Al Krow

Thanks - sounds good and not a million miles from what's happening on the BB NE2 with it's sweepable mid cut to overlay the mid tone EQ.

Talk me through what you're getting at there? Sounds really good, but not sure what it means! Apologies to the B1-4 thread followers for this mini thread hi-jack, but it may give us all some useful tips for patch shaping ideas!

Only necessary if it's been in the fridge, surely?

Probably a dippy Q - but I can't get my head around what happens to the signal en route from bass to amp if it's routed via a pedal board and whether we should still be using the passive input on our amps or switch to the active input? Need to consult wiser BC heads than mine - thoughts on a postcard please! Cheers AK

The Free Bman is actually @JohnDaBass's contribution rather than mine (credit where it's due and all that! ) A lot effects end up cutting some of the bass frequencies rather than adding to them (which is why clean blend is such a "thing"). The key concern for me would be some of the filter and synth effects - and it's not going to be low frequencies that are the main issue there (particularly if you have already stripped these with an HPF at the start of your chain) but signal spikes. If you want to protect your cabs against unwanted signal spikes then a limiter sim is what you need at the end of the patches. You may, of course, want to use two HPFs in the chain to have an effective twin HPF set-up in the way @jrixn1 described above - but that would be a general approach rather than specifically to deal with low frequencies created by effects. If you look at my board pic (on the B1-4 thread), I effectively do have two HPFs in my signal chain: the Thumpinator right at the start and the HPF which is in all my patches (including "clean") on my B1X-4. But personally I'd be relaxed about having just one HPF on my B3n or B1X-4, particularly if it's taking up patch space for something that could be more useful (or fun e.g. the Wah sim for use with an expression pedal!) Hope that helps.

Ok you're definitely become a worse pedal tart than me 😀😂 Anyway this is all a short interlude till you 'rediscover' your BDDI... and you can then put behind you all this mid-scooped metal-head dirt use and get back to being a proper P-bass player 😉 Great. You're on your way!

I hear what you're saying, but I find the net effect of a mid scooped dirt even with my mainstream rock band is relatively subtle as a dirt and this was the point I was making i.e. the bass itself cuts through but the dirt itself doesn't really 'punch'. Whereas with the MXR DI and ProCo Rat sim effects I'm getting a meaty full bodied dirt. Taking your vintage EQ point one step further - that's generally true in terms of where I want to be and I achieve that with a clean tone with the treble rolled off on my bass EQ. But for the very occasional 60s track where I want to let fly with dirt (and there were just two tracks in our set two hour of 36 songs last night) I definitely don't want the dirt effect, itself, lost. That same point will apply for me to the half dozen or so heavy rock tracks where I'm going to be using dirt with my modern set covers band. You're obviously liking the dUg - I'm guessing you're getting quite a lot more flexibility with that to go from DG scooped right through to mid punchy as the need arises?

The Alto's seem to deliver a lot for the money (and had a fair bit of love from existing users on another thread - please see below), although tbf I've not tried the 12" version in comparison to the others you've listed.

Thanks. I've always wanted to go blonde. Going grey first was a nice stepping stone for me. It's actually pretty good - and one of @dannybuoy's favourites. But the mid scooping does mean it gets lost in a band mix. I spent a bit of time trying out all the B1-4 / B3n drive effects yesterday and landed on a couple which I feel both deliver a really usable drive. I tweaked the 'stock' settings on them to make sure low end is not lost. One is based one on the MXR DI ('D.I.Plus' effect) and the other on the ProCo RAT ('Squeak' effect). The ProCo RAT I think has a lot of potential as an excellent drive patch - it seems to take good elements from both the MXR DI and the B7K sims and its core tone is in between the two. I'd happily recommend checking all three sims and be good to hear back folks' thoughts on them.

Thanks. I've been working out.

So unless @jrixn1 has already beaten me to it, I'm guessing my gig outing tonight with the B1X-4 was probably the first out of the blocks for us? 50s and 60s band tonight, so pretty simple use: tuner, most of the set on 'clean' (= HPF + Comp + ZNR) with a couple of tracks using a drive patch I've created based on the MXR DI effect which is a lot less mid-scooped in core tone compared with the DG B7k sim (and similarly less scooped than the DG dirt options on my M900) and therefore cuts through in the mix really well. Managed to combine it with using a Smoothhound wireless pretty easily, without needing to set up a separate mini board. Performed just fine and slips very easily into the bass gig bag. Going to be a staple of my live sound going forward methinks. Anyway evidence of the B1X-4 set up ready for use...

I had exactly the same issues as you Mojo to start with, but it seemed with a bit of perseverance and coaxing to recognise the hardware (in my case the B1X-4) and now connects without any problems; which is all a bit weird! But I'm glad I didn't have to delete and reinstall USB drivers, although it's probably easier than I'm thinking to do.

In which case you'll need go to the Zoom website and download their GuitarLab software onto your PC and then connect your PC via USB cable to your B3n. This will allow you to get all the latest updates and features. I've embedded a link for you.

Ah but my board is pretty much at full capacity... ...so if I manage to identify a couple more of my existing pedals which the B1X-4 is doing a very good job of emulating and sell them on, then I'll have space on the board for a couple of new ones I've got my eye on! (And which I know that multifxs, even of Helix calibre, will have difficulty getting close to )

Be great to see a pic of your board set up with this on, Ian!

Nope! The extra knobs and stomps would definitely have been useful for patch editing before ToneLib came along, but now that it is here and freely available I couldn't recommend ToneLib strongly enough to any Zoom multifx user for patch creation and editing. As mentioned by a few of us earlier in the thread, a couple of foot stomp switches rather than paddles would be better for live use on the B1(X)-4. Maybe next time around eh Zoom? Having said that, the bank of 5 buttons on the B1(X)-4 is great and gives you easy access to a bank of 10 effects (so e.g. I'm going to be putting all my drive patches in one bank), as are the dedicated buttons for both the drums and looper (rather than having these both as 'in patch' effects on the B3n).

Yes absolutely, as the B3n and the B1(X)-4 share all the same effect sims. If you check this thread you will see I have uploaded the patch settings I'm using for the Glam Comp patch. Link below:

Where I've got to so far after a couple of weeks with the B1X-4: Definitely a keeper! I’m currently applying a rule of seeing if I can get to around 85% to 90% of the sound of a dedicated pedal that I really like, before thinking about letting it go. I've found that the ‘Glam Comp’ gets pretty close to my ‘always on’ TC Spectracomp setting so that’s found its way to the FS. But I haven’t got anything like close enough to the OC-2 sound on my Valeton OC-10 (a very good Boss OC-2 clone) or the 'authenticity' of the octave up on my Digitech Mosaic, so both these dedicated pedals will be sticking around (sorry about the Mosaic bassfan...) I am starting to find some juicy drive settings on the Zoom though... 😊

@Quatschmacher any update on the timing of the v3 release and hints on what we should be expecting in terms of upgrades / improvements?

Nice simple octaver setting for thickening up your sound without being overpowering. I've not managed to get that iconic 'OC2' sound on my B1X-4 so my Valeton OC-10 (an excellent Boss OC-2 clone) will be sticking around on my board for a while yet!

The core effects are identical between the B3n and the B1-4, so your comments should be entirely on point Luke.

I've just sold my Boss LS2. Probably a daft thing to do and will likely end up getting another in a few months time! But as I'm wrapping it up ready to post tomorrow, it got me thinking how often folk are putting their pedals in loops and what they are primarily looking to achieve? So please share your thoughts on: - what are the main reasons for doing so (e.g. blending-in clean to maintain low end or 'ring-fencing' parts of your chain so they run in parallel rather than in series etc.) - what are you putting in your loop chains? - can you hear the difference? - is latency and / or phasing an issue? - are there better pedal alternatives to the well regarded LS2? If so, what are you using? Are you simply using the loops available in other pedals or on your amps? Pics of your set ups very welcome!

Ahhh...you country folk and your quaint habits! 😂

Haha it's @Woodinblack's thread and it's about time he got one of these B1-4 thingy's 😁 (Look how many Yammy's I've ended up having to get, just 'cos I started up a Yammy thread...🤣)