Help!!! Please :-) : Loop Switchers, amp channel switching and midi

Teetonetal

TimmyO;936262" said:

Teetonetal said:

So everytime i bring up the es8 in these threads they are always shunned and no one agrees with me.



I don't get it. It's a gobsmacking piece of gear and a good price. Is it just because it's boss?



Otherwise what's the deal breaker? I don't see it.





I've just watched a couple of videos on it - I think I prefer its features actually - having names for patches and being able to move the order of loops around and/or parallel them within a patch is great functionality. I'd use that more than pre/post gain.

Yup that's the bit that sells it for me. Adding trails to old reverb and delays is huge!

rossyamaha

Teetonetal said:

So everytime i bring up the es8 in these threads they are always shunned and no one agrees with me.

I don't get it. It's a gobsmacking piece of gear and a good price. Is it just because it's boss?

Otherwise what's the deal breaker? I don't see it.

The ES-8 is a great piece of kit. In the loop switcher world it's up there on feature set and the price is great. When it comes to G2, I think time and time again, Gigrig has proved it's got the edge. There will undoubtedly be snobbery against Boss but the ES-8 is well built (as is everything they do) so really a bit silly. 

As far as I can see it's all down to marketing and what circles you mix in. Gigrig, Musicom Lab, RJM and Voodoo Lab all live in the world of sniffing corks. That adds kudos. It adds class. It's all crap but it does and therefore those unit's will always be more desirable that the Boss because they don't actively target that audience. Some of it is in the head, some of it is fact. The fact of the matter is G2 is the best unit out there for this on pretty much every level. The only real argument against it is cosmetics/ form factor. 

ES-8 is still fairly new as well though. Other brands have more market share already and Boss came into the world pretty late on so there is always going to be an amount of ground to make up. Also, as far as I can see, when you buy a switcher, unless you need it to do something that your already doesn't do, you're probably not going to upgrade. I did but I upgraded from a Gigrig Midi14 to the G2. Smaller and did more stuff I wanted to do. Nothing at all wrong with the ES-8 or any of the others for that matter. It all comes down to personal choice and I guess, as we have seen from this thread, recommendations from people already using it. 

timmysoft

TimmyO;936265" said:

Then there's the G-Lab GSC-4 too which has a lovely colour display 

http://www.glab.com.pl/gsc-4_en

I have the gsc1 and I think it's phenomenal for the price! I'd love to upgrade to the 4 but I can't really justify it at the moment

Teetonetal

I totally get the g2 gig rig love and if I was a pro touring musician or demonstrator it's what I would buy.

If I had only boutique fx amps and guitars it's what I would buy.

If I need 10 loops it's what I would buy.

But the es8 is 300 gbp cheaper. That's a lot. 8 loops. Full midi. Order switching and parallel mixing.. and being boss it's as well made as any other production pedal. Surely it's enough for 70% of all users that require switchers.

Even Tgp love it.

And yet it doesn't seem to get any love on here. Just find it odd.

Has gig rig updated the G2 for pedal order yet. I recall that when the es8 was announced they said the G2 would be updated to match. That was 8 months ago I think?

rossyamaha

Not sure about the order switching. I need to speak to Dan about a few things so will ask him. I'm still on the original version. I will upgrade even though I don't actually need to. 

I'm sure ES-8 will grown in popularity as the loop switcher market grows. And it is growing. There is one thing the ES-8 (and other units have) that I wish could be added to G2 and thats a patch readout. 

For me it's not about being a professional touring musician so need the best. My gear is generally quite modest but I do need it to be reliable. Gigrig stuff is rock solid. So is Boss. I would have seriously considered ES-8 had it been around when I got the G2. Sometimes it really does come down to price. When ES-8 was launched it was always going to have an impact on other brands switchers because the feature set was so good and the price is silly for what it does. Add to that Boss reliability and you have a really good product proposition. Like I said, so much of this is down to marketing. As more people use it, it will get more love. And more people will use it becuae they don't see the point in spending the extra on a G2 when Es-8 does what they need cheaper. In the same way there are other units that do the job cheaper. It's all relative really. 

hotpickups

I use switchers from:-

http://www.disasterareaamps.com

Works great for me and small

iain_psb

No buyers remorse this morning after pulling the trigger. Spoke to Mark at hotrox about it and added a cinco cinco to the order. Got the last one. Over the moon! And even Newcastle are winning at the moment... What a wonderful day!

iain_psb

I should keep my mouth shut following that defensive calamity!

cbellanga

TimmyO said:

cbellanga said:

That's what I'm using - midi, 2 channel switching + 6 loops. Very compact and has a screen for the patch names:

Hmm - @cbellanga what's the depth of that from the front of the switcher to the back of the jacks going in to the H9s ?

95mm

TimmyO

cbellanga said:

TimmyO said:

cbellanga said:

That's what I'm using - midi, 2 channel switching + 6 loops. Very compact and has a screen for the patch names:

Hmm - @cbellanga what's the depth of that from the front of the switcher to the back of the jacks going in to the H9s ?

95mm

Cheers :-) 

moz91

Have a look at buzz electronics, i seriously cant recommend them enough!
I've just had a switcher built that controls 4 amp controls (channels, drive, boost, MV), and has 3 loops. One of the loops has its own FX loop; this is for a delay pedal that goes in my amps loop. The other 2 loops are sat infront of the amp. He does stuff to order and will customise prettymuch anything you want.

At a quick glance; i'd say you could get an 8 loop version of this with a couple of extra jacks on it for your channel switching. This is definitely close, but he'll do allsorts of custom work so i'm sure its do-able. Really helpful bloke too

http://buzzelectronics.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=80_81&product_id=126

moz91

Try this
http://buzzelectronics.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=18_69&product_id=130

hotpickups

I must admit I very nearly went the Buzz electronics route but somehow my communication with him got quite strained when I asked him to explain to me how to select banks on a Strymon and he couldn't explain it to me in a way I could understand.  It all became impossible for me to buy and sounded really complicated – if only he had some videos online somewhere. Hence I went for the Disaster Area switcher which is so easy to programme like a Gig Rig G2 IMO (half the price though). It could've been just me though

cbellanga

Maybe it's not relevant anymore but Boss has just launched the ES-5: http://www.bossus.com/products/es-5/

Very expensive though!

robinbowes

Teetonetal said:

Has gig rig updated the G2 for pedal order yet. I recall that when the es8 was announced they said the G2 would be updated to match. That was 8 months ago I think?

Teetonetal

@robinbowes already put a thread up on it. 22 gbp though th upgrade as you have to swap a chip.

robinbowes

Teetonetal said:

@robinbowes already put a thread up on it. 22 gbp though th upgrade as you have to swap a chip.

Indeed - this is my 2nd paid firmware upgrade (I've had a couple of free ones too).

R.

sgosden

Wow, the buzz stuff looks like its exactly what i'm looking for!

Been looking for a multi switching / midi solution for a while now.

fingers crossed it does the all singing and dancing magic i want :P