Step by Step Instructions for BB and Boss RC 300?

General Discussion
9

Thank you for the link. I watched this video and it is very confusing. I appreciate what he was trying to do but it is so unclear. He mentions something about setting channels in multiples of 12 which I did not understand. He also went thru the midi options quickly but never really explains what parameters needed to be changed. With the light bleed and the shaky camera, I am lost. Obviously, it is working him and many others.

I am confident someone has done something similar with their RC 300 and once I finally figure it out, I will write the guide that others need to make it work.

10

Although I could not find the post, a user provided instructions on the settings for the RC-300. I think it was last year.

11

That would be a miracle if you found it! I thought I had found something like that but the landing page said the resource had moved to the new forum. I have been searching for days.

12

i think the confusing thing for people today about midi is that it only goes one way. network cables, usb cables, and everything else in the world has two way cables!

That said, which box do you want to control the “time”. you can make the BB follow the RC300, or, make the RC300 follow the BB. WIth that answered, you should be able to match midi-in with midi-out, and make a chain that works.

13

Thank you for the reply. At this point, I am just looking for any possible way to use my BB with the RC300. I will accept any limitations and work around them. I figured by now someone had this setup and knew the ideal configuration and would have a simple step by step. The YouTube video is the closest I can get but he does not explain the MIDI settings and you can’t see the screen on the BB either.

14

Settings for both pedals in this thread BeatBuddy as MIDI tempo slave?

15

@persist, I think this exactly what I was hoping for. I will test it out this weekend - THANK YOU!!!

16

If it works for you, feel free to compile or supplement the base instructions into a single pdf and post it to your thread. Good luck.

17

Ok, thanks to @persist I am getting closer. I have a few questions:

1.) I have recorded a blank loop on Track 3 so I can start / stop the BB. How can I get the drums to not record on Track 1 when I start my rhythm loop?

2.) How do you make outros work to stop all of the loops?

18

Hi, Kevin!

I regularly gig (or at least I did before the lockdown) with my BB and RC-300, and I love them both! However, I do NOT have the BB feeding into my RC-300. I feed them into separate channels on a mixer for larger rooms/shows or to separate channels on my Fishman Loudbox Performer amp for small rooms or at home. Vocals into 1 input on the amp. Guitar into bass pedal into RC-300 Into 2nd input on the amp. And BB into aux input on the back of the amp. I don’t know how you have yours hooked up, but would this setup maybe help you?

You can still connect them via midi, although, I have not had much luck with that until I purchased the Onsong app for my iPad, and have slowly been adding the midi programming for 3 devices (soon to be 4) into each song: Voicelive 3 Extreme (VL3X), BB, RC-300. Now, when I navigate to a song, it immediately puts all 3 devices on the correct patches! (When I’m over the PTSD of trying to figure out all the midi programming for all those, I will start to work on how to program the patches for my new keyboard.) :-P.

If any of the above interests you, I can try to find the posts/references for you.

Also, if you’re looking for tutorials on the RC-300, look up “Clayhorse RC-300” on YouTube. His tutorials are some of the best and got me up and running fairly quickly. The RC-300 manual is actually really good, too!—except when it comes to the midi stuff, LOL!

1 Like
19

hi @Skwearlswife ,

Thanks for the reply. I love the idea but how do you get your loops to keep time with the BB?

20

Some of my loops are pre-recorded to save some time or to use equipment I don’t bring to every gig. I recorded my loop with the BB running in the background. After recording, I checked the tempo of my loop. It was .2 or so off…I just went in and adjusted the RC-300 tempo to match the BB exactly. It wasn’t a big enough adjustment to notice any stretch or squish on the loop, and it keeps time perfectly.

There is a way to set the tempo of the RC-300 on a blank program. If I remember correctly, you have to record a loop at the tempo you want—use the RC-300 drum sounds. Then copy that song to another channel. Then you can delete the loop, write to that channel again, and it should have saved your tempo for you.

Also… I think someone mentioned you can use the RC-300 drums at your fixed tempo, but just turn the drum sound down to 0.

21

(Sorry, If you’ve been getting multiple messages of the same from me.) I’m typing this on my phone, and when I go back in the message to edit something, my phone glitches and I can’t get back to the end of the message, so I have to post it to get back to the bottom and finish the post.)

22

Also… the midi hookup, should sync the 2 without having them together in your instrument-to-sound chain.

23

didn’t think the RC could follow the BB, thought it only worked the other way
How do you make the rc follow the bb please

24

I like the idea of everything staying in time and not having to start / stop the BB with the RC300. How would you set this up without it recording the BB on the tracks?

25

From what I can tell, the BB has to be the slave to the RC300.

26

Make the BB the master midi clock for the chain. also, the BB can send out start and stop commands. I don’t know if the RC can do it, but one things i’ve heard that is awesome about pairing a BB with loopers is that you don’t have to be as precise creating the length of the loop with the looper, as it will “round” to the length that the BB has. I haven’t really messed with this myself, but its next on the agenda!

27

Per Roland:

RC-300: Working with External MIDI devices

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Roland Product Support

May 04, 2017 12:23

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When syncing using MIDI clock, the RC-300 is capable of being a Master [only] to an external device. The RC-300 cannot be a sync “slave” to an external device - unless the second device is another RC-300.

The RC-300 can receive Program Change (PC) messages and Control Change (CC) messages from any external device.

When controlling an External MIDI device from the RC-300, the following MIDI data is transmitted:

  • Tempo Data and Start /Stop commands (MIDI Clock)

  • MIDI Program Change (PC) messages

  • Control Change Messages (CC).

When controlling the RC-300 from an external MIDI Device, the RC-300 recognizes the following messages:

  • Program Change (PC) - For Switching Phrase Memory Numbers

  • Control Change (CC) - for controlling various parameters

28

(Sorry for the delay… So, I’m not sure I understand your question, so forgive me if I’m way off in my answer!)

1st of all, I treat the BeatBuddy like a separate instrument…not a pedal in my pedalboard chain, so it’s not connected at all to my guitar, and the BeatBuddy is not routed into or out of my looper. The BB gets it’s own channel on my mixer, or if I’m just using my amp at home, I plug the BB in through the Aux channel on the back of my amp. The Aux channel has it’s own volume control. That might be the whole answer to your question.

If you were asking about the HOW I get my BB and RC-300 on the same tempo, keep in mind I had absolutely no experience with midi when I first tried connecting just the RC-300 and BB with the midi cable, and if I remember correctly, it was a disaster. (I’ve since purchased Onsong and a Midi Solutions Quadra Thru midi splitter, and had much help in multiple forums to get my songs programed with the patches for the BB, my VoiceLive 3 Extreme, and my RC-300 AND IT WORKS AMAZINGLY!). But before the midi connections, I did however have a a bit of success with pre-programming the RC-300 to match the BB tempo as I mentioned above. This DID require some work in the BB first!

I used the BB Manager program on my computer to export and then import (BBM version of copy and paste) each song that I wanted to customize–mainly to save it in my own folder on the BB and re-title the beat from Blues 2 to Gimme One Reason and change tempo from default 120 to actual 102 (for example–I can’t remember the exact tempo).

BB is all setup, so we’re back at the looper. I’m sure there are better ways to do this, but in order to get the RC-300 at the same tempo as the BB, I would create a short 1 or 2 bar loop with simple quarter note strums while the selected BB song is playing in the background (my looper mic is off or the mic input is turned all the way down, so it’s not picking up the BB sounds).

Once recorded, I would open the track edit button to check what tempo the looper thinks I recorded the loop at (hopefully close to the BB tempo, but if I use a different strum pattern, sometimes it shows up completely different!!!–the RC-300 is a wild animal sometimes, but I love it). If the tempo is close (ie: BB says 102, looper says 102.3), I just adjust the looper time down to 102.0). I’ll play through the loop a bit to make sure it sounds good and works with the BB without any “drift”. If you want to save that loop and tempo on the RC-300 you hit {write} {write}. If you only want the tempo saved but want a clean open loop to do live looping next time, I believe you have to bounce this to a new blank preset, then delete the loop from the track, re-save it and the tempo should still be there. I’m not sure why, but if you do this on your original loop, the track will be empty with your custom tempo lost.

If you want to save your loop for whatever reason (some loop building gets a little long for an audience to sit through), you can just play your loop, check the tempo, tweak it to match the BB if it’s close, and save it. Now all you have to do is start your BB and start looping on the beat (that’s the tricky part!). (It has been a while since I’ve done this, but I think your RC-300 preset might need to be set up to use the given tempo.)

This set up lets me (or my sound guy) adjust the BB and loop level separately so it doesn’t overpower the loop (or can be heard with the loop). We eventually took this further and separated the guitar sound to it’s own channel on the mixer and then routed it back into the looper through a Morley ABC switch (I also have a dedicated bass pedal routed into this, and now my vocals from my Voicelive 3, AND a keyboard-sharing the switch with my guitar since I would never play those two together), so the sound guy can control the guitar and loop levels separately as well. I love the higher quality sound of my live loops recorded this way, so I’ve had to learn how to use the “scary” mixer for myself when the sound guy can’t make it to a show.

Anyway, I believe I’m now off topic–sorry! I hope I got close to answering your question and wasn’t telling you what you already knew. (insert sheepish grin and shrug here). If not, keep asking…I will dig out my notes and look up the YouTube videos, forum answers, etc. that helped me.