Diezel Herbert w/ Boss ES-8 Problems

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Tom111

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I've had my Herbert for nearly a year now, love the amp, no issues at all. I just recently got a Boss ES-8 switching unit as I got tired of tapping dancing!

The unit seems great and I have got it set up to change patches on my Strymon pedals etc no problem. However my Herbert seems unwilling to play ball. I have tried just about every combination I can think of multiple times, each time sure that this time will work, but to no avail.

First of all I set the amp to MIDI channel 4 by holding down mute and turning on channel 1 & 2. Then on the ES-8 I went to MIDI patch 1 and select MIDI channel one. Then I go to the amp, select the channels I wish to use and hit store twice. This does not work. I then tried sending PC messages to the head but again it is unresponsive. I then tried the same in Omni mode, this does not work either. As a last resort I tried running a jack cable from the CTL1 output on the switcher to the FS7HE socket on the back of the Herbert. This doesn't seem to be able to communicate anything either.

I am a total MIDI newbie and hope that I may just be missing something glaringly obvious, but also feel it could be an issue with the amp.

Any suggestions are much appreciated!
 
Tom111":14xwgant said:
First of all I set the amp to MIDI channel 4 by holding down mute and turning on channel 1 & 2. Then on the ES-8 I went to MIDI patch 1 and select MIDI channel one.
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You need to set the amp and the patch on the controller to the same channel (or both to omni). If you have set the Herbert to midi channel 4 set the ES-8 patch to midi channel 4 too and you should be good for the Herbert change.

I don't use midi much anymore but I always found the Herbert's implementation good!

I'm assuming from your description that you have the Styrmon pedals set to Midi channels 1,2 and 3?

Let us know if that works!
 
My mistake, in my post I meant to say i set the MIDI channel to channel 4 on the ES-8 - the match the Herbert. Didn't seem to work though.
 
Tom111":15icnihg said:
My mistake, in my post I meant to say i set the MIDI channel to channel 4 on the ES-8 - the match the Herbert. Didn't seem to work though.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that is puzzling then - I'd suggest setting the Herbert and the ES-8 both to omni and trying that? If you can get it working in omni you can refine from there?

Also (from memory) you need to tell the Herbert the patch to respond to - basically select patch on the ES-8, then set the Herbert as desired, then save on the Herbert. I'm assuming that you are doing this already but never hurts to check.

If that does not work, I'd suggest trying another midi foot pedal is you have access to one to see if it's the ES-8 or the Herbert that are misbehaving.

I know that some of the Fractal stuff and the D-Moll don't get on well - I'm unclear on why though?
 
Hey...ever have any luck??? I have VH4 and boss es5 and having similar issues. After several hours I had 5 patches working perfectly by using midi channel 4, telling boss to do program change that dorresponded with amp channel I wanted on midi channel 4 and storing on amp as well. It was very finicky though and had to do many times in correct order or it would change what I did for other patches. Then tried on another bank and wasn't working and altered what did work on first 5 patches. I am at a loss. I don't know how to put es5 in Omni...I don't think it works like that. If you change patches it doesn't do anything unless u tell it to do something. May have to return es5 if no solution.
 
Anyone figure this out? Bought a boss ES8 and cannot figure out for the life of me how to get it to switch the amp channels via midi. Really stressing me out
 
I had that Boss ms3 & a DMoll working so I think this is user error. Put both units onto the same midi channel, I think I used ch1
 
You can verify the ES and the Herbert are communicating my stepping through the midi channels - if they are you will see the Herbert change - if you step from midi channel 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. and there are no changes on the Herbert then they are not communicating.

Best thing to do then is set both to omni and repeat the exercise - once you see change being reflected on the Herbert you can set the ES to call to the Herbert on your midi channel of choice, set the Herbert to that channel and you should be good.

Once you have established communication with the Herbert you press the ES to send the channel number to the Herbert, configure the Herbert and save on the Herbert. To test this worked switch to a different midi channel then back and you should see your changes restored back to what you saved!
 
Hi everyone. What are the steps you followed to connect your ES8 to your Herbert please? Does the ES8 light up only after coming off standby (ala phantom power thus NOT using the ES8’s power supply etc.) and cabled up via 5 pin MIDI via ES8 Out/Thru to Herbert MIDI In?

Thanks.

Larz
 
Would also appreciate a step by step guide of starting from scratch with the herbert and ES8

Assume I know absolutely nothing; Just let’s plug the ES8 into the herbert and then make the ES8 talk to the herbert, from the beginning, idiots guide, assume I am dumb please

Last time I posted nearly 2 years ago, I tried doing what you suggested and also contacted diezel customer services who tried to give me an answer but honestly they have no idea either.

I haven’t played my herbert since the day I made the post above, or my entire pedalboard which all pedals are wired into the ES8. All been stored away as I gave up!!

Really want to get back into this and get it up and running again. Happy to pay someone to write this idiots guide up, as long as it works and is sustainable.

Many thanks!
 
Okay maybe i can help, i struggled with mu herbert and boss ms-3 at first.

1. First check if your midi cable is working properly with another device and the boss ms-3
2. Put the diezel herbert in Omni mode, you can check in the manual how this works, some leds should blink.
3. Make a new patch in the boss and select patch midi in the edit of your preset.
4. In the Midi menu turn off everything except channel and pc.
5. In omni mode it does not matter wich channel you select but first begin with channel 1 and pc 1 - write
6. when you now switch on the boss from patch 1 and 2 the diezel should switch to channel 1(or to the setting the previous owner stored in pc1 in the diezel).
7. when this works you can just make your own setting on the diezel and press store for 2 seconds and then press store again.

hope this helps
 
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