Hit the Memory/Manual switch and go into
Manual mode. Loops one, six, seven, and
eight remain engaged. Now quickly hit
switch four to bring in your phaser. Perfect
and amazing. The world is rejoicing for a
new guitar god!
But wait, it’s time to transition into the
Pixies-esque quiet bridge. And you have to
switch off the fuzz, phaser, boost, and
delay, and switch back on the comp. How
will you do it? Correct answer: toggle back
to Memory mode and then hit switch one.
Two taps (one that doesn’t change your
selected effects) and you are back to your
clean rhythm tone consisting of just
compression and reverb.
There, we’ve programmed two of the 800
available patches. And in the simplest way
possible. Now it’s time to really see what
this thing can do!
My favorite ES-8 trick is one I’ve always
dreamed of—the ability to move the
location of a pedal instantly. Sometimes I
want tremolo before reverb. Sometimes I
want it after (like the way it occurs on a
Deluxe Reverb where the reverb gets
chopped by the tremolo). Sometimes I
want my overdrive to be boosted.
Sometimes, I want to slam the front end
of my overdrive with a booster. Up until
now, I’ve had a boost on either side of
my overdrive and just dealt with having
tremolo before my reverb. With the
ES-8, that all changed. Now I can change
the order of my effects with the stomp
of a switch.
Changing the order of your effects is as
simple as a few button pushes. First, select
32
TONE TALK //
the patch on which you want to work. Then
hit the Edit button until you see the words
“Loop Structure,” and then press Enter.
Now use the Arrow keys to move the
cursor from one effect to the other and
then use the plus and minus keys to move
that effect forwards or backwards in the
chain. Working by example seems to be
serving us well, so let’s continue in that
vein. Since for this exercise, we’re just
trying to move our tremolo to follow our
reverb, we’re only really concerned with
loop number five. Place your cursor under
the number five and then use the minus key
to move it all of the way to the left. Now
your tremolo pedal is in the last pedal in
your chain. As a quick point of clarity, the
ES-8 visualizes your routing as it would
appear on a real pedalboard, i.e. your
signal flows from right to left.
Earlier, I mentioned that along with your
eight loops, you have slots for a volume
pedal and a tuner. If ever there was a pedal
on my pedalboard that I wanted more than
one of, it’s a volume pedal. Sometimes, I
want it at the end of the chain, to bring
down my overall volume. Sometimes, I
want it before my delay pedal to do cool
swells. With the ES-8 routing options, I
can even move my volume pedal around
in the chain.
If you have MIDI-equipped pedals, you can
get even crazier. You can use the MIDI
capabilities of the ES-8 to switch effects,
parameters, or any other MIDI-controlled
functionality on those pedals. For example,
if you have a MIDI-equipped delay pedal,
you can have the ES-8 feed it information
Unleashing the Power of the Boss ES-8