Boss GT-1000 (and possibly other things Boss...)

[Jarick]

I don't know if this is the place to request this, but maybe someone can forward it to someone intelligent at Boss or Roland.

I'm sure that this has been requested by others, but I got kicked off the Gear Page .(a badge of honor IMO).. :)
That said, this relates to the GT-1000/Core editor.

1. In all platforms, allow us to delete/insert blocks in the chain so we don't have a long line of unused blocs cluttering up our patches.
2. Also, in iOS platform, allow for landscape mode - most of my chains are relatively short, and unnecessary scrolling is a PITA.

C'mon, Boss, it is 2025, and these are your flagship models. I can accept no LCD screen, but these are trivial programming sollutions that would be easy for a moderately skilled programmer to accomplish... And would save lots of users time and effort (and frustration). I can see why it would be more difficult on the GX-10 but even then.....

Lol congrats on the jump to here!

Completely agree, there's a lot of cleanup work needed. Hell I bought an iPad stand specifically to hold my device in portrait to use with Boss stuff. And it's a PITA so I just didn't use it and ended up selling most of the Boss gear.

I love just how efficient Boss can be with things when they put their mind to it. Having the lowest latency of any digital devices, being one of the first to have truly gapless preset switching, squeezing a crazy amount of DSP into a compact modeler, and even running a full amp/cab modeler in a compact box that runs off a 9V battery.

But there's a lot of opportunity in the UX/UI world. Would be awesome to see updates to solve the things you pointed out, or other QOL things like being more flexible with DSP (TWO delays???) or stereo controls on some blocks.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I love just how efficient Boss can be with things when they put their mind to it. Having the lowest latency of any digital devices, being one of the first to have truly gapless preset switching, squeezing a crazy amount of DSP into a compact modeler, and even running a full amp/cab modeler in a compact box that runs off a 9V battery.

Add to this that pretty much all Boss hardware is made to last. Apart from the power input socket of a GT-5 needing replacement, I can't remember any fail of any Boss unit I ever owned.
For me, being mainly a live player, that is of incredible value.

 

[HomespunEffects]

… I have noticed that pulling back the 500k band by 3 - 5 dB straight after the amp helps reduce this problem. …

500k??

 

[afonsom98]

Add to this that pretty much all Boss hardware is made to last. Apart from the power input socket of a GT-5 needing replacement, I can't remember any fail of any Boss unit I ever owned.
For me, being mainly a live player, that is of incredible value.

I did something weird yesterday with my Boss GT-1000. I have seen a lot of videos about input level in audio interfaces. Boss GT-1000 has the same advice about raising/decreasing the level bellow clipping. But I thought "well, my single coil guitar is weaker in output than my EMG guitar", and putting everything at the same level seems weird. So I put an eq block and "compensated the volume level taken off from the input level". Don´t know if its placebo (probably is) but my EMG guitar feels better to play now. My input level is -7db, so in the EQ block (before everything) I added 7 db.

 

[TheBigDipper]

<snip>

1. In all platforms, allow us to delete/insert blocks in the chain so we don't have a long line of unused blocs cluttering up our patches.

When I owned a GTk, I dragged all the blocks I didn't want to use over to the right hand end of the chain and made sure the outputs saw the signal before those blocks did (so they didn't). It helped focusing on what I was interested in a little easier.

 

[Sascha Franck]

When I owned a GTk, I dragged all the blocks I didn't want to use over to the right hand end of the chain and made sure the outputs saw the signal before those blocks did (so they didn't). It helped focusing on what I was interested in a little easier.

Good idea.

 

[Leperclown]

500k??

Apologies, 500Hz in the Graphic EQ

 

[Sascha Franck]

Ok, a little kinda "update" on my rig. For the two gigs of the last two days I slapped my Amplifirebox into the other loop (as you may remember, dirt sounds are covered by some pedals and the HX Stomp in one loop) as I didn't use the MS-50 much (if at all) anyway. Doubled my clean patch, one time using the Natural amp, one time using the Amplifirebox, so I could switch between the two instantly.
So, what could I possibly say? The Ampifirebox's Bman model just kills the GT amp. The latter still would've worked just fine, but the AFB is simply a step up, even a pretty noticeable one. It's simply got more "impact" and feels better when playing. I really tried to dial both amps in so they're sort of as close as it gets.
For me, it's all about the inherent compression of all Boss amps. You simply can't dial it out, not even when reducing the input gain, the amp's gain, dialing sag back to zero and what not. It's always there.
Now, especially for live playing purposes, in some situations that might be exactly what it needs, but I could get there with the AFB as well. Apart from that, in most cases, the AFB sound simply feels more "lively", so to say.

As a result, I will now just stick with the HX Stomp and the AFB for all amp sounds and only use the GT amps for gigs when I can't transport my main board.
The GT will defenitely stay on that board, though (at least for a while), simply because live operation is still most excellent, once you have your sounds dialed in. Switches are excellent, visibility is excellent, gapless switching and reverb/delay spillover is pretty much what the doctor ordered, too. FX are really all I need as well, so there's that.
But unlike what I thought at first, this pedalboard incarnation may possibly not live as long as the previous one.

Anyhow, bottomline: The Boss amps, while serviceable, are really falling short in comparison. Every single one of them. Which is actually quite sad because when I bought it I thought I'd use it just on its own a lot more (and only grab the full board for "important" gigs). Now I will try to bring the full board as often as possible. And maybe even grab just the Stomp for some smaller gigs not requiring much sound flexibility.

 

[BuleriaChk]

I would like to see a Tone Studio equivalent for the Boss 200 series (for me, the OD-200 which I consider a work of genius. Well, almost, anyway. The OD-200 does have Midi In/out, and the GT-1000 TS recognizes the Widi adapter but doesn't bring up anything else - as expected, but I was hoping. The Widi adapter does work fantastically with GT-1000 TS with the Core.

It would be fantastic to name, save, recall presets as well as a graphical presentation of the Boost chain to see what is going on for each preset, expecially since there are now 128 of them.

Maybe one of you can contact Gumtown about this and/or who is responsible for the GT Floorboard (another much appreciated app that goes beyond Tone Studio). I am sure many users would even pay for that (if reasonable, of course.. :)

I would do it myself, but I'm 84 1/2 now with all that implies. .. insert Senior joke here) ... :)

 

[Frankencat]

I like my GX-100 and have done many gigs with it. Boss definitely does their own thing but I the end, I was able to get sounds that are pleasing to me and even fun. Some of the effects I like as much as the ones in my FM3, mostly the mod and delay, the dirt pedals require a lot of tweaking which is weird on a a Boss unit. The amps and cabs are fine and can be tweaked to sound great if you take the time. I use IRs with it but there is an issue with volume so I bump it with an eq block to get the levels normalized with the internal cabs. I like the Natural amp and the Marshall Plexi and use them pretty much exclusively. The switching is very flexible and the unit itself is a beast. The BTS software?….well we all know that Boss is not in the software business so not surprise there, it’s funky but it works. All in all I like the unit and have gotten great use out of it. Thankfully I am blessed to have many other options, modelers, amps, etc., so I can play what I like and whatever seems right for the gig. One setup I like it the GX-100 through a Fender FR-10. That’s a lot of sounds in a cool, compact rig that can do just about any gig. Rock on!

 

[Sascha Franck]

The amps and cabs are fine and can be tweaked to sound great if you take the time.

Unfortunately you can not tweak the compression out of them. I know, pretty much each guitar amp is compressing as well, even completely clean amps, but the Boss amps are all overdoing it without any exceptions. Sometimes in a live context, that might even be a useful thing, but it was so annoying for me that I replaced both my clean and dirt "channels" with something else. And I was defenitely hoping I wouldn't have to do so when I bought the unit, so I could use it just on its own more often. But as is, I'm only doing that when I really can't transport my main board.

 

[Sascha Franck]

And well:

The BTS software?….well we all know that Boss is not in the software business so not surprise there, it’s funky but it works.

Well, Boss is doing software since decades. They should really do better. Seriously, there's absolutely no excuse for both their on-unit UIs (at least in the GT series, obviously the GX models are doing way better) and their editors to be such a horrendous disgrace towards human intelligence.

 

[AFKAEjay(retired)]

Unfortunately you can not tweak the compression out of them. I know, pretty much each guitar amp is compressing as well, even completely clean amps, but the Boss amps are all overdoing it without any exceptions. Sometimes in a live context, that might even be a useful thing, but it was so annoying for me that I replaced both my clean and dirt "channels" with something else. And I was defenitely hoping I wouldn't have to do so when I bought the unit, so I could use it just on its own more often. But as is, I'm only doing that when I really can't transport my main board.

In my mind, they exaggerate the low end that goes into the amps…and that causes the compression behavior.
If I’m right.,,might be worth it to try a low shelf in front of the amp.

 

[Sascha Franck]

In my mind, they exaggerate the low end that goes into the amps…and that causes the compression behavior.
If I’m right.,,might be worth it to try a low shelf in front of the amp.

Tried that already - and it seems to fix a certain part of the problem but it still persists.
After all, I just don't want to go through all these hoops, so I'm just using my pedalboard whenever I can and get away with the less than ideal GT amps when I can't. I mean, they're absolutely serviceable, just not on par with the HX series amps or even the Amplifirebox.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Somewhat big changes to the full GT-1000 board.
After playing some gigs with the board, it became just clear that I'm not using the HX Stomp even remotely to its potential. I ended up using a pretty clean (maybe somewhat hairy) sound all the time and just one single of its internal drives (but really only once or twice during all the gigs).
And while I had everything set up so I could control it from my tablet via TouchOSC, it became very clear that I vastly prefer the haptic feel of the knobs of my analog drives, so that's what I ended up using pretty much all the time, even if it meant having to bow down for adjustments.

Also, the sound I ended up using on the Stomp was pretty much identical to the sound I used from the Amplifirebox when it served as my dirt pedal platform on the old board. I then also remembered the NUX Amp Academy and thought I could as well have a listen whether it'd be nice for clean sounds (which I was so far using the AFB for). And what could I possibly say? It's at least doing as well, maybe even better than the AFB (and both of them almost mop the floor with the internal GT amps).

So, long story made short, the Stomp went off the board, replaced by the AFB, the Amp Academy now serves all clean sound duties. I could as well add two other dirt pedals because of that.
I also removed the WIDI Jack thing as I don't need to control the Stomp through the tablet anymore.
And I set the GT knobs in a way that they would control the most relevant parameters of some global blocks (dirt gain and level for one drive, lead-compressor level, lead-EQ level, delay mix, reverb mix).
That way, while I have to bow down for adjustments, everything is done straight on the board (the tablet is now serving to control additional things I don't need to adjust often, connected via the GT's internal BT).
After having played with this setup for some hours, I can safely say that I defenitely love the new organisational aspect already. And as far as the sound in a live context goes, the combination of Amp Academy and AFB is absolutely tried and trusted as I used them for 2-3 years in pretty much the same fashion.

Here's a pic of a preliminary layout:

Upper row is just dirt stuff, the Harley Benton Rated Boost (RC Booster clone) allows me to add some hair to the Amp Academy cleans.

Another thing coming along with this is that I can now use the Stomp on a very small board and don't need to rip anything out of the big board anymore (unless I plan to play gigs with just the GT).

 

[JiveTurkey]

Somewhat big changes to the full GT-1000 board.
After playing some gigs with the board, it became just clear that I'm not using the HX Stomp even remotely to its potential. I ended up using a pretty clean (maybe somewhat hairy) sound all the time and just one single of its internal drives (but really only once or twice during all the gigs).
And while I had everything set up so I could control it from my tablet via TouchOSC, it became very clear that I vastly prefer the haptic feel of the knobs of my analog drives, so that's what I ended up using pretty much all the time, even if it meant having to bow down for adjustments.

Also, the sound I ended up using on the Stomp was pretty much identical to the sound I used from the Amplifirebox when it served as my dirt pedal platform on the old board. I then also remembered the NUX Amp Academy and thought I could as well have a listen whether it'd be nice for clean sounds (which I was so far using the AFB for). And what could I possibly say? It's at least doing as well, maybe even better than the AFB (and both of them almost mop the floor with the internal GT amps).

So, long story made short, the Stomp went off the board, replaced by the AFB, the Amp Academy now serves all clean sound duties. I could as well add two other dirt pedals because of that.
I also removed the WIDI Jack thing as I don't need to control the Stomp through the tablet anymore.
And I set the GT knobs in a way that they would control the most relevant parameters of some global blocks (dirt gain and level for one drive, lead-compressor level, lead-EQ level, delay mix, reverb mix).
That way, while I have to bow down for adjustments, everything is done straight on the board (the tablet is now serving to control additional things I don't need to adjust often, connected via the GT's internal BT).
After having played with this setup for some hours, I can safely say that I defenitely love the new organisational aspect already. And as far as the sound in a live context goes, the combination of Amp Academy and AFB is absolutely tried and trusted as I used them for 2-3 years in pretty much the same fashion.

Here's a pic of a preleminary layout:

View attachment 39578

Upper row is just dirt stuff, the Harley Benton Rated Boost (RC Booster clone) allows me to add some hair to the Amp Academy cleans.

Another thing coming along with this is that I can now use the Stomp on a very small board and don't need to rip anything out of the big board anymore (unless I plan to play gigs with just the GT).

3 amp modelers on your board?

 

[Sascha Franck]

3 amp modelers on your board?

Why not? I actually had 4 on my old board (in case you have the balls to call an MS-50 a modeler...).
And fwiw, the GT is really only serving as an FX unit, no internal amp sounds are harmed at all (or rather allowed to be an offense to my excellent taste, hrrrhrrr).

 

[JiveTurkey]

Why not? I actually had 4 on my old board (in case you have the balls to call an MS-50 a modeler...).
And fwiw, the GT is really only serving as an FX unit, no internal amp sounds are harmed at all (or rather allowed to be an offense to my excellent taste, hrrrhrrr).

 

[Sascha Franck]

Forget about it, it's all measured. The entire system kicks in below 4ms.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Forget about it, it's all measured. The entire system kicks in below 4ms.

If Boss amps were as good as the Atomic stuff years ago; I'd probably be rocking a GT1000 as well. The Nux stuff looks cool but I don't have any reason to dive into their realm.