Might be useful if we separate the issues out with our various loopers…so this can be the RC-300 problems found and solved issue.
I will start with an observation…I have had some issues with getting my RC-300 to work well, but today I did a rebuild on my board and stumbled on something that I had not noticed before. Previously I had both the in and out’s hooked up, but today I mislaid one cable for a while during the remodel…and so I set up with only one cable.
Once I had all my bits hooked up, and ready to test I noticed something interesting.
When you have the BB hooked up with its MIDI in, to the RC’s MIDI out… it will control the BB, switching it on and off as you hit record/stop etc…thats exactly what you want. But I had previously noticed some drifting over time
Today though, quite by chance I had the rhythm volume on my RC turned up and I noticed that it was also playing the RC’s beats. hmm 2 beats…not in the same time signature either… So I set the RC to a 4/4 beat and turned down the rhythm volume…dialled up a 4/4 beat on BB and recorded a phrase.
Several dozen loops later, still in sync.
I will try with other time signatures, but wondered if this was something I probably should have realised before?
hmmm it still goes off sync…it does take a lot longer though, so probably possible to get through a song, but I left it running for a while, while I did other things came back and it was well out of sync after a while…grrr
BTW here is my board now proudly wearing its Beat Buddy, though I need to do some work on the cables still, have to get a few angled connectors to get them tidy.
Wow, what a setup !! I also use RC300 and run midi like you suggest (rc300 out to BB in) and it seems to work well. I can only seem to use BB tracks that are 4/4 time. The one glitch I’m having though is let say I’m @ 100bpm…lay down my loop and hit loop play and the tempo goes wacky…to 130 ! I’ve seen it jump up and down…at first I though it was on BB tracks other than 4/4…but its happened on 4/4 too.
You guys still getting MIDI drift from the RC-300? I want to buy a BeatBuddy to use with my RC-300, but if they can’t stay in sync, then it’s a no-go for me. That would be really sad.
It actually makes a lot of sense that you are getting better performance with the drum machine on, but turned down. When the RC-300’s drum machine is turned off completely, it turns quantizing off. I’m not sure what exactly that would do to the MIDI clock signal that’s being sent, but that might be what’s confusing the BeatBuddy.
Another thing you might try is making sure the RC-300’s BPM is tuned to a whole number. I have a GT6 that receives MIDI clock in to sync up its delay effect. If the RC-300 is not set to a whole number (such as 156.4 instead of 156) the delay will work, but it gets glitchy. However, only delay effects have ever had this problem for me, never drum machines.
I also use the BB with an RC300 (and a GR-55) and it seems to work fine with the RC300 set to internal clock and the BB set to “MIDI through”. I then send the signal out from the BB to the GR-55 and it all seems to sync fine when I use the RC300 to tap the tempo and start the loop. I have just left a 6/8 loop running for the last 10 mins or so and it is perfectly in time when I checked with the RC rhythm. I also tried it with the RC tempo at 75.5 and although the BB says 75 BBM (as no decimal point) still works fine!
I did have some problems with the timings going out of sync when I first got it, but after several attempts at different configurations and updating all the firmware it is now fine. I normally use 4/4 loops and it is not a problem - I tried the 6/8 to test if mine was only working on 4/4 following on from one of the comments.
Good to know! I really appreciate this information. Thanks! If I get my hands on a BeatBuddy I may pick your brain about some of those settings if you don’t mind.
Finally somebody who appears to be using much the same setup as me!!
Could you let me know how you hook up all the pedals in this little badboy and in what order? (its pretty hard to see all the connections).
I currently input vocals and guitar into my setup in the following order:
Guitar (via GK3 and data cable) into GR-55
GR-55 (GUITAR OUT) routing through the tuner, blues driver, wah, space echo, and finally the Voicelive 2
Out of the Voicelive 2 into the RC-300 (L MONO INPUT)
GR-55 (L MONO OUT) straight to the RC-300 (R INPUT)
RC-300 (MAIN OUT) to an AER amp.
Up to now I have been assigning the beats from the RC-300 to the (SUB OUT) so I can route them to the (AUX IN) on the back of my AER allowing them to stay dry - (they’re a bit crisper when not smothered in reverb so I don’t lump them in with the normal guitar jack input)
I don’t loop the vocals so I just send those through the Voicelive 2 and out to the amp.
(Phew! Hope thats all clear)
I would ideally want to integrate the BB into the setup so I can use its beats and fills but keeping the RC-300 as the master controller - this seems the logical way round given that I will be building loops with it anyway.
Also I’d be interested in knowing how to clean up my setup so it stays in the box permanently connected and powered. Did you custom build the case for yours? How does the T-rex Goliath power unit work? Have you any idea how much power all this uses? (I do lots of street performance so I would need a battery with sufficient
I know thats a shed load of questions but any help would be absolutely genius - I think you might just be able to get me to where I need to be!!
So sorry not to have responded to this at the time, I had to put my BB away for a while as my band needed a much simpler system so my big board got left behind, but I’m back into my BB now and looking at ways to use it in my current band.
