Boss gathers up most of its legendary original and early pedals for its first Compact Digital Multi-FX Pedal - The PX-1 Plugout FX

* = Onboard [1-8] / Downloadable [9-16] [order in parentheses] / - (hyphen) = not available at launch

• * 1977 : OD-1 OverDrive [1]
• * 1977 : SP-1 Spectrum (EQ) [2]
• * 1977 : PH-1 Phaser [3]
• - 1978 : GE-6 Graphic Equalizer
• * 1978 : DS-1 Distortion [8]
• * 1978 : TW-1 T Wah [6]
• * 1978 : CS-1 Compression Sustainer [5]
• - 1979 : NF-1 Noise Gate
• * 1979 - SG-1 Slow Gear [4]
• * 1979 : CE-2 Chorus [16]
• * 1980 : BF-2 Flanger [13]
• - 1980 : PH-1R Phaser
• * 1981 : SD-1 SUPER OverDrive [7]
• - 1981 : DM-2 Delay
• - 1981 : GE-7 Equalizer
• - 1981 : CS-2 Compression Sustainer
• * 1982 : OC-2 Octave [15]
• * 1982 : VB-2 Vibrato [12]
• - 1982 : CE-3 Chorus
• - 1983 : PSM-5 Power Supply & Master Switch
• - 1983 : HM-2 Heavy Metal
• * 1983 : DD-2 Digital Delay [10]
• - 1984 : DM-3 Delay
• - 1984 : DSD-2 Digital Sampler / Delay
• * 1984 : DF-2 SUPER Feedbacker & Distortion [9]
• - 1984 : PH-2 SUPER Phaser
• - 1985 : OD-2 TURBO OverDrive
• - 1985 : HF-2 Hi Band Flanger HF-2
• - 1985 : DC-2 Dimension C
• - 1986 : CS-3 Compression Sustainer
• - 1986 : DD-3 Digital Delay
• - 1986 : DSD-3 Digital Sampler / Delay
• - 1986 : FT-2 Dynamic Filter
• - 1987 : BF-2B Bass Flanger
• - 1987 : CE-2B Bass Chorus
• - 1987 : GE-7B Bass Equalizer
• - 1987 : DS-2 Turbo Distortion
• - 1987 : LM-2 Limiter
• - 1987 : RV-2 Digital Reverb
• - 1987 : NS-2 Noise Suppressor
• * 1987 : PS-2 Digital Pich Shifter / Delay [14]
• - 1987 : MZ-2 Digital Metalizer
• - 1988 : DC-2 Digital Dimension
• - 1989 : CH-1 SUPER Chorus
• - 1990 : LM-2B Bass Limiter
• * 1990 : PN-2 Tremolo / Pan [11]
• - 1990 : OS-2 OverDrive / Distortion
• - 1990 : EH-2 Enhancer

All 3 knobs turn / twist and click - with the top two Paging Left and Right (Click) and the Middle one mostly used for accessing and exiting the Main Menu.

Top Right Knob is dominant - in that it selects the Effect on the Main Menu Screen (Turn), and then Engages it (Click).

Where there are 2 parameters per Effect - the top 2 knobs are the ones used for adjustment - if there are 3 or more effects parameters - the middle knob comes into use - as well as a follow-on page with the 4th Parameter where relevant. The relative positions of onscreen Parameters indicate which knobs are active - those are entirely based on the topologies / arrangements of those original compact pedals!

By pressing and turning the knobs at the same time you can speed up the scroll-through of parameters!

These are operational once you've clicked into an effect via the Right-hand Knob Click!

• Main Menu Screen - Right knob Turn to Select & Click to Engage Effect
• Screen 1 : Effect Name
• Screen 2 / 3 : Control Map Mostly on one screen - but 4 knobs carry across to second Control Screen - here you see the control topology of the original pedal
• Screen 3 : Control 1 Setting
• Screen 4 : Control 2 Setting
• Screen 5 : Expression Setting
• Screen 6 : Pedal Setting

The 2 x CTL Setting Screens and the EXP Setting screen - control the use of the right-hand Remote / Expression Port.

The final screen is where you can set to Toggle between 2 effects (always on).

These are Paged out from the Main Menu Screen as illustrated!

• Main Menu Screen - Page Right for further screens
• Screen 1 : Menu : Bluetooth
• Screen 2 : Menu : Swap Function
• Screen 3 : Menu : Web Manual QR Code
• Screen 4 : Menu : Version (Software / Firmware)
• Screen 5 : Menu : Factory Reset

Screen 2 here sets the 2 Effects you engage for the 'Toggle' Mode, the first one syncs the Bluetooth!

When you get the PX-1 Plugout FX straight out of the box, the first 8 Pedals / Effects will be installed already : 

• 01] OD-1 OverDrive (1977)
• 02] SP-1 Spectrum (1977)
• 03] PH-1 Phaser (1977)
• 04] SH-1 Slow Gear (1979)
• 05] CS-1 Compression Sustainer (1978)
• 06] TW-1 T Wah (1978)
• 07] SD-1 SUPER OverDrive SD-1 (1981)
• 08] DS-1 Distortion (1978)

And then when you download and connect to the Roland / Boss Effects Loader App (iOS / Android) - you will be prompted to set up a Roland Cloud account - after which the other 8 Pedals / Effects referenced in this article can be downloaded and will in turn prompt you for updates etc. :

• 09] DF-2 SUPER Feedbacker & Distortion (1984)
• 10] DD-2 Digital Delay (1983)
• 11] PN-2 Tremolo / Pan (1990)
• 12] VB-2 Vibrato (1982)
• 13] BF-2 Flanger (1980)
• 14] PS-2 Digital Pich Shifter / Delay (1987)
• 15] OC-2 Octave (1982)
• 16] CE-2 Chorus (1979)

Those 8 + 8 Effects are included in the price of admission, while there will be further effects that will appear on said dedicated Effects Loader App in the future - where those will have an associated fee per effect - the details of which still remain to be fully finalised!

Note here that the order of the Effects listed on the pedal - are governed by the Order in which you Download those Effects. My pedal was already setup for me - where the second half of Effects ended up being exactly as per the order of download,

I've sought further guidance in whether you can remove the original 8 and then re-arrange them by downloading them from source again! UPDATE! : currently the first 8 effects are entirely fixed - and you can only control the additional 8 effects that go on the pedal!

I touched on the fact that I questioned the overall colourway, actual selection and order of effects, and the lack of a colour screen (which the sort of equivalent TC Electronic Plethora X1 has!).

Let's tackle those one-by-one :

1 : The Neutral Colourway

Boss was very much aiming for a neutral universal colourway here - while for me the Blue on White will always be the Boss Delay Pedal Colours - and so for me those colours are very indicative of and wholly associated with a particular category of Boss Effects - and therefore not exactly the neutral variant that Boss was intending. I would have chosen the clear / transparent colourway versions of those knobs, and had the accent colour as a neutral mid-grey! The off-white enclosure colour is spot on though - and contrasts nicely with the main display!

2 : The Selection and Order of Effects

I would have thought it would make more sense to have the effects arranged fully Chronologically - but as you can see from the above lists - they are all over the place by default (they kind of start off right - but then quickly diverge!). The selection spans quite an expansive period - covering Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 Boss Pedal Editions over a period of 13 years : 1977 > 1990. And there are massive leaps in the selection process particularly up to the 1987 PS-2 and 1990 PN-2 Pedals / Effects.

I can understand why Boss has gone for all the original legacy effects - while for me those are not necessarily the most potent selection of Boss effects - rather the most nostalgic. And there's a slavish adherence to authenticity here - so for me the OD-1 has always really needed a Tone control. The more successful Ibanez TS808 took Boss's original format, added a Tone control, and was forced to change the clipping to Soft Symmetrical - as Roland possessed the Patent for Asymmetrical Clipping. The TS808 led directly to the Boss SD-1 - which was Boss's reaction to the greater success of the TS808 - where it delivered a slightly softer and less aggressive Asymmetrical clipping (closer to the TS808) and of course had that much needed Tone Control. I've always felt that Boss should reissue the OD-1 which clips slightly harder and rawer than the SD-1 and TS808 - as a Waza Craft Edition (OD-1W) - with additional Tone control - and obviously featuring the original 14-leg OpAmp!

A lot of those earliest Boss effects were 2-knob affairs - where later S2 and S3 editions delivered significant improvements and expanded range. For instance I have always favoured the PH-1R and PH-2 over the PH-1 - that additional Resonance control makes a huge difference!

Also the SP-1 is a very limited EQ effect which adds upper frequency sparkle and brightness - it's the least useful and most limited of Boss's EQ / Tone-Enhancing pedals as far as I'm concerned - while it can for sure be highly effective!

A final Note on he Order of Effects - the second half was entirely down to how my pedal was loaded up, while you can see some oddities in the original 8 Listing of Effects - where the first 3 are in Chronological Order, but then we diverge already for the 4th - with the following sequence : 1977 > 1977 > 1977 > 1979 > 1978 > 1978 > 1981 > 1978 - which I find a little random! But of course it's no big deal really - just a simple observation.

3 :  The lack of a colour screen

For me Boss is all about colour! Boss pioneered the whole colour-coded approach - along with MXR to a slightly lesser extent. TC Electronic copied that colour-coded approach - albeit with specific colour selections of its own. But for all those brands the colour of a Pedal is and was a very significant indicator of effect type / category - in fact you could argue that it was an essential part of that pedal's DNA!.

So then going without a colour screen is a bit of a miss for me - where we could have had similar colour-bands like the Plethora X1. I'm not picking out any kind of specific economic indicators here - while TC Electronic was able to include a colour screen within its $179 price point pedal, where Boss was unable to do so (intentionally or otherwise!) at a higher $249 price point. I'm not citing any economic or financial rationale / comparisons here really - as there are for sure differences in manufacturing. While the TC Electronic edition has near enough the same abilities as the Boss one - and includes the same Bluetooth connectivity. I would just really have liked to have seen a colour screen on the Boss PX-1! I have several articles which touch on Boss's 'Colour Dominance' and the impact of those different pedal colours and hues!

I commend Boss for releasing some of its greatest hits in this compact affordable unit - and this is a really well executed project - with all those core effects beautifully calibrated and replicated in digital format. Those specific algorithms are only available on this pedal - and have been honed to perfection! While I feel like a lot of those early 2-knob editions could have done with an additional Tone control!

This is a significant development for Boss - in being the first compact pedal with a screen, and the first one without a battery compartment (the screen takes up that space!).

Of course if you split out the categories of effect - you end up with Overdrive & Distortion, and Utility Effects as a group - which should really be placed at the front of your signal-chain / board. While the Modulations and Delays tend to go at the end of the chain. So the first decision you need to make is what is going to be your primary use for this PX-1 pedal - and thus its most logical placement - and for me - it's always going to be about the Modulations and Delays - which means a near end of chain placement! All my favourite versions of those Overdrives and Distortions onboard tend to be Keeley-Modded editions - and besides I own pretty much every Boss Gain pedal to date! If you want to use all those effects successfully on your board - you ideally need to deploy 2 PX-1's - one at each end of the chain!

I also have far more competent and extended-range Utility Pedals than the two on the PX-1 - so those are both rather surplus to my requirements.

While it's kind of nice to have all those classic Modulations and Delays onboard - but there again I own most of the Boss originals for those. With only the PN-2 still a remaining target for me! I was hoping that it would be an eventual Waza Craft edition - but I feel there's less chance of that now.

It's interesting that Boss has 2 solutions at the opposite ends of the spectrum here - with its Premium Waza Craft reissues and enhancements over its original analog pedals on one side - and these Digital Emulations on the other - where you get 16 Effects almost for the price of a single Waza Craft pedal - or in that sort of territory.

So for me we're really talking about the Modulations and Delays here - but I'm spoilt for choice there too in my existing reference collection - which of course contains those Waza Craft Editions alongside numerous Top Tier Modulation and Delay pedals. For instance my Delay Section on the board currently consists of the Empress EchoSystem, Flower Pedals Dahlia Modulated Full Stereo Analog BBD Delay, and the recent Colortone ZeroSum Rhythmic Dual Head Delay. I of course have all the Boss Flagship Delay pedals too! So indeed the two Delay Effects on the PX-1 are fairly minor contributions up against all of those. Also I feel that the DD-3 is Boss's overall best loved classic delay, just like people tend to favour the PH-1R and PH-2 over the original PH-1.

There's obviously a heavy dose of Nostalgia here - while I feel that most of that intended audience would rather tend to go for the Waza editions - and say the DD-3T even! Most of the PX-1 Effects are fairly rudimentary early editions - where a lot more sophistication has been added in intervening years!

I personally prefer the OC-5 to the OC-2, and the CE-2W and VB-2W for their expanded ranges! And like I said - I have lots of Modded editions of early Boss pedals which I tend to prefer to the originals - including the Leyland Pedals Mods for the DF-2.

So the PX-1 didn't hit me quite as hard as the recent RT-2 Rotary Ensemble which I still love to bits!

In my All-Time Favourite Modulation Pedals Rundown there are 4 Boss Pedals - none of which are onboard this PX-1, at least not yet - my favourites being he DC-2W Dimension Chorus, PS-6 Harmonist Pitch-Shifter / Harmonizer, RT-2 Rotary Ensemble, and SL-2 Slicer / Pattern Tremolo.

For the PX-1 - I really liked around half of those 16 Effects - so the CE-2 Chorus, VB-2 Vibrato, PH-1 Phaser, BF-2 Flanger, PN-2 Tremolo / Pan, DD-2 Digital Delay, and PS-2 Digital Pitch Shifter / Delay. While I already have much preferred editions and takes on those effect and including actual original Boss editions too - so I'm not sure how much long-term use I will get from this pedal. It's great as a sort of celebratory collectible compendium of those early Boss classic effects - and while the PX-1 does a marvellous job of replicating those classic effects - I probably still prefer the original pedals or upgraded Modified ones / including the Waza Craft Editions!

I still think the PX-1 is really good value - even though it's somewhat dearer than the Plethora X1 ($249 vs $179). While of course I'm more active on the Boss side of things - and have yet to acquire the Plethora X1 if I ever will. Those TC Electronic Effects though typically have more variations than those pioneering early Boss ones - they also represent very different eras of effects - with Boss being mostly 70's and 80's, and TC Electronic really representing the 90's. People will need to make their own decisions here. This is a nice-to-have for me, where the RT-2 was a must have. I applaud Boss for putting this out there, but it has limited utility for me and my particular situation. And where I feel the RT-2 was absolute perfection - there are a few things I would probably want to change for the PX-1 - as mentioned!

I feel there's plenty of mileage for doing different variants of the PX-1 - with the core model with clear knobs and mid-grey legends - covering the main Modulations. We could have another variant with Yellow or Orange knobs to represent Overdrives / Distortions - and we could reserve the current launch colourway for spatial effects. My idea is that each variant of the PX-1 comes with a specific focused bundle from the factory - which also helps with the pedalboard placement - as the current effects are really split across Front and End of Chain! There's plenty of scope to to interesting things here - and to improve the software - so you can more easily rearrange the oreder of effect for instance!

By the time this article goes live the PX-1 should already be in global distribution and at dealers - where it goes for $249 / €269 / £233 and equivalent! I feel a lot of Boss fans are going to be very happy here!

Three new Pedals / Effects are being added in January of next year :

• OD-2 TURBO OverDrive
  
• DM-2 Delay
  
• DC-2 Dimension C

These will be available from the Boss Effect Loader App - for $9.99 each! And will be known as Model Passes.

You can Audition Effects in the PX-1 - before committing to a Model Pass purchase, you can try out effects with demo versions that introduce a small audio gap every 30 seconds.