BOSSWireless MIDI Expression Pedal (EV-1-WL)

Works as escribed. I use it with the Boss Pocket GT.

I bought the EV-1-WL and got it up and running in less than an hour with my MIDI guitar amp (Peavey Vypyr Pro 100). The pedal comes with batteries and the instructions are quite simple. The pedal is compact and robust and easy to use. My only complaint about the hardware is that the toe switch gives no tactile feedback. It would be nice to know without having to look down at the pedal ( out of the question while performing).Most customization happens in the app. The IOS app is very nicely done - easy to get started and rich in thoughtful config options, including switch sensitivity, pedal taper, LED colors, and the MIDI CC numbers associated with the pedal with switch on and off, and the switch event itself, as well as CC numbers for external footswitches. You can do A LOT with this pedal.The app does have some limitations that feel arbitrary. If anyone from Boss is reading, please correct these in an update:- When the pedal is paired with an IOS device, on connecting there is a dialog that asks if you really want to pair. This is silly. Please delete it and save me time and hassle on stage.- CC values are arbitrarily limited. Legitimate CC numbers go from 1-128 (for single byte commands) but the app maxes out at 94, and there is a gap in the 30’s as well, so this limits the fflexibility of the pedal unnecessarily. No explanation given for this limit, but it forces the use of a MIDI remapping app. Boss - please allow CC numbers from 1-128 without limitation.- The software tries to limit the CC value range in ways that feel arbitrary. I tried to set a switch CC to output 127 when off and 0 when on, and the software silently forced the values to 126 and 1. Strange and frustrating. Boss - please fix.Otherwise a great device and I am very happy with it.

The amount of fun I'm having with this toy can't be over estimated.

I am happy Boss got a stand alone midi Bluetooth expression pedal to market. The problem is the quality is what we would expect from a knock off 1/2 the price.Issues:1) Bluetooth connectivity to iOS is very spotty. I usually have to reboot my iPhone for it to connect and it always takes multiple attempts to get it to pair. On a related note, it won’t pair just using the usual spot in iOS… you have to use the (clunky) app each time you (try) to connect. If the Bluetooth connected easily and reliably this would easily be 4.5 stars.My first couple attempts to connect to iOS took 5-10 min each… until I learned to reboot my iPhone each time I want to connect (face palm)2) I don’t get why this connects via usb but can’t be BUS powered… it would have only increased build cost by a buck per unit and would make this much easier to use.3) why not add a TRS port so this can connect to non-midi devices. For the price this should be one expression pedal to rule them all… again… minimal increase in build cost would have pushed this over the top4) only one midi command can be sent per click of the toe switch per connection type . This is minor… but I’d love to be able to send multiple messages over Bluetooth with one clickAll in all… I’m not going to return it because I can’t find another stand alone Bluetooth midi expression pedal … but I came very close to sending it back.Boss is a gold standard for pedal making… so hopefully some firmware updates can fix the Bluetooth connectivity issues and expand the number if cc messages that can be sent at once. With these fixes it would be 5 stars

If you are a Windows user you must purchase an additional USB adapter (the Roland WM-1D) in order to use this pedal in wireless mode. Even of your motherboard has Bluetooth built in it won't work without the WM-1D adapter because Windows does not have MIDI over Bluetooth functionality built in to their operating systems. Windows can connect to the pedal without the USB dongle and will show it as an available device, but no MIDI app will see it or receive MIDI data from it. So you need that USB receiver which going to add another $60-$80 to the price of the pedal. This is not the fault of Boss/Roland it's a longstanding Windows issue.Now to the really sad part if you're a guitarist. Even if you have bought the adapter if you plan to use this pedal to control Neural DSP Architype plug-ins it won't work wirelessly.I spent about 2 weeks going back and forth with Boss / Roland support and Neural DSP support, trying to make this pedal work with Neural plug ins and it just would not. **Neural DSP Architype plug ins have a MIDI learn function that doesn't receive (or understand) the messages being sent by this pedal over wireless**. I did not test this pedal with a wired connection because that's not what I bought it for. Neural plug ins do see the device as available under their MIDI devices menu but MIDI learn doesn't detect any incoming messages. Manual programming was unsuccessful as well.I tested this pedal/dongle combo with a couple of different MIDI tools. Both of those tools received data from the pedal, but for whatever reason Neural DSP is ignoring all incoming messages.So it may work for you in a Windows environment, indeed it does send messages to the PC as confirmed by testing with MIDI OX and other MIDI test tools, but Neural DSP plug-ins was the only reason I bought it and that didn't work. Maybe this will change in the future if Neural ever updates their product but as of January 2023 using their latest version of "Petrucci" it doesn't work.Roland support put forth a good effort trying to make it work, and they were halfway successful. They could sometimes make it work by plugging into a dedicated USB 2.0 port but then the MIDI learn still wasn't functional with Neural DSP for all parameters. So you may get some functionality out of it if you are willing to jump through hoops and set everything up manually but it's pretty far from plug-and-play. I would just advise staying away for now if you are a Windows user wanting to play Neural DSP plug-ins. Hopefully they will fix this in the future.