brensabre79 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 OK so it arrived yesterday and I had about an hour to play with it last night so here goes... Opening the box, the unit seems pretty solid. Metal case, proper footswitches and for me at least they are well spaced so as not to hit two at once. I downloaded the Zoom Edit & Share software on my Mac - which seems OK. A good way to see what you're doing. I chose to unplug this and get used to the B3 itself for starters though. [b]Tune Up[/b] The tuner is a vast improvement on the B2.1 theres a row of LEDs across the top which works like a Boss or any other pedal tuner a row of reds either side of the green 'in tune' LED. It highlighted that the intonation is slightly out on my JB so its pretty accurate, as I set this up with a behringer tuner the other week! So far so good... [b]Presets[/b] I went through the range of factory presets first, to see what the unit was capable of. Without going into the detail of every one of these I would say there are some pretty good ones and some that I will never find a use for, but the idea of these presets is that you overwrite them with your own sounds anyway. After that I started trying to look at the individual components... Preamps These are pretty good actually, some are quite noisy but they are all quite distinctive in sound, not just 8 different ways to boost the signal. Compressors I was particularly concerned about these as the B2 ones were dreadful. I have to say these are a major improvement, and much more useable. But I will be continuing with my Markbass Compressore after the Zoom and keeping a slot free for other things. (you can only have 3 slots in any patch - unlike the old Zoom method - but you can bring the 3 in and out individually within a patch so you don't have to use them all at once) Amp emulators These are pretty good actually, quite a passable impression of SVT and fliptop. The Bassman is a bit weak IMO. I would definitely use these for recording - even if subtley. Synths Pretty standard Zoom affair with the synths, I don't really have a use for them as I have an array of actual synths at my disposal. Ok for a spangy effect in a live show but the much improved tracking is still a bit off sometimes and you kind of have to adjust your playing to get the best from these. Definitely more, and better than B2 ones though. Modulators I only played with a couple of the chorus effects. They are pretty nice actually, I liked the Ensemble for an 80s style (think Sade, Paul Young ballads etc.). [b]In use[/b] I haven't had time to use it in anger yet, but overall I like. Once you've set your patch up with what you need, its really easy to edit them a little on the fly, no delving into menus etc there are three knobs for each slot so you can quickly ramp up the blend of a chorus or the feedback on a delay. It will take some getting used to if you've used the B1, B2 style pedals. This is a different beast. you have to think about what you'll need because flipping between patches is not just a pedal press, you have to hold one down then select up or down (or you can reach down and do it by hand) but doing this mid-song is tricky. As you only have three slots including things like noise reduction, a preamp and a compressor (pretty standard fare) means you're full and if you want to add a chorus or delay you're out of slots so something has to go. there are a few dual fx (like compressor/distortion combined) but may not be the combination you want. [b]Overall[/b] I'm pretty happy with it overall, it [i]IS[/i] a significant improvement on the B2 in terms of the quality of the sounds it can make. But the way you use it is quite different. If you're the sort of person who has Preamp -> Chorus -> Delay -> Compressor -> you're already stuffed with this one without some fancy footwork! If you tend to only use one effect at a time this makes life much simpler. For me, I'm not going to use this to shape my sound with the Amp emulators and compressors etc. I'm going to use this as an add on only when I need it. So I'll set up my sound with my Bass and amp then just add a little Chorus or Overdrive or Delay or something - like stomp boxes - rather than trying to create a soundscape for each song like previous Zoom offerings. For £140 this is a great unit, if you think about it this way - how much would 3 Boss pedals cost? This can do most of the ones you'd want for bass and then some more. Added to which when you're recording theres a whole load of stuff that means you can just DI from this unit and sound like a miked up Ampeg in a decent room. I'll be taking this out to gigs and doing some recording too when I've got my head around it and I'll let you know how it fares in the real world! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soldersqueeze Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Great review, thanks! Any opinion on how it works as a DI into a PA in a live gig situation would be amazing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftyhook Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) [quote name='soldersqueeze' timestamp='1326883948' post='1503112'] Great review, thanks! Any opinion on how it works as a DI into a PA in a live gig situation would be amazing [/quote] Yes, a great review, and much appreciated. I second the request re: D I into P.A Hmm..so do I sell my Boss OC-3 and chorus in favour of one of these.....? Edited January 18, 2012 by leftyhook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 [quote name='soldersqueeze' timestamp='1326883948' post='1503112'] Great review, thanks! Any opinion on how it works as a DI into a PA in a live gig situation would be amazing [/quote] I won't be using it this way as I'll be DI'ing from my amp to get some of its valvy loveliness in there, but I will test the balanced out for noise, level etc. tonight and let you know how it works... [quote name='leftyhook' timestamp='1326883948' post='1503112'] Hmm..so do I sell my Boss OC-3 and chorus in favour of one of these.....? [/quote] That my friend is entirely up to you. If you're happy with what you have I wouldn't say the Boss pedal emulators on here are any better than the original, but you do get a tuner thrown in and of course miles more sounds at your disposal! If you're used to separate pedals and you want multi-fx this is a good way to go, but you can only use 3 at once... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftyhook Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) [quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1326885852' post='1503145'] I won't be using it this way as I'll be DI'ing from my amp to get some of its valvy loveliness in there, but I will test the balanced out for noise, level etc. tonight and let you know how it works... That my friend is entirely up to you. If you're happy with what you have I wouldn't say the Boss pedal emulators on here are any better than the original, but you do get a tuner thrown in and of course miles more sounds at your disposal! If you're used to separate pedals and you want multi-fx this is a good way to go, but you can only use 3 at once... [/quote] I have a Zoom B1 which was given to me. I like the portability idea, fairly impressed with the sounds and low/no noise. (only teses at home to date) The B3 has D I too. It also looks more professional. Hoping there will be some Youtube demo's very soon. Cheers! Edited January 18, 2012 by leftyhook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Looks like this will be my next bass related purchase. Cheers for the review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Thanks for the review man it helps a lot! I'm thinking this might be a better investment than the Line 6 M9 for my needs... Does the unit affect your tone at all without any effects active, ie bypassed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brensabre79 Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Cheers Chris. I don't believe it is true bypass (as in the signal bypasses the unit) - it still goes through the circuit and probably the 24bit A/D/A converter. But with none of the effects turned on the tone does not seem to be affected from the original. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Thanks man! Sounds more than good enough to me already, the only reason ive avoided multi units is because of tone suck so this is exciting stuff! I'm sure it will degrade the tone less than the 3 or 4 true bypass pedals I'm thinking of replacing with it (not to mention itll leave more space for future GAS ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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