Boss SE-70

Very easy.

Beats the pants off the competition by a mile. The effects and algorithms are all very good and there are tons and tons of them in this unit. It can get noisy at high effect levels. Keep your levels down and handle the overall volume with the channel pad or amp / loop volume and you'll be nice and quiet, without the hiss. The Noise Gate is effective too. As with Boss products of this era, it lets your guitar's character through. Overall I rate this a solid 10 for either live or studio applications.

I'm mostly a live gig guitarist. I use two Peavey Express amps with this (65 watt, transtube...I use clean channel only) and run in wide stereo. This setup yields a huge sound. The SE 70 sits on a modified music stand and I use a ROLLS midi pedal to control it. I love this setup and it works very well for gigging. I also use it for making demo tapes and for late night practicing with headphones. I love this little 1/2 rack unit and I would buy another if lost or stolen. Way better than anything else in its day and it still holds its own with units built today.

data entry is slow and fiddly, but easy to understand

i bought this for the guitar synth... doesn't work. they never do.

but see "overall"

had it about 6 years - one side of the headphone o/p has gone silent, but it's probably my fault for taking a mono send from it.

unit does get quite hot - does that matter?

there is a wall-wart... but in my studio it's wall-warts that stop stuff from humming!

using this just for a bit of phasing and panning in FX send for synths. i do play guitar sometimes and it sounds great with the SE70.

five years after buying it, i'm falling in love with the SE70... for its phasers and flangers and rotaries...

once i'd decide to 'look inside the unit' and learn to program, i found that i could get all the "motion" effects i want - left/right phasing and so on. not quite analogue, but pretty good. i can get it doing just what i want - gentle psychedelic Jarre-ish sweeps and swirls or Froese-like organ washes.

i'm not so keen on the echo on the SE70 - a bit sterile? - but i use a line 6 echo pro for tat sort of thing now. they work wonderfully together: phasing and "ancient" echo.

easy

most underated fx ive used.Ive owned a tc fireworx , pcm80 ,korg am8000r , roland sdx330 , sde330 , rss10 , lex lxp5 .This was the best unti i bought out of the lot !why? well its basically got a mind of its own...when you over do the settings / parameters it does strange stuff or becomes slightly unpredictable and organic.Its got a similiar prescence to the lexicon lxp5 but different all the same.It makes new fx units sound pale / really pale ! unless you have #1000 or more to spend.This box must be edited , i found 9/1o of the presets very boring - sound diver is a must and makes this very fun indeed..

seems solid but can be slow updating when edited with sound diver which is a must....

non like roland

Well this was a bargain box , i bought on teh strength that is has some quite weird phasor and other algorithmns.I use almost as filter / synth for sfx and taking sounds and really harmonically altering.The verbs are nice , the modulation fx are some of the richest ive heard / absolutely mouth watering , the resonance and harmonics this box can produce are very warm and non digital to mt ears.Dleays are fine , it has some nice multi fx blocks .All in all - one of those fogotten gems , i havent heard a roland box that come close to it ?

Very easy to get a good sound from it. It can be twiddled endlessly or just set neat. Do what you want, there is room for any/everything imaginable! No manual, no firmware gobblygoop. It works great. What else do you need to know. Simple, full of features and cheap.

Les Paul--->Peavey Special 212S--->SE 70 (EFX loop)--->Two 12" Sheffield 1230 loudspeakers. I use the effects chains and straight effects patches. The Peavey does all the tone stuff. I never use the EQ section in the SE 70 except when I'm using it as a headphone amp, which it's good for. I have never failed to get a good sound from this unit in live situations. As for copping sounds of the other BIG ROCK STARS...I wouldn't know. I'm sure you can get any sound from it that you want. Overall, this thing does a real job for me. I never gig without it.

Who knows how old it is. I bought in used in 1998. Still ticking. It gets real hot when it's been on for a while but so far, no worries. Probably a god idea to put a fan on it.

Boss SUCKS at customer support. Any questions?

I'm too old to play with a band anymore, doing that week-to-week thing in smoky bars and clubs. Been there, done that...too much of it, as a matter of fact. I only do projects now, ranging from studio work to specific "one time" dates and shows. I haul my rig to rehearsal spaces and keep it there, mostly. The nice thing about the SE 70 is that I can create patches that cop the exact tone of the Peavey's three channels, then I just add the same effects chains and the amp/speaker simulators. So when I'm done at the rehearsal hall, I just unplug the SE 70 and take it home for silent, Headphone rehearsals at home. I play a lot of different types and styles of music. The Peavey and the SE 70 are the right setup for me...sweet and simple. It's really just a good all-around tool for sound. I'd buy it again. There are better units out there...but this unit shines for the dirt cheap price I paid for it. These are still in demand. Buy one and you'll see why.

It is complex because they crammed in so many fxs. Easy to get a good sound using the presets, but to create your own patches takes reading and twiddling. The leslie speaker fx has something like 8+ parameters - freakin scary to tweak. But - it makes every kind of guitar fx your likely to want. Excellent at brite and punchy fxs excellent for leads. As has been said it needs more buttons/knobs to edit the 16 fx chains. The manual is ok.
* You could probably do an entire mixology course by studying every fx and parameter on this unit, and would be able to fake-it like a pro.
* Read manual for system settings - if this is set-up right it will be easy to get a good sound.
* Adjust input levels to rarely trigger red-light, and become familiar with the Noise Gate fx, and noise should not be a problem.

This babe does a good facsimile of any guitar fx I need (never tried house, trance or hip-hop). No noise issues if system settings, db level switch, input db level, and noise-gate set correct. On some patches I notice noise when fx mix around 85% or more. I also notice with eq, phasor, wah, that ear piercing high-end can be produced - if adjust the "resonance parameter" or mid-high eq this can be realed in.
IMHO it best for lead guitar, lead synth, leslies, bell rhodes, and manor of vocals. I use an M1Ex which has very warm and airey fx - so I like processing a lead out with se-70 to make it brite and punchy and LOTS OF CHARACTER. It can do lost of wierd fx but I don't use these.
Just playing with an M1Ex and Td-7, I was able to get an identical sound to all parts of "Billy Idol Rebel Yell", "Tina Turner What's Luv Got 2 do with it", "Sting Englishman in NY" etc. I have two se-70, but they are fx swiss army knife, and if mastered can sound fabou. I put an guitar lead chan with slight over drive on a 2-osc. saw wave, and was able to produce a decent "Jump" lead. Can't wait to redo this test on my MKS-70.
* I hesitate to give it a 10, as the ring modulator does not impress me, and don't like having to remedy the ear piercings.
* The reverbs are not of the Lexicon variety (warm and swirly), rather they are quite, brite, and add presence - very usable.
* I found with mutli-rhodes patch was able to tweak enhancer to correct "disonant sounding aliased high notes" - mucho impressed!!! and create a beauty rhodes patch -specific to my input sample.

Both of mine our 10 years old + and no problems. Studio use only.

* Don't even know if they have a phone * :))

I liked it so much - I bought two (couldn't afford the company). This unit does every kind of guitar you want, and will turn your cheapo weak guitar into a lead. It does it all and some things I will never use. If you need warmth and swirls, or new age astral spacy soft sound - this unit wont do that. But if want leads, brite and punchy (classic roland sound), presence, and aggressive stuff - you will be happy with this. It does colour your sound so you purists, I suggest you mike your bathroom instead.
* Only other compliant is that can't do reverb->chorus! all patches are chorus-> reverb! For the money it sounds BIG.

This is a unit which allows you to chain 16 different effects in series. Considering the range of modifications you can perform to every one of them, it's a breeze to operate, well designed, maybe a 10 for ease of use. However, I'm giving it only 9, as a warning to people who may be too lazy to press a button a few times to get to the parameter they want. This is a machine which very much rewards learning how to program it - once you get it sussed (and figure out that by holding the left and right key simultaneously you can skip to the last/next effect block) you'll fly through the programming - and your own programs will soon outstrip the factory ones.

There seems to be a certain amount of debate here on this topic (with one guy actually arguing with himself?!) which surprises me. I've been using an SE-70 in my studio for years now - they got hard to find in the UK at one point, and I had to go to Tokyo to get another one. I'm just about to buy a third, for live use, after doing a comparative test with a well-known modern processor and being completely unable to get the same calibre of sound. To clear things up, the basic sound quality question is this - do you want yr music to sound bland, smooth and characterless? And a casual ear to the charts this week will persuade the listener that a whole lot of people want precisely that. I would not recommend any of these people to buy an SE70. They will say that it colours the sound (imagine that!) and will recommend you get something a bit more... well not so much musical, more 24bit/96kHz, more modern, more... expensive.

Speaking personally, and as someone fortunate enough to be able to go out and spend a five-figure sum on gear should I so desire, the only more modern processor that comes anywhere near near the SE70 is the TC Fireworxx. But it will cost you about five times what the Boss will, and if you want to spend that amount of money, I heartily recommend you buy five SE70s instead.

PS - handy tip - if hiss bothers you, first thing to do is learn to set the noise gate right - there's one built in.

Never had a moment's trouble with either of mine.
I'd happily use them live without a backup, and I will be doing later this year.

Having said that, don't recommend touring with any piece of gear you haven't got a fallback for. Road crew are lovely people, but they are human and they drop cabs, lighting rigs, and other stuff. Bless.

Never had to contact them about my SEs, but once had to but a couple of knobs from them, and they insisted on sending it courier instead of just putting them in the mailbox - so that the carriage ended up costing about 5 times what the purchase did. They weren't willing to use their own powers of reason on this issue, or to borrow mine. Sigh.

I don't have any horror stories with them, but Roland customer service is notoriously bad on both sides of the Atlantic (heh... must be some sort of policy decision...) - find some helpful guy/girl there that knows what they're doing, and don't lose their email address. If you want a Japanese manual, I've got one spare...

A definite 10.

I play in a guitar band, I use it live. I also use a couple on my desk fx auxs in the studio.

Alternatively, if you make dance music, run yer TB-303 thru one of these, and know The-Uultimate-303-Sound. If you can't afford a 303, it doesn't matter a bit, run your clone thru it - it's the SE70 that makes the difference...

If either of mine were stolen or lost I would move heaven and earth to replace them, and then hunt down the culprit like an egg-sucking dog till my hired associates penned him in on a small farmstead in the badlands of Wyoming, where I would subject him to 24-hour noise torture in the form of bland corporate pop and worthless film music until his brain turned to custard and his worthless thieving drool was tinted pink with blood.

Then I would give him a nice cup of tea and tell him I *understood* his motivation - it's a great piece of gear.

I bought this unit from a small recording studio that was closing its doors. It has a lot of functionality and editing patches is very simple. It's very easy to get a good sound from it. I got the original manuals which I looked over but the SE 70 is pretty simple to operate. The manuals are very detailed and go into everythin. You can use as much or as little of the parameter tweaking stuff as you want. It has patches for just about any recording or live situation imagineable. I heard a lot about these units and now I know why they are still highly desireable. The data wheel is really a small knob and you have to scroll endlessly through all the parameters using buttons, to do editing. That's the only complaint I have.

I use it for guitar and for vocals and for mixdowns. As a guitar processor, it works great. No end to the sounds you can get. As a vocal processor it's pretty good. The reverbs are useable and very customizable to suit any need. As stated, you can go nuts adjusting everything but you don't have to. It's easy to get a good sound for vocals. The mixdown potential is awesome in my opinion. The limiter, EQ section, enhancer and time based effect sections are great for tuning up mixes. I use the guitar algorythms for this function because of the availability of so many effects at once but there are patches dedicated to mixdowns, too. Versatile....to say the least. Good noise gate but it's micro tweakable (most of the parameters are) which is way more than it needs. Most parameters that have a 1-100 range of adjustment...way too much. A range of 1-20 would be adequate. You can scroll up/down through the range in increments of 10 by pushing the data knob, so I guess it's not too bad. I guess if you're a maniac micro tweeker then there's a place for you in this unit. Overall it sounds good for what I use it for and it's pretty quiet. The delays and distortions are excellent. It's a great guitar processor.

Mine has a new power supply. Guy I got it from said the old one lasted for years and years and it was on 16 hours a day, every day. The unit gets pretty hot but I guess that's just the way it is. I've only had it for a few months so I can't say. Boss makes rugged equipment though.

No idea.

I'm a guitarist. I wanted a full featured unit that I could use for guitar in my amp's loop. It's great for that. It's also good in front of an amp, too. I love the distortions. There are hundreds of levels of distortions / overdrives for all the types that are available and the distortion patches can be modified with EQ, compression and signal enhancing.
I'm not a recording wonk so I may not be a good judge but it works fine for what I use it for. I would buy another one again because it is so versatile. You can use it for anything. Only thing I don't like is the endless scrolling needed to edit. Overall it's a good unit.

Very easy to use, and also easy to edit, data wheel and buttons are simple to use. The manual is excellent, if you need it, and you probably won`t.

I use it on my mixer aux send`s, to process my keyboard, and as a reverb for vocals, the later it is particulaly good at. The basic algorythms are excellent, but it is all down to how you program it really, as to the end result, but lets say it can produce some truly inspiring sounds. The reverbs, modulation, and distorion, plus ring mod and vocoder are all exemplary.

No worries, Boss equipment has never let me down

Never had to deal with them.

The SE is good for any type of music, I have been playing for 37 years, so have tried and owned countless items over the years, the SE will go down in my hall of fame. God forbid, if it were stolen I would get another. I like everything about it, my favourite features are all of them ! I like the analogue distortion, O was going to geta VF1 but the all digital spec put me off. Very inspirational, sounds from it can suggest a track, and you are away. I used to own an Eventide H300DSE, the SE70 does give it a run for its money, when you think of the price difference, the bandwidth on the SE is not as wide as the H3000, but you do start to get into the realm of diminishing returns when buying high end gear, also the Eventide is very specialized, I used mine for the Reverb most of the time, but the SE is very good at more things, the chorus and phasor are the best I have heard from a half u box, better than the Eventide, and that`s saying something. If you want a great value all purpose box that will truly inspire you, get this.

This is an easy processor to use. I got mine with the original manuals but figuring out how it works would not be a problem for anyone, with or without the manual. As Paul Cigno wrote in his review back in September, 1997 (See his ORIGINAL review below...before he went all Hollywood on us with the Lexicon, boutique amp and the "I'm so much more sophisticated than you unwashed cretins..." attitude) this is the Swiss Army knife of processors. It does everything! I use it for guitar in live situations and I use it a lot for recording to tape. I use it for 'verbing vocals and treating mixdowns to edgy little patches. (It has two input levels -20 and +4 db) I can do so many things with it. It's the one unit that never gets turned off when I'm in the studio. It's permanently available to the patch bay router. Editing the guitar patches is a breeze. Basically there are 4 algorythms to mess with, for guitar. They have a truckload of parameters to fool with. I'm not a micro tweaker so I usually create 3-4 parameter patches for guitar and leave it at that. The distortions are excellent (by the way, Mr. Paul Cigno, the distortions ARE analog in the SE 70. You loved them in 1997, before you went Hollywood, remember?) This thing has the only auto-wah that I ever found useable, too. As a studio tool, the patches are great, the amp simulators are good and there is something for every application-usually 2-3 different flavors of the same basic soundscapes to mess with. Parameters are all tweakable, so you can craft your own to suit your tasts. I store similar studio patches in groups To sum it up...the SE 70 has something for everybody and is a great "live" tool, as well as a reliable, good sounding studio unit. Is it an Eventide/Lexicon contender? No it's not. Most of us can't ever hope to spend that kind of dough on our gear, like Mr. Perfect Paul Hollywood, but for the rest of us "losers"....this box is terrific! I rate it a solid "10." (By the way, Boss SE 70s are still hanging out at most of the "premier" recording studios in North America. I guess Paul needs to make some phone calls and correct this "problem", huh?)

I use the SE 70 with Fender tube amps (the older, smaller Fenders...Princeton Reverb, Deluxe, Champ/Vibro champ) for "live" performances. I also run it in the loops of more modern, solid-state amps, too. The sound quality is great in live situations. It's not totally quiet but the noise gating is very good and can be tailored to each patch for whatever style/level you need it for. I never had a problem with the noise level in live performance situations. I run humbucking equipped guitars through it, mostly. From classic PAF to full-on shred monster, 22K screamers, the SE 70 handles them all perfectly Never had any problems with any of my BOSS gear.. Some hot 'pickups will cause the gate to stay open at idle but I've found that turning the guitar's volume down/off will cure that problem whenever it arises. There is no problem when I'm playing...it's only between songs that I'm even concerned. I don't use the compressor very much, either. It will bring the noise threshhold up, fer sure.
As far as recording guitar tracks goes, I use the amp simulator on my "performance" patches for going direct, with a higher MASTER VOLUME setting, the LIMITER "up" and set @ 100:1, and a slightly higher gate setting. Noise isn't a big problem with DBX and BBE processing in the signal chain. ( It ain't much of a "high tech/ high dollar" recording rig, but it cranks out a good quality "demo grade" cassette.) The SE 70 does not have a digital output. With all due respect to "Mr. Hollywood" it does not sound like a pot of hissing snakes, though. On the applications other than guitar, the SE 70 shines just fine. The 'verbs are great and the noise level isn't really an issue.

BOSS makes really great gear. Reliability is the hallmark of the Boss/Roland product line.

I play a variety of styles, including gospel, blues, jazz, rock, hard rock, metal and alternative. Really, I'll jam with any style, but I prefer to play with a high gain sound. I've been able to cop the tones I like with the SE 70 but I'm always experimenting, too. The SE 70 is a great sound sculpting tool for guitar. I've had the opportunity to play through some nice rack gear and I honestly don't think that there is a whole lot of diifference in the quality and sonic possibilities of most of these units. All have strong/weak points. For my money, the SE 70 is the best sounding, most feature laden unit in it's price range. If you're looking for a machine that can provide good quality tones/patches for the widest variety of applications, this is the box for you. I've been playing for thirty years (professionally and for pure enjoyment) and at his point I want something simple and straightforward that sounds good. (For you Hollywood types, this will never do. Go spend some major dough on the big league stuff, get a life and keep the "snob" reviews coming They are so very entertaining!.) I highly recommend this box to anyone who wants a Swiss Army knife for sound. It works and it sounds good and it's reliability is legendary. Sorry, it doesn't seem to be "Perfect Paully-boy approved" anymore but try and cope with it, ok? If it were lost/stolen I would search for another one for under $175.

This is a revision of a review I did on this unit a few years ago. I felt that I needed to do an update

Having upgraded some of my equipment (Rivera amp, Lexicon MPX-1, etc.)and having developed my ear regarding tone over the last few years, I've come to find this SE-70 pretty much unusable due to poor sound quality. Using a higher quality amp revealed a lot of the sonic flaws
this unit had. And compared to the 24 bit MPX-1, it sounds either like a pot of hissing snakes, or generally poorly processsed.

Perhaps Boss's newer generation of 24 bit processing is better; I haven't tried it. Perhaps better yet would be their dedicated guitar processors. But overall, there is nothing on the market that has the tone, presence, and detail of a mid to higher end tube amp. Digital distortion of any sort, at the time of this writing, cannot match the real thing in those aspects (for instance, turn your guitar volume down low and hear your distorted sound start to fizzle and sputter rather than clean up and get sweeter as in a quality amp). High end stomp boxes and digital processors often work pretty well for effects or helping to drive the amp, in general it's probably better to stick with those. Usually, you get what you pay for.

It never broke down on me through years of useage.

I called a couple of times and received answers without having to sweat it too much.

I tried plugging it into a Marshall MS-2 9 volt battery one watt practice amp I carry around for practicing when out on the road. It degraded the sound quality of that amp. That's a very bad thing. I liked what Boss attemped to do with the synth settings, the phase shifter, and a couple of other things, but the sound quality is such that I can't use them. I'd suggest if you feel you have an all in one digital distortion/processor like this, buy the highest quality, newest generation that you can possibly afford. I would avoid stuff like this in general.