Roland Boss RC-50 User manual

b
RC-50
Loop Station
TurboStart
TBS 238 ©2006 Roland Corporation U.S. www.BOSSUS.com Page 1
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 pre-
recorded phrases you can play along with.
1. Choose how you want to listen to the RC-50:
• Connect headphones to the RC-50’s rear-
panel 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 counter-
clockwise 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.

b
RC-50
Loop Station
TurboStart
TBS 238 ©2006 Roland Corporation U.S. www.BOSSUS.com Page 2
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 pre-
programmed 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.