Boss RC-600 Loop Station Review

Summary

• Pros: The Boss RC-600 does (almost) everything the RC-300 could do except with more options. Six independent tracks, tons of effects and huge storage capacity.
• Cons: Early firmware had issues (resolved by update 1.10), the build isn’t as bulletproof as you’d expect, and no expression pedal like the RC-300 had.
• Overall: The Boss RC-600 is a top choice, but only if you need six independent loops and loads of connectivity.

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Full Review

Boss is one of the giants in the world of looper pedals. From the early days of the Boss RC-2, right up to the introduction of “tabletop” loopers like the RC-505, Boss has always had a looper for everyone. The RC-600 is the new “flagship” looper for players who want as much functionality as possible, despite the size. It’s intended as the successor the older RC-300, boasting six independent tracks for an unparalleled looping experience. But does it live up to expectations?

Note: If you want to know when the Boss RC-600 was released relative to other Boss looper pedals, we’ve made a timeline of all the Boss loopers here.

The Boss RC-600 is Big. Really Big.

Many people are pointing out how the RC-600 is small compared to the RC-300. While this is true, it doesn’t really convey that this thing is still quite a beast. It measures 17 and 1/8 inches (43.5 cm) wide by 6 and 7/16 inches (16.3 cm) back to front. So, it’s still one of the “bigger” class of looper pedals. That said, it is both smaller and lighter than the RC-300. This is largely due to the removal of the expression pedal from the main unit.

Control Layout

The overall layout of the pedal will be immediately familiar if you know Boss’ looper line-up already. It’s somewhere between the RC-300 and the RC-500. The overall design is like the stripped-down RC-500 with a more RC-300-like array of footswitches for hands-free use. There are a whopping 9 footswitches on the RC-600. Six footswitches along the bottom control the looping functions and the three footswitches at the top control additional features.

The top left section of the looper has buttons and dials for making deeper-level changes. Next to this is a circular indicator that shows where you are in the loop relative to the total length. Overall, it looks great. It has plenty of potential for hands-free use with the air of high-quality you’d expect from any Boss device.

Packed Full of Features

It wouldn’t be a flagship Boss looper without more features than you know what to do with. It’s safe to say they definitely didn’t disappoint on this front with the RC-600. Before we get into some of the fancier options, it handles the basic looping functionality just like you’d expect. You simply hit the “Record/Play” footswitch for the track you want to record, play your phrase, then hit the switch again to start playback. Then you can overdub by repeating the process until you’ve built up the sound you’re looking for.

Six Track Looping as Standard, and More Storage Than Ever

The biggest selling-point of the RC-600 for any feature-hungry loopers out there is undoubtedly the six independent tracks it supports. This is double what the RC-300 offered, but the footswitch layout is basically the same. One switch handles the basic looping functions for the track and each has a dedicated “Stop” footswitch too. But how do you control six loops like this? The “Track Select” button on the upper level opens up the three remaining tracks with a simple tap of a button.

This opens up tons of possibilities for songwriting. Heck, you could make a loop for the intro, verse, chorus, 2 different bridges, and an ending loop. Or you could use different loops for different instruments and bring them in and out with your feet. Once you’re happy with what you’ve got, you can save all six tracks to one of 99 available memory slots. The onboard memory has been increased to 13 hours of recording time, compared to 3 hours on the older RC-300. Even 3 hours is a lot, 13 is borderline impossible to fill up.

Improved Undo/Redo, Half-Speed and Reverse

The top row of footswitches makes some of the most-used looping features very easy to access. Most important is the improved undo/redo function. Rather than just removing and replacing the upper-most layer of your loop – an invaluable tool on its own – you can use Mark Back, which basically designates a stage of your loop that you want to return to. This means you can undo two, three or even more layers at once. It’s like setting up a checkpoint you can easily return to at any time.

Undo/redo is just a simple switch-press away, and other features like half-speed and reverse playback can be accessed by holding down one of the upper footswitches. You activate half speed by holding down the “Undo/Redo” switch, and the reverse function by holding down the “All Start/Stop” switch.

Rhythm and Effects

Although something as beastly as the RC-600 is awesome for live use, it has huge potential as a practice tool. The rhythm patterns included with the pedal help you get the most out of this possibility, with 200 patterns available right out of the box. Not only are there 200 distinct patterns, each has four variations and you can play them on any of 16 different drum kits. It also allows you to add intros, outros and fills. Although the onboard rhythms are not as good as having a live drummer, they sound great and are awesome for practice. They’re even good enough for use in some live situations.

Like the RC-300, the RC-600 has on-board effects, but the sheer number blows the older pedal out of the water. While the older model had just 16 effects – still excellent in comparison with other loopers, which rarely have any effects – the RC-600 has 49 input effects and 53 track effects that you can apply to already-recorded audio. You can combine any four effects at the same time, and even store them together for easy recall.

Ports for Everything You Need (and More)

It wouldn’t be a beefy Boss pedal without enough inputs and outputs to support a whole band on-board. And the RC-600 is no different here. It has two XLR inputs for microphones, two stereo input jacks for guitars, basses, keyboards and more, three total stereo outputs (two main, and four sub), a (1/4 inch) headphone jack, two spots for expression pedals, MIDI in and out, a USB port and a spot for a power supply.

This opens up many possibilities, especially when you realize the flexibility you have with how you use them. For example, you can route each of the tracks to their own output jack, or use three stereo outputs. So you could send the bass and guitar to separate amps and the microphone to a PA.

A Glitchy Start for the Boss RC-600, But It’s Better Now

Although these bugs were resolved as of firmware update 1.10, many users had issues with recordings across different tracks ending up out of sync. In short, when you hit record on another track after laying down a loop, it would wait a bar or so before the recording started. This throws your whole plan out of sync and led to many ruined loops. While they’ve rectified the issues, it was unusable for many at first. Throw in some other glitchy behavior and occasional crashes and there were some very unsatisfied customers.

It seems music companies are taking on the awful ethos of big-budget tech companies: release your product, however error-ridden it is, and patch it up in a month or two. If you’ve spent a boatload of money on a piece of hardware, you (rightfully) expect better.

Is the Boss RC-600 Worth Picking Up?

But again, they did fix these issues. So is the Boss RC-600 actually worth the substantial investment? Well, first off, even this long review doesn’t have enough space to talk about everything you can do with the pedal. In some places, it barely scratches the surface. In that sense, the pedal is absolutely awesome: Boss has truly put together a new flagship in terms of features. Plus it now has 32 bit audio, which is about as good as you could possibly need.

There are some minor issues that persist, though. In particular, many report breaking the buttons, and they do seem more flimsy than on other pedals, like the Ditto X4 or the Electro-Harmonix 22500. You really don’t expect this from Boss, but you get the sense that the build quality is worse than usual.

A few other things may be an issue, depending on what you’re looking for. First, and most obviously, there is no longer an expression pedal as there was on the RC-300. The certainly isn’t a deal breaker, but it was nice having it on the RC-300. The RC-600 also costs more than the 300 did, even at release.

Additionally, the rhythm backing tracks do have some impressive variety, but they still can’t compare to the dynamics of a real drummer. Even though the audio quality is great, and there are a lot of options, they’re still a bit lacking in energy and are mainly useful for practicing purposes. And if you need a MIDI Thru, this has also been dropped from the new version.

Conclusion

The Boss RC-600 is packs a lot of firepower that genuinely opens up a lot of possibilities as a looper. The rough start and glitches may have soured the pedal for some, but with present-day firmware most of the problems are gone.

Overall, however, unless you’re a looping virtuoso who really needs six independent tracks and the extra 10 hours of recording time, this pedal is probably overkill. If you’re just looking for a big, gig-friendly looper pedal and are a bit uneasy about spending so much, you could probably find the older RC-300 for about half the price.

Where to Buy the Boss RC-600?

Boss RC-600 Product Clip

Quick Answers:

What is the RC-600’s sound Quality?
32-Bit, 44.1 kHz

How many independent loops does the RC-600 have?
3 independently controlled loops

Can the Boss RC-600 record and play in stereo?
Yes, there are stereo ins and outs.

Does the RC-600 have an XLR mic input?
Yes, it has two XLR inputs.

Does the Boss RC-600 support MIDI?
Yes, it has MIDI in and out.

How many loops can you store on the Boss RC-600?
It has 99 memory locations.