From one of the biggest names in effects pedals comes the GT-5 Guitar Effects Processor. Paul White finds out who's Boss.

Ever since the first fuzz boxes and tape echo units became available in the early 1960s, guitarists have shown a great affinity for effects pedals — the vast range of sounds that can be coaxed from the electric guitar using effects must have some bearing on its enduring popularity in contemporary music. Unfortunately, buying a dedicated pedal for every effect you might need is very expensive. It also leaves the stage full of wires and boxes, and every time you want to change an effect setting, you have to bend down, giving the drummer a glimpse of your builder's cleavage. Today's audience expects a slick show, and bending down to fiddle with delay settings or flanger depths doesn't rate too highly in the entertainment stakes. Programmable effects units make a lot more sense: you can perfect all your effects combinations in advance, you can simplify your stage setup considerably, and you can probably save money too.

Boss remains one of the biggest, if not the biggest, names in effects pedals, so the expectations from anything they produce in this line are bound to be high. What's more, Roland, Boss's parent company, were the first to introduce physical modelling into the world of guitar effects, and their COSM modelling technology features in the Boss GT-5 (see 'COSM Explained' box).

FLOOR SHOW

Physically, the Boss GT-5 is reassuringly solid, made from steel plate, and fitted with the same tough plastic switches used on previous Boss and Roland floor units. Power comes from a captive mains lead, not an annoying separate PSU. In addition to the pedals used for selecting effects, there is a real-time control switch and a real-time control pedal, the latter being useful for wah effects and suchlike.

A combination of analogue overdrive and digital preamp technology is used at the front end to provide a wide range of both clean and overdriven sound textures, while all the following effects are fully digital. The sound output can be taken in either mono or stereo, and there is also a phones output, useful for practice. Unlike most other multi-effects boxes I've tried, the Boss GT-5 also allows you to select what type of amplification system you're using so that its internal circuitry can compensate for your amp's influence on the sound. For example, you can tell the Boss GT-5 whether you use a combo, a stack, or whether you want to DI using the in-built amp/speaker simulator.

The effects menu offers 28 different types, including high quality stereo reverb, delay, all the usual modulation effects, and pitch shifting. On top of that, you get acoustic guitar simulation, wah effects with a choice of conventional or vowel filter sounds, sound-on-sound layering, and a limited number of guitar synth style treatments, courtesy of the HRM process originally used in Roland's VG-8 system.

Because overdrive guitar sounds are especially important to today's players, the preamp section offers an incredible range of 'virtual amplifier' types, EQ, and overdrive characteristics. What's more, not only can the effects be patched in different orders, but the GT-5 can also output MIDI data for program change and control change to enable external MIDI devices to be controlled. An input gain trim on the rear panel allows the circuit gain to be matched to any type of guitar pick-up, while an output level control provides matching to the following amplifier or mixer. A front panel overload LED warns if the input gain is set too high.

A glance at the front of the unit shows the controls to be fairly logically set out, with five numbered footswitches, a single Control switch, a Bank switch, and an expression pedal. Two rear panel sockets are provided for the connection of further expression pedals, and effects loop jacks allow an external processor to be integrated into the on-board patches. A large data entry knob is used for patch editing, and separate buttons with integral status LEDs denote which effects are currently active. These buttons also provide direct access to that effect for editing.

One extremely friendly touch is that when you go into edit mode, you can either fiddle with all the available parameters in the usual way, or you can choose from a menu of preset versions of the effect. The presets are great if you're in a hurry or if you're still getting familiar with the machine and want to take things a step at a time. Arrow shaped parameter buttons navigate through the editable parameters, and the dial changes the parameter values.

Five banks of five sounds may be accessed directly from the switches, giving a choice of 25 patches. There are ten Groups of banks, giving access to a total of 250 patches altogether. Switching groups is accomplished by pressing the Group button, but as this results in a repeat of the workman's bum performance, it makes sense to organise all your show patches in one Group or arrange for external MIDI switching of some kind.

The first four groups may be overwritten with user patches, while the remaining six banks are presets. As supplied, the user banks contain copies of some of the presets. Both the bank and patch number must be selected before the current sound is replaced by one from another bank. The global set-up mode allows patch access to be made immediate if desired, and a Bypass button automatically brings up the on-board guitar tuner. It is also possible to set the Controller switch to act as a foot bypass if needed.

EFFECTIVE ORGANISATION

When you create an effects patch, not only are all the settings of the various effects blocks stored, but also the order in which the blocks are connected, the output level setting, any settings relating to the Expression and Control pedals, and a patch name of up to 11 characters. Patches may be copied from the preset banks to the user location for further editing. As mentioned earlier, the preset 'quick settings' provided within each effect allow you to choose a suitable off-the-peg version of the effect if you don't want anything too out of the ordinary.

Setting the order in which the effects appear is simply a matter of entering the Master mode, navigating to the 'effects order' part of the menu, then pressing the buttons of the effects you want, in the order you want them. No attempt has been made to prevent unlikely or plain silly orders being set up, so your creativity can happily extend to effects abuse if that's your thing!

The internal pedal system may be targeted to control a number of parameters including volume wah, pitch shift, delay tempo, and suchlike. It is also possible to edit the range of the pedal so the results work between sensible limits. Likewise, the Control switch may be set to switch a number of functions including MIDI Start/Stop, MMC Play/Stop, Bypass, and so on.

IN EFFECT

As the effects blocks within the Boss GT-5 are organised as 'virtual' effects pedals, it makes sense to treat them as individual items, both when programming, and when describing the effects they produce. The row of switches starts off with the Feedbacker/Slow Gear module — both of which are familiar to Boss pedal users. You can select one effect or the other, but not both. Feedbacker is a piece of electronic sleight of hand designed to emulate a sustained feedback note. The trick is to play a note, stamp on the C switch, and wait for the simulated overtone to come in. I say simulated, because once the pedal is pressed, you can't change the note or add vibrato to it — it just keeps on going until either you take your foot off the pedal or the unit rusts! Even so, the illusion is very convincing.

Slow Gear creates a reversed or bowed effect by slowing down the attack of the guitar sound. Both the sensitivity and rise time can be adjusted. When used in combination with some of the other effects, it can create some wonderfully surreal textures.

Compressor/Limiter, which may be switched to operate in either mode, provides control over sustain, attack time, and tone as well as level in compressor mode, and threshold, release, tone, and level in limiter mode. This section is most useful for adding sustain to clean sounds or for smoothing out rhythm sounds, but it's also useful to combine compression with mild overdrive to get long sustain without too much distortion.

Wah needs little introduction as an effect, but here you can choose from auto-wah triggered by picking the guitar, or pedal wah. Among the parameters that can be controlled are sweep direction and peakiness of the sound. Loop isn't an effect as such, but still forms part of a patch. Here you set whether the device connected to the rear panel Loop sockets is bypassed or not. It's also possible to set the send level.

"All the routine effects work superbly, and for the odd spot of weirdness, the Slow Gear effect treated with lashings of delay is quite wonderful."

Overdrive is where things start to get interesting. This section is able to imitate a whole selection of Boss pedals to produce natural, vintage or turbo overdrive sounds as well as blues, crunch, two distortions, grunge, two metal settings, fuzz, and two custom overdrive options, each of which provides separate control over bass and treble as well as drive and level.

Next comes the Preamp section, which is where the power of physical modelling is brought to bear. Here you choose your imaginary guitar amp for the patch. The choices include Roland's own JC120, Clean Twin, Crunch, Match Drive, Voxy Drive, Blues, BG Lead, MS1959 (input I, II, or both at once), SLDN Lead, Metal 5150, Metal Drive, Custom Pre I, and Custom Pre II. In spite of the cryptic abbreviations, there's little difficulty in figuring out which amps are alluded to in these settings. Once you've picked your imaginary amp, you can choose settings for the imaginary volume, bass, middle, treble, presence, master, bright and gain controls.

No amplifier sounds its best without being connected to a loudspeaker, and in the Speaker Simulation section, there are 14 different cabinet types from which to choose, starting with a small 10-inch cab and working up to a dual 4x12 stack. To take things one step further, you can then choose how far off the centre of the speaker the imaginary recording or PA mic would be. Although the speaker simulator is programmed within individual patches, it can also be changed globally so as to turn it on for all patches, off for all patches, or to operate as programmed within each individual patch — nice move. As if EQ in the overdrive section and EQ in the preamp section wasn't enough, the separate EQ section provides four bands of studio-type EQ with two parametric mid controls and shelving high and low controls.

The Modulation section of the Boss GT-5 includes the full arsenal of phase, flange, and vibrato effects (chorus has its own section). There is also an intelligent harmonist, which can automatically add musically meaningful one or two-voice harmonies to whatever major or minor key you give it — you can even program your own harmonies if you have the patience. The phaser provides several flavours, from mild to violently resonant, and a step feature creates synth-like stepped filter effects. Less usual are the comprehensive Sub Equaliser option, a short 'doubling' delay, and the novel Humanizer. The latter, which may also be driven by the pedal, is like an auto wah using human vowel formants as filters. Also slightly quirky is the Ring Modulator where a tunable internal oscillator modulates the input to produce discordant metallic tones, ranging from gamelan effects to something akin to a Dalek swallowing a scaffold pole.

Acoustic guitar simulation is also to be found in this section, with controls for the top end brightness and low end body. Using a Strat, the output was very much like what you'd expect from an acoustic guitar with a pick-up or piezo bug fitted.

When Guitar Synth is selected, there's a choice of four basic waveforms. The first two are square and saw, derived from a mono input making clean picking important. The Brass and Bow timbres process the guitar waveform itself by modifying the attack characteristics and applying filtering. With the mono square and saw settings, you can also switch to a chromatic mode and apply octave shifts. In the case of square only, you can apply synth type pulse width modulation to give a chorus-like effect. A synth style resonant filter completes the illusion, but you do have to play quite carefully to avoid tracking problems, especially on the higher reaches of the top couple of strings.

Although there is a short delay option in the previously covered Modulation block, there's also a full-strength, two-tap, separate Delay section. This goes up to a respectable 1.8 seconds with high cut filtering and a hold function to freeze a loop of sound indefinitely. This can be recorded over to build up complex layers of sound, while delay times may also be tapped in by foot to set up tempo-related delays during performance.

Chorus is an important effect, and in the case of the Boss GT-5, it doesn't come wrapped up in some other, either/or section — it gets a whole block to itself. Both mono and stereo versions are on offer, along with all the usual rate, depth, pre-delay, and filter controls. This is very reminiscent of the old Boss CE-2 blue chorus pedal, but with the benefit of true stereo operation. Tremolo and Pan share a section, producing the expected results (but pan is only meaningful if you have a stereo amp setup); Reverb lays on the full spread of Room, Hall, and Plate emulations, but curiously, no dedicated reverse option. Pre-delay, decay time, and density are adjustable, as is the low and high filtering.

Finally comes the Master Level setting and the Noise Suppressor. The latter works best if it's connected before the reverb and delay effects so as to ensure it doesn't interfere with the natural decay of the sound. When a lot of effects are strung together — particularly if compression or overdrive is being used — noise can build up significantly. The noise suppression system here works well in keeping the pauses between notes reasonably quiet.

IMPRESSIONS

It's very rare that I find a combination of a simply superb guitar overdrive box and an effects unit, which pushes at the boundaries of the impossible, that I'd actually care to take on stage with me. Somehow, when you combine the overdrive and the effects, something seems to suffer. This is probably because the people who build the best preamps are dedicated analogue circuit buffs, not digital effects designers, and similarly many of today's digital engineers know little about what makes a good analogue circuit tick. At first, I thought that's what I'd got hold of here, because while some of the overdrive effects sounded impressive and powerful, some of the others sounded rather less convincing. However, after several hours of creative dabbling, I've come to the conclusion that all the tools are here, you just have to use them effectively. For example, with the output setting switched to Combo, my little Fender combo sounded rather too fizzy, but switching to the Stack setting produced a much more usable sound. Indeed, some patches are better with the speaker simulator left switched in, even when you are going through an amp.

The other crucial factors, aside from the choice of preamp type, are the ways you combine compression, overdrive, and EQ to get the right amount of sustain without allowing the sound to become too dirty. If you're prepared to spend even as little as five minutes optimising the values provided in the preset patches, you can end up with some really nice amp sounds that convey energy and angst, without smothering your guitar sound or your dynamics playing. I even managed to get the elusive valve-type patch where the guitar volume control regulates the overdrive from nearly clean to outright filthy.

What Boss have obviously got right here is the inclusion of an analogue overdrive section. As long as you use this to provide the bulk of the sustain, rather than relying on too much digital overdrive within the preamp section, it seems to work fine. All the routine effects work superbly, and for the odd spot of weirdness, the Slow Gear effect treated with lashings of delay is quite wonderful. The intelligent pitch shifter also tracks quite niftily if you want to re-create that Peak Practice theme tune guitar sound, although whole octave shifts can sound a touch atonal. Similarly, the tracking synth oscillators demand great care when playing, but mixed in with the regular guitar sounds, the synth voices can form the basis of some dramatic solo sounds. I was also quite impressed with the acoustic guitar simulation and some of the thick'n'raunchy R&B sounds.

SUMMARY

When I first opened the box, I thought that this was going to be a very complicated box of tricks that would take ages to figure out, but the reality was quite the opposite. You can approach the Boss GT-5 on any level you like by tweaking the presets, creating your own sounds using the quick preset effect choices, or you can dive right in and build your sounds from the ground up. I applaud the ability to connect any effect in any order, and I like the way you can share the overdrive between the distortion section and the preamp. Having a powerful post-overdrive EQ (if that's where you put it) is also very beneficial.

The only weak spots for me were the guitar synth effects and the quality of shifted sounds when moved to fifths or octaves. Affordable pitch shifters are never perfect, and Boss do a better job than most. However, that's little consolation when your beefy low octaves are wobbling away as though you haven't bothered to tune up!

Although no complete system will satisfy everyone in every respect, I think Boss have made a very serious effort here. With just a little patience, the user will be rewarded with a multitude of possible guitar sounds. During the course of my meandering, I got pretty close to Hendrix's 'All Along the Watchtower' soloing sound (though, sadly, not the playing skills to match), a passable mellow Gilmour, some chuggy R&B, and that classic, searing 1970s rock sound that more usually comes from Gibson SGs and Marshall stacks set to 11. Piling on more gain takes the unit into the realms of single-handed metallic widdling, but I'm always more impressed when I can achieve that 'edge-of overdrive' blues sound. Although none of the preset patches quite did it for me blues-wise, a little editing got me very close indeed.

I feel that the Boss GT-5 does need to go through a guitar combo to take the rough edges off it — going via a full-range system is just a bit too brittle, and you may have to experiment with the output voicing and speaker simulator to get the sound you're after, but you don't have to work very hard to get great results. For the user seeking a one-box solution to a wide range of guitar sounds, this has got to be one of the most accomplished packages yet produced.

GT-5 £659 inc VAT.

Roland (UK) Limited, (Contact Details).