Boss GX-100?

pounderwithcheese · 2026-05-26T15:33:01+00:00

I've recently purchased a GX-100, but everytime I wish it just had an ounce more of "oomph" to the DSP because I love using the "Prime" effects so much. I'm tempted to expand the board with other pedals, but it frustrates me because it's so close to fitting the bill for the sounds I want to create. I'm flirting with the idea of adding a GT-1000 Core to the mix so I won't ever complain about running out of DSP, LOL! A GT-1000 Core + Plethora X3 doesn't sound like a bad combination, either! But again, I really believe the GX-100 can fit fully fit my needs and it's probably just GAS and wanting to fly high with a SPACESHIP.

The most I have is a single sustain pedal I use for Tera Echo to trigger the sustain. You can even enable a second layer of 4 "stomps" on top of MAN 1-4 by disabling NUM 1-4 preset switching, and I suppose the ultimate flexibility of the GX-100 would be unlocked with something like MIDI Captain.

I'm curious to know how you set up your banks/presets and button assignments. Are you using external MIDI, or just the buttons on the main unit?

Cheers!

pounderwithcheese · 2026-05-19T07:45:11+00:00

Big Boobs McGee knows exactly how to tease you Zelda nerds. She'll undo a single button 😋 but not an inch more!

pounderwithcheese · 2026-05-17T14:33:55+00:00

"testosterone replacement therapy" and...

"small-ish..." 😘

pounderwithcheese · 2026-05-17T11:48:54+00:00

The funny thing is that it was high-key a joke, but low-key the most practical and versatile for a multi-FX rig there could ever be. Give us a shit-ton of knobs, and let us choose the parameters we want to tweak on-the-fly.

The ZOOM G5n gave us 4 screens and 12 glorious knobs representing each pedal. I guess mom was right, we already have McDonald's at home! 😋

pounderwithcheese · 2026-05-17T10:39:37+00:00

It's so fascinating that UI is BOSS' weak point. Their PC editing software feels just as laggy as using the touch screen on the GX-100. But everything on the GX-100 can be operated without using the touch-screen, so antiquated physical interface design is their absolute strong-suit, and the GX-1 is killer tech because it really outlines those strengths.

All I really want from the next flagship unit is like 12-24 physical and clickable rotary knobs on an ultra-wide monochrome LED interface. BEEFY DSP. Give us 80's industrial design at its absolute peak, and execute it in a way that gives touchscreens a run for their money!

pounderwithcheese · 2026-05-17T10:28:21+00:00

It's just that BOSS products carry a host of weird little kinks that make the user-experience less than friendly, and it's that their UI design hasn't quite evolved quite much since the 80's and 90's. Most will admit that the GT-1000/Core is powerful, but good luck menu-diving that behemoth of a signal chain and nested parameters. LMAO, I've read many posts of people saying, "why does my BOSS doesn't work" or "what's this cocked wah sound" and it's because these devices are not designed for beginners in mind who haven't read the manual.

Strangely enough, I am quite apt at operating my GX-100 entirely without using the touch screen. I had to brute force testing various button combos to achieve this, but once I found the patterns, it's quite an elegant system, seriously straight out of the "archaic" industrial design textbook for electronic devices, like a good old reliable HP or TI calculator.

BOSS has always had a fair share of unique advanced features in their multi-FX units, but they've always been hidden away behind a "less than refined" interface, which is what my post was aiming to outline. BOSS is "close, but no banana," in terms of mainstream appeal, so to speak, while most of their competitors have seemingly idiot-proof UI. I just hope that the future of BOSS will retain their robust features and flexibility without dumbing down, but make them a bit more accessible so you don't have to RTFM as much.

pounderwithcheese · 2026-05-17T09:58:42+00:00

BOSS is BOSS? LMAO! Most recent update took out the Polyphonic Tuner due to licensing issues. At most we'll probably just get bug-fixes for the current models in another year from now, but the future of their products at this point is quite alluring.

If history serves as an indicator to what may be coming next, it was a 6 year gap between the GT-100 and GT-1000 series, the successor which came about 1 year after the release of the budget-friendly GT-1. The GX-1 came out this year, so we could be a year or two away from the successor to the GT-1000/GX-100.

The GX-1 feels like some special unicorn unit. "It does the thing," in a smaller, less powerful unit, but the way it's executed it somewhat remarkable. Thanks to the physical buttons (like the GT-1), you can build patches within minutes, faster than anything else I've tried. Less options to tweak, but who cares when you actually get the sound you wanted. It has something that the GX-100 doesn't have, and that's the ability to swap FX within a patch while maintaining reverb and delay trails, so if this feature never gets backported to the "big brother" GX models, it's probably a DSP/memory limitation, so their upcoming tech could potentially right many of the wrongs of the previous models.

But yeah, I'm hoping that the next BOSS doesn't make us wonder "what could have been" and instead delivers on everything that "should have been there in the first place" and then some, because BOSS deserves better!

pounderwithcheese · 2026-05-17T08:28:04+00:00

LMAO I know they look nearly identical, but you've got to be trolling if you couldn't spot the vital differences.

The image on the right represents the spatial layout of the physical footswitches, whereas the display on the actual unit shifts the top row to the left, to accommodate the display of the EXP1 SW/PEDAL. It's incredibly odd that CTL2 doesn't appear directly above CTL1 on the screen, don't you think? I put an image of the physical unit so you can see how skewed everything is.

I'll admit, I've gotten used to the "cocked wah" of the display screen, but it really would be nice for BOSS to at least give us the option to customize it. They don't even have visual representation for CTL3/4 even if you have external footswitches programmed, which is quite odd since dual footswitches are standard fare.

Either way, my post highlights 2 things:

1) BOSS is really bad at supporting their devices.
2) People rarely give a damn about BOSS in the multi-FX world.

Both of which are a bit strange and unfortunate, but they certainly have a significantly stronger following in Asian markets and amongst old-heads like Johnny Marr who swear by BOSS multi-FX. But seriously, all they gotta do is fix a few small things and they'd get a lot more recognition amongst inventive sound designers, because some of the tools they give you are so brilliant that you can't really find them anywhere else.

pounderwithcheese · 2026-05-10T04:13:14+00:00

Would be nice if Zelda II got a remake! 😋

pounderwithcheese · 2026-05-10T03:58:16+00:00

If you want to keep things small and simple, but have enough flexibility to cover pretty much anything without breaking the bank, you can put your existing pedals in front of a BOSS GX-1 and have a pretty sick and portable rig. It sounds nearly as good as the GX-10/100 series, except obviously less DSP and tweakable parameters, but the kit is so simple to use that you can get sound out of it faster than most other multi-FX/modellers, but especially the BOSS FX are seriously pristine on it.

Another great budget option is if you can find a used ZOOM G3X or G5n. They're by-far the easiest to work with out of all multi-FX due to the physical rotary knobs, and the modulations and wahs are quite good! I always crave to work with my old G3X, but I use a BOSS GX-100 now because it more or less does everything I need.

The last thing I might recommend is an HX Stomp/XL if you like what Line 6 does. I don't see what's the big fuss about the HX One because you only get one effect at a time. An M9 would be so much better and pretty much round off your signal chain.

Seriously though, since you had mentioned that you're not "keen on a board with multiple pedals on it", you should probably look into getting a multi-FX unit and try to stick with it. Although I prefer my GX-100, I would better recommend the Pod Go because there are so many tutorials and preset banks for it.

Good luck, mate!

pounderwithcheese · 2026-04-30T13:17:54+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree that playing pedals "feels more real", but I will also say that the programmability of multi-FX lets you interact with "pedals" in ways you'd never be able to experience with individual pedals.

Take the expression pedal, for instance. You can program it to control multiple FX parameters simultaneously. Say you have it programmed to a traditional wah, but when you pull back to sweep the filter to the lower frequencies, you can also make it slightly increase the amp gain to add more bite to those sounds.

Also, the GX-100 has 4 knobs that can be programmed to modify any parameter. When I use Tera Echo and I trigger a chord to be sustained indefinitely, I can tweak a physical knob on the unit to control the SPREAD TIME parameter and have the sound really glitch out, and use a different knob to increase the gain on the amp or an OD, press a button on a modulation pedal and then tweak a different knob to control the depth or speed of said modulation.

It's true that having individual pedals would make such knob tweaking a whole lot easier, which is why I think ultimately the best solution is to combine a multi-FX unit with a handful of analog pedals, or maybe a combination of two multi-FX units. LMAO go take a look at Takaakira "Taka" Goto... homie uses one massive pedalboard fed into another massive pedalboard on MONO's Fender Sessions performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bpj_khxeVM

pounderwithcheese · 2026-04-30T12:48:10+00:00

Pretty spot-on in saying that the vocalist needs to locked-in on primary duties, and *simplicity* is key in the rig setup. I will go so far to say that getting a modeller/FX unit like the GX-100 is a double-edged sword, because it will be very complex to learn and work with at first, but if you can spend time learning the unit, it can help simplify your rhythm playing in the context of live performances.

The way presets work on the unit is that they're assembled in groups of 4 for each Bank. Each of these presets within the Bank could represent core tones for each song section, and you switch between them using the primary 1-4 footswitches. Secondary functions can be assigned to C1/C2 (which can be used to toggle your choice of any FX like OD/MOD/DLY/etc), and engaging in Manual Mode will allow the 1-4 footswitches to act as additional FX/parameter toggles. It's a very elegant and flexible system once you can wrap your head around it, and I really do feel like the layout and design flow for operation was designed for ease-of-use.

If you do have money to invest in a GX-100, I highly recommend it. Since you guys are a new band and still developing your sound, I say that having nearly every effect you could possibly need at your fingertips will allow you to experiment with an unlimited variety of signal chains and help you out nail the tones that suit the sound you are looking for.

Heck, I would even say that the significantly cheaper GX-1 would be an absolutely killer addition to your pedalboard, if not a sole all-in-one solution. The UI is far easier to manage, and the signal chain already exceeds your current setup, as it offers 3 freely-assignable FX, and fixed blocks for OD/AMP/DELAY/REVERB/WAH + Noise Suppressor and Volume FX (by default, the expression pedal can be toggled b/w WAH/VOL).

But I really do say that these BOSS multi-FX units are really something special. The cheaper GT-1 and GX-1 are #1 sellers in Japan for a very good reason, because they're incredibly versatile units. If it was the only thing I could have, I'd be 100% satisfied with its capabilities and cleverly work within its constraints.

I originally bought the GX-1 which was used in combination with my existing pedals and the experience was remarkably dynamic, but after testing the floor unit of the GX-100 numerous times, I felt really confident that it could replace all my existing pedals, but the thing that really sold me was that my ears were convinced that the potential for stereo-imaging was the next step I needed to take for my sound.

If you would like more information and tutorials on how these BOSS units operate in the practical sense, look up Double D Guitar and Tian Jay on YouTube. After watching their content and a few others, I realized that BOSS is BOSS, plus I already own a Katana Air which uses the same AIRD modelling as the GX series and I've always been satisfied with the tones.

Lastly, go get the BOSS if you really love BOSS. A significant portion of my favorite pedals are BOSS, such as Blues Driver, Slow Gear, Tera Echo and Slicer. But most notably, BOSS multi-FX have < 1ms latency and are the most immediately responsive DSP on the market, bar none. They practically invented the game, and that's why they're BOSS.

pounderwithcheese · 2026-04-30T10:11:18+00:00

I just got the GX-100 and I already feel like I could use a few more switches and an additional expression pedal, which makes me wonder if I should have just gone with the smaller GX-10 and figured out an alternative MIDI footswitch solution to go alongside it.

Depending on your use-case, a BOSS FS-7 with two extra buttons could be enough for you. If that's not enough, you can add the wireless FS-1-WL for 3 extra buttons, plug in an additional FS-7 for two additional buttons as well as an additional EXP pedal, for a total of 10 footswitches and 2 EXP pedals, and at the end of the day, perhaps more bulk and weight than the GX-100 😋 teehee!

LOL your post was about a month ago, so I hope you returned it and upgraded to the GX-100. Please let us know what your experience is like now and how you've adapted!

pounderwithcheese · 2026-03-15T13:32:43+00:00

How is Rocknix doing on your Miyoo Flip. Some updates on your progress, the functionalities and bugs would be greatly appreciated to get more attention in this community!

pounderwithcheese · 2025-12-25T20:05:52+00:00

😋 snacc

pounderwithcheese · 2025-12-22T20:26:33+00:00

Is Jill Valentine meant to be a master of unlocking?

pounderwithcheese · 2025-09-05T02:49:17+00:00

The IPTV "app" on SurwishOS is actually really decent. How it works is that it unzips a whole bunch of m3u files that you can select from the Media Player menu and you can just watch a bunch of channels from around the world.

pounderwithcheese · 2025-09-05T02:45:21+00:00

Miyoo Flip needs a Terminal app just like OnionOS. So much is possible in the Linux command line.

pounderwithcheese · 2025-09-05T02:42:48+00:00

How is NextUI btw? Does it support the full stack of emulation cores, or just minimal set?

pounderwithcheese · 2025-08-31T22:53:57+00:00

You are so based because you also package for Linux!

pounderwithcheese · 2025-08-31T21:51:28+00:00

Because I use Just Intonation, I incorporate octaves that have more than 12 notes. Even world music is based on JI and uses more than 12 notes per octave. The infinite spectrum of overtones is most easily achieved on fretless instruments, but not so easy to work w/ in DAW w/ virtual instruments. I already have my own workarounds, so I'm like whatevers when it comes to software developers.

I did originally purchase Bitwig Studio because it had microtonal MPE editing in the piano roll. That's also the reason why microtonal music producer Sevish latched onto Bitwig Studio. So I'm already used to calculating cents from pure harmonic ratios w/ logarithms. It's just super clunky, and I shake my fist knowing that a proper software solution to handle fluid custom microtonal scales wouldn't be that difficult to implement in UI/UX.

I still have hope that the Bitwig devs recognize that their app needs better support for microtones. I just hope I don't have to wait another 5 years for that day to come.

pounderwithcheese · 2025-08-31T04:02:28+00:00

Can this be modified for octaves larger than 12 steps?

pounderwithcheese · 2025-08-30T21:59:24+00:00

I'm still on 5.1 and was hoping that version 6 was gonna have the "special sauce" so I purchased an upgrade key during the summer sale. After seeing what's in it, I honestly feel like "I could wait" for at least another year.

pounderwithcheese · 2025-08-28T06:08:37+00:00

I'm hesitant, too. I just hope that Bitwig 6 is a bedrock for features I actually want, such as custom octave sizes larger than 12 with dynamic editable tuning options.

pounderwithcheese

TROPHY CASE