How I use a Boss MS-3 and Line 6 HX Stomp Together 

Finally someone who explains signal path in a detailed manner!!

This is a cool rig! Midi controlling the Hx stomp. Brilliant.

This is so clever and well thought out. Nice!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience, Ellen!!

Very nice walkthrough. You speak very clear for us non native english speakers.

Cool idea! I would not have considered putting the ms3 in the loop of the stomp, but hearing you explain it makes a lot of sense actually

Excellent (but still above my head) Video. Love the marking board. Really a great video .

I’ve been looking at and now fondly saving for an ms3, and I’ve seena boat load of videos on it this is by far the best when it comes to explaining the possibilities of it and I like the idea of using out with the stomp or something like it. Thanks for the well thought out clear explanation of how use you use this set up

Great setup Ellen!

massive video. soo much good stuff

Very clever! Thanks for posting this.

Hey thanks for sharing this! You've helped expand my mind about what's possible with the ms-3. I agree that the drive sounds are much better than the Internet would have you believe!

thank you! you are an excellent teacher

As always, Ellen is the best! Excellent video for a gear junkie like me.

Excellent video, it really helped me out. Thank you.

I think integrating the MS-3 and HX Stomp together is a no-brainer. I’m strongly considering using the 4-cm with loop 3 of the MS and the FX loop of the Stomp, but I’m gonna consider the benefits of just putting the MS in the FX loop of the HX stomp. Either way will work. Not sure why more people aren’t putting these two pieces of gear together.

Great video, Ellen! I have an MS-3 and am looking for something to combine it with for an ampless rig for cover band gigs. I love the MIDI functionality of these two units together, you’ve definitely given me a good point in the right direction!

The Stomp is so flexible..In my efforts to keep things VERY compact here is how I am using it: Runs on an 50k MAH power bank using a MyVolts adapter to eliminate finding power..Controlling the entire stomp via Bluetooth with the Yamaha MD-BT01 with an ipad; the TC Hall reverb in the effects loop to allow for spill over reverb while switching patches.

Holy smokes, Ellen! Well done!

Great video Ellen :)

Another MS-3 user that experiments with other multi-effects in the loops? INSTANT sub! :D This is 2 years later (2024), but somehow your video only just now popped up. Super glad it did! One (rather minor) lifehack that I practice... ...you have purple button toppers on the MS-3. What I do is color-coordinate the button toppers with whatever effect I assign to that switch... Examples: (Assigned Effect - Button Topper color) Tuner - White Phaser - Light Green Flanger - Purple Chorus - Light Blue Delay - Dark Blue Overdrive - Yellow Distortion - Orange Reverb - Gray (...basically, match the most common "Boss" color for that effect...) ...naturally, there are only 4 buttons on the MS-3, jsut that if I decide to change the assignments, I change the button toppers to match. Again, minor, but it just helps to have the visual on the fly; especially since I do sometimes switch things up. Of note: I almost 'always' use the MS-3 (and any other Boss Multi-effect unit that offers it) in 'Manual' mode, vice leveraging patches. Double-bonus note: I do use a Boss FS-7 footswitch to give myself more control options. Anyways, great video; so glad it came up (if even 2 years later!) - many thanks for posting. Cheers! :)

you can put the stereo outs of ms3 in stereo effect return on stomp, also you could put the stomp in and effect out in one of the ms3 loops, .has additional advantages.

Hi Ellen, that an awesome programming, im having a hard time toggeling the solo SW on some overdrives, i tried the current number but toggles the effect competely

Very cool close integration! Pretty impressive how well these two work together. The BOSS unit really opens up the stomp like a standalone MIDI controller would, but with some added flexibility with internal effects. I’m curious what your acoustic signal chain is! I’m using a little Disaster Area Designs MIDI controller to move through patches on my H9 and HX stomp. Definitely not as efficient as this with individual pedal changes though!! So cool

Hi Ellen. do you know if you can use an external tap switch going into the MS3 and then use midi to sync the Tap Tempo to the HX stomp ?? Thanks

ellen! so nice to see a familiar face while on a quest to better understand my MS3! i'm trying to get the control out (not midi) to control a matthews effects astronomer via it's 'alternate in' TRS jack... not getting consistent results from the MS3 signal sending side... any thoughts?

Thank you for such a killer and informative video!! Super stealth ninja rig. Will these same principles apply when pairing a BOSS ES5 with the HX Stomp?

Hello! Do you know if you can send FX Loop 1 to Output L and FX Loop 2 to Output R? I’ve looked through the manual and haven’t seen that as an option. Thanks!

GREAT VIDEO. What kind of plugs are you using for the input and L1 (send & return) into the MS3? I have SP400 and i cant get them to plug into the MS3 together. They're too big.

So if you don't use an IR on the amp model patch (bank 3) and you don't use a backline amp how to do you simulate speaker tones?

Excellent. I'm intrigued by your purple ms3 pedal switches. Are they custom?

Great video! What do you do for a solo boost out of interest?

How are you powering the HX Stomp with the Strymon Ojai? The back of the HX Stomp says 9V 3A. From the video it looks like you are using a current doubler on two 500mA power outputs for a total of 9V 1A. Is that sufficient to power the HX Stomp or do you have random power glitches at max draw?

Great video Do you have gaps when changing between presets on ms3?

The only thing I might have missed, is how the Stomp knows to go to that patch when you set up the Midi Patch on the MS-3. Is there anything that needs to be done in the Stomp?

Hmmm I’m totally stealing this setup.

Not sure why MX users have a problem with the internal tuner, it works just fine and bypasses as well

Would owning the Helix solve all of this and cost the same?