Zoom B9.1ut

[dDaddybass]

Anybody purchased one of these yet? How does it compare with other Zoom stuff. How does the tube sound?

[ihateusernames]

I have one on the way! I'll compare to the B2.1u after a week or so of use.

[ga_edwards]

I have one. I didn't have the 2.1, but it's much better sounding than my GT6B. The tube is subtle, but noticeable to me. It gives compression and distortion a little fatness and a more pleasing, natural effect, but like I say, it's subtle, you may not even notice TBH.

I prefer the ease of use over the GT6B. Yes the Boss was very editable, think of a parameter and it could be edited to the nth degree. The zooms parameters are more like stompboxes, so just 3 or 4 things to tweak on each effect.

The ampsims are more colouration than accurate models. By that I mean whereas the Boss and others like line6 will accurately recreate settings and parameters on the actual amp they've models(so EQ will operate and different frequencies on different models for example, or high and low boost switches on the SVT, preshape on the Trace), the zoom has gain, tone, level and mix. The eq (very flexible 6 band parametric) is a seprate module. This suits me fine, as I can have the colour of different amps without drastically altering the mix of the bass in a band context. You can achieve this with accurate models, but it's a lot more hard work to get right. Yeah it's not accurate, but ball park works much better for me, and is Joe Bloggs in the audience going to notice? I think not.

This lesser degree of tweakabilty on both ampsim and effect helps you not get bogged down, spending hours devling in menu's trying to create the perfect sound, which I've done many a time, and more time getting good useuable sounds quicly and easily.

The Z-pedal is great. You can assign and control up to 8 parameters at once if you so wish. Why would I want to do that you ask, well I have mine set to control volume normally, then press on it to active wah, which then also bypasses the volume. I could if I wanted active OD at the same time and control it's gain with the horizontal movement. It's also really cool to be able to say control a phasers frequency and speed manually for more control. I must say however, this is the one bit I've found so far isn't so intuitive to set up.

There's a lot of presets, many of which are just to show off, but a lot of them are actaully useable for a change. So you have presets such as 'Ampeg', 'GK', rock, jazz, metal, pop, even a couple called 'live' and 'recording', set with a nice amount of compression and useful stompbox effects.

I'm also loving the pedal synth effect. It's great to be able to fill out the synth sound when we're playing 'Jump' with a couple of button presses for 'C', 'F' and 'G' notes during the important synthy bits.

Down sides, are the amp models and OD/dist are in the same module. On the Boss they are separate. This means you can't have say a lightly dirty SVT, then kick in an OD for more dirt on a solo. But, luckily this has a fully blendable fx loop as a separate module, so I've stuck my old guv'nor in the loop, which has actually made it a better pedal, as I can now blend the marshall with a clean tone that I couldn't do before.

The other downside is the USB connector. Although useful for recording, they've only supplied ASIO drivers, which means when recording, the zoom becomes the soundcard, you can't use it as and input, and your existing sound card as the output to monitor, so you need to hook it directly to your monitors to hear anything, or get a mixer. For all the fuss it creates, you might as well use the line out directly into your normal soundcard. Zoom also have editing/librarian software to download off their website, but it only works via midi! I would have to buy a usb to midi adaptor to use this with my imac, and I'm betting many other people don't have midi ports on their computers either. Why oh why couldn't they let you do it with the usb port?! Maybe a firmware update could do this?

Another small gripe is they've used infinte rotary encoder for the parameter knobs, but traditional pots for the eq. I wish they would take a leaf out of behringer's book (yes, them) and use rotory encoders all over with led rings. It's a lot easier to quickly see how the knobs are set on each patch instead of having to turn back and forth and wait for the little symbol on the LCD to tell you where it was!

Oh yes, the screen is a flimsy piece of plastic, not glass as on other devices. You can easily bend it if lightly prodded with a finger, so be careful not to drop anything on it and keep kids away. Seriouly, the rest of the unit is built so well and solidly, and let it down with this bit.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all bad, I'd find faults in any unit, these are just my personal gripes, but you should be aware of them. Otherwise it's a great unit. Very easy to use after a quick flick through the manual, plenty of variation in effects, and sounds warm and natural as opposed to cold, sterile and processed.

Some of the things my GT6B does, it does very well (chorus' and reverbs and sweet and lush), but there's a certain tonal quality about it I don't like, even when I tried out the GT10, it just sounds, well, Boss, and I don't care for that much. Boss pretty much model their own pedals which I don't particularly like plus a few others. Everyone knows that boss pedals sounds better when modded, you can't do that with a multi-fx. Zoom and line6 have no real pedals of their own (well line6 do now, but only after a few years), so they model what they want to, and model the best of the best.

I must point out too, that I've only had mine a few weeks and haven't spent much time really playing with it, only to get my essential patches set up. One clean, one dirty SVT, and one GK for disco and funk, each with more or less the same switchable effects and compression. I'll create some more now I have more time, but I'll never go down the route I did before again of creating a patch for almost every song. There really is no point.

Anything else you want to know, please feel free to ask or drop me a line.

[dDaddybass]

Wow! Thanks for that very detailed review. I'm looking for something with a USB that use as an interface to play through my computer. If I'm understanding you correctly, the B9.1ut will now allow this. I'm actually happy with my B2, but I liked the idea of the interface and the tube. I'm also interested in getting a looper. Any experience with the RC50. Will it give me the interface i'm looking for.

[ga_edwards]

yes you can record through the usb interface, but you still need to hook up the regular analogue outputs to your speakers so you can hear anything when recording. Other than than, it's fine for recording.

[ihateusernames]

Mine arrived yesterday. Full opinion to follow week of use. Initial gut check left me questioning why I need it

First thing I did was go straight to the GK, SVT, and Hartke models. As ga_edwards pointed out the controls don't mimmick the actual amp. To answer a question I've raised in several threads - the 800RB setting does not allow for the typical grind tone of a recorded 800RB - It does a nice job capturing the clean GK tone but even my BL600 has more grind on tap with the boost knob at higher settings.

Same with the SVT - not enough drive to really get the right vibe of a recorded overdriven tube amp. The cleaner tones of this model are good though, for driven tones I'll keep the RPM in my rack.

Initial impression is I'd rather have it than the B2.1u - if I didn't already have the B2 and a pile of other stuff. We'll see if the software and loop are enough to warrant keeping it over the B2.

[kajohns]

I only have experience with the Zoom B2, and I like the tones I'm getting. I use it mainly for the ampsims, compression and EQ. Maybe a little chorus. I've been researching the Zoom B9.1ut and am really impressed. I want to buy one. However, I don't have any way to compare to Boss or Line6. Can anyone who owns the Zoom tell me how it compares to Boss or Line6? ANY REASON WHY I SHOULD NOT BUY THE B9.1UT?

[FreaqyFrequency]

Originally Posted by ihateusernames

We'll see if the software and loop are enough to warrant keeping it over the B2.

Anything further to report?

[ihateusernames]

I really like the software so far, yet I've not touched it in over a week - will have some time later this week to really give this thing a run down and report. I've just now started writing my favorite B2 patches to the excel spreadsheet a member was polite enough to post so I can quickly duplicate those into the B9.

[ga_edwards]

That reminds me, I must get a USB-midi dongle so I can connect mine to my iMac and use the editing software. I must also send an email to Zoom asking why the built USB doesn't handle midi!

[karlbbb]

Did you have any luck with Zoom about being able to use the USB for the software?

Hoping to pick one of these up soon (I have a b2.1u atm) and I thank you for the review.


I've just had a read through the manual, and the EQ seems very flexible (you can actually shift the frequencies, wide/narrow Q, shelving etc), so I imagine if you took the time to look through an amp's specs and found what the EQ knobs boost, I imagine you'd get a bit closer.

[ga_edwards]

Sorry, I completely forgot about that, thanks for reminding me. I shall try to remember to fire zoom an email. Last thing on my mind lately TBH.

Yep, the eq is brilliant. I love that it is independant from the amp model, and that it is a 6 band fully parametric as you mention. The graphic on on the LCD is useful here too, though I wish they had an option of a curve display so you can visually see how the q and shelving affects the curve. You would be able to get even closer to some amp's eq sections then, providing their manual has curve diagrams like MarkBass does. Only trouble is, I think the LCD is too small really to display this kind of info, so I'll just have to use my ears instead!.

[bassbrock]

Originally Posted by ga_edwards

The other downside is the USB connector. Although useful for recording, they've only supplied ASIO drivers, which means when recording, the zoom becomes the soundcard, you can't use it as and input, and your existing sound card as the output to monitor, so you need to hook it directly to your monitors to hear anything, or get a mixer.

Are you sure about this? You mentioned you have an iMac. With my B2.1u I was able to easily create an aggregate audio device with the Audio MIDI Setup application in the Utilities folder that allowed me to monitor through my Mac's internal sound card and record through the input on my Zoom via USB.

Creating an aggregate device in Audio MIDI Setup allows you to combine the inputs and outputs of multiple audio devices, USB, Firewire and Analog and route them pretty much anyway you would like.

Here is Apple's Knowledgebase article on the subject:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1215

[ga_edwards]

Thanks for that, I didn't realise you could combine ASIO on the mac like that. Even so, PC users still can't monitor like this, they'll have to go the mixer route.

[karlbbb]

Originally Posted by ga_edwards

Sorry, I completely forgot about that, thanks for reminding me. I shall try to remember to fire zoom an email. Last thing on my mind lately TBH.

Yep, the eq is brilliant. I love that it is independant from the amp model, and that it is a 6 band fully parametric as you mention. The graphic on on the LCD is useful here too, though I wish they had an option of a curve display so you can visually see how the q and shelving affects the curve. You would be able to get even closer to some amp's eq sections then, providing their manual has curve diagrams like MarkBass does. Only trouble is, I think the LCD is too small really to display this kind of info, so I'll just have to use my ears instead!.

I agree that a curve would have been amazing, perhaps it'll be on a future model.

[karlbbb]

Just a quick update, using the MIDI editor software, you can now see an EQ curve as you edit it, which is a great feature, just a shame it isnt present on the display.

[ga_edwards]

That's good to know. I must sort out a cheap usb/midi interface soon.

[bassbrock]

The M-Audio Uno is a good buy http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Uno.html

You can probably even pickup one of the earlier "Midiman" branded models (M-Audio's former name) on eBay for pretty cheap. I have one and it still works with the current drivers for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista without a hitch.

[kevinmoore73]

The MIDISPORT 1x1 (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MIDISPORT1x1.html) is what I use and can also be found for a good price.

[ga_edwards]

I was thinking along the lines of the uno. I think maplin (uk) do a couple like that. Ta