just got this pedal yesterday and this video is very helpful - thank you!!!

Thanks Aaron. Your reviews and demos are some of the best.

Great video Aaron , I just purchased this pedal and had buyers remorse until I found your channel. You are a great teacher and I believe all this information you have shared will help . Thank you so much.

Thanks for the great demos. Just bought one, love it so far. I like your attitude about a looper and rhythm tracks in a live setting. Makes sense - own being a solo act, and not get buried in backing tracks.

I like your playing. You create beautiful riffs and you let your notes breathe instead of trying to show off with a bunch of fancy noise

Stellar review and tips! One of your best vids to date, and deserving of millions of views! I have the Boss and love it, but hadn’t yet got into alternate setups and midi switching options. You just saved me a ton of effort, providing really helpful inspiration. Thank you very much! Might go for a Morningstar in place of my FS-6.

I always keep a quarter note tape delay with a ghost note that helps me keep timing when doing an intro and then bringing in looped drums. Works like a metronome and it’s so musical when it’s low in the mix

bought one a few days ago, and it arrived tody. Thanks for a great "starting place" video.

hi Aaron...you are such a cool dude and so love your content and have bought several pieces of gear based on your vids ....just picked up an RC500 and look forward to digging in thanks for the help!

Still loving this video. I’ve come back to reference it dozens of times now. I’ve ordered the RC500 and pre-ordered the Matthews Effects Futurist midi controller. This will be my first dive into setting up a controller. In the follow up video, I would appreciate it if you could go thru all the adjustments that need to be made to the settings on the RC500 again, that make it ready for receiving midi from the controller. Like the channel 16 part you mentioned at the end, and the setting to recognize clock info. Thanks so much, I really appreciate the effort you make as a performer, to help educate the rest of us!

Thanks! I just bought one and this video helped!

Thanks for this Aaron. Feature to add...Hold down one button to stop/clear BOTH tracks when you record a verse/chorus. I had to use an FS-7 to do this but it would be better with button 1 track 1 rec/play/overdub/stop, button 2 track 2 rec/play/overdub/stop, button 3 stop/clear BOTH

Great job. Thanks for the video.

Got this device.just learning how it works.maybe more content for beginners because it's overwhelming. Great tutorial..thanks

Copying over specific assign's on seperate MEM channel is a brilliant workaround! It's fun to spend hours (wife has a bit different thinking) trying to come up with solutions to keeping a sparse pedalboard (but efficient) and using a lot of midi commands. Thanks for reply. I'll make sure to contribute to the Coffee fund! All your efforts are apprciated!

Very helpful thanks. Do you know whether there's a way to use the Morningstar to cycle through the drum kits and drum patterns with the switches? I know I can do it with an expression pedal but not sure how to with the taps. Thanks.

Thx for your video and tips Stef from France

I just got one .14 HOURS LATER AND I AM LOOPIN... THANK YOU FOR THE INFO...THERE IS A LOT TO LEARN...FOR SURE..BUT I TOOK YOUR ADVICE AND GOT THE RC-500

Great video. Thanks much.

Aaron,..thanks Soo much for all you efforts in uploading this! A real good demo of how to use the RC-500. (..haven’t gotten it yet but a bit more convinced now). Yeah,..it lacks in some things i guess,..everyone will use it differently so it would be hard for the Boss developers to please all. (I live in Japan so I have a leg up on just how they try to research the international market..almost ignoring domestic market input due to the 🇯🇵natives aren’t as innovative as foreigners are in using their products for recording as well as live!) Like you,..I really prefer using pedals than imported backing tracks. Most audiences do know the difference these days because major artists are “tracking” their shows way too much,..cutting out jobs/gigs for pro musicians in which brings the profession out of the limelight and into obscurity / being obsolete or unnecessary. Us Pros MUST perform to flip this stigma back to where it gets the appreciation again! WE are Humans and we tap into their (Human Audiences) emotions thru Music & Atmosphere so ..Looping has come about to supplement the loss of budget to “hire” a Band or such entertainment/entertainers..(who saw that coming huh?).. but still be able to have dynamics plus the usual accompaniment that goes along with singing tunes. I enjoy Looping & Performing and the latest Tech gives you & I the chance to “get back out there” to present our craft & talents! But,..that commented,..too much controlling on stage ain’t good,..it’s distracting from your purpose of ..“ focus on entertaining the crowd”..if you get my drift so,..my set up let’s me have that in check! ..going by the Ol’ Adage; “simple is best!..”. b(‘_

Great Video Aaron! I just bought the RC500 and love it and too want to use midi to manage it. I also have the Boss GT1000core and want to do both at the same time. Goal is to have some key presets on the core for tones I wasn to use via midi as well as some presets for the RC500. You are using the Morningstar to manage multiple midi devices and as BOSS only uses trs on both for midi, is it possible to control BOSS devices from Morningstar with one coming from a 1/4” midi out to trs on the BOSS. my thought is if you can then I could go from one preset formRC500 and then another to manage the Boss Core. Love the size of the Morningstar MC8 and hoping to go from my Nektar pacer to it as Pacer is large, and cant manage multiple devices.....Hope to see more vids from you soon, and thanks for your support!

Thanks buddy, cheers

keen to see how you use drums on loops and fills etc for Boss 500

Great video. I look forward to seeing more of your pedalboard. I took delivery of my RC-500 a few days ago and a Harley Benton MIDI foot controller arrived today and is waiting to be unpacked. Like you I'm very happy with the RC-500: first impressions are excellent. The MIDI foot controller is going to be a very useful addition. I like your choice of which actions to assign to which footswitches on your controller, by the way. One thing I don't like about the RC-500 is that if you choose 'Fade' as the option for stopping playback it only fades out the loops that you have recorded. The rhythm track stays at full volume and then stops abruptly when your loops have faded to zero. It would sound much better if the rhythm track faded out while your recorded loops were fading out. Boss, please note. And here's a bit of info that someone might find useful: if you buy a separate 5-pin DIN to TRS mini-jack MIDI cable to connect to a foot controller with a standard 5-pin DIN MIDI output socket, as I had to, you will need a Type A cable, not Type B. Boss don't mention this anywhere in the RC-500 user manual and I had to do a bit of research into the pinout that Boss use before I knew which type to buy.

Great video! If you have different song parts saved in different memory locations, can you play through them seamlessly using the memory bank up/down control?

First of all. Thanks for your videos. They are very instructive! And they also make me learn English. Here goes my problem. I was hoping it could be done, but I failed to loop two different parts of the same song (like verse-chorus) and do it with the loop sync on. It is only possible if the two tracks are the same length or multiple, which is not the case in many songs. You can either turn off the loop sync and pray that the recording doesn't get out of sync a little more with each reproduction, or turn on the loop sync and the loops are cut off or empty.

From the Control option, you can set up each track to to Record, Play, Stop (double quick press), Erase (long press- after the track is stopped.) If done when you are overdubbing it will erase the last track. I then configued button # three (3) to perform All Stop/All Start function. This set up works much better for me then the factory settings. It makes it easier to do what most use a looper for with less tap dancing. My needs are simple so I don't need MIDI- though it's a nice to have. I like his set-up.

One particular part of this grabbed my interest. The beat picking up your playing tempo. Do you have to be recording? Is it the recorded loop that is uses to work out the rythem tempo or your initial input playing? This is a great feature for songs that start with guitar only that the drums come in. I hope the rc600 has this feature and some added rythem fills.

Hi Aaron, happy new year!! Great live shows, Great reviews and insights! I just received both mc8 and rc500. I'm a little lost in the programming though, and I don't know if you post something related to this already. Could you please share how did you program them to work together? It's highly appreciated...!

Fantastic review! Thank you. I just got my RC-500 about a week ago. I also happen to have an RC-10R that I've had for a few months, AND and MC8. My plan is to control the RC-500 from the MC8, however, the MC8 is on a main board and the RC-500 will be on a separate, smaller, satellite board with the looper, amp switcher and midi channel switcher. So far I'm impressed as well. Definite upgrade to the 10R.

Great vid dude! And how good is the Morningstar midi pedal! I’m sure you’ve already figured this out, but you can assign a midi cc# to clear both tracks. Of course you would need to set two separate assigns, clear track one and clear track two, but use the same value on both, and configure that to one button. OR do the same onto one of the external buttons. That’s what I’ve done and it works a treat.

Hey @Aaron would love to see you do a video setting up the boss RC-500 with your quad cortex.

expression pedal works great for volume on the RC 500.

Thanks for this - great tip. Quick Q - is there a way to turn the tempo light off (IE stop it from flashing). I know it doesn't really matter, but I find it frustrating that I have a flashing light when I don't want to play to a particular tempo... If I don't want rhythm, and I don't want quantize, I'd like to be able to turn the flashing tempo light off.

You can use PC scroll up/down on the Morningstar to scroll through the memories/presets instead of assigning a CC in each memory.

Hi! I'm new to midi controllers. Can it control both he HX stomp (like presets changing) and the RC 500 at the same time. By the way, great channel! I just discovered it and you talk about most of the gear I have or was planning to get, and you do it in a really great way!

Great review. You sold it to me 😀

Nice

Ordered my MC8 today already ha e the RC 500 should be aweasome

Do you have to constantly change tracks to record to one or the other or can I just program record to track 2 on my mc8? Read the manual but its not obvious.

Aaron, I have a few questions. I would like to use my RC-500 to use for backing tracks in my Solo Gig. All Ireally want or need is drums and I'd lay down a Bass Track for all my songs and maybe another guitar here and there. Are the drum beats good enough to build 50-100 songs ranging from 40s/50s to Beatles, 70s and 80s? (I'm a bit worried by the lack of Drum Patterns)

thx for the cool video! help me a lot ;) i like the rc-500 but i do not like the computer app. very basic. the same with katana and katana air tone studio. hope boss make better apps in the future!

Hey man I have a question, with the RC 500. If you MIDI sync to Ableton or any other stand-alone device, can you make the rc 500 the master clock? meaning, if I tap tempo on the RC 500 will it adjust the tempo in Ableton? Also, if the RC 500 is the master, will Ableton stop when I hit stop on the Looper. Meaning; I would want the RC 500 to be the master controller for the tempo / start: stop: in ABLETON with the pedal. Is this possible?

Hey! Great video! Thanks for all the attention to detail. I’m switch from the RC-50 to the RC-500 and I would like to use the MC-6 or even MC-3 for a smaller footprint. Do you have any other foot switch controllers you could demo, or show how to use fewer controls from the midi while using a controller directly into the looper. Like, use a boss FS-7 for memory bank up and down, and a midi controller for all the drum controls? And also, does the looper smoothly transition from one memory bank to the next without a stall in tempo? The old boss loopers have a pause, but if this one doesn’t, you could use multiple banks for one song that needed more than 2 tracks.

Hey Aaron your review was good but how about a Review of The Aeros Looper and Beatbuddy Combo! by Singular Sound. The Ultimate looper and Drum Machine.

I love a good brown eye

Ive been using the same - MC8 and RC500. Having a hard time finding a dedicated "Stop All" command? I dont use the rhythms built in, so that isnt an issue. but Start All is the only command that comes close to this, but it doesnt work as a stop all. second push does nothing. I found using T1 Play/Stop and T2 Play/Stop mapped to one button - is close enough for now. The problem with this is if you are only playing one track, pressing this "macgyvered stop all" ends up stopping track 1 and recording track 2. then everything is out of sync and gets very confusing. so E and F are dedicated to Stop T1 and Stop T2 respectively. G is Clear ALL, which is huge helpful. I just wish there was a dedicated stop command, rather than the toggle play/stop. that is ridiculously aggravating, all in all this is a solid looper on its own, coupled with the mc8, you are stepping it up big time. I love it! this is my first soiree into midi on my board and I really enjoy it. Glad to have stumbled on your videos! Would love to see more in depth setups with the RC500 and MC8 for sure. Kinda hoping a firmware update with introduce either more assigns in RC500 or this updated stop all command. Lastly, why did Boss give NO midi cc value charts? like every other pedal thats midi? lol....soo weird. Boss' midi implementation is pretty convoluted to say the least.

Hi...can i assign another pedal to have the function of rec and overdub play? and will the original pedal remain having that function...( i want to attribute an additional pedal to have separate to loop phrases on keyboard and have this under the keyboard seperate from the rc500...thanks

Great review Aaron. Thanks so much for your in-depth thoughts. I had a question - can you jump between memory locations while a loop is playing? Does the RC500 continue to play the loops in the new memory location without missing a beat? This feature is quite common in electronic synths. This allows one to perfrom a song with more parts or variations by switching between memory locations while the loop is playing. Thanks so much for your help.

I cant seem to get the drum variations to work? Its supposed to change from A to B automatically every measure of 4/4 right, if i have it set to 4/4 and "measure" ? I dont have an external footswitch by the way. Or am i supposed to program my track select button to be the button to switch?

If you were running an fs6 a/b pedal with the rc 500 ... what would you set it up for? Rhythm and all start/stop? Great video looking forward to setting mine up this week. Thanks in advance

Hi Aaron, your videos about the RC-500 and Midi connection are very inspiring. I consider to buy it. Please, can you tell me if there are good 3/4 options in the rhythm pattern section? Sometimes I like to have a Folk walz or a Jazz walz with drums acompany. Thank for a helping answer.

Hey, Aaron, thanks for the amazing video! Can you please tell me how you managed to record two different drums in two different tracks at 19:29? I want to record one rhythm on the 1st and a different one in the 2nd track but it always changes both at the same time when I try to change them and I dunno how to adjust for this. Thank you!

Great review, thanks! Can I use a line6 helix lt instead of the morningstar as midi controller AND fx for my guitar, since rc500 doesn't have fx?

I use the MC6-PRO on my pedalboard and also the RC-500 looper. I have used all The assign’s that the RC500 offers (8 of them). However, I want to utilize the START ALL on MC6. How would I accomplish this? I know you can do it with an external CTL pedal switch, but I want to be able to execute this command from the MC6 switcher. If possible I would also like to execute an ALL STOP and ALL CLEAR and ALL REC.... Say, have it all on one page of a MC6pro looper bank. This would be specific to the RC500. Thanks for any help. All your vids have saved me tons of time!! Bill / Newbury Park CA

Hey, thanks for this review and the tip for the intro and outro... Sounds great! Do you know if it's possible to use track 1 as a verse and track 2 as a Chorus and to jump from one to the other, with the drums' variation switching too? (Like on the RC10-R)

Hi Aaron, great video, quick question, can you do a 4 bar loop on track 1 and multiples of that one in track 2 in sync like the Ditto x4?. Cheers.

Thanks a lot for the video. Please heeeelp. Here is the description of my problem. I have a recorded loop. If I switch directly in the menu to a drum variation or pattern, everything works as it should - the drums change in the desired way, while the loop continues to play continuously. However, if I change the drums like this using an external switch (Boss FS-7, via the Assign function), the drums will change as desired, but the loop recording will repeatedly scrub on the beat on the last note. Where can be the problem. Thanks a lot for your help.

Thanks for posting these vids. Did you ever figure out how to get your one-button clear all? Happy to help if you're still looking.

Thanks for the great video Aaron. I'm hesitating between the rc 5 and rc 500 at the moment. I'm trying to keep my pedalboard compact. Can the rc5 rhythm function match the speed of the guitar after you start playing like the rc 500?

Please somebody explain how you can assign different rhythms one to each track when you have the RC500 in single mode and you're using each track as Verse and Chorus. Thanks.

Great video, thanks. Curious though - you have a 6 track looper on your pedalboard in the VoiceLive Touch 2 but you say the RC500 is your first experience of multi-track looping 🤔

Hello Aaron !!! I would like to know if it is possible to exchange the beat variations side A and B with a normal footswitch other than midi (fs7) like you pronounced in your video ... I wonder if the rc500 synchronizes with the beatbuddy singular sound thanks !!

Hey man I see you have that areros looper. I’ve Considered using that and looping a bass drum rhythm but the rc500 I could just use a built in track with just bass drum, add some reverb and call it a day. How are you liking it still?

Hi Aaron, first, thanks for this really helpful Video. But I want to ask something: Does it makes sense to use the boss rc500 in this constellation? I wonder why you don't use the Loop Station RC-600, cause there are also 9 free assignable buttons and the complete price i think it's cheaper. Was this an option for you, and if not, why you decided for using the rc-500? Thanks in forward and thanks also for your videos. Greets Gernot

Great review, thank you for that. My question is since this pedal has no vocal effects, what would be a good way to do that? I’m currently using the tc helicon play acoustic for vocal effects. Would I need a separate mic and processor to use with looper pedal? I’m definitely interested in the pedal I just can’t figure out an easy way to get some vocal effects on the vocal loop.

I have a lot of percussion samplers in my computer. Can i import to the pedal and use as a memory rythm and then made my live loops over that rhytms? The rhytms format are wav. Thanks!

Hello sir, using a voice live touch the original version with this would make looping simpler plus the added feature of having controllable drum patterns. I have thought of selling my old voice live touch and getting the voice live three extreme but since there are no drums in the extreme ,causes me to hesitate. Especially with an acoustic guitar , vocal harmonies ,using only light reverb for the guitar using the voice live touch used in conjunction with this boss 500 would be the best way compared to the voice live three extreme. -

Great revue buddy. One question is I wonder if the Beat Buddy would midi into the RC 500 I’m waiting on them sending me the RC500 to check it out. I know the RC202 works with it perfectly almost as good as the Aeros. Would be good to see. Thanks for a great revue bud. 👍🏻🎸

MORE stuff I wanna buy now. Thanks alot! #enabler

Hi Aaron, I've got a basic question: can I record a whole song ( intro, verse, chorus etc. ) on this looper or do I have to press the buttons during my play to change from verse on track 1 to chorus on track 2? What I would like to know: can I record a whole song to save as mp3 for Granny to listen to or do I have to play live for her? Cheers.

I have have been studying this RC-500 for about 3 days now and can honestly say, the best thing about it is, it's extremely versatile. The worst thing about it is, it's extremely versatile! So much so that I think they have had unit returns due to its complexity. There are some settings in the unit that override other previously set settings and your not sure what is happening. The manual is almost no help at all and you are left trying to find some internet video tutorial that covers the area of information you want to know. Its ridiculous how Boss (Roland) has dealt with their instruction materials on these products. In any case, the track, rhythm, memory and system settings can get complicated for different looping styles and compositions and I would like to store these settings on an external computer to recall them later. But the manual is somewhat vague on this. Not sure you can export and import data 'per memory slot' . You can import and export Wav files to different Track memories but not sure how the 'Data' folder files work. Maybe Aaron can clue me in on this? If you are one who expects the RC-500 to work the way you want right out of the box, forget it. Will take a fair amount of time to get the many settings understood and how you can use them to customize to do what you want.

Hey mate. Just wondering what settings you are using for the Morningstar to do the rhythm play/stop? Are you setting up a toggle or is it working a single control change?

How I can know the MIDI command for control the RC-500.

Does the RC500 has an autostart function for recording like the RC3?

What midi cable are you using to connect your devices? I'm trying to get my rc500 to sync its tempo through midi and can't seem to figure it out.

I have only one/two wishes for a future version: Velocity Control on Drums, and Programmable drums with edit Software to upload custom drum loops.

You could also just assign a midi foot switch to the CC number of the patch you’re playing on so when you want to clear it out you can click that switch to reload the current patch and wipe it clean, rather than switching up and down the memory

Aaron does your midi out from the RC500 go to the TC Touch 2

Hi Aaron. Thanks for the video. Just wondering if you can program custom drum patches, or are you stuck with whatever Boss gives you?

Does anyone make a rubber disc or similar that goes over the footswitches and allows you to more easily press the footswitches with your hand? I know it's meant for use with your foot and Boss make dedicated hand loopers but for the folk that need a looper that can be easily changed to use with either foot or hand this would be great.

i just bought the RC500 and noticed an immediate problem. when i record a loop in either track and alter the tempo even slightly, it cause the loop soung to distort as a warble. i've updated the system version to 1.02 and turned off all loop FX, still the same problem. i've contacted Boss and waiting for an answer. do i have a defective unit or is this a product design defect?

Hey! Another question, can you explain the routing a little more for the midi? Why is there an in and an out in the midi jacks of the rc500? Shouldn’t you only need to go midi out of the MC8 into the midi in of the RC500? And does the midi type A or B matter? Thanks.

Does it support MIDI System Realtime Start/Stop messages, so it can be synced to an external sequencer? The RC-10R only listens to MIDI Clock, so it gets the same speed/tempo in a sense, but it doesn't start/stop so it's not in sync. MIDI Clock only provides a constant stream of "ticks" but the ticks don't contain any bit of information as to which of them is the start of a beat. Like if you listen to a wall clock ticking, you know how fast seconds go but you won't know what time it is.

Hi thks for the video How do you do to keep the same assign on the rc500 for the diff mémory You can do system sav for the 3 control but i don't find for the assign midi Thks

Would it work with MIDI commander?

Hey Aaron, at 7:50 it looks as though the All Start/Stop button that you have set up on your Morningstar MC8 only stops the loops, not the rhythm track. It also looks as though you have to press the All Start/Stop button twice to stop the loops. Is this right?

No latency from the in-ears? I'm usually attached to wires for that reason.

Can you tell me if a cajon kit is on the pedal? I tried out the 10r and loved the cajon kit it had but I wasn’t crazy about only 2 footswitchs. I can’t find a list of kits it has. Thanks

Is it possible to change the time signature and choose for 3/4 or 6/8 rhythm? It's because I lose playing songs in Waltz-Time 3/4 or Blues-Ballads in 6/8 !

Can I set rythm variation A to track 1 and rythm variation B to track 2 on the same memory patch? To save having to use a midi controller or FS-7 footswitch?

Have you ever had a loop get louder in playback than as you recorded it ? If I overdub 2 or 3 times it drowns out my live guitar

should I buy RC-300 or RC-500? now in 2022?

Hi Aaron, what’s your opinion on the swing rhythms?

If you say there iis no reverb, why is there a reverb knob showing on the screen?

I really dig my Digitech Trio. It's a lot cheaper plus I get a Bass player and it quantizes tempo. It's not perfect but I can't see jumping to a Boss quite yet.

Hey Aaron! Do you know if you can set the looper up to record track 1 and 2 simultaneously? So, track 1 recording input 1 and track 2 recording input 2 (outputting separately as well) So in theory using it as a “1 track” looper with 2 separate inputs/outputs.... working as one, but separate feeds.

Theres no need to tell everyone you are short in each video. I'm only 5'8", and I don't dwell on it.

Hi everyone! I have an issue with RC-5 & Rc-505. When using the loopers as midi clock slave devices, synced to Maschine software, there are glitches / artefacts all over the place. BOSS recommends to turn Tempo Sync off for each track to avoid those issues, but this led to another issue (tracks start / skip bars / stop randomly). SO that was not a solution. I have contacted BOSS about this, they said they tested it with Ableton and it works fine, but in general their loopers dont like to be slaved. However, no matter how i put the MIDI settings on the looper, nothing helps. Is this also the case with RC-500?

I hope to upgrade my ageing RC-300 eventually... And two RC-500's synced via midi would definitely give meme a bunch of extra stuff that my 300 doesn't have... Maybe the mc8 is what I need to bring it together. But I already own a Voice Live Touch 2... Maybe it's time to bring that back for the loop's vocal parts and only need one RC-500 and the mc8. So it would be cool if the MC8 can be set up to control the RC-500 and the VLT2 together... Synchronized start/stop, record/overdub, and preset bank changes.... Hmmm... I'll be staying tuned for more updates!