Summary
• Pros: The Boss RC-505 has five, independently-controlled tracks, intuitive controls, helpful features like Loop Quantize and plenty of effects ensure that this table-top, hand-operated unit has ample to offer, especially for vocalists.
• Cons: For instrumentalists, the difficulty in hands-free operation limits what the pedal offers. You will have to periodically stop playing to mess around with the buttons and dials.
• Overall: A great looper, but it’s really designed for vocalists, beatboxers, keyboardists and synth players as opposed to guitarists. If you play the six-string, you may want to consider other options.
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• Amazon: Boss RC-505 Loop Station
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Full Review
Loopers are traditionally a plaything for guitarists. Boss has played their part in establishing this status quo. They have put out numerous looper pedals of varying sizes from the RC-3 style stompboxes through to the behemoth RC-300. For beatboxers like Dub FX, this meant the only option was to use the supplied mic jacks and use the guitarist-centric pedals their own way. With the RC-505, Boss has thrown out the rule book and made something specifically for singers, beatboxers, synth players, keyboard players looking to enter the world of looping. The RC-505 is a hand-operated, tabletop looper pedal; potentially opening up a new era in the domain of the looper. But is it worth the substantial investment for a guitarist, or is the pedal only worth considering if you build your loops with your voice?
Note: If you want to know when the Boss RC-505 was released relative to other Boss loop stations, we’ve made a timeline here.
Boss RC-505 Features
One of the major selling points of the RC-505 is that its a tabletop unit rather than a floor unit. Because it’s meant to be operated by hand instead of by foot, though, it’s not built as ruggedly. In fact, the RC-505 feels a bit flimsy and plastic-y in comparison to the beefier floor pedals from Boss. For example, there are soft touch-buttons to the control record/play/overdub functions instead of rugged, metallic footswitches.
Weighing just over three pounds and measuring 16 and a half by 8 and a third inches, the RC-505 is pretty unassuming for a looper with the power to support five independent tracks. There are many small buttons on the unit to control things like stopping (and clearing), undoing and redoing operations, editing parameters and tapping out tempos. Previously, small controls like this would be the bane of the live musician. They are difficult to operate under the glare of stage lighting and after a few beers, especially if you’re holding an instrument in your hands. That said, it can be done, especially in conjunction with some extra controllers. For example, check out this video of Reinhurdt Buhr using the RC-505 with multiple instruments. Moreover, beatboxers and singers that have their hands free should have no problems working with the unit.
Audio Quality and Recording Time
The RC-505 records in “CD-quality” audio, which Boss defines as 16-bit audio at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz. While this was previously the industry standard and is certainly usable for home and live situations, newer pedals have slightly better audio quality. In fact, Boss has released the RC-505 MKII, which is an update of the RC-505 that has 32-bit/44.1 kHz audio. Similarly, newer Boss pedals like the RC-5, RC-500 and RC-600 also offer 32-bit audio quality. Nevertheless, if you aren’t using your looper for recording, this shouldn’t be much of an issue.
The RC-505 gives you three hours of loop recording, which is more then enough to prepare for a live set.
Onboard Effects and Rhythms
You also get access to a wide complement of effects. The effects can be applied universally to the input signal or applied to specific tracks. The specific settings you choose are saved along with your loops in the phrase memory location. Many of the options are specifically designed for vocalists, such as the “Vocoder,” “Vocal Distortion” and “Robot” effects. There are plenty of standards that are great for use with a guitar as well. These include phasers, delays and a guitar to bass effect, which is great for creating bass lines with your guitar. The Input FX and Track FX controls have three buttons to activate and deactivate the effects. Each has a dedicated knob which can be used to tweak parameters on the fly.
You also get 85 rhythm backings – with some options with odd-measure beats. This is great for quickly sketching out song ideas. Nevertheless, the built-in rhythms included on the RC-505 are no substitute for a live drummer. Many users use an external drum machine to handle the backing beat for more variety and better feel. Beatboxers will be happy to create their own rhythmic backings.
All the Connections You Need
Additionally, there are plenty of connections available at the back. You get an XLR input with phantom power, stereo ins and outs, MIDI ins and outs, a 3.5mm stereo aux input, and a headphone output. There is also a USB port for connecting the unit to your computer.
5 Independent Loop Tracks
Blowing the three simultaneous tracks available on the RC-300 out of the water, the RC-505 has the capacity to handle five independent tracks. Each of these has a dedicated record/play/overdub button, a stop button, a sliding fader control and an “Edit” key. These take up the majority of the real-estate space on the unit, but offer excellent control over the five tracks. You can control everything individually, as if you have a chain of five stompbox-size loopers right in front of you. It’s also easy to set a playback mode (such as one-shot, loop or reverse) and assign a unique tempo to the track (aided by Boss’ Loop Quantize, time-keeping feature). You can also start and stop all of the tracks simultaneously – with the option to set the specific tracks this action affects.
The Boss RC-505 In-Use
Boss has expertly designed the RC-505 for singers, beatboxers and anybody else who will largely have their hands free during a performance. For guitarists, however, there are several niggling issues which arise from the tabletop intent of the device. In comparison to the ordinary Boss loopers, it has plastic construction instead of a rugged metal chassis. Furthermore, because it’s not a floor unit, it can be challenging to use with an instrument in your hands.
You can attach external control pedals or use a MIDI controller, but setting either up isn’t the simplest of procedures. For an external pedal, you can only assign the operations you choose to one “target” track at a time. This might seem like an expected limitation, but the process for switching the target track effectively requires stooping over and getting your hands figuratively dirty in order to, say, start recording onto another of the five tracks.
Otherwise, the operation of the unit and the features included on it are ideal for the main target audience, vocalists. The huge array of possibilities opened up by the five tracks, ability to apply unique settings to each track and the individual faders mean that creating looper-driven songs can truly inspire your creativity. The user-friendly design (particularly for anybody familiar with what Boss offers) makes it extremely easy to use too.
As a guitarist, you’ll probably find the RC-505 a little lacking though because its mainly designed as a tool for vocal performers or keyboard/synth players. It isn’t so much that Boss has done something wrong, it’s just that the RC-505 isn’t for everybody. If you’re a guitarist, you may want to check out alternative floor units like the Boss RC-600 Loop Station. It has six independent tracks compared to the five on the RC-505.
Overall
The RC-505 takes the multi-track improvement from the RC-300 and goes a few steps further. If you’re a budding beatbox looper or a singer looking for some creative accompaniment, the RC-505 could be the gigging companion you’ve been looking for. For guitarists, though, the abundance of hand-operated controls and the relatively poor hands-free functionality really does hold the unit back.
Where to Buy the Boss RC-505?
• Amazon: Boss RC-505 Loop Station
• zZounds: Boss RC-505 Loop Station
Boss RC-505 Loop Station Product Video
sounds great. Re the midi, could you use it to sync to another looper ( with midi of course )
Hey Andrew,
As far as I know it is possible to connect the 505 to another 505. I don’t exactly know if that automatically means you can succesfully connect it to other loop stations, but I find that a lot of loop pedals and loop stations do not have a midi connector.
“a delicate procedure virtually impossible to perform under the glare of stage lighting and the numbing effects of a few cans of beer, but beatboxers and singers at least have their hands free to do things like that.”
Have you seen an accordion? There’s like 300 buttons each the size of a pea. how about a monome? Ever see a wicked fast performer on a midi controller? One key to performing decently is to know your gear well enough to barely have the need to look at it.
This review is odd in that it’s criticizing a device for what it’s designed to be and do. It’s a tabletop looper for primarily non-guitar stuff. That’s like being annoyed with a boat for not being a car.
Pretty sure you can get an fs 6 to use as a pedal for guitars to be able to use.
I’m looking for that kind of loop station but that can be triggered by foot pedals and that doesn’t need to be linked to a laptop, that has a memory card like the rc-505 above so you can play live with your guitar and trigger the beats you need? Do you know where I can find this?
Thanks,
JF
This review is not very useful if you aren’t a guitarist. Yes, we all know that there are a lot of pedals out there designed for affecting guitar signals. This device is not intended for that use. It’s for making loop-based music on the fly with whatever instruments you want! Would’ve loved to read more about what this machine CAN do instead of how it’s different from something you were expecting and how sad that makes you.
my instruments (keybds, ewi, voice, guitar) now run through a mixer. how would I integrate the 505 into this? thanks
The RC-505 is kind of like its own mixer and is not really designed to work with another mixer so that each loop can be individually mixed in the other mixer. For example, for inputs, you can only connect two instruments and a mic. You could set up a switcher on one of these lines, but you still have the problem of outputs. There are only two output jacks that are intended to run to your monitors or amp. Here is a link to the manual with an illustration of the back panel on page 6: http://lib.roland.co.jp/support/en/manuals/res/63052373/RC-505_e02_W.pdf. If your mixer has separate outputs, maybe you could set up the 505 downstream. You might want to check out the EHX 45000 and just use that for mixing and looping: http://looperpedalreviews.com/electro-harmonix-45000-review/
I do exactly this, keys, guitar, vocal and samples (drum and other)
This is what I do. Everything goes into my mixing desk and runs stereo out to the stereo in of the 505. I then run the left and right outs of the 505 into two separate channels of the desk. In this way panning becomes track selection, so say for example I want my music bed to return to one channel on the desk and vocals and samples to return to the other I just pan all instruments left and vocals right (and samples right when not triggering drums)
Works a treat, but you forgo stereo panning on the 505
The other way is to just run everything from one channel on the desk to one channel on the 505 and use all the mixing capabilities in the box.
Hey bud. Could you give me some advice? I’m looking into some solutions for a complicated looping rig, and I think this box may work for me if I do something similar to what you did.
I want to loop 3 guitar tracks, a live drum track, and a vocal track. Do you assign an input to each track? For exp: loop 1-3 would be instrument input, 4 would be aux (drum machine), and 5 mix?
As far as outputs go, I would love to send 1-3 to a guitar amp, and 4 + 5 to a PA. Is this possible?
Can I use it as sampler?
Kindly revert
Would I be able to control this with a Keith McMillan Softstep controllers? Would it connect trough Midi or the CTL 1,2/EXP? Are there other looper stations with onboard effects that you know of? Thanks, Mark.
is it possible to connect it to the volca beats series?
I’m considering the RC-505 over the RC-300, mainly because of the 5 tracks. However, the fact that I can only control one track with a foot pedal is a concern (I’m a guitarist). As an alternate solution, I was thinking about trying to hook up a sequencer to pre-program the RC-505 to record and play based on a song structure of my choosing.
Has anyone tried to do this? I’ve never used a sequencer, so I’d also like recommendations on an affordable one that can accomplish this.
i use my rc505 for the same purpose u mentioned. there is no longer any limitation of controlling only one tracks via foot pedal ,boss solved this with a firmware update. dont worry about controlling 5 tracks by foot. there is a solution : I connected a behringer fcb1010 via midi to control all the buttons of the rc505 (rec, play/stop for all 5 tracks, drums on/off, fx on/off etc) . now its a handsfree unit & i can control almost everything via fcb1010.
You’re just who I need to talk to then! How easy is it to set up the fcb1010 to control it? I’ve never worked with midi before but am keen to learn.
” How easy is it to set up the fcb1010 to control it? ” the fcb is notorious for a counter intuitive manual , but fortunately there are amazing support groups of users who have explained the device much better than behringer. The manual made no sense at first & i only understood the unit after reading the online support (yahoo?) groups. just google for it, they explain the unit very well with photos.
***once u have understood the fcb, setting up the rc505 to work with it is probably the easiest thing*** ( just see page 3 of the 505’s supplementary manual & follow this convention : Track 1 rec/play = fcb footswitch 1 , tr2 rec/play = fcb fs2 etc)
Consider that the rc505 allows 16 assignments from external controllers , so its fair enough : i use 10 of the assignments for tr1-5 rec/play & tr 1-5 stop, which still leaves 6 assigments for stuff like controlling drums volume level, fx on/off , previous/next memory slot etc.
Amazing. Thank you!
Hi, could you explain how you did set up the fcb1010 to control your rc 505 or give the links you found to explain how it works? Thank you very much !
http://host.mtnsys.com:81/faq-fcb/IdiotsGuide.htm
This has to be the easiest guide to understanding & using the fcb.