Hi all, I just had to try the newfangled 5hunnert so I bought one at GC to try for 45 days! I’ve never spent so much time (in my life) on my knees, on the floor, and other configurations! I did get it to sync with the BB after MUCH aggravation and annoyance culminating with a mediocre success. Through the whole process I couldn’t help falling in love with the sound of this looper. There are so many “deal breaker” design Flaws, Ommissions, STUPIDOs and WTF’s that normally it would have been back to GC on day 2. BUT, did I mention that SOUND? Through my AER my TAYLOR is so crystal transparent blah blaaah. I’m hoping I can get some feedback from this forum to help me decide one way or another on keeping the RC. ANYONE? JR
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There are some helpful posts on this forum on users’ experience getting the BB to work with the Boss RC 500.
If the quality of the audio is that good, I’m sure you’ll find a way to rationalize overlooking the flaws. Are there other, less flawed choices for a looper? Probably.
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Thanks persist, I have searched the Forum and actually there are no “helpful” posts (YET). I am meticulous, though also, fairly reasonable about sound quality at this “coming into winter” stage of life. When I say that the audio is good I mean that this looper’s meddling with my signal is WAY LESS destructive than others I’ve tried. As of right now, I believe that a lot of the sync problems fall on the pp midi of the BeatBuddy. I’ll keep messing with it for a few more days to give this post a chance to work. (“Are there other, less flawed choices for a looper?”) ABSOLUTELY!!!
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I hear ‘ya.
There are a couple users who posted how they got the Boss and the BeatBuddy to play nice together. Up until those posts were made, several users related their mostly negative experiences.
Maybe current RC 500/BB users that are still having a positive user experience can chime in and tell us how they optimized the integration of the two into their rigs and music.
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I’d love to hear that, too. Spent the last week trying to sync the RC 500 with the BB, made up 2 sets of cables. Nada. I have an RC 300, syncs fine, but too big for my pedal board that I take busking on my motorbike. Plus, I love the 32 bit sound of the RC500… nobody from Boss or Singular Sound seems to have an answer. Frustrated AF.
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Here are the instructions I used on my Boss RC-300 (pulled from this forum):
BEATBUDDY SETTINGS:MAIN PEDAL
INTRO: None (Currently experimental)
OUTRO:ENABLE
DOUBLE TAP:ENABLE
DEFAULT TEMPO:ENABLE
DEFAULT DRUMSET:ENABLE
MUTE PAUSE:ENABLE
MAIN PEDAL UNPAUSE:
MIDI SETTINGS:
MIDI-IN:
SYSTEM REAL TIME:
SYNC:ENABLE
START:ENABLE
STOP:ENABLE
MIDI CHANNEL:OMNI (For now but will have to change in the future)
NOTE ON:ENABLE
NOTE OFF:ENABLE
CONTROL CHANGE:ENABLE
START BEAT:RELEASE
TRIPLE TAP STOP:ENABLE
RELEASE TIME:0
MIDI-OUT:MIDI OUT
SYNC:ALWAYS ON
RC-300 SETTINGS
SYS:
MIDI RX CHANNEL:1 (Shouldn’t matter for now)
MIDI OMNI:OFF (Shouldn’t matter for now)
MIDI TX CHANNEL:10 (Shouldn’t matter, as Beatbuddy is set to OMNI)
MIDI SYNC:INTERNAL (𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓)
MIDI PC OUT:OFF (Shouldn’t matter - Program changes not being sent)
LOOP EDIT TRACKS 1, 2, and 3
LOOP SYNC : ON
TEMPO SYNC: ON
My procedure is:
(Don’t record Beatbuddy output into the RC-300 LOOPS unless you mean to. They have a tendency to build up and drown everything else out.)
TAP TEMPO on any STOP switch
MEMORY EDIT:TEMPO and set to a WHOLE BPM (Maybe this doesn’t matter - needs experimentation)
Go to BASE LOOP (usually LOOP 1) EDIT : Set number of measures I’m going to record
Record BASE LOOP with RHYTHM ON to lay in timing METADATA
After this, all the loops and the Beatbuddy stay in sync, even when changing tempo (TAP or EDIT) on the RC-300, as well as when hitting the ALL START/STOP switch.
ISSUES:
I have yet to figure out how to get INTROS on the Beatbuddy to work the way I want them to. If you set RC-300 to COUNTIN, it counts and then starts, which starts the INTRO/COUNTIN on the Beatbuddy.
PAUSE on the external Beatbuddy footswitch works but… you have to hit PAUSE button in time to get things started again. (Need to monkey with START and STOP messages maybe
RC-300 SYSTEM PROGRAM (VER.1.05)
How to tell the version
Please check the version of the system working on your RC-300 before downloading the archive file.
Adjust MASTER [ LEVEL ] knob, TRACK [1] [2] [3] sliders, and RHYTHM [ LEVEL ] knob to minimum.
Hold down RHYTHM [ EDIT ] button and [ TAP TEMPO ] button, and switch on the power.
The left display will show the current version number at “Ver”
Turn RC-300 off after checking the version.
Beat Buddy V 3.8.0
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I feel you… I’m in between love and hate dilemma as well.
I just wish to have a good sync between BB(master) and RC500(slave), independent of the selected groove (time signature).
I suspect most people who have successfully synced the two units use it mainly in 4/4.
I suspect that RC500 when set has a sync slave, is always tied to the time signature in the selected memory somehow.
I’m still in the process of exploring the settings. Right now my BB is with firmware 3.9.3 and the RC500 with 1.02.
BB sends out a sysex midi message to set the time signature of external devices, but unfortunately the RC500 doesn’t recognize this. I contacted Boss about this but I don’t have big hopes there…
From Boss:
Dear Customer,
We have tested these Sysex commands and they are not compatible.
The other option was to assign a CC# to a functions – but in the list of functions, Tim Signature was not an option.
I will ask the specific SysEx commands from the R&D team ( if they exist ) and also suggest they add the Time Signatures in the list of Assigns.Cordiali saluti - Saludos cordiales - Melhores cumprimentos
My BB syncs to my RC 300 fine, but nothing with the RC500, which is much more suitable size wise with my kit (pedalboard for busking, goes on the motorbike.) Can’t get any responses from Boss or Singular Sound.
The only post that might come close to helping was by rDin at Loopers compatible with the BeatBuddy - #3 by rDin
Although it was for an RC-300 which several users have figured out how to somewhat work, it leaves me thinking that this has more to do with Boss’ MIDI idiosyncrasies than with with the BB. I’m sure that if Singular knew the answer, they would have responded by now.
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Here’s the answer the the BB/RC 500 clock sync issue: Morningstar Engineering Midi Controllers. They have 3 models—MC3, 6 or 8. Their customer service is without equal—literally, one of their engineers follows forum and implements changes and pushes them out within days. On this company responded practically overnight and now the MC products are configured so the BB clock can pass through the MC unit and then be sent to other pedals. Solved the problem.
The Morningstar computer user interface is extremely intuitive and sensible. Anyway, check out Morningstar Engineering.
Here’s the link to the RC-500/BB clock discussion and solution. You’ll just need to join the forum. Good luck!
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