Hi Slawie,
I've been using an RC-50 since they first came out.
As for Series electronics, I don't see why you couldn't use them. There are 3 phrases on an RC-50. Each can be configured as a left/right mono or stereo output. There's also a stereo sub-out which can be used as well for routing your signals from the 3 phrases. Anyway, it's pretty flexible for routing.
The biggest downside, in my experience, is it will not sync or stay synced when being used as a slave via midi connection. Even when the master is another RC-50! Let me say this again. The RC-50 won't stay in sync with another RC-50, or any other midi master device, when being used as a slave. Crazy...
Note: I have two of them and had I known about this issue before purchasing my second one, I wouldn't have gotten the second one. The real bummer is, it's a known issue and there's no fix available now, or likely forever, as they've recently discontinued sales of the RC-50.
Also the 'Quantize' feature can be annoying at times, as it can stretch or compress your recorded loop. Not always and not spontaneously though as it's an operator (me) error issue. A split second too long or too short and distressing and/or disturbing things can happen. But, as I say, it's an operator issue as the 'root cause' of this 'feature'.
Regardless, when performing live it can be annoying or worse case, having to employ some fancy foot work and overdubbing/replacing on the fly to 'clean things up'.
On the same vein, once you record your loop(s) your loops are stuck at the tempo you recorded them at. For example, you record at 120 bpm and decide you want to go to 125 bpm. You change the tempo and it goes to 125 bpm no problem. The problem is you can't slow down or speed up without it changing pitch and I'm not talking about a 1/4 step or 1/2 step or any step. It makes your loop warble and unusable even if changing tempo by only 1 bpm. So, if you want to speed it up or slow it down, you start from scratch and re-record. Big bummer.
On a positive, the new RC-3 and RC-30XL are out and they have 99 minutes of record time compared to the RC-50 at only 28 or so minutes in stereo and 40 something minutes in mono mode. While I've not heard anything, since Boss has discontinued the RC-50, I suspect it won't be long until the RC-60 (or some such) comes out.
With all that said, I love my looper! It's an awesome rehearsal tool for groove and chops and, you'll get tired of playing long before it will.
I've used the RC-50 for literally hundreds of gigs over the last 4 1/2 years and it's never let me down.
And that's that. Hope this helps.
Feel free to contact me via my profile email with any questions and/or feel welcome to continue this discussion via this thread. I'll help as best I can.
Best Regards,
Kimberly
