BOSS RC-30 Tutorial: Stop your loops on time with Simple Pedal Mode

This video has an interesting back-story where I learned a few lessons about corporations and politics. Some of you may be able to relate…

I don’t remember exactly how it came about, but I think a customer called about an issue where the RC-30 wouldn’t get the timing right if you ended a recording by hitting STOP instead of Play or Dub. I tested this and verified that yes, something odd is going on here and it’s causing loops to record a fraction longer than normal.

I started the process of sending a bug-report which basically means I sent an email to the Product Manager describing the issue. He is the guy who actually communicates with the engineers in Japan and he passed it on. A day or two later we hear back that there was no bug, we were just using it wrong!

Now, knowing how this machine works is my job so I had read the manual front-to-back, trying all the functions it described. Plus I answered tons of calls and emails on this thing and previous loopers like it, but I have never encountered a issue where a looper behaved this way.

I don’t know how the message to Japan was worded (maybe it had a tone of extreme urgency and panic?), but it was conveyed to me that this sequence of events embarrassed us in the eyes of Japan because we – AKA me – sent a bug-report that just ended up showing that we didn’t know how our own product worked.

Well, I missed something that wasn’t in the manual called Simple Pedal Mode. This feature was printed on a single loose sheet of paper that came in the box with the RC-30. They called it an “addendum” to the manual because by the time the books had all been printed, they either added the feature later or forgot to include it in the first place.

To rectify ourselves in the eyes of Japan, I was to send them a video showing the feature proving that I understood how it worked.  This is that video. ^_^