jimfist

I'd recommend creating a backup folder in the patch pool area so you can get back to where you were if things go awry. I've been doing this using Guitar Lab, but I think it can be done on the unit itself, too: https://zoomcorp.com/manuals/b6-operation-manual/#unique_107 In Guitar Lab, you need to be on the "PATCH " view screen. [Note: I'm in Windows 10 OS] From there, you use CNTRL + select (individual select) or SHIFT + select (multiple sequential select) to choose the patches you want to move. I select the 4 patches that comprise whatever bank I'm moving, and then drag them where I want them. I'd practice this first moving to some wide open Empty patch areas so you can see the behavior.

I agree. This is one of the problems we run into when the whole Impulse Response search is a brand new endeavor. Why the need for so many IR slots? When one embarks on this search for "their speaker" IR, it can be a daunting task, and for a lot of reasons. Many IR providers give you a gazillion options for mic type and location in relation to the speaker. This, just for one mic selection, can yield a dozen permutations. Multiply that x 10 different mic types or combinations of mic types. Then multiply this for different "treatments" (to include the Power Amp EQ, or with different mic preamps with their desired tone imprint). So, for the uninitiated, the tendency is to take a stab at IRs from a few different mics, and load them all onto the device for auditioning. Then add in the notion of using the IR as a means of more basic filtering (think of an IR with HPF at 50Hz and LPF at 4kHz, 24 db/octave slopes, and a mid bump of 3db at 800Hz), and you have a whole other spectrum of possibilities. Thankfully, these days, you can make the process less painful by searching out IR providers who get good reviews (online in forums, etc.) for the type of speaker IR you're looking for. Easier said than done, and usually in the end, you wind up with maybe a handful of IRs that you'll ever want to use. Other than the auditioning aspect of needing a ton of IR slots (this may matter in the studio), for live performance, slot count is less important IME.

Yes, using the Guitar Lab Handy App (iOS only), from the B6 product page: Up to 120 IRs can be loaded on the B6.

Yeah, just saw this and it has a lot to offer, especially if you like to deep dive and program very specific things. I've heard rumor of pre-order price of $599 US (not to market until late March??), and then a street price of $750 US...not sure how true. Ultimately I don't think this will be for me, though it has a bunch of features I like. If I were to next-level-up from the Zoom B6, I'd be going all-in on a Quad Cortex or Fractal FM9....but the GX-100 looks like a winner.

Exactly! I have a running list of B6 wishes and the assignment of a switch to 2 slots was on that list. For example, I like to put a limiter after an envelope filter to tame the transients, and being able to switch both on/off with one button would be great. I also noticed on Guitar Lab, the Effects Pool shows 71% of memory used for effects residing in the unit. This means there's another 29% left for additional effects and whatnot, so there's room for Zoom to add amps & effects.

IMO, pretty much everything about the B6 is a better than the B3n. Unless you're fully wedded to the WYSIWYG stomp switches and knobs legacy design (in which case the G11 would suit you better...for a jump in cost), there's almost nothing I prefer on the B3n vs. the B6. B3n is smaller, if that matters. Both require a little tap-dancing to switch their "play modes" from stomp mode to bank/patch to memory. This could be improved for the B6. Tuner in the B6 is really fast and accurate, and much easier to read. Amp models, preamps and drives all sound improved: detail, depth, realism, feel. Things getting more realer. Some nice new additions to the preamps and amps that didn't exist on the B3n. If you like the SansAmp BDDI, you'll really like the B6 model. I like it more than when I actually HAD the BDDI. The B6 has the newer version modeled with Midrange control. Synth and pitch-based effects have taken a step up IMO. I'm finding that I like them more and can do more with them. On the B3n, this category was a real struggle. The synth sounds I'm getting now on the B6 are so much better than the B3 or B3n. 2 inputs w/dedicated switch and each with global EQ/Level is perfect for switching between 2 drastically different basses in live performance. Nice touch. XLR output. Yes, we get an XLR output. The level sent from XLR is NOT tied to the back panel volume knob, which is a smart move. This way, you have discrete volume control over the 1/4" (phones) output stage feed via the knob, while the XLR output remains static. Level to the XLR can be controlled by the input 1/input 2 global levels. DI output types: I thought this might be a little gimmicky, but the more I played with this feature, the more I got hooked on Tube-2 and Solid State-1 DI output types. Another nice final touch. Also, you have a bypass mode that leaves the DI type engaged, which is nice. USB recording/playback. On my computer, this was literally plug-and-play. Flawless. Touchscreen: so much easier to read, especially presets in Bank/Patch mode...big amber letters on a black background. I will say that swiping up/down and left/right on the touchscreen is a little less responsive than we've been accustomed to on smartphones. That said, it is no different than the response I get from my Mackie DM16 iPad mixer and Behringer XR 18 using my 2-in-1 laptop or iPad. A little patience and feel and it works fine. I'm used to it now. Looper: I'm not a looper guy, but if you are and looper time/capacity matter to you, the SD card slot solves this problem FX loop & Send/Return: Standard feature that comes in handy. Also, the discrete Send could be used alone to pull a feed before cab modeling to send to your stage amp. The discrete Return could be used as an additional input for an external source. On screen editing of FX blocks: in "effect board" mode, just touch the effect block you want to edit and up pops its controls, with adjustments made using the 4 knobs below. Again, easy-to-read factor is huge. Return to "effect board" mode by clicking the Mode switch, or back button on the screen. Pretty easy and intuitive. Now, on the CON side: 6 slots maximum, with 4 switches maximum. If I want to load up all 6 slots with effects, I'll only be able to switch 4 of them on/off. I could really use 2 more slots and 2 more switches. Oh well. DSP memory: some of the effects, preamps, amp models, etc. are very hungry for DSP. I find that sometimes I have to go with a lower preference effect in order to keep from going over 100% DSP. It's manageable, but 20% more DSP would go a long way. PLAY MODE switches: Switching from EFFECT BOARD (stompbox mode) to Bank/Patch (individual preset mode) to MEMORY (bank of 4 preset patches) to LOOPER is awkward for quick changes. Not a dealbreaker as I don't have a ton of different presets (they all can fit into 2 or maybe 3 banks). I can see it being a pain in the derrière though, if you regularly want to change patches and access effects in stompbox mode. Size: the pedal is big for a Zoom pedal...bigger than the G5n I use. I may need to carry it in its own case rather than stuffed in my gig bag.

Feel free to fire away with any questions you have. I gave the B6 a healthy workout last week, and my tests using it in conjunction with the Atomic BassBox over at the other thread are done now. I'll be keeping the discussion here moving forward. I will be selling my B3n now that I've got the B6 up to speed (but keeping my G5n for the time being).

No USB audio.

Well...since I posted this over at that other bass forum, I figured might as well do the same here.... https://soundcloud.com/jimfist/sets/zoom-b6-demo?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Excellent! Glad things worked out for you. It's refreshing to not have to menu-dive just to get a simple, solid bass tone going, or make a quick adjustment. Good old knobs and switches.

I wanted to see if how much of a difference it made when I loaded the Atomic (Dr. Bonkers) 8x10 Mesa cabinet IR into the B6 and did more side-by-side listening. Both the Atomic and B6 set for SVT amp model and the above IR. Hot damn if that didn't narrow the gap quite a bit. Now the difference seems not as much. Just goes to show how integral a good IR is for modeled tones. I'm still keeping the B6 and BassBox, but now I can use the B6 with a little more confidence as a stand-alone pedal.

Cool. Smart to have plan B ready. Interested to see what you think. Good luck!

What are you using for stage monitoring? If the tech staff allows a few extra minutes for bass-check time to iron out any possible issues, I'd say go for it.

OK. Spent some time doing a direct comparison of the B6 with the BassBox for core tones: Boost > Comp > EQ/Amp > Cab IR. @Tripehound, the good news is that the BassBox wins this shootout rather easily IMO. The comp, EQ, and amp settings just seem to be dialed in, and there's just a more immediate feel with the BassBox. It has an "it" factor of quality that's easily felt & heard, but tough to put into words. Not so much a knock on the B6, as I think the BassBox is on par with the some of best dedicated bass pedal processing out there (albeit in limited format...I prefer it over the HX Stomp, too). The B6 does well, though. No problems gigging with the tones I'm getting. I've always been of the opinion, though, that the Boost drives on the BassBox are perhaps its weakest point....very fiddly in some respects...I've had to go into the editor a few times to tweak the Boost level...still not sure if I'm 100% good with it. This may be where the combo of B6 front-end into the BassBox is the best scenario, as I do like a number of drives in the B6. I hadn't yet ported the IRs from the BassBox into the B6. The three I use are a Shift Line Hartke 4x10 (cleaner tones), a Dr. Bonkers Mesa 8x10, and a Dr. Bonkers SVT 8x10, all with tube amp emulation in front of them. Of these three, the Mesa 8x10 is my favorite. I wouldn't be surprised if this stands to narrow the gap tonally between the BassBox and B6. I drilled down into the B6 effects a bit, also. My view on effects is that I have no expectation every form of effect is going to be great, especially for multi-fx in this price range and lower. If I can get maybe 10 or so solid, standard effects (dirt/OD, chorus/pitch shift detune chorus, flange, tremolo, envelope filter), along with lower priority oddities like a synth and octaver, I'm getting my money's-worth. I consider compression a core part of my tone along with preamp/bass amp modeling, so those are a given (prefer the LMT 76). Of course, the most dodgy of the bunch are the synths and pitch shifters. It's a mixed bag in this respect so YMMV regarding exactly what floats your boat here. That said, I've always been able to beat these unwieldy beasts into submission with patch creations that are unique in their own right to do that one thing, forgetting about all amp modeling structure. Sometimes it takes a bit of pre/post treatment to get a synth to sit just right, and slots run out fast. I will say that the tracking is pretty good on pitch effects, and the new Super LO preamp is unique, seemingly designed for those who can't get enough sub-bass (1 octave down) in their bass tone. That one will drive some FOH mixers nuts!

The experiment with discrete Send and Return did work to create a pseudo-parallel path. Kind of funky getting it sorted. But since so many of the effects include a mix or wet/dry blend feature, I found it to be unnecessary for most applications. I did my experiment using the simulation of the dbx160 (160 comp) as the parallel-processed effect. Curiosity is satisfied, but I probably won't ever NEED TO use this method....which is a GOOD thing. The Looper, like the rhythm section, is its own discrete area, and loops don't reside within a preset patch....so NO, you can't save pre-recorded loops and call them up at will using preset patch selection. Oh well. No biggie for me.

The B6 landed today, and I had some time to wrestle with it this evening. As expected, it's a mixed bag of pleasant surprises and the foreseen problems with DSP and 6 slot maximum limitations. I'm late for bed, so I'll just say that this is the best sounding bass pedal I've heard out of Zoom, in terms of core sounds for drive pedals, preamps, amps, and cabinets (IRs). The DI selections flavors are very cool. With respect to the Atomic BassBox, I'll be doing some side-by-side listening to see what my ears tell me.

I should have my B6 coming today or tomorrow. There's a discussion over here about the B6 and Atomic BassBox: If you'd like to read my comments, I'll be posting over there for the time being, so I don't have to keep ping-ponging back and forth between threads. I've got an open mind on this purchase. The limitation of 6 slots for effects/amps/cabs/etc may be a tight fit for some situations. I may use my BassBox outboard of the B6 in some situations so that I can load the B6 up with effects only. The BassBox would then provide the "always-on" amp/cab/eq/compression along with Boost if needed. Ideally, though, I'd like to be comfortable with the B6 for all occasions, so I'm hoping the new models and other improvements impress. If so, it may spell the end of my B3n and/or G5n for live use. It's been quite a few years, so I'm ready for a change I think. Some of the new features look tasty. I'll be trying out the Send/Return feature to see if I can create rigged-up parallel dry path to the effects path. Even though it would eat up 2 slots, it would be great if it worked, to be able to have the ability to wet/dry mix between 4 other effects - mainly OD and compression. Also will be experimenting with loops, to see if they can be saved via SD card and recalled on a patch-by-patch basis. This would be a cool bonus feature, but I haven't seen anyone mention whether it can be done.

I've read that the Yamaha MagicStomp pedal has the Symphonic effect. https://reverb.com/p/yamaha-magicstomp-ub99-stereo-multi-effect-pedal https://www.manualslib.com/manual/526717/Yamaha-Magicstomp.html?page=5#manual and they also make a bass version (purple housing)

Ha. I had the original 3 button Amplifire and used it briefly, but long before they introduced the SVT model. I struggled with it at the time. It was very nice for guitar tones, but for some reason couldn't find a guitar amp model that suited my tastes. As though it was too dynamic, and too squishy, especially for the gritty heavier/metal tones I needed. Fender Bassman didn't cut it. LOL. I suppose I just didn't work hard enough on it, and also found the compressor block to be dodgy, not quite tuned the way I like it for bass. The BassBox sure doesn't suffer from this IMO. Seems VERY well-tuned for bass. I did have to engage the input pad for the BBox drive & comp to behave. I hit hard and my bass' output is pretty healthy.

I was hot for the Quad Cortex until I saw how the initial roll-out went, and then with supply chain difficulties, delayed firmware updates, etc. etc. That's cooled me off for a while, until I have a better feeling that the QC is more mature. Cool that you're willing to go with the BassBox. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. There are some operation things that you might want to explore with the software editor, as it also does adjustment for the gain/OD, and has an overall mix/blend feature. It also allows you to do signal path assigns to the main XLR and 1/4" outputs. Apologies for this, but over at TalkBass, there's a whole forum thread on the BassBox that goes pretty deep. I hear you re: the B6. Zoom is.....Zoom. I've had good luck with the B3, B3n, and mostly the G5n (with the hack to port B3n blocks into the G5n). It's not world-beater gear, but for simple operation and bang-for-buck, it's been good to me now that I've got less demanding gigs WRT crazy effects programming. With the B6 being a steeper price tag, I'm likely to be more critical of it than, for example, the G5n which cost me $299US in 2017.

Don't worry...I won't mince words or couch my opinion on the B6. I've owned the HX Stomp (flipped it after a couple months), and gigged for many years with the Fractal Audio AxeFxII. It will be the good, bad, and ugly as I see it, albeit as a Zoom fan and user for many years.

True enough that all-in-one multi-fx pedals do present challenges for quick live adjustments on-the-fly...even with the high ticket items. Certainly there are a slew of guitarists and bassists who can make this work, myself included. When I use my B3n or G5n (done hundreds of gigs with them), or BassBox running into my stage rig (bass head & cab), I utilize the bass amp head EQ to address stage/room EQ issues. The multi-fx/amp modeling feed to FOH (when used) is taken PRE stage rig. This eliminates most of my live tweaking issues since I've sorted out my effects/balance and core tones in my multi-fx at home & rehearsals. Any individual gig tweaks are just fine tuning that can be done during sound check, and I'm probably the only one who knows or cares. The B6 does have the optional Bluetooth dongle which allows for pairing with an ipad/iphone, which would be convenient for on-the-fly adjustment. Circling back to the Atomic BassBox, I can understand why getting one - even at a great blowout price - would be a little scary, being across the pond from a very small manufacturer such as Atomic. I'm in the US (Boston) and only a couple hours drive from Atomic's facility in Connecticut, so it was an easy decision for me to buy at the pre-sale discount (for being on the BassBox wait list). Beyond that, feature-wise, I wouldn't say that the BassBox is trying to mimic the DarkGlass B7k (or the like) or Tech 21 Sans Amp BDDI (or the like). I'd classify it as a 'tweener' to both of these, and tonally it I find it has a broader range of excellent sounding tone possibilities due to its flexible options: choose from 3 types of each Drive (OD pedal, tube, FET) dynamics (comp, limiter, leveler) Amp/Cab (factory default solid state amp+12" cab IR, tube amp+15"IR, SVT amp+SVT 8x10 IR) all programmable via editor software EQ (4 band fixed a la API module, 3 band w/mid sweep, 3 band 'state variable' Bass/freq/Q/Treble). The computer editor is basic, but most importantly allows you to change the 3 amps & cab combinations available via the hardware amp switch, and add 3rd party IRs. Dr. Bonkers supplied the stock IRs, and they're excellent quality IMO. For me, the benefit of the BassBox is for WYSIWYG old-school knobs and switches with immediate control of core tone and switched overdrive/boost, without the bells-and-whistles of ear candy effects. It is limited in this respect, but far more flexible and programmable than most stand-alone hardware preamp pedals (BDDI, B7K, etc.) of this format/footprint. From my use of it (and all JMHO, YMMV), the BassBox can easily cover a wide range of bass tone styles (I do everything from old-school R&B, classic hard rock & metal, and modern metal) and sound excellent doing it. The BassBox is, physically and sonically a QUALITY device. Though technically a digital box, it holds up under scrutiny in a way that many low-to-midrange digital multi-fx might not. BTW, the compressor/limiter/leveler is GOOD, which you can't always say about a lot of 2-knob compressors. For me, this is critical, and I'm very picky about compression/limiting. EQ section is also excellent. Where the B6 comes into play with the BassBox will be, for me, if the B6 is improved enough to really, truly compete with the BassBox for CORE functions (described above) and possibly replace it. That would impress, but not banking on it. I may find the B6 to be markedly improved (specifically how TBD), but still not up to snuff with the BassBox core tone aspects. In this case, I'll have to decide if it can be justified for use as ear candy special fx only, or as a B-rig all-in-one to include amp modeling. A looming question is whether it has enough available DSP to handle all effects and amp modeling duties, which may force the issue one way or another. Will know more in a couple days.

I got one of the first ones. And I just ordered the B6, due for arrival this week, I'll have opinions I think the Atomic BassBox is a really nice multifunction bass pedal, and yes, it's as good a pedal as Pete Thorn makes it sound IMO. Totally different animal in the way it's designed compared to a typical digital multifx modeler. Not sure what to make of Atomic right now, though all my experiences with them have been good. Very, very small outfit, and guessing they've been having supply chain issues for key components like everyone else.

No envelope filter or auto wah? IMHO this pedal needs it, even before dirt/fuzz effects. I would consider if not for that omission.

Wish I could be of some help, but I don't know much about CPU/DSP for the Zoom pedals. I just plug 'em and play 'em. 😉