Boss ES-8 Tutorial (tap tempo, midi clock, midi program changes, midi CC, spillover or trails) 

The BEST tutorial on the Boss ES-8 I have yet to find. Yes, an editor has since been released which makes things infinitely easier...yet this video is still indispensable when it comes to ES-8 users understanding and navigating their hardware. Thanks to this video, I have unleashed so much more potential from this amazing piece of gear. Boss should put you on payroll

BEST VIDEO BREAKDOWN PERIOD…. You must be a great teacher

This is probably the smoothest tutorial I've yet to find. Kind of fast, to follow but of course I can stop and replay. It will help me tremendously, thanks!

Fantastic tutorial. Clear and concise. Thanks for clearing up the last thing you talk about, "play option." That was the cherry on top

Boss did everything right with this series, imo. I’ve been using mine hard for a year, which means it’s seen a hundred gigs in all types of venues. It’s been dragged on my cart through blizzards and hundred degree heat. It always turns on and does the same thing every time. With the price and idiot proof functionality, it really is a no brainer. I even passed over the G2 for this unit because you can shuffle the loop order which is CRITICAL for certain sounds. Here’s how you know a unit like this is good. It never makes me think about it. It doesn’t take me out of my playing, it’s just there as the brains of my board. The best gear does this. It’s the same reason I like my king of tone. I know it’s gonna work/sound great every time.

Thanks for this. I own an ES5 and your video educated me on understanding the capabilities in front of me. I freed up the Mute as the extra expression for all my presets, and now have Möbius and my Korg delay receiving midi. The trails is next, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.

I'd agree with the other comments that this is a very well done tutorial on the ES8 MIDI functionality, I'd like to add YOU'VE GOT MAD CHOPS SON! a total pleasure to watch and listen to. thanks

This has been so helpful! I understand my ES-5 so much better now! I've a completely different setup, but I've learned so much! Thanks so much for making this video :)

Thank you for making this video! I read the manual and still had trouble but after watching this I was able to do more than what I had in mind. I couldn't figure out how to hit the same button and turn off all effects without having to go to another loop and now I don't have to. Thanks again!

you have pretty much sold me on switching from my g system to the es8... very good videos, brother...

Hi Zach. Many thanks indeed for this video! I was lost deep in midi heck with my ES-8 but your video has got me started in a big way to get the best out of my FX and ES-8. Thank you.

Very informative video, thanks so much! I just purchased an ES-8 and I'll be making my pedalboard, with the Boss switcher, soon. Im waiting on a couple pedals and a Selah Quartz to come in, as well as some patch cable ends that I will need to make. So stoked to get this build under way and thanks again brother!

Really clear and usefull. You cover a lot of issues in one video. Thank you :-)

Wow the spillover/trails!!! Thank you sooo much🙏🙏🙏

Really well done video. Helpful, concise, clear and deep. Thank you.

Exactly the info i was looking for - excellent job very clear and understandable, thanks!

Thanks very much. You just cost me a lot of money, cause now I'm gonna have to buy one! :) Excellent tutorial which answered all my questions about this.

There is now an editor software 2019. But this video is going to help me understand it even more! Thank you.

While the narration is a little dry, your video is informative and easy to follow. Another series with multiple tutorials on the ES-8 is tedious and difficult to follow. But they are fun to watch. I prefer yours for learning about the ES-8 and Strymon Mobius. Thanks.

Thank you, I subscribed a while ago but now I have an ES-8 it has helped a great deal.

Thank you for the detailed tutorial!

Very clear instruction!! Thank you for the video.

Fantastic and helpful..thank you! I have been trying to assign an external foot switch to a collider pedal for the freeze function to no avail but assigning the mute button on my ES5 as per your video has sorted it..👍👍👍👍👍

excellent details and info. So much that can be done.

Unbelievably helpful video! Thank you!

Very nicely done. I don't have ES8 yet but will soon. I'll be running two H9s one in the front of my amp and the the other in my effects loop. Hopefully this will help which I can tell already it will. Thanks!

Great user friendly video. Thank you!

Excellent information, thank you! How deep is the ES-8 though, what an incredible unit it is.

This was awesome! Nice board btw

Mind Blown! Great video!

This is a dream machine I love my es8.

This is AMAZING. Thank you

Helped me out tons man. Thanks

Great tutorial!

awesome videos

thanks for this very, very good tutorial. the best i've found so far. I'm trying control tap tempo of my 4 chase bliss pedals and i don't have figured out a good way yet. i want to use midi (have the midi box) for this. which is the best way to do it? midi clock of the es8 or sending cc93 messages? did you try something like that? thanks.

Good stuff; very informative and articulate .... tell us about that shelf you're using on your board to create a 2nd level. Who makes it?

Hi Zach I am really diggin your videos; Very clear and lots of great sounds !! I do have a question for you. i do have some (4) double pedal , 2 indipendents sounds with A/B switch. I am thinking to have a TRS switch installed on the pedal. Might be possible for the ES8 to control the A/B switching like an external ctl ?

Super helpful video! What kind of external tap/tempo switch are you using? Are there any kinds of tap/tempo switches that won't work with the ES-8? My pedalboard space is limited and I'm thinking of buying the MXR tap switch but concerned that it may not work with the ES-8. Thanks for your help!

Hi Zachary! I like your videos and I just discovered them; they are very helpful. I have a question concerning using the Boss ES-8 with Eventide's Time Factor (as well as the other three factor pedala). I have Timefactor, for example, setup with a dual delay in bank 2.1. the TF is going into loop 8 on the ES-8. The ES-8 MIDI out is going through a quadra thru on port 1 with TF set to receive and send on Ch 1. When I change a patch on the ES-8, I can see the change take effect on the TF, but, I can't hear a tone change on my guitar. So, I setup 2 CC msgs in the Eventide; one is on BYP and designated CC0 and the other is on ACT designated CC1. I input CC! (ACT) into the patch on the Boss ES-8 under MIDI\CTL1 CC#:001 & Val# 127 (for "On"). Still, I get nothing. Alnost no one online shows how to connect the ES-8 and the factor pedals; finding people to explain ES - 8 to Strymon Big Sky, Timeline, and Mobius is ubiquitous. Those that show anything "Eventide" show the H9. Eventide & Roland simply suggest I look for good videos on the other parties product. Can you offer insight into what is going with this?

This was a super helpful tutorial. One quick question, are footswitch behavior options only toggle or momentary? Are there choices for long press, double press, etc like on an mc6 or rjm pbc? Thanks.

Hello, is it possible to select a bank on a analog pedal without midi ( for expl boss CE-20)? thanks

Amazing video. Thank you. Just for my es8. Can’t get the exp pedals to work with external pedals tho. Also. What cable did you use for chase bliss control? They like funny cables… ring hot or something. X

Hi, this is one of the best demos of both the ES8 and MIDI pedal capabilities that I’ve come across, so thanks very much. I’m curious though, how do you use the OX9 controllers as well as the ES8 for your H9’s? Can you set the ES8 to send PC/CC messages in to the side of the OX9 to change/control some preset patches on your ES8, but then also use the OX9 to scroll the H9 preset banks when the H9 isn’t in the ES8 patch? Man that was tricky to write.

Hi Zach Thanks for the awesome video, it's helped me with many questions. One more I hope you can help me with - I also have the aftershock and manta connected via the hub but can't seem to get it to work.As far as MIDI goes I've got the Hub going into an H9. Did you have any problems? How did you get around them? Thanks Ben

Great video. Would you mind sharing what pedal board you are using with the top tier. Thanks.

Question regarding your Chase Bliss. How are you storing your settings/patches for the pedal? Is that something the ES-8 can do or do you have something like the Chase Bliss Faves to store settings and the ES-8 changes them for you? Great video btw. I'll definitely be watching this again when I get my ES-8.Thanks.

Zach! I have watched this so many times you wouldn’t even believe it! So there is a boss Es 8 editor now! Would you be willing to do a tutorial like this one but on the editor?

Hi, what cables (and all the other stuff for connecting the pedals with) did you use for BOSS ES-8?

Hey Zach. Good video. Here’s my question. I have a chain that looks like this: ES8-Mobius-Timeline-Big Sky. I have figured out how to send pc from ES8 to the Strymons with the patches I create. I want to be able to trigger scenes in Ableton as well. So each bank is set for each song in my set. So if I hit bank 1, preset 1, I want the ES8 to send the pcs to the Strymons, and trigger my scene in Ableton all at once. I have been able to connect the ES8 to Ableton direct, and midi map it. If i set my switches to MOM, I have to hit each switch twice, if I set to TGL, I only have to hit it once. When i reconnected the Strymons, they would not respond to the pcs. I changed the assigned switch back to MOM and the Strymons responded as they should, but I’m once again back to hitting the switch twice to get Ableton to fire up. Is there a work around for this? Thank you in advance, Chris

Hey man I really love your videos! Have you checked out the boss es8 editor? It would be awesome if you did a video on it

Great video! Is there anyway to have the tap tempo be global but only per bank? So that I can have basic sounds set, and change between them without the tempo automatically changing, but also having some banks where the tempo is preset and each patch change would change the tempo?

the control/expression edit for the H9 tuner, I was attempting to duplicate this edit but found that the MIDI section of the ctl/exp menu only offers CC messages, I want to load a H9 preset, is that possible? I used the mute/tuner hack successfully, great idea saved me a spot on the board and a power lead! Thanks!

Thanks for your videos. I have a question. I have an RV-500, DD-500, EQ-200 and a new MD-200 (It's not here yet). Could I use just one channel on an ES-5 to put all of the Boss Pedals mentioned and build patches that have the capability to communicate with the Boss "Ecosystem" via the Midi Capabilities of each of those Pedals?

Great video and explanation man. Quick question, I have everything set the same but when I tap in the tempo the BPM on my ES-5 and tempo to my Specular Tempus are different... sometimes by one BPM and other times by 10... have you ever run into this problem?

hi, do you know if the es5 has the capability to save tempos from a delay in a patch to use diferent times in the same song? thanks

hey Zach! man, great demo.... I know you have had a ton of questions on the subject.. I bought the ES8 because of this video... lol.. I have an mxr tap tempo.. I set it up just like you described.. it sets the bpm on the ES8 but it doesn't appear to be updating my h9s... I do have midi clock engaged in the es8 and sync to auto.. midi routing is out of es8 to in/thru 2 h9s and ends in a big sky.. I have the receive channels as 2 (preamp h9), 3 (post h9), 4 big sky... I've tried what seems every combination off midi options (even through the system menu on the physical units) on my h9s... could you possibly share your midi settings on your h9s? sorry for the trouble, but I'd greatly appreciate your help, brother ;p

Awesome video - what pedalboard is that with the flip up shelf?

Really usefull video thanks a lot for that ! I was actually wondering if there is a way to use the mute button to send a midi PC ? I have my strymon Timeline after the output of the ES-8 but I'm using midi to control it, with a "bypass" preset when I don't need it, and I would like to go to whatever preset I want just by pressing the mute button and go back to the "bypass" preset by pressing it again. If you have a solution for that or an alternative that doesn't imply to have my Timeline in one of the loops that would be amazing !

hi zach, thanks for the great video, i tryed to edit the spillover thing you talked about but my es8 tells me everytime i try to switch the trail to "on" (like you did it on 8 & 6) it tells me "no more mixers are available" do you've got a good idea?

Here's my issue: I have the basics of this beast pretty much covered. However, I need to know the routing instructions for sending my time based effects to the effects loop on my amp. I have my dd500 in loop 8. How do I set this up? Thanks

Thanks! I'm learning this for my ES-5. A question, is there a way that I can set 'Mute' as 'tap tempo' for all patches/banks? Right now I have to assign 'mute' button individually to each patch.

Hey Zachary, nice video! I have a question for you. I'm using an external midi-clock entering the Boss ES-8 and I want to convert that into an outgoing Voltage pulse. After converting it, I'd like to send it from the external control. Do you know by chance whether that's possible and if so, how? Thanks in advance!

great data on changes; can these all be sent from the pc editing software also ?

Can you set up trails when the delay and verbs are out of the loop and only controlled by midi? I would assume not but just want to make sure.

how is the midi sync'd when i run two es-8 in series. why didn't they add a sync cable vs part of the midi string

Is it possible to have the mute button to be bank down and also have it where you hold it down for 2 seconds and it mutes?

Can you save different tempo, on assigned patch or presets? Thanks

I am new to midi. But I have a g major rack effect unit - m9 and a delay that is midi capable. Do set it up in a chain ? And how to I program presets to control individual units?

Please help: Can a preset include a midi device that is not in a loop? For example, if I have a big sky and timeline at the end of my chain, after the ES8, can a preset include any combo of the 8 loops as well as engaging specific presets thru midi on both the strymons? If so, how many midi devices outside the loops can be engaged and included in a single ES8 preset? Many thanks in advance for any help!

hello my friend.. i have a question for you... if i put my delay in the send and return of the amp for example... on the 1 switch i want clean sound with chorus on the 2 switch crunch sound and 3 switch for lead sound with delay .. the delay can be switched off automatically if yes how can how can i do this please ???

Hi, can I set, for example the mute button as "general" tap tempo for my H9? I set it as tap tempo, but it only works as patch tap tempo, usually I set the tempo before change the patch, mainly because the patch I want to use involves channel amp switching and delay on my H9, I'm tired, can you help me, I have the global tempo set as ON in my H9

Hey! If I have the strymon timeline after the ES8 (not on the loops) , can I also turn the pedal on/off via midi, not only change the patch? Thx

Any idea how to send the global tempo to an analog pedal? For example, I'd like to set up preset 1 as 160bpm, and preset 2 as 190bpm, and then have my analog pedals tempo switch as I switch presets. I got the tap tempo down but can't seem to send tempo this way.

Question, Can you assign the CTRL source to 2 CTRL outs? Like tap into one, but it sends a signal to 2 analog delays? Thanks.

can you expression pedals go thru to a 2nd es-8 via midi or all that is cable ? Can my exp 1,2 in control different things depending on the pedal that's switch on. ? wouldn't it be nice if each pedal/loop has its one exp. output for each; so it can be programmed internally what it does when that pedal is on/enabled. Then you eliminate cables from exp. out to a fixed pedal ( or Y'd to multiple boxes). Then this internal or midi control can also pass thru midi to the 2nd es-8. i presume ( no idea) if its all cables externally.

Am I able to set a button on the ES-5 to be a global tap tempo?

if you're plugged into a MIDI unit, can you use an expression pedal plugged into the ES-8 to send MIDI CC data out to the effect unit? like (source=expression pedal, target=CC#). say to use your expression pedal plugged into the ES-8 to control the sweep of a wah in an AxeFx...

Hello, I have a question I recently bought a Boss Es-5 and and I have the BigSky and Timeline pedals. From the MIDI Outputs in the Es5 I connected the Out Midi from es-5 to the In MIDI on the Bigsky and i can control it perfectly, but I dont know how to link the timeline to my bigsky so I can control them both through MIDI with my Boss ES-5. So how Im sending my MIDI out to the MIDI In on my Bigsky and it works, and I connected another Midi to My Midi out on the BigSky to the MIDi in on my Timeline and when I'm trying to program it from the es-5 it doesnt work. I can only control one of them but not both of them. Please if you can explain what I'm doing wrong :/

i'm having issues with the Seymour Duncan Dark SUN Delay/reverb and my Boss ES5, when i change presets or turn on/off the pedal with midi takes 2 second to do the change, my amp switch immediately but this pedal no, does any body else have this issue?

I have an H9 and a Boss ES-8. A problem I’m having is a latency issue when going from one H9 effect, like a tremolo on #1 patch to another H9 effect, like a delay on patch #2. Or my dirt channel on patch #4 to Tremolo on patch #6. Is there a setting on the H9 or Boss ES-8 that gets rid of the latency issue when switching between effects?

This video was great, but i'm not sure if i you went over this. Do you know how I have the tap tempo set for all patches? Every time I pre tap a delay and the press a different patch it returns to the default 120 bpm. If I tap tempo 140, i want it to stay at 140 for any patch i might change to.

how do you set all delay time using es8?

Any idea why when I do a MIDI PC, it changes 2 pedals?

Hi man! I have a doubt, how can i use assign using an Effect of my Timeline for example, i can only send #CC, i don't know how to engage an effect using midi.

My es-8 keeps turning on the looper on my strymon timeline when i am just trying to switch presets. The preset changes but the looper kicks on after a few seconds... Any suggestions?

Dude - I just set up my ES 5 and found your insight very useful. Quick question: Do you recommend any switches to go into the control jack? The boss switches are big and clunky

So, i'm having a problem with my mobius. I'm using the ES8 to send bpm. For some reason on the trem setting, I can't get the BPM below 90 BPM. If the ES8 sends 100 BPM then the Mobius goes to 100 BPM. But if ES8 eight sends 74 BPM the Mobius only goes down to 90 BPM on the trem setting

hi there can you help me with my midi switcher? Im trying to send midi tap tempo (not midi clock) on my dd500. ive set the cc#82 on my switcher but the dd500 doesnt recognize it at all. TIA

u mean to tell me that each button can be assigned and reassigned to do up to 12 different simultaneous commands, between analog control outs and midi control and effects loop activation, and each of those 8 buttons with 12 each functions can be saved PER PRESET? with 800 PRESETS?? my burning question though is does that have to be in a preset mode, or can you reconfigure the buttons to do certain stuff in manual mode as well, where basically some buttons still just activate (maybe momentary) individual pedals, but some other buttons reconfigure the whole rig... thanks!

Very clear and helpfull. When you do an Midi Assign 1/Ch1 / PC 1 for example, does the min/max midi CC value have to be on zero?

For a mute to be tap tempo would cate be to something else instead of a external control switch

Hi Zachary! Thanks for a fantastic video, very clear and helpful! Have one question I've been struggling with: Do you know if its possible to get the tap tempo info (for strymon timeline and mobius) to stay the same within the bank when you switch patches? So as an example: if I start the song on bank 00 and patch 01 (00-01) and taps "that night's live tempo" in, can I then program the Boss ES-8 so that the tap tempo stays the same when I change to the next preset 00-02? Haven't figured out how to program it so it doesn't automatically change to the saved Master BPM instead of keeping the tap tempo accross the presets of the bank. Very thankful for any help! :)

I'm hoping that you're still checking your messages here. This is an awesome video, but I would like help trying to use my ES8 to control an ENGL Special Edition amp head. I know I'm doing it backward by setting the head, writing the change on the head, then trying to get that to save to the BOSS, when I think I should be sending commands from the ES8 to the amp to get it to engage those things that are MIDI controllable. Have I got that right? If so how do I figure out what the PC command numbers are. Thanks.

PLEASE HELP! how can I turn on /off my strymons by midi?

Awesome tutorial man, the only thing I can't see to find anywhere is the information on how the basic MIDI channel works, is this just whatever device is numbered in the chain? IE if the MIDI chain goes from ES8, H9, HOG, then H9 would be MIDI channel 1 and HOG would be MIDI channel 2?

Have you noticed that there is a slight "delay lag" when switching between presets? But when switching pedals on and off in manual mode, it is smooth and direct.

Zach... wonderful video! >>>>>>>> what pedalboard brand is that with the hinged riser? Rusty

Love this vid! I need help turning my H9 into my tuner w/ the Es-8. I would like to hit the Mute button and everything turns off, tuner on the h9 turns on and have every patch on the ES-8 work that way. Pleaasseeeee Zachary!! I'll love you forever.

Hey, me again, still hoping you're out there. Anyway I've just followed your instructions to get my ES8 to tell one of my H9's to be a tuner. The funny thing is, though, although I have the right loop selected I've found that I can choose other loops and the H9 will change. This can't be right, eh?