Designing a Portable RC-600 Loop Setup
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- Опубликовано: 3 авг 2024
- #rc600 #looping #musicgear #design
This is a deep dive into how I used the onboard features of the RC-600 to scale down a much more involved pedalboard setup to something more portable. I focus on the functionality, constraints, goals, and the particular challenges and tricks that helped me get it there.
This is my first instructional video, and I'm sure I provided too much info in some places and not enough in others. Please ask any questions you have. And constructive feedback is extremely welcome!
A couple errata I want to call out as I was in the editing process:
* The FS-7 has latching options as well, I just find it a little more ergonomically challenging to use than the FS-6, especially for buttons I'm going to hit a lot and on short notice, so I don't have it set up that way.
* I did find a way to use Ctrl settings with latching buttons (referenced in Challenge 4) - if you set the input FX itself to "Moment", and then the Ctrl to activate that input, then your latching buttons will work. In the end, I did opt to use that in the configuration for my Delay pedal. I just didn't find it at first because I was looking in the Ctrl menu.
Referenced Videos:
Achieve a Half-Decent G2B Effect: • How to ACHIEVE a GOOD ...
(courtesy of / @rossgallaghermusic )
BOSS RC-600 | HOW TO SET UP AN A/B MIC SWITCHER: • BOSS RC-600 | HOW TO S...
(courtesy of / @joshelliottmusic )
Melt With You - Modern English Cover: • Melt With You - Modern...
(includes demo of 4 Tracks, A/B Mic Switcher, lead, delay, volume boost)
Sit Down - James Cover: • Sit Down - James (Live...
(includes demo of Track 1&2 start, A/B Mic Switcher, bass, lead, delay, volume boost)
My Google Sheet documenting the configuration:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Talking Music with Rick Playlist:
• Talking Music with Rick
0:00 Intro
1:29 RC-600 Basics
2:51 My Current Setup
6:50 Gear & Constraints
9:02 Goals
11:30 Prioritization
13:23 Where I Ended Up
14:14 The New Setup
20:13 Checking Against Goals
25:02 Configuration Challenges
26:30 Bass Tone
27:12 Navigating Number of FX
28:39 Toggling Input FX Banks
30:39 Mic A/B Switcher
32:36 Visualizing Volume Setting
34:52 Setting up Play/Rec Track 1&2
37:04 Closing Thoughts
Background music credit: (Bluebird by The Lakes)
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/the-lakes/bluebird
License code: TNPFMLDDW7HNNBLX 
Видеоклипы
Absolutely fantastic video, sir.
Thanks for saying so! Glad you liked it :)
That was some killer working out there to get it to do what you need. Excellent.
Thanks! I can now say that months later it really does feel like the effort was worth it :).
am astonished, good view thanks!
thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it
This video was one of the best ive seen. I learned so much. Thankyou
So glad it was helpful! I'm working on another one as we speak :). Less tips, more sharing my setup, but hopefully still some value there.
Extremely helpful educational video!!! You’re a great teacher/explainer…thank you
I love that you are a solutioner, that’s what helps me think of the better ways to set up my pedal .
Thank you! This is exactly what I hoped to provide. I do have more videos of this type planned, but I'm trying to make sure it's material that's as widely useful as possible, so I'm trying to pick my topics carefully. I really appreciate the comment!
Thanks Rick!! Super helpful!
So glad it was helpful!
Very helpful video - no one explains a complex concept like a software engineer.
Thank you so much! I was trying to lean into what I knew from my old world to explain this newer one :).
Hi Rick, First off - great video. Really complicated stuff, explained brilliantly. So good and practical that I am in the process of setting my RC600 into exactly the same configuration (at least as a starting point). While doing this, I think I noticed an error in your attached google docs list. You show Assign 9 and 10 as active, with CTL 2 external switch set to IN FX AC and IN FX CC. This doesn't seem right - it wouldn't change banks. I finally worked out to only have Assignment 9 ON and set to IN FX BNK INC, and its working fine. Hope this helps anyone stuck??
First off, thank you for the comment and for digging into this :). So it's possible there's some aspect of my setup you're not using or replicating and that workaround is the right way around it. Ctrl2 is my delay pedal, which is (in banks A and C) my "C" IN FX. So first I have Ctrl2 configured with no "Ctrl" specified (so without assigns, nothing happens). Then I set the FS6 to "latch" and use assigns to turn on both IN FX AC and IN FX CC on via "moment". In essence, IN FX AC and IN FX CC are both only on when the button is pressed (which acts as a toggle thanks to the latching).
The reason I'm turning it on in two banks at once is due to the way my bass assign works. When I toggle bass on and off, I'm changing banks. So if I'm in bank A, then I toggle bass on and then off again, I'll be in bank C. The way my delay pedal is configured in this case, it will work the same whether I happen to be in bank A or bank C at that moment. Let me know if that makes sense.
Hey bud, so far your vids have been the most helpful. Especially when you play/show the results...alot of folks just talk about the functionality in an academic sense without the "how it works in use". This device has SO many "use-cases", it is good to see a video where we see the "use case" and "how to" with examples. I won't use mine how you use yours, but your use-case, helps me in how to use mine. Thanks guy.
I'm so glad to hear this was helpful! It takes longer to walk through the demo, but I think it helps and it's great to hear it was worth the effort :). And with something as flexible as the RC600, I hope to hit on general use cases and demonstrating some features, rather than aiming this at an audience of people who use the device exactly the same way I do. Cheers!
Thank you this is exactly what I'm dealing with trying to shrink my board for OS gigs . Very helpfull mate thanks I learned stuff
So glad to hear it! Glad you got something out of this. My next video will be a fair bit different, but I'm hoping to have something more in this vein to share soon :).
Fantastic video, I’ve been using the RC600 for a couple of years now, I too have the tc helicon acoustic pedal, but, I get all of my functions set in Onsong on my iPad through MIDI messages, as I move from one song to another, the pedal moves to the appropriate bank.
Most of my Rock songs, country, Blues are all set up the same but with different settings in Onsong.
I play both guitar and sax, soon to include Keyboards. The only other items are mic and speaker stands with active speakers.
Through the midi arrangement, my acoustic pedal will introduce voice harmonies without worrying about actively clicking the pedal, will change banks that are pr-recorded at the right times, I can over ride this if I decide to include a saxophone solo. (The outro on wonderful tonight for instance, after all, you don’t go to bed with a beautiful woman after a great night out, with the intentions of going to sleep now do we, lol)
I’ve subscribed and looking forward for more informative videos like this.
I've thought about setting up that midi-message thing through an app (I use SetListMaker) but I haven't quite done it yet.
Nice video man! Got some good ideas from you. 🤘🏽😎
That's awesome to hear. Your videos are some of the ones I've learned from, so I'm glad to give back just a little bit 🙂. I love your sound!
@@RickSandersMusic damn! I’m so glad to hear that. Thank you so much! It’s awesome we can learn from one another.
Excellent video! I just purchased an RC-600, and I want to build a "gigable" system with minimal extra pedals and accessories. Very useful. Thank you!
This is exactly what I hoped for when I made this video! Feel free to check back in on how your setup ends up and let me know how it goes :)
I came here for this too after gigging for years with the RC300, which is great but heavy and bulky. What I was most concerned about replicating was the A/B vocal loop since I also use an external A/B switch, and it was one of the simplest hacks! Thank you so much, this video is gold for musos who aren’t programming-minded
Funny I'm doing the opposite as some emcees told me they were feeling some latency when they were using my vocal mic to cypher with me (me using mic 1 as beatbox mic).
I now started building my own board to reproduce my rc-600 but 100% analog.
There's a guy that analysed the latency if you google and show proof that it produces 4.6ms of latency on it's own with no effects or anything. Rc-1 is like 0.1 ms which is much better
That's actually good to know - I haven't noticed the latency for the kinds of gigs I do, but that sort of thing can compound if you're unaware of it. Thanks!
This has been super helpful! Thank you for making this. Question for you, I’m still trying to figure out how you got the two tracks to start/stop simultaneously with the external switch. I’m looking to have an fs6 with each switch able to start/stop different combos of the tracks.
What selection is needed in the control functions. I think there’s still something I’m largely misunderstanding lol
Hey glad you enjoyed! So the key settings for me to get that working were two ASSIGNS set to the same SOURCE button (one of the Ctrl inputs, based on your setup) but it's also important that at least one (or both) of the tracks you're starting is set to start immediately.
You want to use the assign target for TRK1-6 REC/PLY or TRK1-6 PLY/STP on each of your assigns (the assign targets that start tracks). So when you hit your "source" button, both assigns will fire, starting those tracks.
I talk about this in my more recent video a bit, but if one of your loops is set to Loop Sync "MEASURE" then you'll need to make sure that assign is set first (numerically) and your other Track must be set to "IMMEDIATE" to ensure it starts. Feel free to respond if this doesn't quite make sense or you get stuck. And happy looping!
Great Video! I'm curious as to why you have both jacks in use on your FS7, are you using it for something else as well? Again, great work.
Thank you! Mostly for tidiness at this point; I'm not using the FS7 for anything else at the moment. It's a good question
Thanks for the video! A very well done explanation!
A question about the mic A/B switch though...when I do this, no input fx will get recorded to a track (from ANY input/mic). The culprit seems to be the track settings where you set what instruments will get recorded - the fx don't get recorded unless all inputs are set to 'on'. Largely this isn't an issue for me, as most of my fx are not coming from the RC600 - but there is occasion where I want to use them in a loop.
I've seen a few others mention this issue...but no confirmation if it is a 'bug' or 'by design'. Do you experience the same?
First off, thank you! That bug (it feels like it has to be a bug) is very interesting and I don't think I have that problem in particular. What firmware are you on by chance? As I understand it, with my settings I wouldn't be able to record distorted guitar onto a track, right? I'm sure I've done that before (in fact I did it today at a gig) - that's on the latest firmware for me though. I would 100% call that a bug. Very odd
@@RickSandersMusic Thanks for the response Rick. I was on 1.21, but updated and am experiencing the same on 1.3. However, I have discovered a bit more information. This only happens when I have the InputFX Insert set to 'All'. Now technically I don't want 'all' I want Mic 1 AND Mic 2 - so that I can use a vocal inputFX when regular singing ( Mic 1 in my case) - and maintain the inputFX when putting the vocals in a loop ( Mic 2 in my case). I think I might be able to get around this my using Bank A/Bank B, and switching them with an assign. Still feels like a bug to me though.
@@charlie-james yeah, that makes a bit more sense and also does still feel like a bug to me too. Are you on the RC600 group on Facebook btw? Bit weird to recommend Facebook in 2024, but the group is the best discussion group I've found for seeing if anyone else has these kinds of edge cases. I'd love to hear how you workaround it though.
@@RickSandersMusic So according to the Parameter guide - it IS as designed:
"Even when this is set to "ALL, " the unit doesn't record inputs with effects if the LOOP/TRACK
1-6 INPUT (p. 4) for all the tracks hasn't been set to "ON. ""
I started going down the assign route - but it ended up needing too many assigns too achieve what I wanted. I'll have to rethink my setup, there might be another way to achieve.
I've heard the Facebook group is good, but I'm unlikely to join. I'll keep at it though, thanks again for outlining your approach - it's helped me in a few ways.
How do you control the guitar fx patches in your external pedal from rc 600. I want to use different guitar fx with different tracks. I want corresponding input fx patch to activate when i play differents tracks. How to do that?
So I haven't done that specifically - I'd probably try to either use Track FX if you always want a particular FX on a particular track, or just use the input FX and when you record that will lock it in on a given track. That's how I do my loops ,but it may not be exactly what you're looking for. Curious what you end up doing!
can I use boss gt1 as midi controller for amplitube in my computer. I want to use boss gt1 foot switches to select the amplitube presets.
Afraid I don't have any experience using it for that so I can't really say. I'd probably ask about on the RC600 loopers group on Facebook or a similar forum.
Great video
Not sure why you need the Fs-7 when the rc 600 already has 6 tracks?
You seem to imply the 4th track needs to have a work around to achieve this.
Hi there! So the RC600 definitely has the 4 tracks (and even 6, as you say), but the FS-7 (and FS-6) gives me the extra buttons I need to be able to access the features I need to use them cleanly.
In my setup, I use the FS-7 for (top button) starting tracks 1&2 together, and (bottom button) changing the mode of the RC600. That frees the face buttons of the RC600 to make Tracks 1-3 quite easy to manage, All Start/Stop, Distortion, and a mic mute.
@@RickSandersMusic Thanks for the reply but I am new to this so your way above what I understand.
Will continue to see what you do and hopefully understand your setup
Really appreciate your thorough and detailed approach and high production values thank you.
Just a thought about the mic mute - I keep tracks 5 and 6 solely for mic input, and panned left/right respectively. My tracks 1-4 don't record the mic. I also have a footswitch assign toggled to play/stop tracks 5 and 6, so I can bring in stereo harmony vocals /additional percussion at will. Just sharing ideas....
Keep the videos coming!
is it possible to assign two fx bank to two inputs and use them simultaneously. I play guitar and sing at the same time. Both my guitar input and mic inputs need fx. I can make only one fx bank active at a time which is assigned to one input; another input does not receive fx. How am i suppose to get two fx banks for two inputs at the same time
I think that while you can only have one bank active at a time, each input can be set to a particular input (or all) - I've heard there are some edge cases and interactions with how things are recorded based on what the input FX are connected to, but I haven't run into those issues myself. Hope that helps!
Confused about which one to buy, rc600 or sheeran looper x. Sheeran looper x is very expensive. Do you think it is worth it over rc 600 for that amount of money?
It's hard to know until you're using one, but it mostly depends on what you're looking for. To my knowledge (I haven't used one) the Sheeran is really good for the workflows it supports. And the build quality is great. The RC600 is probable more flexible and is definitely cheaper, but it's smaller (a pro and a con) and a little harder to set up to do what you want, most of the time. For my money, the RC600 just does what I want it to do better and at a better price, but I could see someone going far with either.
Hopefully this (and my other video) helps illustrate one way to use the RC600. I'd definitely check out some deep dive videos on the Sheeran X looper as well and think about what you want to do with it. Good luck!
RE: What else to think about:: are each of the 1/4" inputs actually "stereo" as the release vid implies....meaning, can I record the output of my stereo effects processor into one input? Are the 1/4" outputs also stereo? You use a TC Helicon device for your vocals....does that take one TRS analog output to stereo or does it take a pair of outputs? Have you experimented with external MIDI FC controllers to achieve what might take multiple "Assigns"?
Great questions. I'm basically using a fully mono system (guitar, mic, etc), but as I understand it, all the inputs and outputs are potentially stereo, but you need to use two 1/4" inputs where appropriate. I'm using the L/MONO on both input and output (and SUB, when I'm using that). I think if you use just one, you'll get the LEFT channel, but I haven't tried it personally.
My Helicon device takes an XLR input and outputs an XLR output - the two inputs on my device are splitting that signal to MIC IN 1 & 2. Hope that helps!
Hey - Cool video. liitle tip: at 16:14 might be worth changing FS7 B into the mode switch option instwad of having to hold down for 2 seconds. can be alot faster to switch between modes 1,2 & 3 - I explain this here: ruclips.net/video/BdPFV4Onjcs/видео.htmlsi=wrCv4M_G0Jbol6XC Hope this helps.
hey John Paul - first off I love your videos! I've learned a lot from them :). In my case I went away from that version of the mode switch only because I don't trust myself to double-tap to go from 2 back to 1 - since I rarely use mode 3, I'm optimizing my setup around making 1 and 2 very samey and very easy to switch between at the expense of mode 3, but I did strongly consider using that other version of mode switching. Definitely do recommend that as an option for folks to consider generally!