MIDI Control Boss RC-5 with Stadium XL

[qm1pooh]

I have been struggling with getting Command Center on my Stadium XL to control my Boss RC-5 looper with MIDI. It is not acting like I’ve seen some examples of solutions for Boss’s weird MIDI implementation on the OG Helix. For example, I set CC 82 on the pedal to Memory Increase, and set a footswitch on the Helix to send 127 on a press and 0 on a release to that CC. I then create a “dummy” send block and assign the bypass control to the same block and set the footswitch to momentary. As soon as I press the footswitch, the pedal scrolls up through all of the presets until it stops at 99. I am able to get Rhythm Start/Stop on the pedal to work with a simple CC Toggle command on another footswitch on the Helix.

 

Has anyone gotten their Boss looper pedal to work with the Helix, and if so how did you do it?

[jpdennis]

On 12/20/2025 at 10:25 AM, qm1pooh said:

I have been struggling with getting Command Center on my Stadium XL to control my Boss RC-5 looper with MIDI. It is not acting like I’ve seen some examples of solutions for Boss’s weird MIDI implementation on the OG Helix. For example, I set CC 82 on the pedal to Memory Increase, and set a footswitch on the Helix to send 127 on a press and 0 on a release to that CC. I then create a “dummy” send block and assign the bypass control to the same block and set the footswitch to momentary. As soon as I press the footswitch, the pedal scrolls up through all of the presets until it stops at 99. I am able to get Rhythm Start/Stop on the pedal to work with a simple CC Toggle command on another footswitch on the Helix.

 

Has anyone gotten their Boss looper pedal to work with the Helix, and if so how did you do it?

 

qm1pooh,

 

If you've already tried the following, I apologize for any redundancy as you've worked through this.

 

While I do not have a RC-5 to test, I dug through some manuals and a few online videos to be safe due to other stomps I've seen limitations on.  First, a thought is to reverse what the RC-5 is expecting; have 0 on push and 127 on release.  Also, is the RC-5 set to receive pc, cc or both?  So, second, what happens if you change the value to 99 on press and 1 on release, and/or reversing that thought, what happens if you change the value to 1 on press and 99 on release?

 

And determine which device controls sync tempo to be safe

• Master/Slave: Decide if the Helix or RC-5 will be the tempo master.
• If RC-5 is Master: Set Helix Global Settings > MIDI/Tempo > Receive MIDI Clock to "MIDI" or "Auto".
• If Helix is Master: Set the RC-5 to receive MIDI Clock in its settings.
• Sync Effects: On the Helix, set time-based effects (like delays) to use note values (e.g., 1/4 note, 1/8th) so they snap to the tempo. 

 

Please forgive me if you already have the manual, which I have attached in case you do not have the manual for the RC-5.

 

I have watched two videos and included the link to one with insight into setup for the various toggles for cc and pc functions within the RC-5.  I am researching one more thing and will revisit this thread later today if I find anything that be of help to you.

 

 

jpd

 

RC-5_reference_eng02_W.pdf

 

[qm1pooh]

jpdennis,

 

Thanks so much for the tips! I believe I was having issues setting the switch to momentary as was suggested in earlier posts in the Line6 forums, but that may have only applied to an earlier HX firmware.

 

If the algorithms lead others to this post in the future, here are the settings I used for some of the looper commands:

 

- First, look in the RC-5 manual for instructions on how to assign MIDI CC’s on the looper pedal for the various functions. Also check which MIDI channel is assigned to the RX CTL CH

 

- For a function that toggles like RHYTHM P/S or increments like MEMORY INC, use Command Center on the Helix to assign two MIDI commands to a footswitch. In the first command, set the Action parameter to press, Command parameter to CC, MIDI Channel parameter to match the RX CTL CH on the pedal, the CC# parameter to match the function previously set on the looper pedal, and the Value parameter to 127. For the second MIDI command, set the Action parameter to release and the Value parameter to 0. All other parameters are the same in both commands. The footswitch will be latching, so the light will turn on and off on each press by default.

 

- For a function in a list of items like PATTERN, you only need one MIDI command assigned to a footswitch on the Helix. For example, setting the Value parameter to 0 would trigger the Simple Beat 1 pattern, and a Value parameter of 1 would trigger Simple Beat 2.

 

Really happy I got this working, as throwing a Boss pedal in frustration would probably cause some serious damage :)