This is what I’ve been waiting for. A polyphonic guitar synth that doesn’t need special pickups and tracks flawlessly. Boss have really delivered and in a very portable package. These days I like my gigging gear as small and light as possible. One trip from the car if possible!
Here’s my YouTube quick demo https://youtu.be/VkQa-fomGIo
The good
The best thing about this pedal is that it just works! You can literally plug and play. But you can also go deeper into the controls and menus to tweak the sounds. The tracking is breathtaking even in polyphony. In my YouTube channel I set the ultimate test of getting the unit to track a twelve string guitar. https://youtu.be/RgMWqHfAYNc
There are a big variety of sounds available, based on good old analogue synth voices. You can choose whether or not to mix in the guitar with the sound.
The new larger sized Boss pedals give far more control and this one is expandable with further foot control and MIDI control.
The bad
I’m sure this technology will evolve but here are my gripes which I hope Boss will address.
Firstly I don’t like the sound through a guitar amp, even with the ‘amp’ setting turned on on the pedal. They sound far better through a full range speaker.
The sounds are only mono.
There are no effects built into the pedal, and most of the sounds benefit from the addition of some extra effects.
You cannot control a midi sound generator from the pedal. This is a shame as you are restricted to the library of sounds in the pedal, although there are a lot of them, as always some are more usable than others.
There’s no computer based app to do deeper editing of this pedal, the usb is simply for updates.
The ugly
Not much to report here. The pedal looks and sounds good. It’s pricey, but not in comparison to what has gone before. It’s highly addictive and should definitely carry a health warning!
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