"The ability to use official Boss stompbox recreations in our DAW is here - and with that comes flexibility in terms of how, and what instruments they're applied to." Boss Effects Pedals plugin review

What is it?

If you’ve ever wondered whether Boss will create plugin versions of its classic, near-20 million-selling stompboxes, then wonder no more, because the answer is here. The Boss Effects Pedals plugin initially sees eight of Boss’ pedals ported into the digital realm of a DAW plugin, allowing you to incorporate official replications into your projects.

To start with, it comprises staples such as the DS-1 Distortion, OD-1 OverDrive, SD-1 Super OverDrive, CS-1 Compression Sustainer, PH-1 Phaser and TW-1 T Wah, alongside some more left-field examples in the SG-1 Slow Gear and SP-1 Spectrum.

Boss says that this collection is intended to be “ever-expanding” with no word yet on when or what future additions could be, and there’s a strong caveat that should be mentioned straight out of the gate: you’ll need a Roland Cloud Ultimate subscription in order to get your hands on the Boss Effects Pedals plugin, and unlike the Roland JC-120 plugin released earlier this year, there’s no route to purchase a lifetime key.

With that said, you can run the plugin on a 30-day free trial, and of course, a Roland Cloud Ultimate package gives you full access to an entire suite of music-making tools including classic synths, drum machines, samples, expansion packs and more.

Specs

• Launch price: Roland Cloud Plan Ultimate membership, $19.99 a month/$199 a year (30 day free trial also available)
• Type: Stompbox plugin
• Plugin formats: VST 3.7 (64 bit), AU, AAX
• System requirements - Mac: macOS 12, Intel Core i5 or better (Quad-core CPU recommended), Apple Silicon, 2 GB RAM, 150 MB storage
• System requirements - Windows: Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit), Intel Core i5 or better (Quad-core CPU recommended), 2GB RAM, 100MB storage
• Contact: Roland

Usability

Before you can get started, you’ll need to create a Roland Cloud account and sign up for an Ultimate membership. From here, installation of the Boss Effects Pedals plugin is quick, with the required space starting at 100mb on PC, and 150mb for Mac OS. The plugin comes with VST, AAX and AU versions, and requires a host DAW to run - for me that’s Logic Pro.

Navigation is simple, perhaps a little too simple, with only one pedal available per-instance of the plugin. So, if you want to run, say, a T-Wah into a DS-1 then place a PH-1 Phaser at the end, you’ll need to load three instances of the plugin.

One advantage of having these effects in plugin form is that without the restrictions of hardware connections and impedance-matching, it unlocks the ability to apply classic Boss effects to any audio channel you like without having to incorporate DI boxes or re-amping as you might with hardware.

However, given the stompbox design, it seems like a missed trick not to have compiled the effects into a single instance. A pedalboard-style interface capable of loading a whole chain would be more convenient, especially for guitarists.

Beyond this minor inconvenience, each instance of the plugin works in a similar way. There’s a menu for selecting your chosen pedal, along with a drop-down menu giving access to five presets per-pedal.

The centre panel contains a graphical representation of your chosen pedal, and there’s a choice of views (Basic and Pro Edit) with the latter offering additional parameters not found on the original hardware. Further functionality includes a single user preset for each pedal (saved as the Default setting), A/B comparison between two settings and input/output pots for level controls outside of the pedal settings.

As well as this, every control and switch is assignable to a MIDI controller, as well as automation within your DAW by simply right-clicking and selecting or learning the parameter you’d like to control. It’s all very straightforward and intuitive, aside from the discrete nature of each pedal.

Sounds

As a collection, the eight effects give a fairly well-stocked set of sounds, and the choices have been partially made to reflect the first three Boss compact pedals ever launched (OD-1, PH-1 and SP-1).

The strongest single category in terms of volume is the Distortion/Overdrive pedals, and each of the three offer something slightly different.

The OD-1 is famed for its smooth, valve ampl-like response, and here it’s no different. It reacts with a mid-forward tonality that sprinkles your signal with fat-sounding overdrive, working nicely for vintage tones. It’s firm bluesy/Screamer territory when played on the neck position of my Strat, and works really nicely for Zeppelin-y chords fed from a humbucker.

But, for those who want a bit more gain, the SD-1 Super Overdrive takes things up a gear. Here is home to the mid-ground rock sounds, with its clear attack and smooth note separation providing ample playing ground for a huge range of styles.

Polished ‘80s rhythm sounds, ‘90s indie, punky, heavy crunch and more are all on tap making it a really versatile and dynamic drive. Finally, there’s the DS-1 - this classic has been featured on countless ’boards, and this digital recreation nails the raspy, throaty, full distortion of its hardware counterpart.

Many of us will have, at some point owned or used the CS-1 Compressor Sustainer, with this blue box giving plenty of guitar players their first glimpse into the useful, yet sometimes misunderstood world of compression.

The compression part of the pedal actually acts more like a limiter, and it’s noticeable as you turn the Sustain control to the left - this clamps down on the incoming signal with vice-like authority, emphasising the attack of the note with aggression.

The result is a pronounced pop to each note, which while desirable, definitely needs to be used sparingly here. Too far and the signal becomes very squashy - dial it in just right, though and funky single-note lines will cut through with ease. It’s characterful, which is just as well given the number of software compressors at our disposal these days.

Push the Sustain, on the other hand, and you’re rewarded with glistening ring to your notes, emphasised further by engaging the Treble control, which will help to remove mud while keeping the higher frequencies ringing. Think Mutt Lange clean rhythm sounds and you’re on the right path.

The Spectrum and T-Wah are a bit more niche. The former works a bit like an EQ/enhancer, allowing you to brighten dull sounds to give a bit more energy. It’s focused on frequencies between 500Hz and 5Khz, which plants it firmly in the range of mid-shaping and higher-end enhancement when it comes to guitars.

It does a great job of bringing out pick attack and adding punch to electric guitars, while also applying a bit of cut and sheen to acoustics. It can add zing to a dull-mic’d acoustic, or reduce a bit of the honk from a DI’d under-saddle piezo. It’s not the most exciting of effects, but it is a problem solver.

The T-Wah offers a great funk injection, falling into the categor of ‘envelope filter’ rather than an LFO-based auto wah. This means that it’ll react to your playing dynamics, rather than cycling through a sweep with a rate and depth control.

You can adjust the Peak control to make everything more explicit, and there’s a toggle switch for changing the filter sweep direction (Up or Down). It’s a useful addition, especially if you want to apply wah sounds without committing at the point of recording, not least because controlling a virtual wah pedal without an expression pedal requires some tweaky automation.

Finally we have the Slow Gear, which is among one of Boss’ most cult pedals, commanding high prices for used hardware and often imitated in modellers and multi-fx, as well as pedals such as EHX’s Pico Attack Decay.

The basic premise is to give you automated ‘violining’ of notes without having to adapt your pinky finger to rolling-up the volume control. It works best on single notes, with chords often pushing the sensitivity threshold too far. But, with some careful adjustment of the incoming signal thanks to the included control, I found it possible to fade-in chords too with some success.

Verdict

There’s a lot of fun to be had with the Boss Effects Pedals plugin, and as always, it gets even better when you start combining the pedals in series, or, as our DAW flexibility allows, blended in parallel.

Of course, there is an element of nostalgia to be had here too, and while these are the first official software emulations of Boss hardware, we’re not really starved for plugin options.

It’s curious that Boss has chosen to launch this plugin in the way it has for a few reasons - the single-pedal, multi-instance operation being one. Another glaring omission at launch is the lack of any of Boss’ chorus, delay or reverb algorithms, but I can only hope that some of these are next on the list.

Finally, is the entry route. It’s a hard sell to think that many players will take out a Roland Cloud subscription purely on the strength of one plugin. In reality, that’s not the case at all, as the wealth of resources you’ll gain access to by signing-up is good value, even if the subscription price will no doubt limit access for some people. It’d be great to see this available as a one-off purchase.

Those points aside though, once you get your hands on it, there’s plenty of mileage there which is only going to grow with expansion. At last, the ability to use official Boss stompboxes in our DAWs is here - and with that comes flexibility iin terms of how and what instruments they're applied to.

MusicRadar verdict: With tons of nostalgic charm and quality sounds to match, the Boss Effects Pedals plugin has a lot going for it. It's unlikely to convince you to take out a Roland Cloud Ultimate subscription on its own, but bundled with everything else, it just adds to the value. Here's hoping for more expansion and entry options soon.

Hands-on videos

Roland Cloud

Introducing BOSS Effects Pedals | Software Effect - YouTube

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Patrick Breen

Making Killer Guitar Tones with the Boss Effects Pedals Plugin - YouTube

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