Iāve invested in a Boss RC-5 looper pedal.
Pretty nice piece of kit but Iām only just playing around with it at the moment.
Has anyone got any advice for getting smoother loops?
Mine seem to sound very staggered as it hits the end and starts to loop again?
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Takes a bit of practice, same as everything else.
The only thing I consciously try and do is hit the pedal in the same way each time, maybe get the foot tapping along to the beat in the lead up to hitting it.
You could put on a metronome in the background may help.
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Try to keep your foot tapping with the beat. It helps to get your foot to press the footpedal at exactly the right time.
If you have the internal drum track running while you are recording a loop, the pedal has the ability to compensate for a slightly late footpedal press.
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Thanks
Iāve been playing around with it this afternoon and seen to be getting better with it.
Thank you
I had no idea Justin had a tutorial on this. Iāll check it out. Been away for a while so need to catch up on things.
Hi Jason,
Iāve got the RC-5 too. I also struggle getting smooth start and stops. Probably because I donāt use the pedal as much as I should. Do you use the count-in feature? Not sure if thatās the correct name of the function, but you tap the pedal and it counts four bars before it starts recording. So you tap, then watch the red progress bar and listen to the metronome clicks to gauge when to start playing. I find it helps, but itās not perfect. I also find that on my first attempt after powering-up the looper it often doesnāt start recording after the count-in. Subsequent loops work fine. I think thatās a glitch that will hopefullly be fixed with a firmware update.
I also made a dual foot switch pedal (cheaper than buying the BOSS FS-6). It makes it MUCH easier to control the RC-5. I have the RC-5 programmed so one footswitch controls STOP/ERASE and the other switch controls metronome ON/OFF. I highly recommend getting a dual switch pedal.
Here is another lesson on how to get accurate looping.
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Thanks for this Chris.
Iām still really just getting used to features so I expect it to take some time to get comfortable with it.
Iāll look into the dual switch pedal.
Thereās certainly a lot of features on it but Iāve mainly bought it to help my solos.
I could probably have saved some money and bought a more basic model but the guy in the shop was a good salesman! 
Iāve also got it rigged up using a very basic 2 cable set up.
Guitar lead to pedal input and output to amp.
I think thereās more intricate ways of setting it up to get a smoother sound but Iāve not looked into that yet. 
Jason, Iām not aware of any other way to set up than the way you have described.
In addition to the suggestions made, apply the suggestion Justin and others make to be playing in the groove before you hit record. Play through the cycle once or twice then hit record as you hit beat 1 of the cycle again and then hit the button again when you hit beat 1 at the start of the cycle again, while continuing to play that first bar again.
It is starting on strum 1 on the first bar of the cycle and stopping on that same beat and strum that makes the cycle smooth.
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Another good way to connect the looper is in the effects loop of your amplifier. This way, the looper will record the tone of the guitar just as it sounds coming from your amp. This also allows the drum track (if you use that AWESOME feature of the RC-5) to not be affected by the distortion, delay, or other effects that you may have dialed in for your guitar tone.
A good rule is to put the looper as the last thing in your signal chain.
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Exactly so. You want to record the effects, not effect the recording.
(Yes, I know the second one should be āaffectā).
Cheers,
Keith
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Yes David
Thatās a good tutorial Justin has there.
Definitely sounds much better and hitting stop on beat 1 makes a huge difference.
Iāve been trying to judge it to end on beat 4.
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