why dont people like the boss GT-8?

[34029324079]

I mean this thing can do it all. it switches amp channels for you, you can insert an effects loop with all your regular pedals, modded pedals, etc. and you can put your regular pedals anywhere in the effects chain.

so you can get tons of variations and send them to the clean or the dirty channel. pretty nuts.

for instance in one pedal stomp, you can access the clean channel on your amp with reverb, flanger, and chorus.

then in one additional stomp you can toggle to your dirty channel on your amp along with your favorite stomp pedals (in the effects loop through the boss). you could turn on the noisegate.

then in an additional stomp you could get just the distortion of the amp channel itself and raise the amp volume.

one more stomp and you could access the clean channel of your amp with sitar, etc

so i think it would be good for space rock, versatility, etc as long as you have a 2 channel amp.

http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/PRODUCTS/EN/GT-8/


http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/demos/en/GT_IT/index.html

 

[Mincer]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

i have a gt-pro, so i can probably speculate why many people don't like the 8 either.
To be fair, most people haven't really tried them, or tried them breifly at a store. They didn't like the over-processed presets. They hate the idea of modelling an amp (or not using an amp at all). They hate programming (and you have to do *a lot*)...Roland's manuals are terrible. They should read a line6 or Mackie manual and compare...but generally most people who hate the GT series really hate reading manuals, which are essential. No one wants to go through hours of understanding badly translated japanese, much less hours of programming to make a sound like the amp in the corner that has an 'on' switch can make.

Hey, I love mine....but this is the general consensus.

 

[guitarded]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

I use a Rocktron multi-fx rack mount unit, which has a midi input. I also use an axess midi channel switcher for my amp. One stomp gets me whatever amp channel and multi-fx patch I need. You could do this with stomps and a good midi controlled switching unit as well.

I also have a PODXT which is cool, but when I tried inserting it into the loop of my Boogie (modeling disabled/cabs disabled) , all the sweetness added by the preamp section of my Boogie got sucked right out, and my tone was not much better than when I used to occasionally run the PODxt through solid state amps for live performances. I would not imagine the GT-8 being much better, if better at all.

i have a gt-pro, so i can probably speculate why many people don't like the 8 either.
To be fair, most people haven't really tried them, or tried them breifly at a store. They didn't like the over-processed presets. They hate the idea of modelling an amp (or not using an amp at all). They hate programming (and you have to do *a lot*)...Roland's manuals are terrible. They should read a line6 or Mackie manual and compare...but generally most people who hate the GT series really hate reading manuals, which are essential. No one wants to go through hours of understanding badly translated japanese, much less hours of programming to make a sound like the amp in the corner that has an 'on' switch can make.

Hey, I love mine....but this is the general consensus.

 

[I_M_Ken]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

well i tried a gt8 but own the gt6, and i love the gt6, so i cant any reason why one wouldnt like the gt8. well, definitely analog sounds better to most ears, but i like the convenience of multi-efx.

i tried a PODXT Live as well. its a lot easier to configure but i always thought that the distortion on that was a tad dryer sounding, and some of the efx like chorus was alittle too digital for me as compared to the gt-6.

just my two cents.

 

[Loserchief]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

I'd love getting both the GT-8 and the bass version of it to get all my progressive and effect heavy ideas out, but i just can't afford them. But as a former Vetta II owner i have no problem with programming and tweaking for a long time

 

[jeremy]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

i think its a great unit for what it is but i will never use one as i think they sound like poo

a friend of mine has a killer super reverb modded so both channels have reverb and are in phase running el34's and he is a great player, smokes my ass imo. he insists on using that damn gt8, it sucks the soul out of the tone. hes had it for a while and has spent countless hours tweaking the settings. it sounds good but not great by any strech of the imagination. he may be a better player but i can get more applause with one single sustained note, i attribute that to the tone i get being better than his.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

Someone mentioned presets, and I agree ... part of the problem people have with multi fx units is that the presets are always ridiculous.

Line6 stuff is the exception: their factory presets are basically re-creations of famous guitar tones. When you see a preset called "Reelin In The Years" or "Streets Have No Name", you pretty much know what to expect.

 

[guitarded]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

I'd love getting both the GT-8 and the bass version of it to get all my progressive and effect heavy ideas out, but i just can't afford them. But as a former Vetta II owner i have no problem with programming and tweaking for a long time

The Vetta was Modeling as good as it gets to my ears. No comparison to a PODxt even though Line 6 maintains that the PODxt is built on the same technology. I dunno though....... it seems everyone who is all for Modeling today, are the same people voicing their frustrations on all the forums when they finally hit all the caveats involved. I am sure some day, it will be main stream, but it is not quite ready yet. Almost though....

It really was nice being able to fit my rig in a single backpack for the few gigs I did with the PODxt. If they could get it closer to the real thing, I would be happy to try it again.

 

[34029324079]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

this thing is pretty insane if you want loops & amp channel toggling in one single button, and no digital:

http://www.axetopia.com/news/06_08/Gizmo_Looper.html

http://www.rjmmusic.com/loopgizmo.php

 

[guitarded]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

Well the problem is partly because, you could set up a patch that sounds great under certain conditions..... amp, guitar, pickups, etc..... and it could sound horrible with a different set.

Someone mentioned presets, and I agree ... part of the problem people have with multi fx units is that the presets are always ridiculous.

Line6 stuff is the exception: their factory presets are basically re-creations of famous guitar tones. When you see a preset called "Reelin In The Years" or "Streets Have No Name", you pretty much know what to expect.

 

[Philcguitars]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

Because it took me long enough to make my GT-6 work! I still don't think I have it all figured out!

If I come into money I'm just buying loads of pedals and taking them straight to Pete Cornish!

 

[34029324079]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

One pedal to rule them all, One pedal to find them,: One pedal to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

 

[34029324079]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

not that Im gonna get a boss GT-8 any time soon but you could just use it to switch between amp channels only.

in certain rare instances, you could use your effects loop for the loads of pedals you already have (ie if you have a modded big muff, modded rat, and an expensive Meathead) and take them completely out of the chain when not in use via the GT-8. and, for novelty you could use the remaining BossGT-8 effects like sitar/space-rock.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

i think its a great unit for what it is but i will never use one as i think they sound like poo

a friend of mine has a killer super reverb modded so both channels have reverb and are in phase running el34's and he is a great player, smokes my ass imo. he insists on using that damn gt8, it sucks the soul out of the tone. hes had it for a while and has spent countless hours tweaking the settings. it sounds good but not great by any strech of the imagination. he may be a better player but i can get more applause with one single sustained note, i attribute that to the tone i get being better than his.

That pretty much sums it up. Over the years I've seen dozens of players with decent rigs ruin their sound by throwing some multifx on the floor. The only time I've seen one used well was a guy in a live drum'n'bass band, and he was basically using it to sound as little like a guitar as possible. His bass player and singer(!) also had multifx units. The drummer didn't, though.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

Well the problem is partly because, you could set up a patch that sounds great under certain conditions..... amp, guitar, pickups, etc..... and it could sound horrible with a different set.

NO, it's not that at all. They make these totally over-the-top presets with chorus, flange, delay that feeds back until the heat death of the universe, and hall reverb cranked all the way up. I had a BOSS ME-6 and nearly every preset was a variation of that ... gobs of effects layered on with a fire hose.

Their instincts seem to be to show off everything the product can do with no regard for whether or not that's a good tone.

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

Just because a unit can do alot doesn't mean you should nor does it sound good doing it.

Every time I see one at a gig on the floor the player ends up being a real effects nut; every song has some special effect that he has programmed just for that.

For the listener, that gets tiring...just get it to sound good and keep it there!

I think it's one of the reasons I like Line 6 gear a little more. There are a slew of amps in my PodXT and XT Live but I spent an entire night using JUST their Plexi patch with a Bad Monkey in the chain. That was it. That one patch was enough to get me through a three set night where I didn't even touch anything but the Bad Monkey for boost during solos.

 

[Mincer]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

for me, it depends on the kind of music...i do jazzy blues, like 40's-50s era...for that I use a Bad Monkey and a Mesa Blue Angel.

For the ambient music, where I mix guitar, guitar synth, and loops together, I use the GT-Pro. It resides in the rack, which I don't bring out to the other gigs. My presets mostly don't even sound like a guitar, so I am not after classic sounds- it is plugged direct to a mixer then a full range amp, so I can mix it with the synth and not have to bring out a separate guitar amp. It is a wonderful device for this application (and the PC editor absolutely rocks), but I don't use it for classic sounds, so I don't know what it is like in that context.

 

[rainsong86]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

I love and hate my GT-8.. at first it took the joy out of playing... but once I got it figured out I was able to put it in "manual" mode which basically puts up to 6 stompboxes in front of you (FX-1, FX-2, chorus, delay, reverb, compressor).. of course I use it in patch/bank mode (about a bank for each song, giving me 4 settings for each song) I think the G system WOULD be perfect if it worked (and I mean it often just doesn't work).. it's 1500 but that's not much when you compare it to a G Force, effects looper, and floorboard.. I'm perfectly content with the GT-8 though.. it would be nice if it had multiple loops (there's only one) like the G System so that I could put my pedals anywhere in the loop.. also it only has 1 relay for switching.. so if you have any more than 2 channels or any more than one function to turn on/off then you have to use something like an Acess CFX4 MIDI relay switcher

if I didn't succumb to multi-effects then I would spend a fortune on multiple stomp-boxes, a GCX loop switcher, and a floorboard (probably Ground Control Pro)

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

I mean this thing can do it all. it switches amp channels for you, you can insert an effects loop with all your regular pedals, modded pedals, etc. and you can put your regular pedals anywhere in the effects chain.

so you can get tons of variations and send them to the clean or the dirty channel. pretty nuts.

for instance in one pedal stomp, you can access the clean channel on your amp with reverb, flanger, and chorus.

then in one additional stomp you can toggle to your dirty channel on your amp along with your favorite stomp pedals (in the effects loop through the boss). you could turn on the noisegate.

then in an additional stomp you could get just the distortion of the amp channel itself and raise the amp volume.

one more stomp and you could access the clean channel of your amp with sitar, etc

so i think it would be good for space rock, versatility, etc as long as you have a 2 channel amp.

http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/PRODUCTS/EN/GT-8/


http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/demos/en/GT_IT/index.html

Pretty nuts. However, my friend had one. His main gripes were complexity of editing patches, the expression pedal has a short throw (feels unnatural). To me, my gripe was amp modelling. However, it's a good multi. I tried his a couple times, just wasn't for me.

 

[Philcguitars]

Re: why dont people like the boss GT-8?

Maybe I missed a step in programming protocol, but on my GT-6, when I tried using the effect loop it switched everything I had patched in the GT-6 off, and only the Loop pedals worked.

So now I put the pedals through the amp loop.

This is one of the things that frustrate.