Re: Help: RC-20XL or Digitech Jam-Man? Quantize feature?

["radio radio" <radiotelevision@gmail.com>]

I actually owned both the RC20XL and the Digitech jamman each for
about a month, for a while I had them both together to compare (before
I returned them both and upgraded to a more expensive looper). I would
say that if you are absolutely committed to having auto-quantize,
which I'm pretty sure is in fact how you describe it, then you clearly
need the boss. Since I was able to live with and compare both of these
pedals, though, here are some other things I would consider:

overall, I preferred the boss anyway. It just seemed more "friendly."
I actually preferred the sound quality, as the "distortion" that
reviewers describe sounded "musical" as in "good" to me, not distorted
like heavy metal or like a crappy system, and the "clean" sampling
rate of the digitech sounded a little too
clean/dry/crisp/unnatural/cold to me. It's hard to describe why it in
general seemed more "friendly" to me, perhaps the user interface, like
how the pedals worked, etc., had a hand in that. I had no interest in
USB capability, although I didn't think either that I would care much
about storing loops, but that is a nice feature of the digitech that
you realize after you fill up your boss. Also, I'm wary of the
reviewers that had a digitech crap out on them.

That all being stated, I think that with some practice you can get
better with your timing as to when you end a loop (and also as to what
you play within the loop), which makes the auto-quantize and the
metronome less essential. Also, that click track is very annoying to
anyone other than you (and, after a week, to you too), so if you
really are considering playing out I would strongly recommend against
using the click track anyway. That being stated, however, the digitech
has a few options as to what the click sounds like (e.g., bass, bass,
bass, high-hat) whereas the boss just has one that sounds more like a
metronome. All of this of course assumes that you can't follow the LED
of the metronome with the sound muted, which I certainly can't,
although you can mute the click on either one.

Hope those considerations help,
Eben



On 4/17/07, Brent Santin <woodenflutes@yahoo.ca> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I plan to loop live (flutes, keyboards, vocal sounds),
> i.e. on stage.
>
> I've been playing with a very basic looping pedal, and
> am really enjoying the results (it's a cheap ZOOM
> pedal which is basically is an endless digital delay).
>  I regularly set it for about a 2 second delay
> (although it can go up to 6 seconds), then record a
> short sound like a click and listen to the click
> repeat so that I can get a feel for the timing.  I
> then layer sounds & beats on top of this.
>
> If find that if I use anything longer than a 2 second
> digital delay, it's too long between my reference
> clicks to feel the beat, so I keep the delay time
> short.
>
> The problem with this short time is that while it's
> good for building rhythms, there's not enough time to
> put down a good bass line or even more than one chord.
>
> So, I've been considering a looping pedal with a built
> in click track/metronome so I can reliably keep my
> timing over loops that might be up to four or eight
> bars of 4/4 in length.
>
> I need some help in deciding between the Digi-tech
> Jam-Man or the BOSS RC-20XL.  Those are the two
> looping pedals in my price range with a built in
> click-track.
>
> Right off the bat, the Digitech seems to have better
> features for the money (especially the flash memory &
> USB connections, XLR mic connector).
>
> But it is missing one feature that the BOSS has: the
> QUANTIZE function.  I assume that when I press the
> STOP RECORDING pedal, this function clips or edits the
> end of the sample to match the nearest beat of the
> click-track, thereby keeping the sample in sync with
> the click-track. i.e. If I recorded a a one bar 4/4
> sample that, but was slightly late in hitting the STOP
> pedal, QUANTIZE would chop the extra few milliseconds
> off the sample so that it would end properly on the
> "4" beat.
>
> How important is this feature?  It seems important to
> me (just from reading).
>
> The Digitech Jam-Man does not offer this function.  So
> does that mean if I do not hit the STOP RECORDING
> pedal at the exact end-beat the click-track provides,
> my loops will eventually drift away from the metronome
> timing?
>
> This is my main concern.  I need my loops (I guess the
> foundation loop, anyway) to be dead on with the
> internal click track of the pedal.  If I need the
> QUANTIZE function for this, I guess I will have to go
> with the BOSS, even though it offers fewer features.
>
> Thanks in advance for your advice!
>
>
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