Boss ME-90 Announced

ICBM · July 2023

UnclePsychosis said:

As a huge fan of the ME-50 I was super excited when I saw this post.

Looking at it, though, it doesn't solve my biggest problem with the ME-50 which is that i desperately want it to have two dirt slots.

It does in the sense that it has an amp preamp section as well.

That’s really how I use my ME-50 most - I have the Natural Overdrive (or Loud, for higher-gain) set as an ‘extra amp channel’ and add my DF-2 or OS-2 in front as the dirt pedal.

ThePrettyDamned · July 2023

I like the look of this. Wonder if it has the da-2 built in for distortion.

dindude · July 2023

Also pleased that Boss have finally acknowledged USB C!

TTBZ · July 2023

The X-Crunch sounds pretty good in Leon Todd's video, I think using one of his IRs instead of the built in Boss cab. Going to be quite tempted to try one of these, I like the WYSIWYG approach and in 4CM it could also easily replace my whole board of mediocre pedals.

UnclePsychosis · July 2023

ICBM said:

UnclePsychosis said:

As a huge fan of the ME-50 I was super excited when I saw this post.

Looking at it, though, it doesn't solve my biggest problem with the ME-50 which is that i desperately want it to have two dirt slots.

It does in the sense that it has an amp preamp section as well.

That’s really how I use my ME-50 most - I have the Natural Overdrive (or Loud, for higher-gain) set as an ‘extra amp channel’ and add my DF-2 or OS-2 in front as the dirt pedal.

Ahah! It wasn't obvious if the amp section on the 90 was switchable.

ICBM · July 2023

UnclePsychosis said:

Ahah! It wasn't obvious if the amp section on the 90 was switchable.

It looks like it's the upper far left footswitch when you're in Manual mode.

Trude · July 2023

UnclePsychosis said:

i desperately want it to have two dirt slots.

We all have our particular fetishes I guess...

gearaddict · July 2023

Anyone got one? I've got one

Wazmeister · July 2023

gearaddict said:

Anyone got one? I've got one

What’s your thoughts ?

gearaddict · July 2023

Wazmeister said:

gearaddict said:

Anyone got one? I've got one

What’s your thoughts ?

I thought you'd never ask

I used to have the ME-50 but in the end the lack of 4CM was a deal-breaker for me. The ME-90 seems to work well in 4CM with my amp...no noise or hum, no tone suck I can detect. Funny they don't officialy say 4CM is an option with the unit - maybe because you can't change the loop level and there's no ground lift...maybe they just don't want to make it sound overly complicated.

I haven't used this style of pedal for a while and I've only had an hour or so with it so far so I'm still trying to figure out how to organise myself. I thought it might be a bit limiting to not be able to assign anything to any footswitch but actually, there are a few clever things like the EQ section and COMP section also being FX1 and FX2 - so you can have a phaser or chorus and tremolo footswitchable on the same patch...you can use the pre-amp as an extra drive, as ICBM said above, so that gives you a couple of drive options. I think I'll need 2 or 3 patches to cover everything in the set - but I've had to do the same with much more sophisticated units and at least on the ME-90 if I'm not happy with something, it's just a case of twiddling a knob.

The effects sound really good. I felt like the when I engaged the flanger, it made the whole thing louder...but I suspect that might be just perceived volume rather than real volume. I need to fiddle with it a bit. I don't think there's a volume level control on that effect though.

I'm a bit puzzled by the pre-amp section. There's a switch on the back which toggles between 'gtr' and 'line' and it says in the manual that the speaker cabs are only active in 'line' mode. Which makes sense. But I do hear a difference if I switch between the available cab options, even in 'gtr' mode so I don't know why that is. And in 'gtr' mode, the pre-amps just sound pants. This is straight into the FX return of my amp (well, in 4CM), so in theory it shouldn't need a cab sim. I have to switch it to 'line' and then suddenly it sounds like a useable tone. Not louder though, which was unexpected. So, I'm a bit puzzled by what's going on there. Anyway, it sounds good in 4CM, switched to 'line' mode and using the pre-amps...so, as long as it works I guess.

Got a gig at the weekend - I might give it an outing!

Dumodal · July 2023

Got mine today, just tried for a few hours, the unit looks sturdy, well made, knobs are good quality, smooth and easy to read. The ME80 gig bag can be used for this unit too.

I used mostly manual mode and I really like it, it's a lot to digest but once you get into it, it becomes mechanical.

I liked the sound of the Modulation and delay/Reverbs seems natural and pleasant, the expression pedal is great, tracks well and it's smooth.

Overdrives seems to me the only lacking point, I'm very fuzzy (hehe) when trying ODs/Distortion, now they don't sound bad but they are not excellent, you can get a decent sound that can perform well either in recording or live situations but it won't replace my normal OD/Distorsion pedals, which again you can use with this unit too.

The preamp selection is nice and I like the gain stages there more than the OD section of the unit.

I think for £309 it's an incredible value for the money, you can even connect your headphones and just jam quietly (also studio headphones are recommended I tried my Beyerdynamic/Phillips studio headphones against my more cheapy JBL and the difference in sound was brutal).

Again excellent product by Boss, even though I only scratched the surface this is a very very solid unit.

UnclePsychosis · July 2023

I've now watched pretty much all of the YouTube videos on this now and it's pretty much made its journey into my "absolutely do not need, but kinda want" pile...

gearaddict · July 2023

I'm not sure - the drive section seems pretty bad...I can barely get a useable sound out of it. The BD2 model is just about ok but the rest seem to suffer from that cocked wah thing I remember from older Boss pedals. I can't figure out the pre-amps either. Are these supposed to be the AIRD preamps out of the GT1000? They sound ok into a FRFR speaker but into the fx return of my amp they are really nasty. If I switch the output to 'line' (which according to the manual switches the cab sims on) then it is better but still not great. It's weird, coz in theory you shouldn't be using the cab sims into a real cab but if I flicj the switch to 'gtr' (which is supposed to bypass them) it just sounds dreadful.

There's something odd happening. If I switch the switch on the back to 'gtr' and then switch between the cab sim/IR slots, the sound changes from slot to slot...but they are supposedly bypassed. It's just all a bit odd.

dindude · July 2023

gearaddict said:

I'm not sure - the drive section seems pretty bad...I can barely get a useable sound out of it. The BD2 model is just about ok but the rest seem to suffer from that cocked wah thing I remember from older Boss pedals. I can't figure out the pre-amps either. Are these supposed to be the AIRD preamps out of the GT1000? They sound ok into a FRFR speaker but into the fx return of my amp they are really nasty. If I switch the output to 'line' (which according to the manual switches the cab sims on) then it is better but still not great. It's weird, coz in theory you shouldn't be using the cab sims into a real cab but if I flicj the switch to 'gtr' (which is supposed to bypass them) it just sounds dreadful.

There's something odd happening. If I switch the switch on the back to 'gtr' and then switch between the cab sim/IR slots, the sound changes from slot to slot...but they are supposedly bypassed. It's just all a bit odd.

Was immediately interested in this when it was announced but I must say that whilst the Anderson’s vid sounded pretty good for them, I didn’t realise the tones at the start were just fx, when they got into the preamp later in the vid, they weren’t very complimentary. And even the John Cordy vid, and he gets a consistently great sound out of many modellers, was really underwhelming sound while. Hard pass for me although I love the format. Is this really the same tech as on the GT1000!

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Boss ME-90 Announced

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