Boss ES-8 Effects Switching System

Bien construido, de fácil uso (una interfaz muy intuitiva y con la que te haces a los pocos minutos) y muy flexible. Permite crear patchs con las combinaciones de pedales que se deseen e incluso en el orden que se quieran, y todo ello sin percibir retardos ni ruidos al pulsar los interruptores para cambiar los patchs. Además, con las salidas CTL he podido controlar los canales y el SOLO de mi Mesa Boogie (utilizando las entradas de foot switch del ampli) e incluso pedales que disponen también de entradas para pedal de expresión o FX link, con lo que la versatilidad y el control que consigo con el ES-8 es brutal, y todo pulsando un único interruptor. Las funciones MIDI aun no las he probado, espero hacerlo en breve con el pedal de Reverb Big Sky, pero parece sencillo de programar. Puede parecer un equipo caro pero no si lo comparas por ejemplo con el TheGigRig G2.
Por poner dos peros, el primero es que echo en falta una conexión USB y una APP en la que hacer backups de mis patchs y bancos, el segundo, las salidas CTL están activas cuando las desactivas en la interfaz del ES-8 (lógica inversa).

Awesome!

This product has Boss renown build quality and so far in the short time of use, it has ticked every single box of my requirements. Not too heavy in weight either which is a plus side for big boards like my current application.

There's also a lot more feature that I still have to read up on, a Hard copy of the manual included as standard along with mounting screws and rubber feet for all you pedal board junkies out there.

Switching patches and modes is seamless and the audio quality is not degraded when switching. Input/Output buffers can be disabled but so far I haven't seen this on a per loop basis. Plenty of patches and banks available for any configuration you like. Would have liked some form of external editor in case you need to archive all 800 of them. I have read that data can be dumped via midi but haven't tested this yet, maybe it can be dumped back in.

Re-order your pedals on the fly - Big tick!!!, no more manual re-patching of the cables either.

The unit comes with a EU version of the Boss PSU to power the unit so (UK Customers) I would recommend sourcing a UK version of the PSU - Thomann did supply a free UK/EU adaptor plug but the PSU does not fit correctly into this. (Aperture is too small on the adaptor)

A good read of the manual and playing with at least two pedals on a desk before attempting anything is well recommended. I am an audio techie by trade and the features I'm still finding you can do with this unit are continuing to blow me away.

I was a little apprehensive about the price to start with but in comparison to other 'switcher' units on the market in relation to price, i think the feature set you get is definitely worth the £E$....

With this thing I can control all my pedals and my rack effects at the same time, plus my preamps!
The only thing that I do not like is that when you use the parallel routing feature the signal level drops drastically. The 6dB internal boost is not enough to rise the level back to normal, so I have to use a stereo EQ after the outputs as a booster (switched on by the ES-8 only on the needed patches).

Aside from that, it is a great piece of gear, I only want more stereo loops...