Roland Boss RC-50 Turbostart

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RC-50

Loop Station

TurboStart

www.BOSSUS.com

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Welcome

Congratulations on your purchase of the Boss RC-50 Loop Station. This TurboStart contains step-by-step instructions that will quickly introduce you to the RC-50’s major features.

Auditioning Patches

A patch is a collection of phrases along with settings that determine how they play. The RC-50 contains 99 patches. Patches 1-5 are Preset patches with prerecorded phrases you can play along with.

1. Choose how you want to listen to the RC-50:

• Connect headphones to the RC-50’s rearpanel PHONES jack, or

• Connect the RC-50’s rear-panel MAIN OUTPUT jacks to your amp or mixer, or for mono listening, connect only the R(MONO) MAIN OUTPUT jack.

2. Turn the PATCH/VALUE dial to select Patch 2, FUNKY BLUES.

3. Press the PHRASE 1 pedal.

4. Press the REC/PLAY/OVERDUB pedal to play the patch’s first phrase. Turn the MASTER LEVEL knob to adjust the volume as desired.

5. Press the PHRASE 2 pedal. When Phrase 1 finishes playing, Phrase 2 begins to play.

6. Now press the PHRASE 3 pedal—when Phrase 2 finishes, Phrase 3 plays.

7. Once Phrase 3 has played through, it stops automatically. If you’d like to stop playback sooner, press the STOP pedal.

Recording a Phrase

The RC-50 contains two playback modes:

• Single Mode—lets you play back phrases one at a time. This allows you to record three different song sections (verse, chorus, and bridge, for example) and play each section individually.

• Multi Mode—lets you play Phrases 1, 2 and/or 3 at the same time. You can record, for example, a drum part in one phrase, a bass in another, a guitar in the other, and then play them back together in any combination, or by themselves.

Here’s how to record phrases in Single Mode:

1. Turn the MASTER LEVEL knob counterclockwise to turn down the master level.

2. Connect the output of your guitar, instrument, or pedal rig to the RC-50’s rear-panel INST R(MONO) and L jacks, or to the R(MONO) INPUT jack if you want to record in mono.

3. Turn the PATCH/VALUE dial to select an unused patch for recording. When you choose a patch, the PHRASE 1 pedal’s indicator lights solidly orange, and the indicators on the PHRASE 1 and REC/PLAY/OVERDUB pedals flash red.

4. Press the SINGLE/MULTI mode button repeatedly until the indicators on the SINGLE/ MULTI and LOOP SYNC pedals aren’t lit.

5. Turn the INST (INPUT LEVEL) knob to adjust your recording level.

6. Turn the MASTER LEVEL knob clockwise to adjust your listening level.

7. Turn the GUIDE LEVEL knob until “Guide Level OFF” appears in the display.

8. Step on the REC/PLAY/OVERDUB pedal to start recording—the indicators on the PHRASE 1 and RECORD/PLAY/OVERDUB pedals light red.

9. Perform the desired phrase.

10. When you’re finished, step on the REC/PLAY/ OVERDUB pedal to stop recording—the pedal’s indicator changes to green and the phrase you’ve recorded plays automatically. You can adjust the volume of the phrase by turning the PHRASE 1 LEVEL knob.

11. To add more material to Phrase 1, step on the REC/PLAY/OVERDUB pedal again—its indicator turns orange. This means the RC-50 is overdubbing: recording new material without erasing what you’ve already recorded.

12. To stop recording, step on the REC/PLAY/ OVERDUB pedal so its indicator is green—the RC-50 plays your original recording and the overdub together.

13. When you’re finished, press the STOP pedal.

14. To record Phrase 2 and Phrase 3, step on the desired phrase pedal that you want to record to, and then follow Steps 8-13 above.

Writing Patches into Memory

When you’ve recorded new phrases or made any changes to a patch, you have to write them into the RC-50’s memory to store them. Use the following steps to store a patch:

1. Stop playback of all of the patch’s phrases, and then press the WRITE button—“Write to” appears in the display.

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RC-50

Loop Station

TurboStart

www.BOSSUS.com

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Note: If you’d like to save your patch to a different patch memory location, turn the PATCH/VALUE dial to select the desired location (1-99).

2. Press WRITE—“Now Writing” appears in the display as the settings are stored.

Using the Rhythm Guide

The RC-50 contains a Rhythm Guide that can help you with your timing as you’re recording phrases. You can also use it as a backing rhythm part to play along with. In the Rhythm Guide, there are preprogrammed rhythms with different time signatures— referred to as “patterns”—that use a variety of drum and percussion sounds. Use the following steps to audition a few of the patterns:

1. Press the SELECT button.

2. Turn the GUIDE LEVEL knob to adjust the Rhythm Guide’s volume level.

3. Turn the PATCH/VALUE knob to select a rhythm.

4. Press the START/STOP button.

5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 to audition other patterns.

6. When you’re finished, press START/STOP to stop the currently playing pattern, and then press EXIT.

Simulstart

Simulstart is a feature that allows you to start and stop phrases simultaneously in a patch. This can be useful if, for example, you’ve recorded three different phrases in each phrase location, and want them all to start at the same time. Use the following steps to turn Simulstart on or off for each of the phrases in a patch:

1. Select the desired patch.

2. Press the NAME/PATCH button.

3. Press the PARAMETER  button repeatedly until “Patch:SimulStart” appears in the display.

4. Use the  buttons to move the cursor, and the PATCH/VALUE dial to select ON or OFF for each phrase.

5. When you’re finished, press the EXIT button.

6. Press the WRITE button twice to save your new Simulstart changes.

Stop Mode

Stop Mode gives you three different methods to stop the playback of a phrase: Immediate, Fade Out, and Loop End. Use the following steps to select the Stop Mode for a phrase.

1. Choose a patch to edit.

2. Press the desired phrase’s PHRASE button.

3. Press PARAMETER  until “Phrase: Stop” appears in the display.

4. Turn the PATCH/VALUE to choose the desired mode:

• IMMEDIATE—When the STOP pedal is

pressed while a selected phrase is playing, the phrase stops immediately.

• FADE OUT—When the STOP pedal is

pressed while a selected phrase is playing, the phrase fades out and then stops automatically.

• LOOP END—When the STOP pedal is

pressed while a selected phrase is playing, the phrase plays to its end and then stops automatically.

5. Repeat Steps 2 and 4 for any other phrases you’d like to set up.

6. When you’re finished, press EXIT.

7. Press the WRITE button twice to save your new Stop mode settings.

Naming a Patch

Any of the 99 patches can be custom-named with up to 16 characters. Use the following steps to name a patch:

1. Select the desired patch.

2. Press the NAME/PATCH button.

3. Press  to move the cursor to the first name character.

4. Turn the PATCH/VALUE dial to select the desired first character.

5. Press  to move the cursor to the next character.

6. Turn the PATCH/VALUE dial to select the next character.

7. Repeat Steps 5-6 to enter the remaining characters of the name you want.

8. To save the patch’s new name, press the WRITE

button twice.