Mooer GE 200

The Moer GE200 is a very interesting little piece of gear. Coming in at its current price range puts it right up against a number of well known competitor products, with Moer being one of the less well known of the bunch. Right out of the gate, the presets actually sounds pretty good, which is somewhat of a rarity with amp modellers in this range. Having used a number of similar products, I can say the Moer actually fares very well in comparison.

Compared to something like the Line 6 POD HD range, amp models have a more realistic punch to them. Hvaing the freedom to load in your own impulse response really does completely change the value of the Moer. The ability to import custom impulse responses in the cab block section essentially allows you to achieve almost any sound and that is somewhat of a game changer in this price range. Further to this, the Moer has two outputs, which can be routed with diffent cab settings. So for example, were you to play live, rather than have the venue mic up your cab (and do a terrible job!), you can send your complete signal in to the front of house, and have the same guitar chain with the can block bypassed sent in to the fx loop of your amp.

Pros

- Incrdible value for money
While there are plenty of competitor prducts, the majority of them (at least in hardware form), are double the price of this unit!

- Flexible Signal Chain
The Moer allows you to move around the order of the blocks in your signal chain. So if you want a chorus after your amp, instead of before it, no problem!

- Good Number of Amp Models
The models you'll find on this unit tend to be based on all the usual suspects (Mesa, Peavey, Engl), and honestly, they sound pretty good right off the bat. Plenty of low end punch with high end clarity that is often completely lacking in less expensive amp modellers. If like me, you plan on using your own custom IR's and already have guitar sounds you;re looking to recreate, chances are you'll only ever use a couple of amp models. But, if you're planning building lots of different and unique guitar sounds, you'll rewally appreciate what the Moer has to offer in this regard.

- Excellent Build Quality
The Moer feels absolutely rock solid in terms of build. The body is all completely metal (with a brushed finish on top that looks really nice). Buttons feels durable, the control knobs feel sturdy, foot switches feel like they'll last, and the expression pedal has increibly smooth action. Very impressed with this aspect of the Moer.

- Impulse Resonse Import Functionality
Seriously, if ever there was a selling point of this product, this would be it. For those who don't really understand what an impulse response is, it's essentially a very short WAV file that contains extremely detailed EQ information. Theoreticly, this would allow you to replicate almost any amp sound, all in the Moer. The flip side of this is that while you can copy the sonic snapshot of one sound and apply it to another, that doesnt mean the dynamics of the sound will match the original.

Beyond guitar sounds though, there would be nothing to stop you sending an external mic pre in to the Moer and using the IR loading fuctionality to emulate sound of different microphones (It works, I've done it). Vocalist performing live and want to control the effects on your vocals? no problem. The Moer could easily do this so long as you also have a small portable mic pre amp.

- Surprising number of effects
The effects are all of the usual things you would need in your guitar rig (and more). Noise gates, compressors, reverbs, delays. There are enough effects here to build amost any sound you would ever want to.

Cons

- Limited effect options
So, while the effects are impressive in number, the way they work in the different blocks isnt very flexible. Effect chain blocks are fixed to a single function. For example, if like me, you never use any of the modulation effects, that block essentially goes to waste. What would be far more logical would be that you should be able to swap the function of that block for something else that is of more use to you, like a second noise gate. with the Line 6 POD HD's, you get to decide what each block is, so this is definately an area where the Moer falls down. There is certainly processing power to consider, but I'd much rather sacrifice the reverb, delay and modualtion blocks for more tone shaping functionality.

- Limited Gain Staging Options
An extremely important part of getting the dynamics right in your guitar sound is having control over the gain staging from block to block, but the Moer only offers this in a limited capacity. for example, one very useful feature is that you can set the input signal of your guitar, which is excellent to be able to do, but you're doing this before the noise gate, and so you're essentially introducing louder signal interference should you choose to use the input gain control. what would be far more logical, would be to have a volume control on each block, that way you arent introducing extra noise at the start of your signal chain, but you can still send a hot signal in to the amp block.

There is no reason that this couldnt be fixed via a software update.

- Incomplete software solutions
This is a fairly big issue. First off, there is no GE200 controller software for the Mac. Apparently, it's in development, but why has it not already been completed and why was the product released without the appropriate software to accompany it?! Not the biggest issue in the world though, because there is an IR importer for Mac, but it only works on High Sierra....

So, should you want to use the desktop editor to the Moer, you need to connect to a windows machine (for now), but that's not all. Before you can connect to the editor you need to update the firmware, which it doesnt actually tell you how to do, You get a little message saying you need to enter uopdate mode (or something along those lines), but there is no documentation included in the box to tell you how to put the unit in to this mode. After having found a video on youtube that I'm quite certain was in malaysian, I worked out that the way you put the device in to update mode is to turn off the unit, hold down the tuner switch and then turn the unit back on. This will allow the software updates to be applied.

Once you actually get in to the editor software, visually it's a bit of a mess and looks pretty cobbled together. A far cry from many of the sofware soltions to amp modelling we see these days. The main thing to take away is that once you get everything set up, it does work. Although, editing patches on the unit itself is more inuative.

- No On/Off Button
This is something I really cannot understand; There is no on/off switch. Essentially, as soon as the unit is plugged in, it is on, and to turn it off, you either have to pull the cable from the back or unplug it. Absolutely bizzare and annoying.

- Limited Amp Control
while Moer have done a good job of making the different amps sound and feel unique, you have pretty munch a low, mid, high and master output control for each amp, Very reminiscent of the old Pod Farm amp modelling days. Moer really could have and should have broken these down a little bit more though. Even just a low mids control would have been appreciated.

Who is the Moer GE200 for?

Despite the price and what the unit's size may suggest, with a little bit of know how, you'll be able to get almost any guitar sound from this unit, and the IR loader functionality is extremely valuable. This unit would be ideal for bedroom guitarists, live performers, small home recording studios or even bigger professional studios.

Let's face it, no one is going to be trading in their Axe-FX, Kemper or Helix for the Moer, but make no mistake, this is a professional piece of kit that is well worth the price, even if the software to accompany it, seems like an afterthought.

Also, Thomann, you're sending out the wrong adapter with this unit! The plug adapter you send can only fit a very small European plug, where as the adapter you actually need is for a much wider European plug.

As my first processor, it totally satisfies me. Sounds good. Producer released bunch of updates and cabsims available on website for download. Unfortunately, users only sell their presets for money, found only one or two decent settings shared for free. So if you want to simulate famous guitarist's sound -try over and over on your own.
Quality is great, heavy and solid. Except, markers are painted white and hard to see on grey surface. So you have to read like grandma when you try to find any button, e.g. distortion block or amp settings. And the buttons play a bit (shake if you slightly touch them).
If not the drum-machine and looper, I would give 5 stars. You cannot record drums when you plug to the computer. You can record guitar from the looper, but drums only play from the processor itself, which is weird. Some of the drum patters sound bad (especially snares). I would rather replace complicated weird patters with simple drums, e.g. just kick-drum or kick+hi-hat, because they are more universal and you can use those for whatever you play.
Looper doesn't let you remove specific layer (or at least just last one), so if you screwed on third or fourth play -delete everything and start over.
Bonus tip: it is easier to record silence on first loop (use drums/metronome to measure). Then you can start recording in advance and start playing when timline returns to beginning. Stop recording when you are ready. Otherwise it is difficult start/stop in time.

Packed with every single function that you will need for your every day jamming, studio purposes or stage playing. (USB-port as an audio interface output; second expression pedal output; rhytm maschine) It has of course a couple of really neat features that regular user will probably not use but it's just okay to have them by your side (Screen brightness adjust, etc.) Build quality is in typicial tank-like indestructible stompbox fashion. Seriously nothing really necessary to add on that, built to be stteped-on roughly and that's it. Speaking of sound quality, the stock IRs are decent but not as refined as they could be. That is not a huge problem considering that an user can easily load up third-party IRs using Mooer Audio Software. Everything else is for me on top-notch level especially considering the price.
My final advice for anyone buying this product would be to consider it a bit more, for somebody who wants to get a nearly perfect tone on stock presets, amp models and IRs, can get a little bit annoying considering that there are a bit better devices on the market for almost the same price, but if you're a person who wanna simply plug'n'play without tweaking your tone too much, than you have just found yourself a perfect device for that.

If you are buying this multi fx, update the firmware straight away. The update will give you a backup feature, trails for reverb and delay, and a few more fixes. Updating will remove any new presets you created.

My old multi fx started malfunctioning so I had to look for a new one. I came across this and I was pretty much convinced to buy this as soon as I learned that I can load my own IRs (Impulse Responses) onto the unit.

Pros:
Sounds great
Very flexible
Easy to use (both on computer and on the unit itself)
You can upload your own IRs
Build quality is solid
Expression pedal is fully programmable

Cons:
Option paralysis if you don't know what you are doing
Switching between presets takes about 10ms which is noticable in certain situations. (Not a big deal though) ((EDIT:Updating it made it pretty much unnoticable))


Flexibility
I was surprised by how flexible this thing is. You can even adjust the screen brightness! So how it works is that there are different blocks such as amp, cab, distortion, delay, eq, etc... and in those there are multiple options. There are a lot of amps you can choose from, many different sounding distortion effects and so much more. You can then move these blocks anywhere in the signal chain. You want the echo to be before the amp and you want the wah to be last? Can be done. The only limit is that you can only have one thing from the block activated, so you can't have 2 distortion pedals or two amps on at the same time. Not too big of an issue. The ONLY time where this bothered me is when I tried to have a wah and a compressor on at the same time. That cannot be done because the wahs and the compressors (yes there are multiple different wahs and compressors) are in the same block so I can only have one of them selected. Not the end of the world really.

CTRL and Expression pedal
My favorite thing about this unit is how programmable it is. You have this footswitch called CTRL which allows you to toggle on or off any of the effect blocks (amp, reverb, modulation etc...) as you want. I use it to toggle delay and distortion on or off most of the time.

Now the expression pedal is magical. You can use it for its standard functions such as volume pedal or wah... but you can program it to adjust any parameter! You can use it to control the gain on the distortion, the speed on the tremolo, the room size in the reverb. ANYTHING. You can even program it to control multiple things at the same time! Control any parameter with your foot, it is so much fun. And you can also add a second expression pedal. I have not tried that though so I cannot comment on that.

Impulse Responses
So if you don't know what IRs are, a short summary would be a sound signature that computers can use to recreate the timbre or sound of an instrument.

One of the effect blocks in this unit is dedicated to cabs, and that is where you find the Impulse Responses. Their stock ones are really good. You can adjust the mic distance, and the type of mic is well. BUT if you want to experiment then you can upload any other impulse response you please. I uploaded a few Metallica patches and I managed to get a pretty decent Black Album tone that I love using. The possibilities are endless, you can get any sound you want as long as you can get your hands on an impulse response.

Overall Sound
This little multi fx is as good as you make it. There are so many different options that you can build any kind of tone that you desire. If you know what you are doing then you should have no trouble recognising amps, cabs and such and easily selecting just the parts that you need to make up your tone. However if you don't really know what you are looking for then it might take a bit of experimenting to get a tone you are happy with. Its the downside to having so many possible combination of amps, cabs, mics, and such.

It took me about 5 minutes to learn the controls and make a patch that I was happy with. Now it is not a Kemper, keep that in mind, this won't sound 100% just like your favorite tube amp, but it will do a pretty good job at replicating most amps and such. And even if you are unhappy with those, you can upload your own IR, even apply some programmable EQ to it to make it even more accurate... Basically if you cannot get a good sound out of it then you are doing something wrong.


Other
There are 200 preset slots, that's about 180 more than I think I will ever need. Can't complain though... Might be handy for some people

There is no off switch. If you want to turn it off you will have to unplug it. OR if you are smart you will get one of those extension chords with the switch on it. Makes life so much easier.

The acoustic guitar simulation is pretty good on this. It's not 100% realistic, it depends on your pickups. It sounds great with my Harley Benton Dynamic but not as good with my Epiphone Les Paul Studio. I think lower output pickups are the best but results may vary.

The looper is pretty good but you need to do some serious dancing to use the stop function. I feel like it would have been soooo much more intuitive to replace the Half Speed or Reverse options with a dedicated Stop and Resume playback functions. To stop the loop you need to double press the CTRL switch which is just tricky when you are trying to play guitar the same time. I practically never use the Half Speed and Reverse anyways, but the Stop/Resume are pretty important in my opinion. Not a big deal, the function is still there, I just feel like it could have been made much better.



Overall
I can highly recommend the Mooer GE 200. It is easy and fun to use. Well built and it is feature packed. It beats all of its competitors in this price range.

I use this unit mainly as a complete rig connected to a power amp + cab or to the PA (enabling cab simulation).
In both configurations I'm very satisfied by the sound it is possible to get out of it. Specially for a multieffect at that price range. I find it easy to use both through the physical controls and through the PC preset editor. Very sturdy but also portable if you intend to use it live.

There are promising features I haven't used yet like "Merge" (which allows to control several parameters at the same time with the expression pedal) and the posibility of using it as an audio interface.

Pros:
- Price
- Good sound and dynamics of the simulations
- Well built
- Light & compact
- Can load external IR files

Cons:
- No effect loop to add external pedals to the chain
- Can't place some pedal combinations in the chain if they belong to the same block (e.g. chorus + phaser or boost + distortion)

I recommend it. If mine dies I'm sure I'll get another one.