Review : BOSS RC-10R Looper
Loopers. Some folks, like the amazing Peter Honore, propose that a Looper should be one of the first pedals that any player gets. When you see and hear what Danish Pete can accomplish with a looper, you may agree. I have also seen how KT Tunstall uses loopers to do most of the pieces to Black Horse and the Cherry Tree on her own via skilled use of loopers on her rig.
If you have ever watched the videos from Norm's Rare Guitars, you have seen Michael Lemmo use a TC Electronics Ditto looper on many of the demos. And we are seeing more and more effects come with a looper and even an announcement from TC Electronics of a new version coming of the so common Ditto.
So why then would you spend more money on a looper from Boss?
The answer for me was to have a backing drummer available to jam against, in the tempo and style of my choice. Certainly I could go buy and download backing tracks and I will do that from time to time, but since getting the RC-10R, practice time is more fun and more inclined to encourage me to experiment. It's also a lot more fun than a metronome.
It's easiest to think of this as two devices. Think high end very powerful looper pedal and a very capable drum machine. The drum machine side has over 280 built in rhythm styles with intros, outros and transitions to choose from. You control the tempo and the style. It's like a Roland drum machine without the programming. Indeed it sounds as good and is faster to use than my Roland TR-8, and is a much better drummer than I am myself. There are also 16 different drum kits to choose from.
It's easy to create loops, add to them, layer over them and if you mess up to back up. Do take the time to read the docs to get up to speed quickly.
You can also update the device from your computer and also download the free Boss Tone Studio for RC-10R from the Boss site. Tone Studio is available for Windows and macOS computers.
Describing a looper in text is pretty tough, so I will provide you with two YouTube links that I highly recommend. Both feature Mr. Peter Honore of Anderton's Music. I am not sponsored in any way by Mr. Honore or Anderton's Music, I simply find these to be excellent practical demonstrations of the RC-10R by a true professional.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5j3_2y_C34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SkUTsbv9d0
I also like that I can set the RC-10R to sound best when going to a guitar amp or to a full range sound system. There is also full MIDI support using the smaller ⅛ style plugs. BOSS does sell converters from the small connectors to the larger multi pin MIDI connectors if you require such things.
While it could look a bit complicated, particularly compared to one button loopers, the power and flexibility here is pretty amazing. If you want to practice or jam alone to something more flexible than a metronome and without having to figure out how to bring backing tracks into your game, this may be the perfect solution for you. And if maybe your timing on loop starts and stops is far from perfect, there is functionality in the box that helps there too. Sure helped me.
