BOSS ME90B (here at last)

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

Very odd. I haven't had this before. 

 

That is concerning. Mine has be fault free, except the time I got the wrong jack socket for the input, then it didn't work so well!

[Big Low End]

5 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

Odd experience with this pedal. It just went silent a few songs into its first gig last night. There were all sorts of tech issues going on so I just went bass straight into amp via cable only to the end. Tested the boss this morning and odd behaviours continued. It worked in manual mode so I tinkered around changing effects and stuff just to see if any problems flared up. Then the compressor wouldn't switch on, but the light above the description part was on, when I pressed the foot switch the light only came on until I released the switch. Odd. I changed the compressor type and it was fine, then changed back to the one I wanted, fine again. Very odd. I haven't had this before. 

Sounds like it might have Windows 98 running inside. 😳

[uk_lefty]

17 hours ago, Big Low End said:

Sounds like it might have Windows 98 running inside. 😳

I'm going to plug it into the laptop tonight to see if there's a firmware update needed. All of the issues seem to be on the compressor side which is really annoying! I've got loads of gigs coming up, I can't really afford to be without something and I sold off all my individual pedals... 

[Big Low End]

10 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

I'm going to plug it into the laptop tonight to see if there's a firmware update needed. All of the issues seem to be on the compressor side which is really annoying! I've got loads of gigs coming up, I can't really afford to be without something and I sold off all my individual pedals... 

Best of luck, it might just be something like firmware. Please let us know how you get on.

[uk_lefty]

Ran a firmware update... Haven't had the same problems since. Also tinkered through the presets tonight and looked at the Tone Library thingy. Some good presets on there, hidden amongst loads of sound effects. 

 

Overall I have to say that the old GT10-B was "better". It had tons of very usable presets and was infinitely programmable. The ME90-B is very good, I still need to get more under the skin of it, but busy gig and home schedules mean I just need it ready to go. More to discover with this, I'm sure. But for Saturday I just need a good core tone, a good overdrive, and some chorus and delay.

[Woodinblack]

I have the same 4 presets that I play with all the time, they are modified versions of the basic presents in P1, so plain bass, bass with distortion, bass with chorus and auto wah. Problem is I had noticed on gigs, the 2nd one, the distortion one caused the bass to drop out a bit, so before tonights gigI thought I would modify them. I noticed (good for not reading the manual) the ctrl pedal mode, ideal, I can have my pedal 2 just for whole lotta love, so a lot of overdrive and echo on the ctrl pedal. So I read the manual on setting the control panel.

I am generally very good at these things, even following instructions if I need to, but if I was going to try and hide some functionality someway I would use bosses example as a guide - it is next to impenetrable how to do this from the unit itself. Yes, I got it done in the end, but more by guessing and luck than following the instructions!

[stewblack]

7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I have the same 4 presets that I play with all the time, they are modified versions of the basic presents in P1, so plain bass, bass with distortion, bass with chorus and auto wah. Problem is I had noticed on gigs, the 2nd one, the distortion one caused the bass to drop out a bit, so before tonights gigI thought I would modify them. I noticed (good for not reading the manual) the ctrl pedal mode, ideal, I can have my pedal 2 just for whole lotta love, so a lot of overdrive and echo on the ctrl pedal. So I read the manual on setting the control panel.

I am generally very good at these things, even following instructions if I need to, but if I was going to try and hide some functionality someway I would use bosses example as a guide - it is next to impenetrable how to do this from the unit itself. Yes, I got it done in the end, but more by guessing and luck than following the instructions!

Can you explain what you discovered? Or if it's easier to show me we could maybe bring them to the SWBB?

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, stewblack said:

Can you explain what you discovered? Or if it's easier to show me we could maybe bring them to the SWBB?

 

Probably easier to show, although I think I could explain it better than the boss manual!

[uk_lefty]

More updates... I'm getting used to this now. I still haven't programmed any presets of my own and probably should. 

 

Good points: the sheer simplicity and having physical knobs and written descriptions is good for me. I can really quickly tweak my effect type, e.g. from one overdrive sound to another, in between songs. Using the foot pedals for on/ off for particular effects is great. It's easy to see on stage, simple to use, and sounds very good. I've not yet used it for DI out though, still using in front of a physical amp. I have some nice amps so I'm not using the amp SIM. I might be brave at my next gig and go DI from the pedal just to see what happens. Combining fuzz and chorus makes a nice synth sound too.

 

Bad points: it's so easy to roll the knobs off the desired setting when lifting this in and out the Roland backpack. If the unit is off this doesn't change anything, so you can power on and still have the same settings as when you switched off, but as soon as you start disengaging and re-engaging effects the settings change to the knob setting. Without using presets I just have to remember some things such as the level value for the distortion bank needs to be at 33. This is no big hardship, really. 

I find the Bluetooth connection to my phone really hit and miss. I managed to change some settings but it's often unreliable and I don't have the patience for it.

 

So far, when rehearsing or gigging, the sound quality has very little perceptible difference to my individual effects. No more mini jacks and 9v cables and interference noises is a huge bonus. I think for the amount of faff there is with individual pedals it's just not worth it. While I could enjoy the more complex digital effects if I had the time on my life to program and explore them, I think I'm happy with the ME90-B as a swiss army knife gigging tool.

[Woodinblack]

16 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

Bad points: it's so easy to roll the knobs off the desired setting when lifting this in and out the Roland backpack. If the unit is off this doesn't change anything, so you can power on and still have the same settings as when you switched off, but as soon as you start disengaging and re-engaging effects the settings change to the knob setting. Without using presets I just have to remember some things such as the level value for the distortion bank needs to be at 33. This is no big hardship, really. 

I find the Bluetooth connection to my phone really hit and miss. I managed to change some settings but it's often unreliable and I don't have the patience for it.

 

If you store your current setup as a preset (even if you are not using it as a preset), when you switch it in pedal mode, no matter what the current position of the knobs, it will be whatever you had set, even when you turn sections on or off, until you actually move the knobs themselves, and if you do, you can work out what they were by holding edit and turning the knob until its right

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

More updates... I'm getting used to this now. I still haven't programmed any presets of my own and probably should. 

 

I don't get this. I'm always pleasantly surprised if there is a preset or two on a programmable effects unit or synth that gets close to a sound that I want, but I always assume that first thing I'm going to have to do is to make a basic default patch that I can use as a starting point for all my other sounds. Without this the device is essentially unusable.

[Woodinblack]

I use the first and 4th default preset in my presets almost as they were as they were very close to what I wanted.

To be fair, the first preset is almost entirely straight through with just a bit of an amp model (as I go into the DI of the PA), and the 4th worked well for 1 song.

The only change I made to it was adding an overdrive to the ctrl mode.

[uk_lefty]

3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Without this the device is essentially unusable

It's perfectly usable... All you need to do is turn the relevant knob to what effect you want then step on a button to engage it, tweak from there. 

[tauzero]

2 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

It's perfectly usable... All you need to do is turn the relevant knob to what effect you want then step on a button to engage it, tweak from there. 

 

But what's the point in having a digital multiFX if you don't use the one thing that sets it aside from a pedalboard of analogue effects?

[uk_lefty]

24 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

But what's the point in having a digital multiFX if you don't use the one thing that sets it aside from a pedalboard of analogue effects?

Because in it's most simple form having it all on one single unit removes several points of failure, and allows me to experiment with effects I might not stick with or might not want to buy. Over time I will do presets, etc. but from the plug n play perspective it's a good halfway (not halfway as such but a few steps towards maybe) house between the all powerful mega FX units and loads of separates.

[Woodinblack]

I must admit that having a HXFX which was way more powerful than the ME90B, I explore the 90b more, it is much more immediate, like separate effects without all the faff, but also much more restrictive, which concentrates the mind on what you actually want. I mean I would still like to use my Mod Dwarf if bass direct ever return it (to be fair they have only had it since march), but I think when I get that back I will probably stick with the 90b.

[tonybostony]

I just got one - and it's a nice-sounding unit. The only thing is I cannot figure out how to get the expression pedal going to something other than volume. The selection knob advances numbers corresponding to its built-in uses, but only volume works. The indicator (ON) Light does not turn on either. Seems like a glitch, since others have not figured it out either in my poking around forums. 

[Woodinblack]

There is a knob that turns to say what the pedal is (obviously pre-set if you use a patch). You press the toe end of the pedal down (pretty hard), and then you just use it as what you set it to. I generally have mine on wah, I only tend to use it on 'funky music'

[eude]

7 hours ago, tonybostony said:

I just got one - and it's a nice-sounding unit. The only thing is I cannot figure out how to get the expression pedal going to something other than volume. The selection knob advances numbers corresponding to its built-in uses, but only volume works. The indicator (ON) Light does not turn on either. Seems like a glitch, since others have not figured it out either in my poking around forums. 

I found that you need to really mean it when you engage the expression pedal, press hard on the top of it, and it should work.

I was using mine sat down for the first two times I used it and thought mine wasn't working too, standing over it and pressing a little harder made it engage just fine.

 

Hope the above helps!

[VincentNolan]

I got this unit a month ago and always used with headphones so far. I tested this with an amp for the first time last weekend. It was hartke ha2500. I plugged via return input to be able to use amp sims of boss. But the sound was extremely thin and lacked low-end. That really disappointed me. I in fact just want to have the same similar base sound independent from the studio or live hall environment. What is the ideal connection case of this device to an amp ? Input from the return jack of amp? which option to select from me90b in this case, line or amp ? or should directly plug in via input as if connect to amp without processor? In that case should I stop using amp/preamp function of me90b? Simply looking for the best satisfactory connection case and I don't have a chance to make playarounds with different amps. 
I like to use drive bass or studio bass as ampsim depends on the song. And I use m-comp, chorus, plate reverb, octave, envelope filter, distortion, overdrive depends on my needs.

[Woodinblack]

4 hours ago, VincentNolan said:

I got this unit a month ago and always used with headphones so far. I tested this with an amp for the first time last weekend. It was hartke ha2500. I plugged via return input to be able to use amp sims of boss. But the sound was extremely thin and lacked low-end. That really disappointed me. I in fact just want to have the same similar base sound independent from the studio or live hall environment.

 

It will be - return is expecting a line level wheras the output of the boss is instrument level, designed to go into the preamp input, not the power amp input. To make that work you need to tell the boss that you want it to be line level. There is a switch to do that somewhere that I don't remember off hand. Download the manual and search for line level