BOSS today announced the RC-300 Loop Station, the company’s new flagship real-time phrase loopers.
Features:
- Three stereo tracks with dedicated footswitches and controls for each
- Dedicated fader per track
- Expression pedal for effects control in real time
- Up to three hours of internal recording and 99 onboard memories
- 16 onboard effects optimized for looping
- XLR Microphone input with phantom power
- USB storage; import/export WAV files
Details below.
The BOSS RC-300 Loop Station
The RC-300 replaces the RC-50, improving on its predecessor in nearly every way.
Like the RC-50, it offers 99 different memory locations, each with three independent stereo or mono loop phrases. But, the RC-300 ups the ante with three hours of recording and loop storage: more than seven times the amount available in the RC-50.
The RC-300 also provides newly enhanced options for controlling loop phrases, including dedicated REC/DUB/PLAY and STOP footswitches for each phrase, an ALL START/STOP footswitch, and an expression pedal for real-time effects control.
The RC-300’s interface is simple to navigate, with a comprehensive display and many dedicated knobs, buttons, and status indicators. In addition, three faders provide for quick mixing of loop phrases.
Onboard effects allow users to process their audio sources and loops with cool sounds such as slicer, filter, transpose, and many more. Effects are optimized for looping and can automatically sync to the tempo track.
Users have an array of options for connecting various audio devices via the RC-300’s well-stocked rear panel. Inputs include an XLR microphone jack with phantom power, mono or stereo instrument jacks, and an AUX jack for hooking up an external music player or other stereo device. All the inputs can be used simultaneously, giving performers the ability to record loops instantly with any connected sound source. Stereo outputs include independent MAIN and SUB jacks, and a headphone jack for practice or stage monitoring.
USB allows for connecting to a computer to import/export WAV loop phrases. MIDI I/O is included as well. Rounding out the rear panel are jacks for connecting optional BOSS footswitches (up to four) and/or expression pedals (up to two), providing additional real-time control options for looping power users.
The RC-300 is expected to ship in November with a street price of £399.
Of course, one week after I buy an RC-50 off the bay 🙁
I know, right. I’ve been putting off selling my rc-50 for ages.
I’m probably going to flip mine, eat a $100 loss, and get the new one.
What does syncronizing the rc-300 to another device mean? ive got a moog slim phatty, could i somehow sync its internal midi clock to the rc-300? or the rc-300’s to the SP
thanks
Vem logo pro Brasil!!!!
Maybe Boss/Roland will fix the MIDI Tempo Sync this time around. I returned the RC-50 and kept the RC-20 I had before. Waiting to hear good things about the MIDI sync before I jump on board…
I don´t know I can´t compare RC-300 with RC-50. RC-50 is easy to use and I don´t need no effects because I use my own pedal board and rack effects… The display on RC-300 is still small, computer based loopers is better for me in this case..
One thing does it for me – 3 hours – ran the RC-50 out of space for live looping. 3 hours I can have all my loop based tracks, and through in backing tracks, and still live loop. Anyone want my RC50 lol?
Grif
A porcaria da Roland não libera o rc-300 ainda pro mercado brasileiro…que merda! Tão segurando o que seus infeliz?
I’m definitely keeping my RC-50.
This is a very small step forward.
The only thing I’m missing are a couple of extra outputs.
RC-300 is superior to the 50 big time. not at first glance, but it is. A: the Basic sound quality is wayyyyy better. B: you can undo/redo on each of the 3 tracks. (awesome) C: independent stop pedals for each track. D: Way more settings and capabilities.
But it all just depends on what youre using it for. I am a looper, so its perfect me being my main deal. word.
I find it strange that the RC50 samples at 44.1khz 24bit whereas the RC300 does it at 44.1khz 16bit, I would like to know how the sound is affected by this change, also 44.1khz 16bit is a pretty poor standard really, equivalent to only to CD quality, even most modern synths manage 48khz 24bit which is not ideal with today’s technology and for any studio/pro use need to be recorded through mic/amp setup to get good enough sound. I only mention this as these looping units include usb to dump loops to computer, do they stand up quality wise? or are these things only meant for live stuff and basic sound sketching? if so are there any higher quality options out there apart from a computer setup?
Also why don’t these things just dump to usb sticks, which get cheaper really quickly, I’ve seen memory cards in other loopers.