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NPD - Zoom B3n


Si600
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12 hours ago, stewblack said:

The one I didn't get, don't know why. Had the B1on, B3, and MS-60B, but skipped this and went straight to the B1 Four. 

So I'm keen to hear about it. 

First impressions after playing with it for about 45 minutes, just going through the effects and patches is that it's very easy to use to scroll through things and play with the noises. As with all multifx it's a session of "nice, nicer, hmm, nice, same as the last one, cool, WTF!" WTF is at the dusty end, there are some things from 70 to 75 that are just noise. I have no idea what they were on when they came up with those.

Where it scores over the MS60B is the ability to turn off effects in a patch, I can think of at least two songs we do that have different types in different sections, that although possible with the MS using the A-B-C function will be far easier with the three footswitches.

I now need to RTFM to learn how to program the user defined patches.

Overall, so far, very pleased with it. The pedal board will need some serious rejigging to make it fit though.

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1 hour ago, Si600 said:

First impressions after playing with it for about 45 minutes, just going through the effects and patches is that it's very easy to use to scroll through things and play with the noises. As with all multifx it's a session of "nice, nicer, hmm, nice, same as the last one, cool, WTF!" WTF is at the dusty end, there are some things from 70 to 75 that are just noise. I have no idea what they were on when they came up with those.

Where it scores over the MS60B is the ability to turn off effects in a patch, I can think of at least two songs we do that have different types in different sections, that although possible with the MS using the A-B-C function will be far easier with the three footswitches.

I now need to RTFM to learn how to program the user defined patches.

Overall, so far, very pleased with it. The pedal board will need some serious rejigging to make it fit though.

My advice is to try and look at it like (up to) 6 different effects units. For example - my normal process would be start with an empty patch and build a core tone around one of the pre-amp models, or sometimes an amp, cab or compressor - 'always on' stuff. From there I'd add whatever switchable effects I needed. For me, it was normally octave, drive and chorus. 

Three patches like this would see me through a 2.5 hours set of covers easily enough. I'd normally have one with the typical Sansamp/Ampeg type tone, something a bit more modern, perhaps using the Darkglass pre-amp as a base, then finally something vintage and smooth sounding.

My main bugbear was the fact that you could only set the three footswitches to control three adjacent blocks - I found it a bit of pain having to scroll past an always on amp model to turn on the chorus at the end of my chain. But I really never had any reason to complain about the sound.

George

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Catastrophe! It neither fits on the pedal board, nor does the PSU provide enough amps to power it. It needs half an amp, but the PSU only provides 300mA, which is enough for the MS60B, which is also specced at 500mA but it's a much smaller unit.

Some rejigging required. However, as an effects unit, it suits my needs (so far!)

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Oh dear, that's a shame. 

The B1-4 which has the same suite of patches and the same generation chip as the B3N and  is much more compact. I ended up trading my B3N in and have since replaced with a B1-4, and I'm really appreciating the smaller form factor. 

If you're in the Amazon return period it may be worth thinking about swapping them over? Just a thought. 

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Power wise it's not the end of the world, my board lives in a flight case on top of a tray, so I've got the depth to mount a socket under there.

 I like the three stomp boxes in a row, is the B1-4 similar?

TBF, the Zoom website will tell me, but that doesn't make for much of a conversation!

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Nope it's one stomp box, but nicely organised into 5 banks of 10 fx with the drum machine (eg for home practice) much more accessible. It also has global EQ and volume control which is super useful - can't remember if the B3N does? 

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The B3n definitely has a master volume, I've found it, but I'm not sure I could tell you how to find it again right now. Global EQ, no idea. Yet.

Of course, now you've suggested it I'm reading the manual for the B1-4. Fickle? Moi?

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The B1-4  kinda feels like the spiritual successor of the MS-60B, but with a MUCH better user interface. It benefits from the same processing power as the B3N and also the same ease of editing patches. Particularly via the free ToneLib software. 

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The MS-60B was actually the very first pedal I bought (back in 2013 - apart from guitar pedals several decades before that!) I really struggled with the interface, though. The B3N was a big (literally - haha) step up. I kinda feel they've cracked it for me with the B1-4 and it's now sitting happily at the heart of my mini board. The best value pedal I've got, by some margin. 

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11 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Can you give an example of what you have in mind?

I want add patch 7 as an effect in a patch I'm programming. So that it appears as an on-off effect in stomp mode.

10 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Also have you downloaded the ToneLib patch editing software yet? This makes creating and saving patches via your PC significantly easier than doing it on the pedal itself. 

I think it's called Guitar Lab on the Zoom website? But yes I have. It's been really helpful to be able to copy the patches and see what's in them.

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23 minutes ago, Si600 said:

I want add patch 7 as an effect in a patch I'm programming. So that it appears as an on-off effect in stomp mode.

I think it's called Guitar Lab on the Zoom website? But yes I have. It's been really helpful to be able to copy the patches and see what's in them.

Guitar Lab is Zoom's own software. The alternative that BC'ers seem to prefer is this one by ToneLib:

https://tonelib.net/

Edited by Al Krow
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Haha - ok I've learned something new about the B1-4 today from our discussion on stomp mode:  you can use the foot paddles to select an individual fx to switch it on or off in stomp mode (although youl first need to select stomp mode by hand), as well as being able to select individual items with the finger buttons. With the paddles it assumes you have a bank of 5 fx (even if you have only say three in a patch) and will scroll through each of the 5 slots in turn.

Not sure whether I'd ever use this live e.g. to have 5 individual fx in a banks of 5 rather than simply scroll through full patches normally. It seems to be much more of an on pedal editing feature on the B1-4. But useful to know that its there.

Edited by Al Krow
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I've found the foot switch on off in patches.

What I could do, if I can't get it to do what I want, is to copy the patch to a blank one, add my always on effect to each one so that the underlying things don't change but the over layers do. Then repeat for all sections of the song. It means that I can only have three effects per song, but that will be sufficient.

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