Battery powered multi-fx

[PinkMohawk]

Is the Zoom B1-Four still the king of cheap and battery powered multi's, or has anyone else moved into the space and started competing with them? I'm doing a club at my uni and if I can get something cheap and cheerful that'll just go in a gigbag rather than needing to bring my board along for rehearsals, that'd be ideal. 

[tayste_2000]

I use the Zoom MS60b and am looking to upgrade to the newer one or 70CDR+

[PinkMohawk]

How do you find the workflow with setting up a new patch is with one of them? Or even just switching patches back and forth, they've always seemed a little clunky to me though I suppose that's the tradeoff when you want to have something that size. 

[tayste_2000]

Generally it’s to realise an idea I have.

 

So it’s either a very specific effect like a big synth I want to riff on, or where I actually started with the Zoom was a run away oscillating delay to hit at the end of a song and take us into the next one. So in these instances I’m turning a patch on and off.

 

If someone wants or I want chorus or an octave on a track I have a few single effects or chains ready to go and I can just turn on the individual effect on and off.

 

Mainly this is my thrown it down and play pedal. If I need something more structured or I’m changing fx a lot or there are going to be all sorts of random demands I’ll take a pedalboard.

[stewblack]

The new Boss ME-90B runs off batteries. It's great.

[PinkMohawk]

I think the Boss is just too big for what I'm looking for, unfortunately. Though it is a good looking option, I do like the physical controls. The Zoom MS sounds like kind of a hassle to use as well, since I expect to be wanting to build quick patches using a few effects each, depending on what songs we're doing that week. 

[Al Krow]

17 hours ago, PinkMohawk said:

Is the Zoom B1-Four still the king of cheap and battery powered multi's, or has anyone else moved into the space and started competing with them? I'm doing a club at my uni and if I can get something cheap and cheerful that'll just go in a gigbag rather than needing to bring my board along for rehearsals, that'd be ideal. 

 

Yes it is! 😊

[PinkMohawk]

43 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Yes it is! 😊

How easy do you find it to set up a patch? Is it easy to copy a basic patch and add onto it easily, or is it a big faff?

[Al Krow]

36 minutes ago, PinkMohawk said:

How easy do you find it to set up a patch? Is it easy to copy a basic patch and add onto it easily, or is it a big faff?

 

Super easy. Particularly if you edit on PC using the free Tonelib software - it's then literally just a few seconds job to copy and paste and then another min or so to select additional effects or to reposition them in the chain.

 

The lack of availability of similar editing software for non-Apple devices was a key factor in giving up on the recently released MS-60B+ which I'd had high hopes for.

Edited August 14, 2024 by Al Krow

[PinkMohawk]

1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

 

Super easy. Particularly if you edit on PC using the free Tonelib software - it's then literally just a few seconds job

 

The lack of availability of similar editing software for non-Apple devices was a key factor in giving up on the recently released MS-60B+ which I'd had high hopes for.

Nice, I think this is the way I'm leaning, unless someone shows me something mindblowing. Yeah I don't understand why it's iOS only, they're shutting themselves out from half the market with that choice. 

[Al Krow]