Boss ES5, midi switchers and effects loops

BintyTwanger77

I've been pondering MIDI, I am a total noob when it comes to the various switchers out there, so.

Is it possible to have all of your pedals connected up to the ES5, and have some of them going straight into the front of my amp and some of them in the amp's FX loop? If not the ES8, is there a MIDI switcher (that won't break the bank) that allows me to do this?

professorben

I like the GLab stuff as it powers your pedals too. 

Ive got the GSC3
and I use it for switching channels on my Mesa Preamp, sending midi to my 11rack for delays and verbs, and switching in and out pedals in the front end. 

Ive used it as a 4CM brain before though, you just sacrifice one loop to send the signal to and from your Preamp and out of the FXloop, so an Es-5 would leave you only 4 loops to play with, my GLab has 6 loops.

the main advantage of the Es8 over every other switcher out there (AFAIK except GigRig G2) is the ability to move loop order around from patch to patch  

its not a thing I personally would bother with, as I believe my pedals should be in one order and one order only, but I think you ( judging from your comment history) would appreciate being able to run a Reverb into a Fuzz into a Delay on one song, and then an OD into a Delay into a Reverb on another. 

BintyTwanger77

professorben said:

I like the GLab stuff as it powers your pedals too. 

Ive got the GSC3
and I use it for switching channels on my Mesa Preamp, sending midi to my 11rack for delays and verbs, and switching in and out pedals in the front end. 

Ive used it as a 4CM brain before though, you just sacrifice one loop to send the signal to and from your Preamp and out of the FXloop, so an Es-5 would leave you only 4 loops to play with, my GLab has 6 loops.

the main advantage of the Es8 over every other switcher out there (AFAIK except GigRig G2) is the ability to move loop order around from patch to patch  

its not a thing I personally would bother with, as I believe my pedals should be in one order and one order only, but I think you ( judging from your comment history) would appreciate being able to run a Reverb into a Fuzz into a Delay on one song, and then an OD into a Delay into a Reverb on another. 

Thanks Ben, really helpful. It would be handy to be able to use relay switching for the Mesa's 2 channels as well...

So with a drive/boost, H9 and 2 Strymons, is it easier to connect them all up to the, say, ES5 loops and run everything in the front of the amp? If not (and I could have the drive in front and the other 3 in the effects loop), how would the connections go?

professorben

Personally I'd not bother putting the Strymons in the loop switcher, I'd switch them via Midi. 
Set the H9 for Pre/Post so I can flip flop it either in front in the switcher loop or in the fx loop and then use the remaining 4 loops for pre gain pedals. 

professorben

Soooo

Guitar into
Es-5

loop 1-4 lovely drive pedals 
loop 5 H9 

out to amp front end

fx loop of amp
strymons and H9 again. 

BintyTwanger77

professorben said:

Soooo

Guitar into
Es-5

loop 1-4 lovely drive pedals 
loop 5 H9 

out to amp front end

fx loop of amp
strymons and H9 again. 

Which would give me an excuse to buy more pedals for the other ES5 loops, Ben. Damnit!

professorben

BintyTwanger77 said:

professorben said:

Soooo

Guitar into
Es-5

loop 1-4 lovely drive pedals 
loop 5 H9 

out to amp front end

fx loop of amp
strymons and H9 again. 

Which would give me an excuse to buy more pedals for the other ES5 loops, Ben. Damnit!

Like a bitter father I'm living my dream rig through you my son.......

professorben

The beauty of this is you get to batter the reverbs of the H9 into whatever drives or fuzzies you like, and/or the Mesa Preamp, then season to taste with the strymons. 

OR. 

Run the drive pedals into the front end, then modulate or harmonise with H9 and season with strymons. 

All at the press of a single footswitch. 

God I love Midi 

Teetonetal

This is exactly what I am doing with my ES5
5 pedals and unter in front of amp.
DD500 in the fx loop, controlled by midi from the es5. Works flawlessly and the es5 can swap the intron pedal order too.

I am debating selling my flint and getting an H9.