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	BOSS ME8B Multi-Effects Processor Floor Unit

Although the outer case is made of plastic, it seems to be very tough and durable. The dimensions are ( w/h/d ) 422mm/55mm/206mm which is 16-5/8"/8-1/8"/2-3/16" and the weight is 2.2 kg / 4 lbs 14 oz. It has a 3-digit digital display which really is enough. Programming isn't difficult once you learn how.

There are 64 patches, but you can only save 32. The rest are factory presets. The 64 patches are divided in 4 groups ( 16 in every group ). The group button is very small, meaning that you cannot change the group with your foot during a song. Every group is now divided in four banks. The bank can be selected with your foot. The four patches in one bank can be selected with each their pedal. Some people find that it's a rather strange way to select patches, but I feel that it's a fine way since you can select every patch with maximum 5 stomps.

Now, I will go straight to the most important: the effects!

1. COMPRESSOR

The compressor works very well but is not really outstanding. When the compressor is turned on there is a slight hum. This hum can be quite annoying but in live context it cannot be heard. The compressor is an effect that I only use when I really need to. When I practise with headphones, I don't like the constant noise. Of course the noise is only a big problem when using high compressor levels. With the EQ you can deaden the hum a bit but then you are also altering the sound of the bass which isn't very expedient.

2. ENHANCER

The enhancer amplifies the sound of your attack at a specific frequency. The ME-8B lets you select three frequency bands. Since the enhancer also amplifies the signal, there will be som hiss. Not that much hiss but still enough to make me not use this effect. I like my sound deep and mellow but if you like the bright attack that the enhancer offers, the hiss is not a problem.

3. DEFRETTER

This is a quite interesting effect: it makes your bass sound like a fretless one. It cannot simulate a fretless bass totally but it sounds very good. The sound of the frets is completely removed which causes the tone to be deep. This also means that string and fret buzz is removed. Of course, during a glide, the pitch still changes in semitones. Because of the nice growl you get beyond the 12th fret I like this effect very much. Actually you can play the intro on "Hey You" very convincing.

4. OCTAVE

This effect adds a tone one octave lower. This is also an effect that I use much since it can give you a remarkable sound during a solo. Normally you wouldn't use the octaver since the sound gets a bit muddy on the lowest notes. Below low G, determining the pitch is very difficult and the octaver gets confused and plays random notes. You can, however, change the mixing of your original sound and the octave sound. By setting the octaves level at around 70 % of the original sounds level, you can use it for normal bass play too.

5. OVERDRIVE [TURBO Overdrive, Bass Overdrive] 6. DISTORTION [Hard Distortion (= Metal Zone)] 7. FUZZ [Fuzz, Hyper Fuzz]

There are many types of distortion effects so I will only describe them generally. The two types that I like the best are Bass Overdrive and Fuzz. Surprisingly the distortion effects are very quiet for normal use. If you set the "drive" parameter at its maximum level the distortion effects can get very noisy indeed. The distortion effects also have a bass amp simulator. Turning this on, the sound gets more deep. As with the octaver you can mix the distorted and the original sound just as you want.

8. HUMANIZER

Changes the bass sound to a robot voice. The sound changes between two vowels at a rate that you can specify yourself. Valid vowels are a,e,i,o,u, meaning that you can your bass say aiaiaiai or eueueueueu. Also you can make the humanizer change the vowel once, which reminds me of a wah-wah effect. I find the humanizer best used with the bass overdrive. This produces a very hoarse voice.

9. EQUALIZER

The equalizer is parametric with three bands: low, mid (50 Hz - 4.0 kHz), high (125 Hz - 10.0 kHz), total level. All bands can be amplified +/- 18 dB. The equalizer can produce some hum if you amplify the highs too strong. Amplifying the lows too strong can eventually damage your headphones or speakers.

10. SYNTH BASS

Using this effect you can obtain a synthesizer sound on your bass. There are two different effect types: Internal Sound Mode and Wave Shape Mode. I like the wave shape because it is much more musical than the internal sound mode. In the internal sound mode the ME-8B detects the pitch of the tone you play and creates a synth tone with the same pitch. The sounds you can obtain hereby come from the internal sound source ( a little synthesizer ). You have the choice between sawtooth and square wave. Now you can have a filter move from a frequency that you specify to another frequency that you specify. Also you can decide the speed of this action. This way you can create a sound that changes very slowly like a phaser ( hard to describe ). The effect of this action can be emphasized if you increase the resonance ( creates the bwzzzzzzzz-sound ).

The wave shape mode shapes the bass sound to a synthbass sound. The sound is not as unstable as the one describen above since the pitch doesn't have to be detected. This also means that you can play chords and fast solo stuff. The filter movement is determined by the level of the input. If you let the filter move along with the input level, your sound will say waauuuuuuhhwww, having a very unusual attack. You can also let the filter move the opposite way, meaning that your sound will say uuuuuuuuuuaaaaa...., and thereby have a flat attack and develope as the tone sounds.

There are 5 different characters of sound in wave shape mode. Regardless of the mode you can add noise to the sound. Adding 100 % noise to the square/sawtooth sound you can make a sound that reminds of wind.

11. T WAH

The T wah sounds much like the wave shape mode of the synth bass effect, but it only uses one synth sound. The filter movement is changed, so it sounds like a synth wah-wah.

The T wah and the synth bass can be bought as a seperate stomp box ( Boss SYB-3 ) costing half of what the ME-8B costs.

12. CHORUS

Not much to say about this one. If stereo-chorus is used, the chorus effect will pan from side to side. It's hard to find the proper amount of chorus.

13. FLANGER

Also not much to say. On the ME-8 (guitar effect) the flanger effect had a step parameter. With this you could have the sound clip in even steps and thereby achieve an effect like in "One Of These Days" ( yes, I am a great Pink Floyd fan ). Don't know why Boss has removed this feature.

14. DELAY

Delay time can be from 1 ms to 2 sec. Works nice, but the only new feature is the tap delay. There aren't any reverse delays or something like that.

15. REVERB

The reverb effect is a bit too unnatural. On the other reverb is seldom used on bass. Though, during a defretter solo, the reverb effect can be very useful.

16. NOISE SURPRESSOR

Useful when not playing, since it eliminates all background noise. It doesn't eliminate the noise when you play. Therefore I like to have the noise surpressor set to off when I'm designing new patches, so I can hear the real noise level.

The ME-8B has a control pedal, which can be used to apply some effects while playing. The effect is only heard as long as you keep the pedal depressed. The control pedal has two states: on and off. If you connect an expression pedal to the ME-8B you can make effects change gradually.

17. PEDAL WAH

This is an ordinary wah-wah effect. Of course the best results can be obtained if you have an exp. pedal. Although it's used seldom, a wah-wah bass sounds very nice.

18. RING MODULATOR

Sounds like a spaceship taking off. Very unmusical. With an exp. pedal you can have the frequency change smoothly. Used with distortion and synth bass, you can make this sound pretty much like a human scream.

19. FOOT VOLUME

This can naturally only be used with an exp. pedal. If you use e.g. a pitchbender on one patch and the effect is set to neutral ( exp. pedal totally back ), swiching to a patch that uses foot volume means that the volume pedal is at min. Of course you can just program your patches not to use foot volume.

20. PITCH BEND

Many different ranges. Some of the types keep the original sound and create a tone one octave over or under the original tone. I feel that the tracking is poor when using the pitchbender.

21. VIBRATO

The vibrato rate cannot be changed but with an exp. pedal you have control over the depth.

22. SYNTH HOLD

When the synth bass is in internal sound mode depressing the control pedal will keep the synth sounding as long as the pedal is depressed. You can now play with the normal bass sound over the synth tone.

23. TEMPO

If you press the control pedal four times in a row, you set the standard tempo. This tempo can control following prameters: humanizer rate, chorus rate, flanger rate and delay time. Using an external tempo pedal, another function can be assigned for the control pedal.

24. TUNER

This is not really an effect but I felt like describing it here anyway. The tuner detects the pitch of your tone and shows you the note on the display. 7 led's show you how near you are the right pitch. Only the led in the middle must light. I prefer a normal analog tuner, but the digital tuner is not a problem for me.

Things missing:

I feel that it would be nice if you could assign the exp. pedal to control every adjustable parameter. This is possible on the ART Nightbass, and it could be really cool if you could smoothly change e.g. the overdrive level by pressing the exp. pedal. It could also be nice being able to use the humanizer as a wah-wah-like effect. I guess that Boss has excluded these functions to keep the costs down.

What I like about normal stomp-boxes is that you alter the sound by turning small knobs; you can actually feel what you are doing. It is also faster to turn a knob than having to select the appropriate parameter and then change its value by pressing to small and tight buttons.

There is no tremolo. I know that not many bassists prefer having a consistent sound level, but for "One Of These Days" you need a tremolo with a square modulation curve.

I would have liked if the ME-8B had some kind of midi implementation, so you could have a graphical interface when making new patches. It probably isn't possible, but since severel of the ME-8B's effects detect your pitch, a midi out would have nice for recording on the computer or trying out some new sounds.

All these are only minor problems, and in conclusion I think that the ME-8B is a damn good multi-effect. It replaces so many stomp-boxes, and the quality of the sound is just as good or even better than many of the more expensive units.

Compressor	60%
Enhancer	65%
Defretter	90%
Octave	85%
OD/DIS/FZ	80%
Humanizer	80%
Equalizer	85%
Synth bass	95%
T wah	95%
Chorus	80%
Flanger	80%
Delay	90%
Reverb	75%
Quality	80%
Useability	90%
Ease of use	90%
Value	90%
Overall	90%