Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

[PFDarkside]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

Holy crap I've been watching videos on the ES-8 for the past three days, I want one so bad now.

 

[mantis]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

Holy crap I've been watching videos on the ES-8 for the past three days, I want one so bad now.

Right? It's like the motherboard of all Mother Boards man. I can't see needing to do anything more then what the ES-8 can do. If you need more, you need a guitar tech to work with you while you play LOL.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

Why is it that I can see the 80's and early 90's passing before my eyes here?
The racks are just on the ground now...

 

[baron55]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

I have the new ES-5 bar none these are the best switchers out there period that you can buy out of the box.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

Incoming...

 

[mantis]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

I have the new ES-5 bar none these are the best switchers out there period that you can buy out of the box.

From what I have researched so far, I don't see anything better. The abilities of the ES series controllers are amazing. Boss really hit a home run with them. I'm gonna get the ES-8 and call it a day.
I still wish Boss would come out with a very high end Waza craft Gt like Multi effects processor ONLY with NO amp modelers, cab's mic's or any of that crap. Boss sucks at it and they should stick to what they do best EFFECTS. Still to this day and I own a full TC Electronics Pedal board with 9 TC pedals, I still feel honestly Boss makes the best overall effects pedals.
Everyone years ago kicked Boss for Buffers in their pedals and now look at most or everyone, buying stand alone buffers for their tone sucking to many true bypass pedals. Yeah I hate it 2 as you can't beat physics, to much resistance and tone loss you get no matter how high end the quality of the effects pedal or cables are.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

This looks a whole lot like the Switchblade rack stuff. 8 Ins, 8 Outs, routing any In to any Out. Control freak's fantasy! Though with the rack stuff, you do need an external MIDI control pedal, so that's something extra to carry.

Hmmm, I do be this thing would work great with racks, although you'd still need a separate pedal for the individual rack units. Does the ES8 do MIDI?


One of the reasons I went to racks years ago was because pedals had to be tweaked for different songs, and with racks I could just change an entire "pedal chain" without needing 10 different chains of the same pedals with different settings scattered across the floor. Not to mention the cost of 9 volts or the number of power strips and wall warts you'd need.


I looked up the GT-100 a few times, and it seems like one of my "dreams come true" - every BOSS pedal in a single rack unit. However, can you not disable the amp modeling entirely? I know BOSS had several variations of the same pedal - OD1, OD2, etc - does the GT-100 include these variations or did they just pick one from each model? I'd much rather have "the entire BOSS library", including the 1,2,3 variations of the same pedal, so I can decide for myself which one I prefer for a given task.
Of course I'd also rather have that in a single rack unit, before someone says "derp just git all them pedals hyuk hyuk".

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

Hmmm, I do be this thing would work great with racks, although you'd still need a separate pedal for the individual rack units. Does the ES8 do MIDI?

It can send a PC on 8 MIDI channels and 8 CC Values per button press/program change/patch change. It can also receive MIDI commands to trigger its patch changes. Additionally it has up to 4 control ins (switches) or two expression ins and 2 expression outs + 6 control outs. They can be momentary or latched for amp channel switching, analog tap tempo or triggering anything that needs a switch input. Also, the expression can be routed to either expression out (assigned by patch) or sent via MIDI CC.

However, I think for rack usage, the GigRig2 is better, as you can separate the patch bay and the footswitches.

 

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

I picked up a One Control OC10 and am excited to get it setup. THe Gig Rig was on my list and I was hoping to score one used, but they're hard to find. The Boss ES8 sounds great, but is really dependent upon being able to read screens/menus, and for a person who is legally blind and can only do that with screen reading software, it's a no-go. The OC10 is a bit easier to program and is a little more intuitive, but doesn't have the feature of changing pedal order or programmable pre/post buffers, which would be awesome. Something else to keep in mind for setting up loops on the ES8 and in the effects loop of your amp is that if you're using high end units, like Eventide Space or Pigtronix Echolution, you could avoid the need of running tons of cables back and forth to setup loops in your effects loop by considering the following.

If you have a pedal that is MIDI, as well as sporting jacks for other connections, you could connect a MIDI cable, and TRS cable, that would be setup to bypass the pedal. That way, instead of putting all the pedals for the effects loop of your amp on your board and running them back and forth, you could just leave them on top of your amp, rack, or if a combo amp, on the inside floor of the combo.


I hope this makes snse?

Basically, your ES8 would send a program turning the pedal on/off, and switching a preset at the same time. Running loops in the effects loops just takes a pedal that is on in and out of signal path, and changes the preset. The option I am proposing would save n tons of cabling.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

That's correct, you can simply use MIDI to bypass pedals that aren't in one of the loops. The only negative is that you need to remember to program the CC for Bypass on every patch where you don't want the pedal engaged. (Otherwise the same program in the pedal will remain engaged even after the patch change has happened on the looper)

Most of the loopers accommodate the 4-cable method pretty cleanly. It's only two extra cables to the amp, and the Effects Loop should be able to drive the length pretty easily.

 

[philthis]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

Yeah, that would work, I like the way you think my man.

Gentlemen, thank you for all the input. I am searching for a unit and this looks great

 

[B2D]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

I'd been looking at an ES-8 for my own needs as well. After some research I decided the Musicomlab EFX MkV was a good candidate too. Pete Thorn just wired up with one and that guy knows his stuff.

http://www.musicomlab.com/efxmk-v.htm

 

[Aceman]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

To answer the original question....

Yes, for me the Zoom G3N was better. But that's me. I get the awesome of the ES-8 now. Wayyyyyyyy more awesome than I need/want.

This thread inspired my search. So, thanks!

 

[mantis]

Re: Boss ES-8 , is anything better?

I ended up with the ES-5 and it's strange how this came to be.
My Wife for my birthday in June got me a MS-3. I saw it before it came out and thought this would be very cool. So my wife decided to get it for me preorder before it came out so I got it early. Well as cool as that was it didn't work out for me. I was not happy with the tone and only having 3 loops actually 2 when you use the 4 cable method. Strangely enough a guy was looking for a MS-3 and willing to trade a ES-5 for it straight up. AND he lived very close to me so we met up , made the trade and both left happy.
I still have the ES-5 as I made it work for my setup. I still want the ES-8 as it would free up some shared loops and I could configure differently as needed. But I'm not hot to run out and do it as the ES-5 is awesome. Sometimes simple is better, not always as I have needs for the ES-8.