Roland has quietly added eight classic BOSS Effects pedals as Roland Cloud plug-ins, including OD-1 OverDrive, PH-1 Phaser, DS-1 Distortion, and more. That’s a welcome addition, but you should know where to find still more effects in Roland Cloud’s expansive, if sometimes confusing, lineup.
Roland says they plan an “ever-expanding selection of models” here, so there are more to come. But they cover some big pedals in the initial offering – including a couple you might not suspect. I was about to brag about my knowledge here, and then I remembered I didn’t write part of the Roland book for Bjooks. (BOSS yes, these pedals, no.) So I had to look these up – you’re welcome.
And it actually useful to know this when deciding which to try, if you don’t know them already:
- OD-1 Overdrive. Asymmetrical soft-clipping, ca. 1977, part of the first generation of BOSS pedals and a total classic.
- SP-1 Spectrum Equalizer. 1977 boost control; pairs nicely with keyboards. 500 Hz – 5 kHz range. You really don’t need this in software, and yet it is a really musical design so unexpectedly a favorite here.
- PH-1 Phaser. 1977 – meaning BOSS was responding to MXR and ElectroHarmonix rivals, and that all these makers still had a Hammond Leslie in mind, even though we really don’t think about phasers that way anymore.
- DS-1 Distortion. That’s the 1978 classic that defined BOSS distortion.
- CS-1 Compression Sustainer. Long, distortion-free sustain with treble, also from the BOSS class of 1978.
- SD-1 SuperDrive. If this sounds like an update to the OD-1, it is – born 1981. You get a slightly different sound, and it sounds especially good after an amp.
- SG-1 Slow Gear. This is a rare late 70s, early 80s pedal I think you don’t often see out of Japan – the idea was to let you produce “violin-like” articulation by adjusting the attack time. It’s completely fascinating as an envelope follower and I even started messing around with it on drums. See the demo of the original below.
- TW-1 Touch Wah. This envelope filter from 1978 controls wah based on a signal follower.
Well chorus is obviously missing – and likely confusing some folks when they realize that’s not what “cs” is for! So I’m sure we’ll see more.
Roland has unfortunately left out any kind of pedalboard plug-in where you can combine effects, which seems a huge oversight. Instead, you get something labeled BOSS Effects, and one by one instantiate effects in your host.
Let me humbly suggest, Roland, you make a software version of the BOSS BCB-6 pedal case from 1982; that would be the obvious host for this. Fortunately you can scroll through pedals or select them by category from a menu.
That said, the main thing to know here is, absolutely hit PRO EDIT because it gives you a stereo toggle. It will stick if you switch back out of PRO EDIT, but resets to mono as soon as you select a new pedal. I’m kind of annoyed that they didn’t just stick that on the main UI. I’m a little disappointed with the UI work, after the recent Space Echo and Jazz Chorus were so well done. But the sound is terrific, wherever these particular models came from.
And that brings me to my other point. Buried in a truly archaic set of interfaces and menus, there are a lot more models in the oft-overlooked ZENOLOGY FX plug-in. Thar be dragons – sometimes you’ll get stereo, sometimes you’ll get mono, sometimes you’ll get combinations or multi-effects. (The JD Multi is especially good.) But there are some damn good effects in there, and recall that when a number of the BOSS pedals were discontinued, they resurrected themselves as digital multi-effects.
I’m not working on commission here, so you will earn absolutely nothing from checking out the article I wrote on this, but I’m just here to share the love. I’ve come back to my own presets with some regularity or built other stuff on them, as there are some surprising results in ZENOLOGY FX. Here’s that story:
Mastering the Roland Cloud ZENOLOGY FX Plug-in
So please, Roland – put a stereo/mono switch on the main UI, make it lockable, and build some kind of pedalboard that’s simple and not GALAXIAS. Until then, yes, I’ll keep messing with these anyway.
And yeah, these fit a significant spot in the Roland plug-in collection.
Introducing BOSS Effects Pedals for Roland Cloud