A Confession

“Hi. I’m Ted, and I don’t always intuitively understand why an effect or pedal exists or how to use it.”

I am a “play to the song” type of musician. As many are. This isn’t a value statement. Just that when I pick up an instrument and set to whittling my part out of a host of ideas, my priority is on creating textures, filling roles, and – in general – being the best support system that I can be for both the particular song and the band.

That’s neither better or worse than any other approach. It just happens to be my approach.

When it comes to the sound I pursue – whether I’m on guitar or bass – my approach is pretty traditional and, dare I say it – rudimentary.

Effects tend to either be ‘always on’, or, I may toggle one or two on and off throughout a song (kick on or off an OD or a chorus, etc., whatever).

Effects for me are rarely, if ever, THE point or focus of a song or a part. I can completely dig and appreciate what the shoegaze and ambient crowd get up to and how they can make sounds sit up, beg, and roll over. That’s just not my typical jam.

I recently discovered, however, that this left me with a comprehension gap in regards to a variety of effects and effect types. Specifically, there are a number of effects blocks in the GX-10 that I was struggling to wrap my head around.

The first gut instinct is to react to the existence of these effects like they’re just ‘filler’ without any real purpose or utility.

But I tempered that instinct with the belief that BOSS engineers have been doing ‘this’ for almost 50 years now, they know what they’re doing, and they rarely if ever produce anything without a great deal of precise intent.

On some level, I know my inability to understand these effects was a “me” problem, not a “BOSS was on all the drugs the day they came up with this”.

BOSS Being BOSS

BOSS, I think anyways, is a fascinating company for a whole host of reasons.

• They have been one of the predominant innovators in music technology for coming up on 50 years now. Their impact on music, music making, and other music technology developers simply can’t be overstated.
• They have long forged a sweet spot where they design and build products with the intent that they will last forever. They don’t chase fads. They don’t discard great tools just because their original designs may be decades old. They tightly hold on to a consistent commitment to delivering quality products that just work. But they also sustain an aggressive pursuit of innovation and invention.
• They build functional tools. Not crown jewels to be kept untouched and unplayed under glass in a trophy case.
• They actively reject modern gear culture that wants to know ALL the specs and ALL the components and have access to every bit of configuration and parameter minutia. Instead, BOSS focuses on designing tools that Do The Thing with a minimum amount of fuss, and they’re not at all shy about deeply burying parameters beneath knobs and dials. Often times burying multiple parameters that have tightly defined interplay between them under a single knob or dial.

BOSS is traditionally a complete black box when it comes to how they invite people into their design thinking, though. And I think that can and has led to a host of misunderstandings and conceptual gaps between their products and their users.

The Boss Arcana

BOSS has a product portfolio and a track record that speaks for itself. Its iconic effect pedals have found their ways on to more boards – novice and pro alike – all over the world for going on almost 50 years.

Most people’s first effect pedal? Safe money says it was a BOSS pedal.

BOSS’ product portfolio is a Who’s Who of industry defining pedals whose reputations are as sterling as the models are ubiquitous.

From the Holy Trinity of the SD-1, DS-1, and BD-2, to the DD digital delay series, to BOSS’ landmark modulation pedals.

Even the most arguably misunderstood and misused pedal – the MT-2 – is a cornerstone of BOSS legend and lore.

(ProTip: Run it into your amp’s FX Return or Power Amp in, and treat it like a pre-amp, not a distortion pedal.)

But there is also a collection of more esoteric, more arcane, and not quite as intuitive and easy to understand effects.

The ArpVerb, SlowVerb, Delay Twist, Delay Warp, Feedbacker, and S-Bend.

The Tera Echo, Multi Overtone, and the Slicer.

It’s these effects I’d like take a moment to shine the spotlight on.

What Makes Them So WTF?

They were designed to be.

To level set – they all sound really, really cool. They produce sounds you haven’t found anywhere else, and that unfamiliarity can be off-putting. Especially to somebody looking for and expecting more traditional sound generators and sound sculptors that will serve as always-on or mostly-on sounds.

Unlocking The Code

Step 1) Trust BOSS expertise. 50 years in the game, it’s a safe bet their product design decisions are informed and purposeful. This doesn’t mean they always have to be ‘right’. But they don’t ‘guess and hope for the best’ or ‘throw something out there and wait to see what happens’.

Step 2) Recognize that BOSS designs for more people than just me. They also design for studio players, worship players, TV and film composers, experimental musicians, and musicians across Every. Single. Genre. On. This. Planet.

Step 3) Reframe my understanding of these effects. They are NOT meant to be meat and potatoes effects, and to try and parse them that way will usually lead my down exactly the wrong paths.

Step 4) Remap these effects in my mental map. They are performance-centric, motion centric, and context dependent – on purpose.

Step 5) Get out of “always on/song long” thinking. Think more in terms of moments, transitions, and gestures.

And there it was. Once I stopped asking what these effects were for and started asking when they belonged (i.e. ‘how would I cast these into what specific roles’?), everything started shifting into place.

Effects as Language, Not Foundation

I write a lot. For my day job, outside of my day job. Lots of writing. So the metaphors that immediately resolved in my head around these effects – and different applications of traditional effects that BOSS engineers cleverly enabled – was to try and conceptualize them as vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation.

Let’s discuss.

First, let’s break things out into three categories:

1. Sentence Shapers: They change timing and pacing.
2. Emphasis Tools: They add force or intensity.
3. Voice & Texture Modifiers: They alter tone personality and/or articulation.

Exclamation Points!

Sudden intensity spikes, momentary chaos, disrupt-with-intent gestures.

• Delay Twist
• Delay Warp
• Feedbacker
• MT-2 with boosted mids

To Try:

• Use them as “hit it and release” tools. Not beds or foundations, but impact devices.
• If you’re using a box that supports it, set a control switch to ‘Momentary’ instead of ‘Toggle’.
• For boxes that support it, try engaging Delay Twist only on the final chord of a chorus, then release before the next section begins.

Ellipses….

Suspension. Lingering thoughts. Things left unsaid, inviting reading between the lines. Space that persists.

• Delay Warp (used subtly)
• Tech Echo (long decay, low mix)
• Ambient delays (long time, high feedback, darker tends to sit better) with modulation
• Slow Gear into delay
• Hold functions on delays and reverbs (if your box supports them)

To Try:

• Apply any/all of the above to outro swells, to add pre-chorus tension, or for ambient intros.
• Map Input gain level to a Compressor block’s Sustain parameter, so Sustain/compression increases as the sound tries to fade out. This allows the sustain to bloom as the note fades, exaggerating the sense of continuation.
• Try holding a final note and gradually rolling your guitar’s volume knob down while. a long-delay block is engaged.

Commas,

Micro-pauses and breaths. Defined separation without stopping. Momentum pacing not interruption.

• S-Bend
• Short slapback delays
• Tight tremolos
• Slicer at subtle depth
• Short ducking delays and reverbs (to create ‘bloom’)
• Light chorus into washy reverb for rhythmic separation that’s feathered around the edges

To Try:

• Alternate between dry and effected phrases within a single riff to create micro separation.
• Try a short 80–120ms slapback with low mix to add articulation and definition without audible “delay.”

Dashes –

Hard interruptions and abrupt tonal shifts that however don’t fully disconnect or discard what came before or what comes after. A detour that doesn’t lose sight of the highway. Feels like it’s saying: “Wait, listen to this”.

• MO-2 harmonic shift momentarily engaged
• PS-6, XS-1/100, or Pitch Shifter block octave jumps mid phrase
• Assign based parameter morphing
• For reverb: kill dry/Dry Mix/Direct Level = 0 if it’s supported

To Try:

• Map effect level parameters (and others) to Input levels as the control source.
• Control intensity with your guitar’s volume control and playing technique.
• As above, set control switches to ‘Momentary’ instead of ‘Toggle’ and bring effects in and out mid-phrase.
• Set a reverb block to 100% wet and engage it momentarily after muting the dry signal.
• Or if using an always on-reverb, map a switch to Momentary -> Reverb: Direct Level: 0 (may also want to add a boost to Effect Level to the same switch).

(Parentheses)

Side commentary. Under-the-hood movement. Related thoughts that gently and briefly pull focus before immediately returning it. Textural modifiers that sit behind the sentence.

• Dimension-style choruses
• Subtle momentary phasers or flangers
• CE-2 style choruses used gently
• Low-mix Tera Echo

To Try:

• Pre-chorus glue to tie verse to chorus with contrast without sacrificing cohesion. Off-ramp/on-ramp bridges.
• Try a subtle CE-2 style chorus at low depth before a chorus section to create lift without adding gain. For you graphic designers out there, think of it like adding drop shadow.

Italics

Strong emotional emphasis, but without a volume changing. Leaning forward into intensity outside of gain channel changes.

• Tera Echo
• Humanizer
• Vibrato
• PS/XS mild detuning
• Analog delay with heavier modulation

To Try:

• Map Input gain to ‘intensity’ parameters like Depth and Rate. The harder your play, the more intense and present the effect(s).
• Alternately, map an expression pedal to those parameters if you’d rather control with your feet.
• Try slightly detuning one side of a stereo patch to create emotional lean without obvious modulation. Use a Momentary switch or expression pedal for full control.

CAPS LOCK

Overstated identity shift designed for maximum disruption and invasiveness.

• BOSS’ extreme distortions
• Full wet Slicer
• Extreme harmonizer intervals (e.g. +3 plus octaves)
• High-resonance filter sweeps
• Ring modulators

To Try:

• Set up the effects for Momentary. Then use your sounds as clubs and crowbars.
• Use ‘Sprawl‘ as your starting point and tweak it to desired extremes. Just be conscious of maintaining the ‘not separate channels, but contrasting landscapes’ concept and see what you can build.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Always test at band volume. Extreme effects that feel huge alone can easily overwhelm a mix. And your band. And your audience. Don’t be that guy/girl. DBAD.

Periods.

Resolution. Release. Closure. Rest.

• Tightly clamped gates
• Dry signal after preceeding punctuation
• Use a short, low-mix ambience reverb (like BOSS’ ‘Ambience’ reverb type) to signal closure without drawing attention.
• Feedback reset

To Try:

• Map Input gain to Effect Level so the sound naturally and organically cleans up as it fades out.
• Work with your noise gate. Map Input gain to Threshold and Attack time (if supported). Reverse map (i.e. set the Max/Target to a smaller number, and a higher number to your Min/Starting) Input gain to the Noise Gate block’s Release. As the sound fades out the gate gate clamps down faster,and it holds on longer, allowing for super clean and finite fade outs.

In Conclusion

These effects aren’t meant to live under your entire song. They’re not foundations. They’re gestures. And gestures are what make performances expressive and narrative.

Have any examples of music, musicians, your own stuff that you think showcases how effects can be used more as brushes instead of a whole canvas? Share ’em in the Comments! I’ve love to hear it!

Because I’m Me. (Optional)

My thought process went from -> BOSS oddities -> ‘Unearthed Arcana’ theme -> Arcana, like in tarot -> Putting BOSS pedals on tarot cards.

I got curious while riffing on this and wondered: “Hey. Can I actually map BOSS pedals to actual tarot cards?”

Why, yes. Yes I absolutely can. And did.