Boss SE-70

Very easy, but also has a lot to explore. Download the manual(s), they're great. You can easily set up an expression pedal, latches, midi...

I checked and my system is 1.03. I've seen a 1.06 chip for sale on the net. No idea what it does. Anyone have a clue? I'd love to know.

Ignore previous poster. This unit works just fine and sounds great in the 21st century (as if music recorded in this century sounds better?!). If you try to use it to record a guitar direct to a recorder then you might be disappointed, same as any other processor. It's not the processor's fault. Plug it into a tube amp and mic it, then try to tell me it sounds bad. If it sounds bad, then you don't know how tweak sound. It's stuffed with eq's and enhancers and noise suppressors. Learn how to use them.

I've used this as a guitar effect off and on, depending on what pedals I've had at the time. Now I'm shifting it into service as the main processor for my guitar synth. It is perfect for this application. The Rhodes patch for Rhodes sounds obviously, Rotary patch for the organ sounds (the rotary alone makes the SE-70 a bargain at $150 street!). You can program the rise and fall times of the speaker and horn, set up an on/off pedal to control it, add overdrive if you like... I might even set up the vocoder... Once I get all my patches setup in the GR-30 I'll need to use midi to mate certain gr-30 patches with the appropriate se-70 patches.

Its phaser abilities extend beyond what you will find on any phaser pedal. Same for chorus. If you just want a chorus pedal, buy an se-70 and just use it for that. No stand alone chorus will come close. I've owned a TC Electronic chorus, which sounded great, but like every other chorus pedal it is extremely limited in terms of the variety of tones you can get from it. SE-70 choruses can do things you never thought a chorus could do. If you want a very subtle chorus you can easily dial that in. It also has flanger, vibrato, panner, a feedbacker effect which is very cool, ring mod, delays galore with multi-taps, frequency dampeners, ducking, modulation...

Do you know of a pitch shifter pedal that offers 12 voices and adjustable pre-delay for each? You will not have enough time in your life to discover all the sounds this processor is capable of.

there's also slow gear, compressor/limiter, sampler which can be reversed, guitar tuner... I know I'm forgetting things. oh, wah, auto or expression pedal, very tweakable. amp simulators, ambience, reverbs of course.

I've used the built in guitar synth for recording. You can hit a note and latch it so it holds, then use the frequency cutoff filter for some great sounds. you'd be surprised by the parameters available. portamento, vibrato, wave type, sub-oscillator, fine-tune... I can play synth parts with this and you would not know that I wasn't plating through a moog. seriously. It's well beyond what you can do with those little boss bass synth pedals. just learn how to play so it tracks properly.

It's really still amazing how many odd abilities this little box has. There may never be another processor that comes close in that regard. Mine was $750 new. You can usually buy one off ebay for $125. What are you waiting for? I should buy more of them.

Haha - I've had mine for 16 years. No probs. Would be shocked if it suddenly stopped operating.

no need, but like I said, I've seen a 1.06 software upgrade chip and I'd very much like to know what it does. If anyone knows, or has the time to wade through customer service to find out, I'd love to know.

I play rock in general, leaning to the experimental/progressive/ambient/loopy/spacey side. This thing is like batman's utility belt for that kind of music.

I've been playing close to twenty years. Current gear: the SE-70, Parker Nitefly, Westbury Custom-S, Ibanez RD300, Martin D-15, Epiphone 12-str, samick mandolin, GR-30 guitar synth w/GK-2a, '65 twin reverb, creepy face fuzz, carl martin compressor and overdrive, line 6 delay modeler, akai wah, lexicon vortex, guyatone slow gear, tascam msr-16 reel-to-reel recorder, beringer monitors, old allen and heath system-8 board, RNC compressors, Bellari tube preamps, aphex aural exciter, fostex dmv-8vl recorder, Novation K-station, Fatar midi foot controller (like taurus pedals)...

If stolen, I wouldn't be surprised. I'd replace it, no doubt.

Now this processor is a total rubbish,but in twentieth century this unit is great for studio musicians:)

To get started with it is blindingly easy. You need a manual, and if you want to see why everyone raves over this unit, you need both manuals and time to study it. The presets were not ordered that great so you will want SoundDiver to reorganize it. The presets emphasize its warm analogue distortion a bit too much for my taste, so I mostly edit it to bring out it's other astounding talents.

This is a guitar processor of the gods. It is all there. I'll just go over the four four guitar chains {Stomp box all in a row including slow guitar for a kind of echo, harmonizer (10 voice pitch shift +5 band EQ this is amazing for backup vocal processing as well), Wah with panning delay, dual long FX chains for nice hard L/R fun}. The Vox chain has it all {lim, Desser, EQ, Enhancer, Pitch Shift, Chorus, delay, 5 verbs}. The rhodes, keys, and 2 channel mixer chains are others I find useful use. There are two Vocoders both in chains with eq/chorus/verb.

Then there is the pure stereo in/processing/out FXs which can be used to get higher fidelity sound and more edit parameters. Endless amount of delays, amazing modulations like the 16 stage Super Chorus (it never fails to impress), and all the unexpected things like stereo vocal canceller, stereo key changer, guitar synth (very cool monster cry FX), bass synth.
It can be noisey if you want or not. Noise with some guitar patches is very subjective art form. It allows you to go with noise when you want it, and with some wise tweaks all patches can be cleaned up.
Lastly it colours the sound, adds punchy mid range briteness.

I own two, used in home studio and they are great.

Never needed it.

This is great for guitars (lead & bass), kets, all things you need for vocals and back-up processing. It is interesting and very promising for synths which is where I am exploring more with it. I am not thrilled with the rotary (because I like chorus thrown in which is not the classic leslie sound). However I use the rotary for the most amazing warm overdrive patches (go figure!) Least likely to use it for drums (truly it's only weak area).

Can be used as single stereo FX processer has excellent verbs, however I would likely want to use two as it's 16 stage super chorus is awesome. Least likely to use it for Drums. For dedicated verbs, I would like prefer say a Lexicon MPX-550 or more interesting is the MX400, for dual chains in stereo. Lexicon has an edge in shimmering rooms (excellent for acoustic sounds like piano/sax), but se70 distortion/overdrive/modulations create more interest colour for punchy leads. The Lexicon verbs also have awesome Drum rooms even in the presets. For the dollar it's hard to beat the se70.

Couldn't get much easier than this, although sometimes the menu navigation can get a bit tedious when compared to modern MFX units.

No real need for the manual if you've had hands on experience with this sort of unit in the past.

The main reason for me buying this unit was for the Analogue distortions/overdrives, and in this area it does not dissapoint at all. It has a certain character that is not easily obtained when using it's digital competition.

I use the SE-70 in a studio setting for mainly processing synths, and if you're a fan of Prodigy's "Fat of the Land" album, then you'll know exactly what this box is capable of in that area - it's smeared across the whole album!

The reason I am giving it a nine will be explained in the "overall rating" section.

I have never had any trouble with Boss gear, and I don't expect any with my SE-70 - it is afterall 12 years old already.

Never had to deal with them, touch wood.

The reason I gave this unit a nine in the "sound quality" section is that I also own a Boss VF-1, and I feel that the VF-1 has a way better setup/sound than the SE-70 in terms of Amp-sims, Rotaries, reverbs and Delays - not to mention the way you can rearrange the order of many FX chains.

It's just when you want warm, fuzzy distortions that the SE-70 edges the VF-1 out. A combination of the two would be great!

I have just bought my third SE-70 and I may buy another as there isn't much like them at all. They're very cheap when you compare stomp-boxes or digital MFX, so I can see no reason why anyone would be without one!

By the way, they do seem to get a little hot, so racking them may not be an option depending on your studio. Mine hasn't failed me yet, but it's not closed in either.

It is very easy to get a good sound out of the SE 70 if you spent some time trying with many the parameters of each effect. The actual edditing is very easy. I have the algorithm and basic manual and you need some time to study it before to make use of it propperly. I do not know if this unit is able for firmware upgrade. Any person is able to get some fantastic sounds out of it.

In combination with my marshall stack and eh-50 boss enhancer i can make it sound just the way I want it. If you use the noisegate and other effect levels the right way it can be absolutely noiseless. The distortion is analog and still of one of the best available today. The chorus and reverb,hall and those kind of effects are awsome in stereo and come close to the lexicons and eventides if you know how to dail the right numbers when using the right parameters. The presets can be improved and I do not realy understand why boss can not install the presets more perfect.

I own this SE-70 for about eight years and never has let me down and I am not afraid to go to a gig without a backup. I think that when it will fail, it will fail permanently.....like someone has died. I owned several other multieffect devices and this SE-70 became a reliable old friend.

Never needed any customer support so I wouldn't know.

I play blues, ballands, hardrock and I can get every sound I need out of this little magicbox. If it will get stolen or dies I will certainly try to find another one, although they are hard to find....nobody wants to sell it I guess. I also owned a Boss ME-10 whitch is also a very good device but the SE-70 sounds a little bit better overall...that must be the PRO bit. I also heard the new Boss and Roland stuff and the SE-70 does not need to be replaced by any of them.

After 5 minutes use, it?s really easy to use...having a manual makes life easier. You can download it from the rolandus.com site, but that?s only the owners manual, not the algo manual (which is a MUST to see the different effects chains) as you can?t swap effects?they come in blocks which you modify?don?t take it the wrong way, as you can modify till your sick to death which is great!

My god, I love it?. Apparently it?s half analoge? But I don?t use this for distortions?pitch shifter galore..you?d think this an eventide..the pitch shifting options are many..and guess what? There all great. So are all the other effects.. I do like the reverb also.

Don't press the data wheel in or you'll turn the effect off! These are moments you wish you had a manual....

there ok..emailed roland uk who didnt reply which was annoying, but when i phoned them they bent over backwards including emailing japan for me. Hit and miss as with every company, but it's boss, there big, go with it.

The biggest problem is not having a manual?go out of your way to get it and you?ll discover a million things in the effects department?also little thing that make your life easier ..IE, pushing the data wheel in and scrolling allows faster scrolling. Pressing the opposite direction buttons in whilst pressing the direction you want allows faster moving though the effects algos. These units are great. Love em to bits!

By the way, not sure but i think they are all PRO versions, as i have never seen any which are not...

I'm either very dense - or the SE70 is extremely complicated: I'm constantly surprised by this unit and always finding new things it can do - so I mean "complicated" in a very good way, and I don't really think I'm tooo dense ;-)

I've had mine nearly ten years and only today I discovered something else about it - the reverse pitch shift setting, which allows me to get that beautiful Crystal Echo effect that is available on Eventide units.

The manual only provides the barest information of each aspect (it's two big books - if it gave details, they would be massive!)... it hardly explains that Inv1 and Inv2 are the reverse pitch shifts and it was only when reading about the Eventide and wondering if I could get a similar effect that I realised that THAT was what they were for.

It seems that Boss have put so much detail into the SE70 and then not written about it - if they'd put it in a bigger box and called it a Roland product and said it did everything a studio could need, then its qualities might not have got so hidden - many people think it's a stomp-box, but the SE stands for 'studio effects'.

In the end, Boss went the opposite way, I think, because subsequent multi effects they made were no way near as well featured.

All this complexity AND proffessional lush sound.
This is an incredible unit!

Very straight forward

Excellent- has REAL character, LOVE the sound quality.

I have had 2 for about 10 years, yes they do get quite hot, but never had one problem, tripped carrying one in the studio, launched itself accross the room into the wall, worked fine after that ! v. slight dent.

Blows the socks off the SX-700.
I agree, with whoever made the comment about it being a swiss army knife in the audio department.

In its day this thing was the darling of many major recording studios and there was a big buzz over it. I wanted one when they first hit the market in the 80s but they were very expensive (over 800 bucks!) so I waited till the late 90s to get mine. Well worth waiting for! It is very versatile and easy to operate, but I would recommend that users buy the manuals with it because it has features you'll never even know about if you don't have the manual. Easy to edit patches (pretty self explanatory...follow the menus...) and the direct interface is easy to operate, though it's not as modern as some of the very latest gear. Not a big issue for me. I can create new patches from memory, now! Excellent midi suite. Stereo inputs and outputs for full stereo throughput. It's a 1/2 rackspace unit. In it's day it was a complete "10." Due to the improved interfaces of modern processors, I'll give it a 9. As for the sounds of the unit...

I use this in my home recording studio for instruments and mixdowns. The availability of different sounds / processing parameters is more than anyone could ever use. There's something for every application you could come up with. As a guitarist, I create patches to capture a very large variety of amp types, pickup types and guitar tones,just with the algorythms available for guitar, which are extensive to say the least. Of the 4 types of dedicated guitar chains, there is almost no limit to what you can do. Distortions are excellent, pitch shifting is absolutely beautiful sounding and there are multiple shifters on each channel in the algorythms. Chorusing is shimmery with a few different types available. Flanging, phasing and rotary sounds are all excellent...even by today's standards. The distortions range from barely there to over the top. Some here have compared the SE 70 favorably to Eventide products. I have to agree, if utilized properly.
There is one very important aspect of technique that many users fail to develop. I'm referring to the development of the overall patch volume level and the individual element (compression, distortion, modulation, delay, reverb....) levels present within them. Keep your levels low so that you don't have to rely on noise gating to do what should be done at the patch building process. Noise is inherent in digital signal processing so minimize it the RIGHT way instead of the noise gate approach. I have been going to 8 track tape for years, very quietly through this unit. Less really IS more, when it comes to effects processing.
As for using it as a live gigging tool...I have some experience with it and I was satisfied with it in this arrangement but after a while (I thought it to be overkill for gigging so i took it off the road and bought a cheaper digitech RP 7 pedalboard to do gigs with.)
The Boss SE 70 sounds great through an amp and I had some patches that actually used amp simulation, for playing live.
Someone called this a Swiss Army Knife. It is. It does everything pretty damned well!

These are legendary for their reliablity.

Roland and Boss suck in this area.

I'm aguitarist. I play a wide variety of different styles and I'm a pretty average player. I prefer rhythm playing but I solo, too. I now own a modeling amp for live gigging (simple, easy to set up and use) and I still use the SE 70 at home. I am very pleased to have this processor and it is probably going to remain in my studio forever. I demoed the newer VF 1 from Boss but in the end I found the quality of the sound was better in the SE 70 so I stuck with it even though I can afford the VF 1, these days. There's a "real" feel with the SE 70 that the VF 1 and other digital units can't quite convey as well. I would buy this again and I recommend it (get it with the manuals.)

Spend a few hours with the 2 excellent manuals and it will reward you for years. This was the first digital effects unit I bought, and I got to grips with it no problem. Yes, you only have one data knob, but you can only edit one parameter at a time anyway. And there are shortcuts - like pressing both parameter buttons together the thing skips through the menus really quickly. Its fun, its easy, its logical, its rewarding to operate and there's loads of stuff in there - 100 memories really isn't enough but you can always Sysex dump.

I use this for everything. Guitar effects, keyboard and synth delays and processing, vocals (no, really - you can get a great vocal recording sound with this, using the compressor and chorus in the right amounts). And it has a really useful guitar/pitch tuner built in accessable from one key-press - man, that's so useful for live work with an EMS Synthi AKS. Most of the sounds are at the very least useable, and at best, inspirational. The Vocoder is excellent with lots of parameters to vary, Leslie is great, guitar effects are excellent for recording, reverbs - well perhaps not the best I've heard but when you consider what else this thing does.

I bought it in 1994 and its never let me down, either in the studio or on the road. And I don't take a back-up. Sure, it runs warm, but that doesn't seem to worry it.

Never needed to call them.

I buy and sell a fair bit of equipment but this is staying, its way too useful to part with. I play space rock music, and this provides a huge palette of sounds to work with. Would I buy another if it were stolen - too right, if I could find one. Why did I buy it? I was sold on the advertising that said 'Everything Except the Kitchen Sink', which about sums it up. I use other effects (Zoom, Alesis, Art) and while they may be better in one or two areas like Reverb quality (the Zoom has it!), as an overall package nothing comes close.

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.

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...

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