Boss RC-5 Rhythm Pattern Designing Presets on MC6Pro

MIDI Control Boss
1

Hi I’ve been working on designing a control scheme to utilize the boss rc-5 rhythm section for playing live with my guitar. I’ve already figured out the settings in my rc-5 to start stop the rhythm, select a pattern, switch between A & B variations but there’s one thing I’m not a super huge fan of.

As documented on the roland website the rc-5 takes CC values of 0-72 for patterns

https://support.roland.com/hc/en-us/articles/34731757350299-RC-5-How-do-I-control-the-RHYTHM-PATTERN-selection-using-an-external-MIDI-controller

Here they are copy and pasted for completion.

Value Pattern Value Pattern
0 SimpleBeat1 38 SideStick1
1 SimpleBeat2 39 SideStick2
3 SimpleBeat3 40 SideStick3
4 SimpleBeat4 41 SideStick4
5 GrooveBeat1 43 SideStick5
6 GrooveBeat2 44 PercusBeat1
8 GrooveBeat3 45 PercusBeat2
9 GrooveBeat4 47 PercusBeat3
10 GrooveBeat5 48 PercusBeat4
12 GrooveBeat6 49 LatinBeat1
13 GrooveBeat7 50 LatinBeat2
14 Rock1 52 LatinBeat3
15 Rock2 53 LatinBeat4
17 Rock3 54 Conga1
18 Rock4 56 Conga2
19 Funk1 57 Conga3
21 Funk2 58 Bossa1
22 Funk3 59 Bossa2
23 Funk4 61 Samba1
24 Shuffle1 62 Samba2
26 Shuffle2 63 DanceBeat1
27 Shuffle3 65 DanceBeat2
28 Shuffle4 66 DanceBeat3
30 Shuffle5 67 DanceBeat4
31 Swing1 69 Metronome1
32 Swing2 70 Metronome2
34 Swing3 71 Metronome3
35 Swing4 72 Metronome4
36 Swing5 74 Blank

But it is inconvienient to CC scrolll through 72 different values (even if in both directions). Even worse there isn’t really a consistent approach to the number of each pattern, so simply jumping by a fixed amount is not a viable strategy.

My thought is it would be much easier if one switch took you between different patterns. SimpleBeat, GrooveBeat, Rock, etc and a separate control to take you between the number of the each type of pattern like Rock4.

Currently my best idea on how to accomplish this is to switch pages & banks. As far as I can tell this will mean I would need a scroll counter for each Pattern type unless there is a way to set an CC value with an offset I missed. Since there are 14 types and 16 scroll counters, that should just be do-able. Maybe not everyone would want to use all the rythm types (I certainly would consider not using the metronome).

Any suggestions before I try implementing it? I feel it’s safe to say that I don’t understand every mechanic available on the mc6pro. Anything I should check out?

2

Hi,
If you use message scroll you can send a custumized sequence of messages. So if you plan out your rythm sections beforehand you could do one preset per song. Since message scroll supports all available message types it would be possible to lay out rythm changes, rec/play actions, programm changes etc. This would enable you to perform a song by just tapping the same button over and over.
Combined with engage preset messages to trigger complex sets of messages with a single press, by engaging presets remotely, this can be a powerful tool.

3

Thanks! Yeah the message scroll is probably the best way to lay it out that way I don’t need to use the scroll counters.

I’m thinking of it more of a songwriting and practice tool for now. So would prefer full flexibility with which drum pattern selected as opposed to just a few select patterns.