The RC-600 is the most feature-filled loop station covered in this guide. It surpasses the now-ancient RC-300 in many ways as well as introducing new features not found on any other loop station pedal. While it may cost more to have two separate pedals instead of the RC-10R, you will end up with a far better rig suitable for performances. The RC-300 is quite a jump up in price over the RC-30, so take a look at what you’ll be creating with your loops and whether it’s worth the extra money or not. The optional FS-7 makes footswitching even simpler! Plus its compact size won't take up much space on your pedal board.

BOSS RC-1 Loop Station Pedal | guitarguitar

The BOSS RC-500 was released in 2020 and while the name implies that it’s a bigger and better pedal than the RC-300, it definitely doesn’t look it at first. The RC-3 and RC-5 are clearly very similar in size and retail pricing. So which one is the better choice? The RC-1 is the first Looper in the RC Loop Station range, perfect for first-time “Loopists” or beginner musicians. It comes in the iconic Boss Stompbox format, which is renowned for being extremely robust and can be “stomped on” millions of times without breaking! It can be used anytime, anywhere, as the RC-1 is battery-powered. A Boss PSA is sold separately if you require mains power. Boss RC-500: If you find yourself craving a dual pedal option then look no further than the RC-500. LCD Display and status ring: the first thing your eyes probably went to when you first saw the RC-600 was the big ring and circle status display. The status ring on the RC-1 and RC-10R are good features and it’s good to see BOSS improve this feature in the RC-600.The RC-500 basically takes the brains of the RC-5 and puts it in a bigger enclosure to give you far better control over your loops and rhythms. Features: do you just want to be able to record simple chord progressions to jam over? Or do you want to create full songs on-the-fly for solo performances?

Boss RC-1 Loop Station review | MusicRadar

Easily the best feature has to be the LED display. Not only does this do a pretty good job of showing you what mode you are in, but it's also a fantastic way of knowing exactly where you are in the loop - giving you the ability to never miss a beat. If you are a guitarist who wants to play full verse/chorus style songs and jams in full using a looper and rhythm player, there is an alternative worth considering. You can use your looper pedal just like a regular guitar pedal, placing it at the end of the chain with the input coming from the last pedal on your pedalboard and the output going to the amplifier. You can also set it up in your effects loop if your amp has one, by routing the input on your looper to the ‘send’ on your FX loop before plugging the ‘return’ on your amp into the output of your looper pedal. Can you use a loop pedal with any amp? The RC-1 is the simplest and cheapest loop station pedal. It was designed as a basic looper to compete against the extremely popular Ditto Looper by TC Electronic.The way to think about this is you can build a dedicated loop for different parts of a song, different instruments, or different layers you want to start and stop without interrupting the rest of the music. The DL4 MKII sees a significant upgrade on the original’s capabilities but retains an easy-to-use ethos with four separate footswitches to control your loops. It’s got up to 240 seconds of looping time, which goes down to 120 seconds in stereo mode, so whilst it’s not as long as some on this list it’s still plenty to be getting on with. The RC-500 uses better quality audio, has a better display, and more modern features that weren’t available in 2011 when the RC-300 came out. You can see you have important features such as microphone input, MIDI control, external footswitch control, etc. If you feel split between the features across these two options, look at the prices of secondhand RC-3 pedals to see whether the extra features in the RC-5 is worth the extra cost.