Boss GM-800 Guitar Synthesizer

Boss Guitar Synthesis Meets the Power of ZEN-Core!

With the GM-800, guitar synthesis enters a new era of natural playability and limitless creative possibilities. The modern ZEN-Core sound engine is controlled via the newly developed Serial GK interface and delivers every imaginable sound—from acoustic instruments to classic and modern synthesizers. At the same time, the powerful DSP ensures top tracking stability and unprecedented expressive range. Use the intuitive scene workflow to freely combine and edit sounds, color your tones with a huge selection of effects, and explore a whole universe of new content in the Roland Cloud. The GM-800 is compact, practical, and extremely versatile, giving your guitar or bass unlimited musical potential.

Milestones of Guitar Synthesizer Innovation

It all started with the revolutionary GR-500 system in 1977. Since then, Boss and its parent company Roland have shaped the development of guitar synthesizers for nearly five decades. With the GM-800, Boss continues its mission to provide guitarists and bassists with powerful creative tools and access to sounds otherwise only possible with keyboard instruments. The GM-800 expands and refines the principles that have defined numerous historic Roland GR products, combining their latest advances in pitch and string detection with a versatile and innovative sound engine.

ZEN-Core Inside

At the heart of the GM-800 is the expandable ZEN-Core synthesis system, the sound generation technology from professional Roland products like the JUPITER-X and FANTOM keyboards, the ZENOLOGY software synthesizer, and many more. ZEN-Core is the most powerful synthesizer engine in Roland’s long history, uniting decades of experience into a sonically versatile and highly expressive creative instrument.

Over 1,200 Sounds

The ZEN-Core engine combines modern PCM synthesis and innovative modeling, offering you a limitless playground for sonic exploration. Play acoustic pianos, electric pianos, organs, and orchestral instruments, Roland synthesizer classics like the JUPITER-8, JUNO-106, and many more, and blend them into sounds never heard before.

Four Sounds + Rhythm

The GM-800 offers four sound parts plus a rhythm part with acoustic and electronic percussion sounds. Access a part via the dedicated buttons on the control panel and explore a wide range of synthesizer parameters, pitch settings, alternative tunings, and string assignments to shape your sounds in detail.

Intuitive Scene Workflow

The ZEN-Core workflow is based on scenes—"super patches" that encompass every element of a sound: sound selection, parameter settings, sensitivity, plus many other settings, effects, and more. Thanks to the powerful DSP, the current scene’s sound fades out smoothly when you select a new one, enabling seamless musical transitions. There are 150 freely configurable scenes available—100 of which already feature professional, performance-ready sounds.

Roland Cloud Expansion

The GM-800 is compatible with the Roland Cloud, granting access to an ever-growing variety of creative possibilities. The ZEN-Core sound packs and wave expansions offer constant new inspiration. Additionally, you can play the ZENOLOGY synthesizer and legendary Roland instruments directly in your DAW via your guitar or bass. With a free Roland account, you can start exploring the Roland Cloud immediately. Even more content is available through three paid subscription tiers, each starting with a 30-day Ultimate trial to fully explore the Roland Cloud at your own pace.

Massive Effect Power

The GM-800 utilizes the full effect range of the modern ZEN-Core system. Each scene offers a broad palette of effect types, allowing you to shape, refine, and transform sounds to your heart’s content.

Individual MFX per Part

In addition to tone-shaping parameters, each sound and rhythm part has its own MFX processor. Over 90 effect types are available, including distortion, filters, mod effects, delays, and more. In many cases, you can choose between two effect types to make your sounds even more flexible.

Scene and System Effects

Each scene provides two additional effects for processing combined sounds, plus high-quality chorus/delay and reverb effects with independent send levels for each part. The master compressor and master EQ let you tailor the GM-800’s output to any recording or performance setup.

Limitless Expressive Possibilities on the Guitar

With the GM-800, you can harness the expressive playing capabilities of your guitar or bass to create an endless variety of sound textures. Optimize your performance with smooth or chromatic pitch control. Combine sounds to form big, powerful tones. Alternatively, assign different sounds to individual strings—for example, a bass sound on the low strings and a piano or saxophone sound on the high strings. If needed, you can even assign sounds to specific fret areas—a powerful new feature based on the GM-800’s advanced pitch detection.

Next-Generation Playability

The GM-800 impresses with precision, stability, and real-time playability far beyond previous systems. This is made possible by Boss’s extensive development experience and a high-performance processor dedicated solely to tracking. A wide range of velocity and feel parameters allow you to fine-tune the response for each sound and style. For example, you can set a scene with piano sounds to respond to every dynamic nuance—from soft to loud—while another scene with analog vintage synthesizer sounds can have the fixed attack dynamics of the original instruments.

Compact Performer

The slim GM-800 fits comfortably on both a desk and a modern pedalboard. The four footswitches are preset to scene selection and offer two special control functions, such as pedal hold, pitch bend, or sound selection. If needed, you can freely assign the switches via a powerful assign matrix. Additionally, two external control inputs allow connection of two footswitches or one expression pedal. The 5-pin MIDI I/O port lets you connect MIDI gear from any era—from vintage to modern.

Expand Your Creative World

Besides standalone operation, the GM-800 integrates seamlessly into a variety of advanced creative setups.

Edit Sounds in Boss Tone Studio

In the Boss Tone Studio software for the GM-800, you can customize scenes in detail on your computer. Configure sounds, string assignments, sensitivity, and more on a large, clear user interface. The librarian function lets you save and manage scenes for different songs and performances.

Audio/MIDI Interface

Via a single USB cable, GM-800 sounds can be transferred as audio tracks into a DAW and "re-synthesized," similar to re-amping classic guitar sounds. The Guitar-to-MIDI function also lets you play virtual instruments via USB and control external hardware sound modules via the MIDI output.

MIDI Sound Module

If needed, the versatile GM-800 also serves as a compact MIDI sound module you can take anywhere. Connect a keyboard or other MIDI controller to the MIDI input to play GM-800 sounds live. Alternatively, use the ZEN-Core engine as a premium sound source via USB in your music production workflow.

Connectivity Variety

The newly developed Serial GK digital interface of the GM-800 supports connection of a guitar or bass with Boss GK-5 or GK-5B divided pickups. Multiple GM-800 units can also be linked via this interface. For devices with classic 13-pin GK connectors, GKC-AD and GKC-DA converters are available, allowing the GM-800 to be controlled with a Roland GK-3 or GK-3B pickup and enabling serial GK devices to be used with the Boss SY-1000 and GP-10.