Boss RC20XL help

When I'm playing live, I begin with an empty phrase. The looper seems to assume that you are starting with a pre-recorded phrase, and that's not how I'm doing it. I'm starting from scratch.

Recording the initial phrase is just as tedious as it possibly could be (or do I not understand this thing?). Here's how I've been doing it.

Start out just plain playing bass with the band. after a bit I'll start tapping in my tempo. Then I tap the record pedal to get the tempo going. If we're in 4/4 time I'll tap the tempo from 2 til 3, and press record on the 4 so that is actually begins recording on the next 1. In other words, there is a one measure delay from the time I hit record and when the unit starts recording when starting from a blank patch.

THEN I have to bend over and press "SAVE/WRITE" in order to keep using it.

Now, this does not seem right at all, but I just can't figure out how to get it to let me use this live, from a blank phrase, tap my tempo in, then press record and have the thing start recording when I hit the record switch.

The only thing I've been able to do to get around this is to pre-record each phrase empty. But then I'm left with a pre-determined phrase length.

I can't believe that I can't get this to do what seems to be the simplest thing a looping pedal with a tap tempo feature should be able to do: program a tempo and start looping on the fly.

does the unit lack this functionality or am I missing something?

 

It starts looping on it's own once I complete a loop.

 

I want to keep it in Tap Temp mode. This is not for a solo performance. This is with a band. THUS, it is very helpful to have the ability to adjust the tempo. If I can tap in the tempo we're playing at I can loop and then keep my loops in sync with the band by adjusting the tempo as we go.

I can do all of this when I'm solo, cos I don't have to keep in time with others, I let my loop establish the tempo. With the band, I want to make little corrections as we go or it can get sloppy.

I really just need to get it to record as soon as I hit the record switch, and lose that 1 measure delay. Is that a setting I can shut off? I can't find any info about this delayed recording feature.

 

Ahh. Really? That's what I was afraid of. Is there a looper out there that can do what I want to do: enter a tempo with my foot, record when I hit the record button, then let me add layers to it, and keep dialing in the tempo as we go.

I want to lose the one measure delay, and not have to bend over and hit save/write (which also stops the loop. This is the worst part for me).

I suppose I could just record 4 measures of nothing on each phrase, but then if I want something that is only 2 or 3, or maybe 8 or 16 measures long I'm out of luck.

What about the Digitech or Line 6 looper?