Boss IR-2 - Very compact amp/cab sim pedal

[laxu]

BOSS - IR-2 | Amp & Cabinet

IR-2: Amp & Cabinet - Take Your Signature Sound Everywhere

www.boss.info

Features​

• Premium amp emulator and cabinet IR loader in a BOSS compact pedal
• Exceptional audio quality with 32-bit floating-point processing and 96 kHz sampling rate
• Eleven different amp types and high-quality cab IRs from Celestion Digital
• Simple user interface with Level, Gain, Bass, Middle, and Treble controls
• Ambience effect with dedicated control
• Mono input and stereo outputs
• Mono/stereo loop for patching in mod, delay, and reverb effects after the amp emulation
• Headphones jack for practice
• USB-C for recording and audio playback via a computer or mobile device*
• Switch between two amp/cab tones with the pedal switch or an external footswitch
• Dedicated IR-2 IR Loader app (macOS/Windows) for loading your own cabinet IRs
• Amp and cabinet sections can be turned on/off independently for isolated use
• BOSS five-year warranty

 

[laxu]

Size vs IR-200:

It's actually really impressive what they have crammed into a pedal this small. You can even load in your own IRs. It can even work as an audio interface over USB-C.

IR format: Mono, Maximum 500 ms, 44.1/48/96 kHz, 16 bits linear/24 bits linear/32-bit floating point

 

[holoholo]

Wow that actually looks pretty cool. Wonder what the price will be

 

[SwirlyMaple]

I predict our feathered forum friend will have one by the end of the week. Looks pretty cool, and an obvious step for Boss to make such a thing in this form factor. I bet it will sell well.

 

[laxu]

Andertons video says price ballpark is 180 GBP = ~208 EUR = ~228 USD. That's honestly an amazing price!

This could easily be one of those "just get it and use it when the need arises" pedals, even if you might get annoyed by the concentric knobs if you use this every day.

 

[BenIfin]

If it had Midi I/O ... it would be a slam-dunk. ...... regardless its still quite brilliant!

Ben

 

[laxu]

If it had Midi I/O ... it would be a slam-dunk. ...... regardless its still quite brilliant!

Ben

Doesn't seem to have MIDI, though in theory you could control it over USB-C if it allows the typical Boss editing apps and whatnot.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

Watched a couple reviews, and I think Boss is going to sell a ton of these. The size, price, and capabilities, along with that nostalgic Boss pedal form factor, will be appealing to a lot of people IMO.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

500ms IR length is good and somewhat hard to find in IR loader pedals

 

[laxu]

Watched a couple reviews, and I think Boss is going to sell a ton of these. The size, price, and capabilities, along with that nostalgic Boss pedal form factor, will be appealing to a lot of people IMO.

I'm curious to see what this does to the "compact amp sim pedal" market. While Strymon and UA still hold a "premium tier" reputation for theirs, it's hard to argue for paying double the money for something that does far less than the Boss. I feel the Walrus ACS1, TC Electronics amp sims etc are dead product lines after this.

500ms IR length is good and somewhat hard to find in IR loader pedals

500ms IRs are the same length that Strymon Iridium supports, the only difference is that Strymon does stereo IRs so you can use a single stereo mix or two different mono IRs per side. The Boss pedal also supports turning the amp sim off so it could double as a cab sim pedal like the Strymon does.

Since there's no control for selecting the cab on the pedal, it's probably tied to the amp model selection since there's 11 IR slots. User IRs are not separate so you will overwrite factory IRs if you want to change these. IR per model I guess, though maybe it's 11 slots but assignable per model in the app?

How the "ambiance" effect on the Boss compares is a mystery, but Strymon does an interesting "short convolution room + algorithmic tail" room reverb effect. I would expect the Boss is purely algorithmic but sounds fine, as Boss usually does.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I'm curious to see what this does to the "compact amp sim pedal" market. While Strymon and UA still hold a "premium tier" reputation for theirs, it's hard to argue for paying double the money for something that does far less than the Boss. I feel the Walrus ACS1, TC Electronics amp sims etc are dead product lines after this.



500ms IRs are the same length that Strymon Iridium supports, the only difference is that Strymon does stereo IRs so you can use a single stereo mix or two different mono IRs per side. The Boss pedal also supports turning the amp sim off so it could double as a cab sim pedal like the Strymon does.

Since there's no control for selecting the cab on the pedal, it's probably tied to the amp model selection since there's 11 IR slots. User IRs are not separate so you will overwrite factory IRs if you want to change these. IR per model I guess, though maybe it's 11 slots but assignable per model in the app?

How the "ambiance" effect on the Boss compares is a mystery, but Strymon does an interesting "short convolution room + algorithmic tail" room reverb effect. I would expect the Boss is purely algorithmic but sounds fine, as Boss usually does.

I think I assumed this leaned more on being a cab sim with an amp (like that new Two Notes thing), but definitely seems to be more “amp in a pedal”

 

[Blix]

How the "ambiance" effect on the Boss compares is a mystery, but Strymon does an interesting "short convolution room + algorithmic tail" room reverb effect. I would expect the Boss is purely algorithmic but sounds fine, as Boss usually does.

 

[Moe45673]

Color me impressed. Bit fiddly to change global settings, but otherwise, damn!

Once again, Boss manages to cram an impressive and intuitive feature set into a compact pedal. Definitely don't need it, though.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Pretty much sold on this already. Would never use the channel switching, though - pure horror to adjust a device with no visual indication of where the parameters might've been last time you left the channel. Would be pretty cool if you could use the switch for loop on/off only.
Anyway, in case it'll come in at around €200, that'll be fine even for a single channel affair.
Seems to take that drive pedal pretty well, too, that's quite important for me.
What would be fantastic would be if this could be bus-powered. I enjoy that option quite a bit with my rusty Zoom G3, which I can bus-power from my cheesy Samsung Tab A.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

I bet it’ll have Boss’s usual absurdly-low latency, too.

It’s funny how Boss doesn’t even try to say their amp models are exact re-creations of anything, so nobody judges them on how close they are to a specific real amp. Their offerings do tend to sound pretty good on their own merits though, and generally make for an enjoyable playing experience.

 

[GTR37]

Looks like the hey have some Versions of the X amps too
Hi gain , Modded , Crunch , Brown
JT May love this , good move on them and good price point

 

[Sascha Franck]

It’s funny how Boss doesn’t even try to say their amp models are exact re-creations of anything,

That's actually one of the reasons why I simply dig Boss' approach. No real names, no stupid comparisons, just judge with your ears whether you like things or don't.

 

[Will Chen]

Need to watch the vid for some details, but if it can toggle between X Modded (or Crunch) and JC120 by stepping on the pedal, this is going to sell like hot cakes.

 

[Sascha Franck]

but if it can toggle between X Modded (or Crunch) and JC120 by stepping on the pedal,

It very certainly can. But as said, it's the same dilemma as with the Amplifirebox, the NUX Amp Academy and what not. Turn a knob and you never know where you are - so you might as well enjoy some brutal parameter jumps.

 

[mbenigni]

• USB-C for recording and audio playback via a computer or mobile device*

Depending on the exact implementation (and BOSS/Roland know all the best ways to get this wrong), this has my attention. Especially in this form-factor.

(Class compliant or GTFO.)