Boss GX-100

[NoirBass]

New touchscreen multi effects from Boss:

 

https://www.boss.info/global/products/gx-100/

[hookys6stringbass]

Hmmmmm interesting.... 

 

[stewblack]

Looks very nice. £500 according to GAK, but it's not in stock yet.

Boss is an utterly reliable force in the world of effects, so this will tempt many people I'm sure.

[fretmeister]

Only 16 IR slots is annoying a lot of guitarists.

 

And something I hadn't even considered - touch screens are useless for blind players. There's no feedback as to what is where like with physical controls.

A chap on another forum is blind and has really made me realise a lot of the wonderful new toys I get to play with are pretty much unusable for a blind player.

[jimfist]

Yeah, just saw this and it has a lot to offer, especially if you like to deep dive and program very specific things. 

I've heard rumor of pre-order price of $599 US (not to market until late March??), and then a street price of $750 US...not sure how true.

Ultimately I don't think this will be for me, though it has a bunch of features I like.

If I were to next-level-up from the Zoom B6, I'd be going all-in on a Quad Cortex or Fractal FM9....but the GX-100 looks like a winner.

 

[dave_bass5]

Not planning on getting one, but if i did the big killer feature is the ability to use an iPad to control the pedal. This would make life so much easier than how Helix works. 

[Greg Edwards69]

Looks great and a nice form factor.  Take off the expression pedal and this is what the stomp XL should have been.

 

I note no XLR output though. Having independent XLR and 1/4" outputs is one of things stopping me from going to anything smaller than my Helix LT.

[stewblack]

18 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Only 16 IR slots is annoying a lot of guitarists.

 

And something I hadn't even considered - touch screens are useless for blind players. There's no feedback as to what is where like with physical controls.

A chap on another forum is blind and has really made me realise a lot of the wonderful new toys I get to play with are pretty much unusable for a blind player.

Zoom have attempted to address this on the B6

 

[jimfist]

1 hour ago, stewblack said:

Zoom have attempted to address this on the B6

 

 

Yes, using the Guitar Lab Handy App (iOS only), from the B6 product page:

Quote

The first multi-effects processor that allows accessibility for the visually impaired, the Handy Guitar Lab for B6 app features VoiceOver and VoiceOver Gestures.

 

Up to 120 IRs can be loaded on the B6.

[dave_bass5]

20 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Only 16 IR slots is annoying a lot of guitarists.

 

I’d say those are the ones that are over indulging and not a real issue for most. 

[jimfist]

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

I’d say those are the ones that are over indulging and not a real issue for most. 

 

I agree.  This is one of the problems we run into when the whole Impulse Response search is a brand new endeavor. Why the need for so many IR slots?

When one embarks on this search for "their speaker" IR, it can be a daunting task, and for a lot of reasons. 

Many IR providers give you a gazillion options for mic type and location in relation to the speaker.  This, just for one mic selection, can yield a dozen permutations.

Multiply that x 10 different mic types or combinations of mic types. Then multiply this for different "treatments" (to include the Power Amp EQ, or with different mic preamps with their desired tone imprint).

So, for the uninitiated, the tendency is to take a stab at IRs from a few different mics, and load them all onto the device for auditioning.

 

Then add in the notion of using the IR as a means of more basic filtering (think of an IR with HPF at 50Hz and LPF at 4kHz, 24 db/octave slopes, and a mid bump of 3db at 800Hz), and you have a whole other spectrum of possibilities.

 

Thankfully, these days, you can make the process less painful by searching out IR providers who get good reviews (online in forums, etc.) for the type of speaker IR you're looking for.

Easier said than done, and usually in the end, you wind up with maybe a handful of IRs that you'll ever want to use.  Other than the auditioning aspect of needing a ton of IR slots (this may matter in the studio), for live performance, slot count is less important IME.

Edited March 4, 2022 by jimfist

[dave_bass5]

Yes, that's how i feel about them. Good for when you need them, but some people like to harvest them and probably never use 90% of them. 

Considering what they are and what they offer, surely 3-4 would be more than enough, especially if you use EQ. 

[jimfist]

49 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Yes, that's how i feel about them. Good for when you need them, but some people like to harvest them and probably never use 90% of them. 

Considering what they are and what they offer, surely 3-4 would be more than enough, especially if you use EQ. 

 

It does get ridiculous, but evidently there are users who must appreciate massive IR quantities. This from Fractal Audio's FM9 modeler pedal:

Quote

The FM9 also includes the entire Ultra-ResTM cab collection from the Axe-Fx III, with 2,200+ “Factory” cabs including selections from the today’s best producers, plus 1,024 “User” locations for loading your own Impulse Responses (“IRs”).

 

For certain the Fractal Audio crowd is looking for top performance. Is it a different market than the GX-100? Maybe, maybe not. In that context, 16 slots seems incredibly few.

One way around this for Boss is if their editor had a feature that allowed you to audition IRs from a folder on the computer's hard drive, in a sort-of temporary IR slot, without formally loading them onto the pedal. That way you only load IRs that are keepers

[stewblack]

I've found that any new tech seems to attract much displeasure - often before the people decrying it have used it.

Immediately we hear negativity surrounding the design decisions made by whatever company is involved.

Personally I would trust Boss to know what they're doing.

[jimfist]

1 minute ago, stewblack said:

I've found that any new tech seems to attract much displeasure - often before the people decrying it have used it.

Immediately we hear negativity surrounding the design decisions made by whatever company is involved.

Personally I would trust Boss to know what they're doing.

 

Man. It's a tempting pedal. I'm not ripping on Boss, really, but...but, but, but....If only they had included an XLR output and some basic synth modules, I'd probably already have it on pre-order, the new ZOOM B6 be damned (I'd probably keep it and clean house of my B3n AND G4n to make room).

Good times for quality new toys! 

[dave_bass5]

10 minutes ago, stewblack said:

I've found that any new tech seems to attract much displeasure - often before the people decrying it have used it.

Immediately we hear negativity surrounding the design decisions made by whatever company is involved.

Personally I would trust Boss to know what they're doing.

I was going to post the same. 
 

New product announced. Someone posts a link. 
First reactions are good, ‘want’ etc.

Then a few hours later it’s declared a failure as it’s missing something that another pedal has, irrelevant if the person posting needs it or not (and probably will never use it). 

‘doesn’t have direct connection to Hubble telescope, what were they thinking ?’ 😁

 

Big discussion about how it will fail, over priced and out of date. Then someone mentions something in the just released manual, and the mood changes to positive for a while. 
 

Then it comes out. People start to buy it, declare its amazing and it will replace such and such…... 
 

……..Item appears in for sale section 😂

[jimfist]

GEAR

AQUISITION

SYNDROME

[stewblack]

11 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

doesn’t have direct connection to Hubble telescope, what were they thinking ?

It doesn't?? FFS BOSS

[dave_bass5]

24 minutes ago, stewblack said:

It doesn't?? FFS BOSS

Lack of market research as usual. 😎

[stewblack]

Shocking really, especially as the next TC Electronic Plethora update is supposed to fix connectivity issues with the James Webb Telescope.

At least that's what a bloke on Talkbass said.

[dave_bass5]

15 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Shocking really, especially as the next TC Electronic Plethora update is supposed to fix connectivity issues with the James Webb Telescope.

At least that's what a bloke on Talkbass said.

As long as one person says its happening on TB, then thats enough to start a thread on here about it 😎

[Rollin Thunder]

I’m fancying this. Mainly as Helix seem to pretty much stoped doing any Bass specific updates, seems like much more bass stuff on Boss model. Very tempted.
 

But just finally booked a holiday. 

[fretmeister]

On 04/03/2022 at 14:01, dave_bass5 said:

I’d say those are the ones that are over indulging and not a real issue for most. 

I disagree.

 

while a live player might find only 2 or 3 favourites the process of auditioning them is greatly hampered with only 16 slots.

 

Nobody wants to drag a computer to rehearsal just to swap IR in and out for that process.

 

When you buy an IR product you don’t just get 1 file, you get hundreds.

 

Even just for a 4x12 loaded with V30 speakers it will have anywhere up to a dozen microphone options and then for each of them there will be close, medium, far, room mic distances. And then the same again but with the mics on axis and various degrees of off axis.

 

So 12 mics, 4 distances, 3 axis positions. 
 

That’s 144 different IR files just for a solitary 4x12 cab.

 

Only 16 slots would make selecting and narrowing down favourites an enormous hassle.

 

And then do it all again it the player likes a different cab for clean sounds.

 

It’s nothing to do with over indulging and everything to do with practicality and ease of use.

 

[jimfist]

@fretmeister yes, this is the dilemma...the auditioning process.

I guess perhaps we could all agree that "for those who know what IRs they already like, and don't need to search", 16 slots could be plenty.

But you are 100% correct, if one is in the search of auditioning IRs in context at a live rehearsal or recording session, 16 slots wouldn't cut it.

But I also wouldn't want to put my bandmates through the agony of auditioning a dozen IRs during a rehearsal...painful distraction.

A good way to go about this is to get a proper live mix of your band MINUS BASS (bass as a separate dry ISO track), and use this recording to test IRs in a home studio type of setup.

Another funny thing that can happen is people sometimes find that, for bass, they prefer EQ and blended tones to the cabinet IR. Go figure.

[fretmeister]

Home auditioning for live use doesn’t work though. Good tones at home are very different to good live tones.

 

Good old Fletcher-Wotsit curves.