Boss SE-70

I bought this unit used, to work with my guitar setup. The factory patches are useable but they really need to be tweaked to sound more like the real deal. I found it a breeze to use, very easy and intuitive. I have the users manual and the algorithym guide, both are excellent but I really don't need to refer to them anymore after reading through them once. The SE 70 has a great user interface despite the fact that one must scroll through a long list of parameters during editing. I find myself disabling all the parameters except the one I'm editing to make things go quicker. I have no idea as to the software level or how old this unit is.

My signal path is: Guitar into preamp/compressor into SE 70 into Dynaco SCA 35 stereo reference amp driving a pair of closed back altec lansing speaker cabs loaded with SP 12 Altecs. I use the preamp/compressor mainly for occasions when I put vocal mikes through the SE 70. It's usually switched off for the guitar. The SE 70 can be noisy at extreme compressor/distortion/reverb settings but the noise reduction is very good on this unit and can be tweaked/micro-tweaked to work around almost any noise problem one might encounter. I'm not concerned at all with noise in the SE 70. As far as the effects quality is concerned, I find them all to be perfect for my use. Some are pretty far out-unuseable for my guitar stuff-but even they are of good quality. I can't imagine what could be missing from the sound pallette; it seems as though EVERYTHING audible is on tap in this box-and then some!
I have dead on NAILED the sound of my ROCKMAN gear, my 70's Fender Princeton Reverb, the MARSHALL sound, a BOOGIE MK IV and a scooped metal setting with delay that absolutely SMOKES! It only took about an hour or so to NAIL these sounds. When I say "NAILED" I mean NAILED. I am a perfectionist when it comes to the tone I'm seeking (call me anal..I admit it!) and the BOSS SE 70 gives me a vast array of interactive sound sculpting tools to work with. The sound is digital but WARM. Maybe it's the DYNACO but I swear this unit produces a different kind of sound from the other rack processors I've encountered. Other than an old Yamaha SPX 90, this is the only box I've owned that sounds "real" to me. Outstanding sound quality that can be made to sound even better with consciencious parameter tweaking.
The distortions, reverbs and delays are especially good/useful in my opinion.

It's a BOSS.

Never talked to 'em.

I play all styles, but mostly progressive rock style for a Christian contemporary band. The SE 70 covers everything from country to metal and does them all righteously. It operates easily and has more than enough features to keep me busy for a lifetime. I chose it for its reputation as a legend among signal processors. It has never disappointed me. I would buy another on in a heartbeat. Jesus loves you!

Give it a little time, and you will find it very easy to use. However, since it is a half-space unit, there aren't enough knobs to facilitate moving around with ease. Never really used the MIDI side of it. When I did, it was to make program changes from my synth, and I encountered an annoying problem: every time I took my foot off the sustain pedal, I would get an audible pop from the SE-70. Very annoying, but I won't jump the gun and blame Roland for it--it could be anything, really. I didn't really pursue the problem.

I am a keyboardist who gigs regularly with this unit. I've used it on every gig since I bought it in '93. I've used it in the studio. I also play bass and guitar and have used it for these purposes. It is a fantastic multi-purpose unit; as somebody said in another review, it is like a Swiss Army Knife. Sure, it's not the quietest unit made, but we're talking bang for the buck here. Who cares in a live situation? (It's not all that noisy anyway.) I generally use it for reverb, delay and phasing, and Leslie. I managed to get VERY good emulations of vintage effects out of this effects box. Recently, I was able to get the Keith Richards overdrive-slapback as well as Vox AC-30 sound for use with either guitar or keyboard (a Rhodes or reasonable interpretation put through distortion can sound much like a guitar). I have old Mu-Tron pedals as well, and the phasing on this unit can come pretty close. The key is to use an expression pedal--try to get as much realtime control over the unit as you can. BTW, at least with this model, you generally need to utilize the speaker simulation with any distortion/overdrive.

Now--did I mention the Leslie effect on this? No? This alone made me buy the damn SE-70! Nothing compares to the real thing, of course (where it is actually moving air), but to me it blows away many of the more expensive products designed to simulate the Leslie alone, Motion Sound products aside. Trust me, I own a Leslie and I've heard and played plenty of the wannabes. The key, once again, is to use the expression pedal. On this effect alone, you have control over fast/slow speeds for both the horn and rotor, ramp-up and down time, and separation (useful for stereo mixes). You can control the rate from the expression pedal. However, I noticed a problem. I wanted to have a quicker slow rate on the horn, so a selected the rate and saved the program. When I went back to the program, the rotor's slow rate would be back at the factory setting. Even when I toggled between fast and slow speeds, it would return to the factory setting. But, I came up with a solution that I will try to explain here: you can also manually control the rates of the horn/rotor with the foot pedal. Since you are allowed 4 different realtime control programs per patch and can route them to the same controller, I not only had the slow/fast switching routed to the foot, but also the slow rate of the horn controlled here, set backwards. The effect is this; when the expression pedal is in "heel" position, the rotary effect is in "Chorale", or slow mode. Meanwhile, the horn is switched to a faster slow rate, the one that I originally wanted. Now, we press down on the pedal to "toe" position; here the rotary speeds up to it's fast rate, and the horn's slow rate decreases--HOWEVER, the fast rate switchover overrides the programming of the horn's slow rate, so we have therefore circumvented the problem! (This may or may not mean anything to anyone, but I hope it DOES help someone.) The distorted leslies are really great on the SE-70. My only gripe is that there IS a bit of harmonic cancellation. Certain notes stick out more than others. If you can get past this, all in all the sound is quite remarkable, especially since this unit is 7-8 years old and still has better rotary effects than many newer products.

Now, for my set-up: I have lots of gear, but usually play out with a Roland JV-80 expanded with "Keys of 60s & 70s" (because it's small), a Roland A-70 with VER-D1 piano expansion, a Blue Tube overdrive, SE-70, Line6 Delay Modeler, and sometimes 2 Roland KC-500s or a Peavey KB-300 (an old beater that is louder than both Rolands combined and takes a lickin' but keeps on tickin'). I sometimes bring out a Clavinet, a Rhodes, and/or a Micromoog. When my old band had a truck, I'd bring out a Leslie 145. Won't fit in my Honda though!

Input/output jacks are sturdy metal. Have needed to repair the plastic AC jack as well as the power supply (luckily not a wall wart). Also, the plastic input volume control needs a dab of solder now and then. This is common on plenty of well used musical equipment.

I've dealt with Roland in the past, and I'm not impressed. Makes me wonder why I keep buying their gear...

I get hired to play anything from rock to blues to funk to quasi-jazz (no snobs!). Would like to start my own thing when I find the time, in the Eno-experimental vein. Been playing for 12 years. I obviously swear by this unit, otherwise I wouldn't have written so friggin' much (you annoyed yet?)! Considering buying my friend's unit, just in case. If I were to lose it, I'd definitely get another one.

Very easy to use. Plug in a MIDI foot controller and you don't have to lay a finger on it! Editing patches is straight forward. Manual is great but could have used more description of some of the more uncommon effects.

I use this with my Fender HM Strat straight into my computer for recording. With the guitar amp simulators it sound like I have some miked amps turned up to 11! I like to play Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, and I can get close to what they sound like.

I bought it in 1994 and now it's 2000. No problems, no hassles. I have used it on tour with no backup and it never flinched.

Never had to get customer support.

I have been playing for 13 years now and this will probably be my last effects box that I'll use. I would most likely buy another if it were stolen or lost.

This is a great unit, I mount it to my pedal steel guitar leg and operate it with one hand, very quick and straight forward.

I use it straight out of my steel, when the noise suppressor is on it can be very quite.

It just keeps on giving me a great sound, night after night.

I play country, and play it loud, it does not distort as long as you keep the red clip light from staying on. I like it so much I bought a second one for $400 as a backup as they do not make them anymore. The biggest mistake Boss has made. I could sell tons to steel players across the county.

The SE-70 is a half rack space multi-effects that is for general usage.I have mostly been using it for guitar. For that, if nothing else, it's a really good basic tool. I use it for bass as well. It comes with some many good sounds to start with, right out of the box.
However, I have left no sound untouched. It's laid out well enough that now, I can figure out how to make the changes I want in my head, even away from the machine. I hadn't used an effect like this before, and now I can pretty much do whatever programming I might want to.
There are 2 sets of 50 preset patches and 100 user spaces. They use the same memory, but you are unlikely to need more than 50 of them at any one time.
I run an ART X-15 foot controller which has two expression pedals using the SE-70's Midi. I have four parameters that I can change for each patch. There are 2 dozen or so, such as effect on/offs, levels, some rate controls, tuner, metronome, and so forth. This allows me to make two or three very useful changes live on every one of about 16 patches that I use. An entire evening's worth of manic pedal stomping if you'd like.
I wish it were a full sized unit to provide more space for the buttons, and a program wheel would have been better too. But geez, considering the bang for the buck, these are worth living with. It's a very ambitious unit and quite flexible.
The manual(s)are extensive and clear.

If nothing else, it's a great little box for guitar.
I bought it originally for bass, however, it can be used for any purpose. I haven't used it for much of anything else, but I'm sure I could get good use of it for vocals, keyboards, whatever. Reverbs and delays are OK. It's not a Lexicon, but it's not meant to be. It's like a good Swiss Army Knife.
There are lots of parameters to work with, some make subtle changes, others are huge. If nothing else the guitar distortions are great. It has about 8 of them, all are very interactive with EQ's, Cab Simulators, Compressor/Limiter, Enhancer, using the Auto Wah and Phasers with their rate controlls set at 0, etc.
If you run the distortions with fewer other effects like chorus and pitch shift, they sound quite realistic. Playing through a little Fender Blues De Luxe, I can credibly match tone with a guitar player in my band who uses a 30th aniversary Marshall. I have some other sounds that can be a bit ruder, or I can get sweeter, bluesier tones as well. Heavy fuzzes, sustained singing sounds, all there. Very nice. I've built in louder and softer versions of the same sounds on some patches, and this works quite well.
It has synthesized sounds too. This requires no special pickups, just whatever signal you give the amp/board. It even has a vocoder. The tracking is usually fine as long as you don't play unrealistically fast for it. Nice analogue sounds too. Pretty unusual, this is not a common feature to find.
Like any multi effects unit, you have to spend a little time to understand how they work, because you can always come up with something than the generalized sounds manufacturers program in. But once you see how everything works together, you can get a lot out of it.
It has a neat Leslie effect also, the varying speeds "spin" like a real Leslie.
It's not all that noisy. The noise gate works fine, it'll choke a signal pretty easily if you over-do it. And you can adjust other levels as well, I do this live with the X-15 on a couple loud patches. Chorus, Pitch Shift, Flangers aren't remarkable, but they're usable. All have their good points, again, when used interactively.

Never had a problem with it in 4 years or so.

I was asking about a cheaper unit, the tech suggested this one. I'm glad I called, I'd never seen one before. I've had a couple of questions, it took a while for the callback, but they answered them much to my satisfaction.

Would I buy one again? YES! A good thought in fact, I should get a backup just in case. I'd be lost without one.
It would have been nice to have more parameters to work with. More level controls for different effects, the new global controls Boss uses, and so forth. But what's onboard will do ya.
For a little bit of money, it's a great guitar box! If you can't afford their new units like the G-5 or the orange colored one, this will do most of what they do. And, unless everyone that bought one won't sell (Hmm, I *haven't* seen one on the used market), they are probably cheap. Nobody seems to know about them.
I've recently read about a couple guitarist known for their effects usage that rely heavily on this unit. I'd believe it. I may buy something else that's very high end someday, but this will always be my "secret weapon".

Easy for good sounds, factory settings are organized to show off the strong points of each algorithm. These algorithms had to have been written by people who make music, they are very well thought through and stick to the most likely uses instead of offering pages of little used parameters. Editing is cake, highly organized, menus appear only for active effects.Screen size dictates many menus-I'd kiss the ___ of anyone who could recomend a patch editor for this machine! Manual is pretty good explaining all parameters and algorithms in detail. Some midi info a little fuzzy. ( Isn't it all?)

Effects are clean even in algorithms that contain many effects.(The ones I'm using are for guitar processing and have about 9-10.) I'm using an ART TUBE MP to crank my guitar up to line level cause the front end preamp is not really quiet plugging straight in.Distortion section is totally analog and totally responsive-actually "feels" like an amp. This combined with the best cab emulator I've heard is giving me a punchy, non-squished DI stage tone with none of the typical fuzz and lack of guts.Has authentic Fuzz Tone setting also. Reverb in these huge algorithms is understandably compromised. Dedicated reverb algoritmns sound lush dense and musical. Authentic pre distortion wah, wicked 40 stage phasers and other seldom seen effects like ring modulators are inspiring.

two fiends turned me on to this thing. They both own two SE-70's and have not had problem one. Jacks are real chassis mounted, metal. I have mine mounted to the underside lid of my homemade pedalboard and it is transported and stored in non temperature controlled areas. We'll see, won't we?

Roland/boss sucks, don't even try to call them, they aren't interested. I tried to find out if my unit was editable by a patch editor through sys ex and the guy on the phone didn't know and didn't seem to care. Thier web page is equally useless.

I will buy another SE-70 as soon as budget allows.It is the most over-looked machine made. Every day I discover some other feature that I thought could not possibly be included for the price. Truly deep, easy to use.

Using this unit is a bit of a drag, having to zip through all the parameters of every effect in a chain. The manual is good, clearly laid out and informative.

It's quite noisy with pre-amp fx like distortion; they've placed the eq BEFORE the noisegate in all chains which have one; specific fx: the phaser lacks the spacy quality of my (now sold) Korg Wavestation; the reverb sounds cheap but (just) adequate; the various distortions are good

the big twiddly know (ahum) fell off after only a couple of weeks; probably my fault; it works fine all the time

i would only buy it for the vocoder and the various distortions; seen in that light, it was too expensive for me; i hate the reverbs; i chose one because of the great bang-for-the-buck specs; a better reverb and phaser would turn this into a real sonic bomb; i use it mainly to process electronic drums (Aphex Twin like sounds)

This unit is rather easy to use, the patches can be quite simply altered but it would be nice if you could go directly to the effect you wish to work on instead ofhaving to run through all these preset effects. I haven't really read much of the manual, but it is pretty good

The sound quality is good an d not at all noisy The distortion effects aren't that great if you ask me 'cause they sound a bit too much like plastic to me.(but that could be because I let my SE-70 go through the loop) I dont like the vocoder that much, 'cause it tends to overdrive my speakers

this machine has an immense ammount of quality effcts, but some of them ( (like the sampler) are really not that big of a deal. one thing I really dislike about it is the pause between switching the effects . (I really HATE that!, so if anyone has got a solution for this problem , please mail me)

Ease : 8 Editing patch is not very easy on the SE70 . It is very easy if you use a MIDI link with your computer The manual is well written but a little too short

very low noise the sound is great, very great for this size of Multi FX very good : leslie cabin, distortion (crunch and built in Amp) very good : the Vocoder.21 and the old vocoder 10 whith distorsion bad : no bad effects !

very reliable but sometime the se70 becomes very hot...

6