Back to navigation


Next-gen Guitar Synth with Flagship-quality Sounds





This article was


Written By





Our Product Research Team





Get to know them!





The BOSS GM-800 is a next-gen guitar synthesizer pedal driven by Roland's Serial GK interface along with an advanced Zen-Core sound engine culled from Roland's flagship synths. The pedal's high-performance DSP elicits a natural playing feel and solid tracking, while its vast onboard sound library gives you plenty of room for inspired creativity. Employ the GM-800's intuitive Scene workflow to freely combine and modify Tones, add color to sounds with a wide range of effects, and discover a world of brand-new content on Roland Cloud. You also get two external control jacks, USB audio/MIDI and standard MIDI connectivity, and a Serial GK expansion jack for connecting to other BOSS guitar synthesizer units. The GM-800 injects your guitar or bass with limitless musical potential. It's small, sleek, adaptable, and primed for boundless creative excursions.





Related Videos: GM-800 Guitar Synthesizer Pedal





NOW PLAYING:


BOSS GM-800 Guitar Synth: One Step to Infinite Sonic Potential





BOSS | The Latest Guitar Synth innovation





BOSS GM-800 Guitar Synthesizer | Sound Examples by Alex Hutchings


Advanced Zen-Core sound engine





The GM-800 is powered by the Zen-Core sound engine ? the advanced system behind Roland's lauded Jupiter-X and Fantom synthesizers. This guitar synthesizer pedal puts 1,200 onboard sounds at your fingertips, including acoustic and electric pianos, organs, and orchestral instruments along with classic Roland patches derived from the company's legendary Jupiter and JUNO synthesizers. The GM-800 gives you access to four Tone parts plus a Rhythm part teeming with acoustic and electronic percussion sounds. You can easily call up a part with dedicated top-panel buttons, then take a deep-dive expedition into its parameters. The Zen-Core engine's intuitive workflow is built around Scenes, which include tone selection, parameter tweaks, effects, and every other element of a sound. You get 150 user-configurable Scenes, 100 of which come ready to play with pro-crafted factory sounds. Need more sounds? No problem. The GM-800 supports Roland Cloud, supplying access to an ever-growing cache of Zen-Core Sound Packs and Wave Expansions (a 30-day Roland Cloud Ultimate trial is included).





High-performance multi-effects





The BOSS GM-800 also includes the Zen-Core engine's full range of multi-effects. Every Tone and Rhythm part has a dedicated multi-effects processor, from which you can deploy distortions, filters, modulation effects, delays, and a whole lot more. Moreover, each Scene includes two additional effects for processing the combined sound, along with ear-grabbing chorus/delay and reverb with independent send levels from each part. To top it off, you also get a Master Comp and EQ, enabling you to sculpt and mold the GM-800's master output.





Natural playing feel and rock-solid tracking





Here at Sweetwater, we're blown away by how playable the GM-800 is. Because the GM-800 dedicates a high-speed processor solely to tracking, you can expect rock-solid, lock-tight performance, both with electric guitar and electric bass. Tailoring the GM-800 to your playing style is a breeze as well, using easy-to-understand velocity and feel parameters. This permits you to configure a Scene with piano sounds to respond to the dynamic nuances of your playing. Plus, a Scene with old-school analog synth sounds can mimic the fixed velocity response of the original instruments.





Easy control and ample expandability





Using the BOSS GM-800 as a standalone synthesizer pedal is intuitive and inspiring, by virtue of its four top-panel footswitches. You also get two external control jacks, with each supporting up to two footswitches or an expression pedal, plus 5-pin MIDI I/O for interfacing with external MIDI hardware. You can also craft Tone parts, adjust parameters, and organize your Scenes using BOSS Tone Studio software on your computer. The GM-800's USB audio/MIDI interface allows you to capture sounds as audio tracks in your DAW or to process recorded sounds in a similar way to re-amping guitar tones. You can use the GM-800's Guitar to MIDI function to play virtual instruments over USB and trigger hardware modules via MIDI. To top it off, you can use the GM-800 as a MIDI sound module by plugging a hardware controller into its 5-pin MIDI port. The GM-800 is compatible with BOSS GK-5 and GK-5B Divided Pickups or with classic 13-pin GK devices, such as the BOSS SY-1000, via GKC-AD and GKC-DA conversion boxes.





BOSS GM-800 Guitar Synthesizer Pedal Features:


Next-gen guitar synthesizer pedal, driven by a Serial GK interface


Powered by the Zen-Core sound engine ? the advanced system behind Roland's Jupiter-X and Fantom synthesizers


1,200 onboard sounds, including acoustic and electric pianos, organs, orchestral instruments, and classic Roland synths


Provides access to 4 Tone parts and 1 Rhythm part with acoustic and electronic percussion sounds


Dedicated top-panel buttons make calling up and editing parts easy


Intuitive Scene-based workflow makes navigation a breeze


150 user-configurable Scenes; 100 with ready-to-play, pro-crafted factory sounds


Supports Roland Cloud for access to a full library of sounds (30-day Roland Cloud Ultimate trial included)


Includes the Zen-Core engine's full range of multi-effects with distortions, filters, modulation effects, delays, and more


Dedicated high-speed processor ensures natural playing feel and tracking that's second to none


4 top-panel footswitches make standalone operation a piece of cake


2 external control jacks; each supports up to 2 footswitches or an expression pedal


5-pin MIDI I/O permits interfacing with external MIDI hardware


Craft Tone parts, adjust parameters, and organize Scenes using BOSS Tone Studio software


USB audio/MIDI interface captures sounds as audio tracks in your DAW and processes already-recorded tracks


Guitar to MIDI function plays virtual instruments over USB and triggers hardware modules via MIDI


Compatible with GK-5 and GK-5B Divided Pickups or 13-pin GK devices via conversion boxes (all sold separately)