 sync. If there are enough RC-300 owners this might be an option to consider.
Hello, I am new here. I have a Beatbuddy two button box and a new BOSS RC-300, I would really like to sync these two. I have nearly all the drums and sets available, love it! I REALLY want to sync please do not stop trying to fix this issue. thank you.
Not an RC-300 owner and never will be because of exactly these problems with the midi implementation (why do manufacturers insist on propriety interfaces like this?) so I’m not going to get too deeply into this but it sounds to me like that what you really need is an external ‘converter’ to convert bb midi out tempo information into whatever sysex the rc300 needs to set tempo.
While the BB will respond to tempo CC commands it does not send them (which would be useful in this case). however it can send start/stop and sync messages so you could capture those, figure out the reqd temp from the timing of the sync messages and use the info to setup the tempo in the rc300 (using whatever sysex it takes).
You’d probably also need to pas the sync signals on as well (either as sync signals or in whatever sysex form the rc300 requires to keep it in time with the bb.
As far a ‘converter’ box goes, I’ve used the Arduino platform for my projects. Works really well, minimal electronics skills reqd to make it work with midi, or use a ready made Arduino midi shield (just plugs into the main board).
Most of the effort for such a project would be capturing and decoding the rc300 midi (seems someone has already done at least some of this) and then testing whatever you come up with. The code is not hard. Understanding the data and how to convert it on the other hand is whewr the effort is.
It would be MUCH easier if manufacturers at least documented their midi so that people could produce interface boxes easily instead of having to hack this stuff, however such is lie I guess 
I don’t think it is reasonable to expect the BB to support every non standard midi implementation out there because I am know the RC300 is not the only box doing it’s own thing like this.
I hear you but I don’t think that most people want (or are capable) to build their own converter box. To be honest, I’ve seen a lot of people already having problems with setting up the simple, standardized midi sync. I understand that it doesn’t seem reasonable to support devices that cannot comply to a standard and that it’s not the BB’s job to take care of these issue. But given that the BOSS/Roland loopers are widely used and the workaround would fix multiple devices (RC-50, RC-300, RC-505) this still might be an option.
That being said I could understand if they still won’t do it. But personally I’d rather see a RC sync than something like this drunk drummer thing.
So far, we are in Jan 2018…And I am thinking to have Boss RC - 300. So, the syncing
is still a headache with BB or this problem is solved.
Anybody have recent rumours about this…
Thanks
^^^
Unless Boss has done something different to the RC300 MIDI interface, I’m not sure that much has changed. Your other options might include a software looper such as Quantiloop or hardware loopers from Electro Harmonix, Pigtronix or Boomerang.