Harley Benton FXL8 Pro Reviews

Switchtastic!

Really easy to set up and use, wish I'd taken the plunge with this years ago! Really quiet too, no "pop" when you switch loops. I've had this for around a year and have had no issues, highly recommended!

Terrific, but has non-defeatable input buffers

For me, this is the perfect combination of form factor, functionality, and price. On that basis, I can't give it less than 5 stars. However, I would have paid more for some nice to haves and there are a few things worth mentioning: 1. Two MIDI messages per preset is a little restrictive, but not critical so far. 2. I do find that I miss a stompbox mode. 3. It's not the easiest to mentally map the A B C D stomp switches to L1 L2 L3 L4 of LOOP1 (low bank) and LOOP2 (high bank). I think I'm going to end up covering this thing with a load of tape and writing! 4. Programming the unit is not intuitive at all, but everything is explained in the following video manual. Essential and worthwhile 1 hour viewing if you want to deep dive, particularly with MIDI. of presets seems really over the top and a potential waste of preset memory which could have been used for other things (i.e. additional MIDI messages). 6. Final important point. There are two non-defeatable buffers in this unit. One is between the main IN and LOOP1 L1; the other (on my unit with PXL-LIVE-V4 motherboard) appears to be between the LOOP2 L1 (i.e. loop 5). If you want to use a vintage fuzz in either L1 then it's probably not going to play nicely. You may be perfectly happy with these buffers, but I'm a tone purist and I have already voided my warranty and permanently bypassed them.

MIDI documentation needs imrpovements

… however, the product is amazing. For the MIDI, the range for CC parameters is between 1 and 128 for the FXL8, but the standard is from 0 to 127. That means that 1 is actually 0 and 128 is 127. I have been banging my head for the last few days windering why it’s not working.

Does the job with a bang for your buck!

Routed this with the 4 cable method and it does a wonderful job!

no need to dedicate a whole loop for your amp input and FX loop anymore!

Quality switcher, rugged, takes up very little space. Works well.

I bought this to get a very noisy pedalboard to some kind of switching capability, having reviewed several larger and far more expensive options - e.g. the BOSS switchers - and this unit fitted my requirements very well:

1. Size - it's a big board, but there's a lot on it. Had to take up as little space along the bottom of the board as possible.

2. Cost - I'm not spending £400-£600 on a switcher when I really need another... another... pedal ;-)

3. Ruggedness - this thing is well built, the switches are definitely quality.

4. Power consumption - should consume as little as possible

5. Noise - I'm trying to reduce it.

The switcher is coordinating 14 pedals across the 8 loops, plus a tuner. I've got one of the output switches set up as well to turn boost on/off on a valve bass amp. This unit does exactly what it says on the tin, simply and effectively. Programming isn't too tricky for the simple stuff (loops on/off) and I've got it set up as a simple bank of 8 loops, rather than splitting them.

I'm not using the MIDI facility at the moment as I've got an external FCB1010 for that task.

Best Pedal Controller On Budget

Does what it should do. Best bang for your buck.

nice piece of gear

makes every switching dead easy and a breeze to program

Problem solver

I have been using this switcher for some years and i really cant live without it now.

Simple, functional and affordable.

This makes playing live and to rehearse much more enjoyable when you dont have to hit 4 pedal when you go from verse to chorus and instead you get all the sounds you need instantly.

I havent had any problems with it so far.

The only downside is its a bit heavy, but, very sturdy.

No more foot tapping

I have too many pedals like a lot of people and wanted a way to click one button to activate several switches at a time.

This pedal switcher is great and you can have up to 33 combinations. It’s rugged and tough and fits nicely on the pedal board.

Such great value!

This is a great product if you have too many pedals to manage on stage. Not too big or small, lots of features and relatively easy to set up.

Once you get your head around how to save your sounds, it's a dream. The only negative I can think of is that the switches are quite clunky, but at this price it's hard to find any real fault with it.

Personally I would pair it with a boss solder free patch cable kit or similar so you can route your cables exactly where you want them and not stuff your board with leads.

Overall, It's made my life a lot easier - no more pedal tap dancing!

Great switcher

Makes the pedal board work much better. I love the midi functions

Sturdy, versatile, inexpensive.

If you are a newbie in the loop switching world this will be a great learning experience, the manual is very simple and you cannot go wrong after spending 5 minutes reading it.

The product is sturdy and it seems like will work after many years of use.

About the features I am not sure if it has all features of more expensive loop switchers but it certainly does everything I need in the pedal + midi world.

Great switcher

Got this as I was building a new board , this has 8 channels in series and can split into 2 groups of 4 which is handy if you want to run the 2nd group of 4 pedals ,echos, reverb etc. in the FX loop of your amp.Reasonably easy to set up and it also has 2 relay switches to switch channels on an amp or in my case a 2 channel preamp. It has midi and sends 2 midi signals at a time . i use it to control the dark sun delay and eq2 pedal and will be adding another mod pedal later on. I would highly recommend you watch the excellent video manual on how to program this excellent pedal switcher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ_867568eU

Good quality switcher

Great overall switcher.

Once you have it wired up you can start saving patches quickly and easily. There are some pops and clicks when changing patches but nothing too bad.

The build quality is really great, taking a star of for the click sound.

It's messed up some of my recordings right at the end of a take :)

Quite surprised

Quite surprised at how good this is. Expected something decent from the previous reviews but in practice it has been great. I only use it at home with a range of fairly budget pedals but I have had so much fun with it. I have found it straightforward to use and have found that it has eliminated the unwanted noise as would get every time I turned a pedal on or off previously. So much more convenient too, not having to tap on several pedals at a time.

Lifesaver

No more tap dancing. This has been a lifesaver in live situations. Also, protects the footswitches on your pedals. The addition of MIDI has been handy in switching presets on my Line 6 M5 as part of a patch. Easy to set up and use. Only negative, after a year of solid use, is that one of the footswitches has become a bit temperamental.

Very good and very cheap. It's solid and easy to use, very intuitive even for who is at his first experience with a looper.

For the gigging musician, its a must

if you have a gargantuan pedal board (10+ pedals) this saves you from stompdance.

I also use some multiple pedals together in only one loop that works well too.

everything

sometime i use it with 8 pedals pre amp.

sometimes few in front few in te loop.

works like a charm.

programming midi is a pain.

but doest it none the less.

guess thats what you are not paying for,

ideal if you are new to the world of pedal loopers / huge pedalboards etc.

Not really any use

It is noisy and does not allow you to switch the order of the pedals.