Multi FX Pedal Board for Cover Band

[Doley50]

Hello,

I have been reading some threads that have touched on some of my questions, but I wanted to get some specifics, mostly because of my lack of experience with Muti FX and being in a cover band.
My band plays a wide range of covers from classic rock to top 40's. My main concern is with some of the top 40 stuff, like Marron5, Katy Perry.... a lot of this music uses keyboards for the bass, so I do want something that has Synth capability, however I would also like to send my signal direct to the board,so amp modeling and a DI option would be great, to have access to other FX is also a great plus to be able to fill the sound out some, our line up is Bass,Gtr,Drums,Vox. We don't want to add a keyboard at lest right now.
I have been looking at a few options and my first pick hands down would be the Roland Gr-55 with the GK-b3 pick-up however this would set me back about $800.00 a little high for me.
Two others that I was looking at was the DigiTech BP355 what I like about this one is that it has the expression pedal, but I have been recently really impressed with the ZOOM B3
My main concern with all of the Muti FX units, is using them live. Again I have never used FX let alone Multi FX live before.
What I would love to do is be able to create patches and name them by song and then have the option to put them in order of how they will appear on the set list or at lest be able to scroll to them quickly enough to get to them while playing live.
Also I noticed that both the DigiTech and Zoom both have amp modeling, and the Zoom seems to much better at this and it is metal instead of plastic. If I had to make a decision today I would go with the Zoom, however I noticed that Roland has a few Multi FX so I am going to look at those also.
I would like to hear what you have to say about your experiences with any Multi FX board, I have through about separate pedals but to dial in a different Synth sounds during a gig does not seem economical.

Thanks
John

[lkmarsh]

Hi there! Four years playing bass at church makes me no expert, but I have used Digitech multis for years. They are metal, not plastic. The footswitches are plastic covered, and they get harder to use as they age. Currently use BP-200, mostly for the amp modeling. I play direct to the pa, no amp. With all multis there is a learning curve, and you need time to set one up. I use the first ten user presets for getting the set list patches in order. I use a separate tuner, inline and always on, and a separate di box. Big difference when using active pups.

[mgalat]

I don't have a broad range of experience, but from what I've read/played achieving a synth sound that exactly mimics what's heard on the radio is very hard to do cheaply (unless you just buy an actual synth).