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

[Brent Santin <woodenflutes@yahoo.ca>]

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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