My Impressions of the Pro ~ Long

[ElGringo]

It was waiting for me on my doorstep when I got home yesterday. Immediately unpacked it and slipped it into the rack. What? Why doesn't it fit. DAMN! Had to rearrange the rack to not have it intefere with the Furman Power unit.

Once that was done, plugged it in. Now what??? My theoretical programming of my FCB1010 wasn't perfect and I had to tweak it to get it to work. Still need to do some further tweaking of it, but it works good enough for now. Now I can finally sit down and start playing.

8O I love this thing!

I came from the GT-3 with its less than stellar (IMHO) sound canvas. The GT-Pro blows it away!! I actually hear a noticeable difference in the different Pre-amps, where as on the GT-3 I had to strain to find any difference in sound from pre-amp to pre-amp. I had to suppliment the sound on my GT-3 with a Tube Factor to get a sound I was happy with.

But not with the GT-Pro. The Mesa Boogie 50/50 Tube power amp seems to take some of the digital edge off of it to my ears through my setup, but all in all, light years ahead of where I was.

As for the justification on the GT-Pro over the GT-8, I don't have a substantial argument for this. For me, it was all about the form factor that this unit offered. Yes, I am sure I could have been just as happy sonic wise with the GT-8, but for me, the rack unit was just better. I am lazy when it comes to setting up. I like the fact that I don't have to run a bunch of cables from a floor bound unit to the amp/cabinet, etc. ONe thing I did notice that I was unaware of before is that the GT-Pro has 12 cutomizable Assigns versus the other GT Line of 8 (I think they only have 8?). This allows for more in-patch customization, which is my favorite feature of the GT Line!!!

Not sure at this point, if I will fully utilize the PRO features, per say, but I like having that option if I ever graduate to that. I spent several hours updating my set of usual patches from the GT-3.

But one thing I do love... the software!! I did all of my tweaking using my laptop hooked up to the Pro. Made it very easy to setup everything. I know alot of you out there want someone to post it. Sorry, I am not the one to do this. I don't want the liability of sharing it publicly. :wink:

The agnozing long wait sucked, especially since I probably could of gone with the GT-8 to get the sonic satisfaction, but it is an awesome piece of equipment!! I am very happy with my purcahse and can't wait to expose my new rig to everyone within ear-shot! HA :twisted:

Once I get my FCB1010 setup like I want, I will be willing to share the sysex configuration for it, for those interested.

Now I get to have fun tweaking away at ALL of the features this beast has!

For those still waiting, hang in their guys! This thing is awesome!

[Kewlpack]

Sweet! Grats on the new tool.

I'm gonna bet that the software for the PRO isn't compatible with the 8. From what MrSleepy has said, it appears to use a different MIDI mapping... which stinks.

I would love to see BOSS give GT8 users a port of that software just the same. Perhaps they will now that the PRO has shipped and the "cat is out of the bag..."?

[ASHJN]

Is it taller than 2U and that is why it doesn't fit in the rack right or what? With the Mesa tube power amp, how close would you say it gets to a tube amp sonically?

[ElGringo]

It is not taller than a 2U. I just had a wall wart type plug for the wireless on the Furman and the GT-Pro was deeper than the furman, so it hit the wall wart. I just needed to rearrange the setup so that the wireless was next to the shallow furman and allowed the oversized plug to be plugged in properly. It had some small rubber feet on the bottom that caught on the edge of my Mesa when I first tried to insert it, but that was not a big deal.

I am by no means an expert on tube sound. I just know what I like. As far as it sounding more like a tube amp, I am not sure about what I read in regards to tube amps with the "break-up" and such at certain volumes, so can not answer intelligently to that part... BUT.. I do think it sounds much warmer and not as digital as it sounds through my headphones. Nor as digital as my old GT-3 straight into my Fender Princeton combo amp I used previously. Course headphones are by no means a good gauge for the true sound, but I do like the warmth that the Mesa adds.

Is it a direct replacement for the real thing.. of course not. But for me, I like the sound. I've listened to several clips posted in the GT-8 section, and while they sounded good, they still had that false digital feel to them. A little too clean and sterile. Through the Mesa and the cabinet, I don't get that sound.

[ASHJN]

Thanks, that answered what I needed to know

[ElGringo]

Well, I just decided to fire up my GT-Pro Editor software on my laptop while the work day is dwindling down. Found out you can't really tweak patches without it hooked up to the GT-Pro. Tedious assigns editing, etc.

Well, you can, but I don't have all of my patch settings saved like I thought I did. When you save a file it doesn't save the entire set of patches but only the one currently open for editing at the moment. So maybe, in theory, you could save each patch separately to a file for offline editing, but that seems rather tedious to me.

Haven't used the librarian software yet, but apperently you can download all patch information to it for backup purposes, but don't know if you can edit individual settings using it.

Oh well.. just wanted to get a bit ahead of the game on my current thinking for controlling the patches with the Assigns, but guess I'll have to wait till I get home for that.

[aerial7]

ElGringo,

Yeah, good point: They shoulda designed it to allow disconnected edits. They also shoulda integrated the librarian with the patch editor.

BUT, I had such low expections that I expected to uninstall the software. I still have big issues with the basic design, but it does work pretty well and for many things, it's easier to edit within the interface since you see all the effect settings at once....

[aerial7]

ElGringo,

See if you can't find the time to record some digital audio over USB.

It works very well, however, the monitoring is sorta glitchy on my system (using Sonar). I've tweaked a few things (pages 113, 141 in the manual) and improved it, but it's still kinda static-y. The recorded sound is perfect, so I'm not worried, but I'd like to hear your experience.....

[ElGringo]

aerial7,

I can try to do some recording this weekend. I am running Logic 5.5.1 on my 'puter.

[TheDamnDog]

Hey how ya doing
How do you like the Behringer Ultrastack BG412S box I'am thinking of getting one
Thanks Stew :twisted:

[ElGringo]

How do you like the Behringer Ultrastack BG412S box I'am thinking of getting one

I haven't fully tested it yet other than a little in the practice/play room at home. So far I like it alot. The other guitarist in my band got one, too. He brought his to the last practice and it sounded great. I will be bringing mine this week since i finally got the GT-Pro. I'd recommend it. Great for the price.

[aerial7]

ElGringo,

Is your "NAME/FX CHAIN" button also mis-spelled? Mine says "NANE/FX CHAIN"? I do hope Boss issues a recall to address this! :lol:

[ElGringo]

Yes, yes it is. Never noticed it, since I do most of my programing through my laptop. LOL ~ I don't want a recall.. i don't want to wait another 6 months for it! :lol:

BTW - I haven't had a chance to test the USB recording yet. I am also in the process of painting and assembling a new guitar, so the prep work for painting the body is taking a lot of my extra time.

[aerial7]

I do most of my programing through my laptop

Spoken like a true "Pro". The Editor really is useful, isn't it?


I haven't had a chance to test the USB recording yet.

Try it -- you'll like it! I've gotten very dependent on that USB port. It's so convenient knowing that as soon as an idea hits, I just start Sonar, enable record on the audio track that's pre-configured for my Pro, and start wailing. No messing around with the patch-bay, no wondering if the quality's any good, no wondering whether the signal's clean or I've monkeyed with the configuration or levels on my soundcard's inputs.

I still need to try out the ability to hear the processed sound while recording the unprocessed input; that way, I can dial in the best tone for the song later without losing that original performance -- which for me is usually the only one I can use. :roll: In fact, I think you can control where the USB out goes in the signal chain, which would be useful for keeping things like 'verb outta the track recording.

[rcknrllmn]

Is your "NAME/FX CHAIN" button also mis-spelled? Mine says "NANE/FX CHAIN"? I do hope Boss issues a recall to address this!
Mine too, also noticed on mine, - Level knob & buttons are pronounced "Revel", & "Compressor/Rimiter"

I haven't had much time with mine yet, cause I'm working too damn much & then when I'm not I have a "Honey Do" list to work on.

Briefly my first impressions are,the USB & Editor are nice, "I like it. I Like it ALOT" (Spoken in Dumb & Dumber) I'm still not able to figure out monitoring my guitar in ACID.

I have not hooked up my FC-200 yet.

I've been monitoring thru my main outputs with a solid state power amp into Yamaha monitors using LINE|PHONE output select. The sounds are very nice. Although I'm not sure if I would say they are leaps & bounds better than my GX-700's or GP-100, but alot more options.

I have noticed on some patches, a little unnatural breakup or distortion. It seems like it only happens when I hit certain notes or pitches like jamming in the 5th position, a minor or pentatonic on the B & G strings??? Kinda of a weird glitch. And it's not on the high gain patches but on the more moderate in between grind kind of tones.


More to follow later.

[aerial7]

I have not hooked up my FC-200 yet.
It's real easy to do, and it makes the Pro fun to drive, so do it soon! As I've said elsewhere, they really did improve on what we had with the -700.

Not sure if it's the same thing, but I also noticed some glitchy aspects sometimes on certain notes or something -- I think I later convinced myself the NS was cranked too high.... When you're getting the glitches you describe, try just shutting off the NS and see if that make a diff....

I think you have the same impression I did: Yeah, a really nice, solid upgrade from the -700. But tweaking is just as ever-present and tedious....
So even though the distortions are much more realistic, it's still a "goat rodeo" trying to get something you won't be re-tweaking ten minutes later. The Editor helps tremendously with that, but only because for a given effect you can see all the parms at once.....