All-in-one effects processor

[GMC]

Boss GT-1000 core looks small, neat and very powerful. However, I like my digital effects separate and focussed and not all the "development put in one box". Which is why I like Source Audio gear so much. If I was dirt, I get an Aftershock or an Ultrawave. If I want an Octave or filter, then the Spectrum or C4. If I want a great multi mod, then the Luna is perfect. Helix for delays...Ventris for Reverbs. Most of these are best of breed. Unlike say a Helix or a Boss GT1000, where the quality of an effect is due to left over budget at the end of a long dev cycle with hit / miss results.
The Aftershock is more than capable of creating the Ampeg tones that you are looking for.

 

[Hummergeist]

Helix or Boss GT-1000, either will do the job.

 

[skyline_01]

For a power supply, I have Voodoo Labs PP2 (I believe) but there are a lot of good makers out there and the search feature will probably help you find 1 or 2 easily attained units. I believe that may be your noise solution. The Ampeg SCR DI may be a bit of drain (may operate on 9 v but probably could use 18v).
More recently I purchased a three pack of Ernie Ball patch cables that seem quite flexible but I wasn't experiencing any real noise issues that I could blame on cables.
Good luck!

Agreed - sounds like a potential power supply issue, cable issue, or both. If the noise is the main reason for your desire to go all-in-one then I'd start there.

 

[darwin-bass]

As a bass player you can probably get by with the much cheaper HX Stomp or HX Stomp XL. I prefer using the full Helix though.

We are IEM and ampless so I play directly into the FOH system. I was using a FlyRig but switched to an HX Stomp. I really like it. But it is not as easy to make changes during the gig. With pedals you spin a knob or two. With the HX Stomp you have to surf menus and spin-spin-spin knobs.

 

[scottfeldstein]

You might be happy with the Tech 21 Bass Fly Rig. I use the v2 pedal, though it's quite similar to the original. It does a number of things, some well, some not as well, but the things I think it does well are all on your list of must haves.

-Chorus is a dedicated switch (press and hold for a tuner) and though it has only a single knob, it sounds pretty good to me.

-Compressor is decent, if lacking in a few features that a dedicated pedal would have. I don't use much compression but I like the way this one sounds turned up just a smidge.

-Preamp is a Sansamp with two character modes, VT bass mode is very "Ampeggy" and sounds great. There is a channel switch option and you can dial in as much drive on it as you want for some really good dirt tone and go back and forth from clean to dirt easily. Not strictly speaking a distortion, but a very nice OD.

-XLR output as it is a Sansamp unit.

The main shortcomings to this unit are in the "Octafilter" section of the pedal, Tech 21 tries to cram a fuzz, envelope filter and octave divider all in one and on their own they don't sound great. Used all together and you get a pretty decent synth bass sound, but it isn't quite the multi-effect that it's advertised to be.

They go for about $300 new, which is a very good price for what you get out of it. Let me know if you have any other questions about it, I've been using mine for about a year at this point and I know it pretty well.

I agree, the Fly Rig is designed to scratch all the OPs itches. I bought one second hand and it arrived with a faulty power jack (someone stepped on it maybe?) But also it has noisy switches and buttons that make popping sounds when you use them. That on top of the not-so-great octa-filter-fuzz thing.

 

[Isaac_James]

I agree, the Fly Rig is designed to scratch all the OPs itches. I bought one second hand and it arrived with a faulty power jack (someone stepped on it maybe?) But also it has noisy switches and buttons that make popping sounds when you use them. That on top of the not-so-great octa-filter-fuzz thing.

I've never had any noise issues with my switches. I wonder if you had a faulty model (aside from the damaged power jack).

That said, it's definitely got some design flaws around the octafilter, and having so many tools crammed into one little space means you make some compromises around control options. If I had an unlimited budget, I'd prefer to have a separate compressor, tuner, and VT bass driver for my pedal board (I already use a Big Muff for fuzz since the fuzz circuit alone on the BFR really doesn't sound good to me). But for now, it's an affordable compromise that meets almost all of my needs.

 

[SteveCS]

I'm thinking of trading in my pedal board for an all-in-one effects processor and need some recommendations. Floor-mount is preferred but rack-mount with remote pedal switches could work. Requirements:
1. Must include a compressor, chorus, and distortion at least. Don't need anything too fancy. It must let me turn on and off the chorus and distortion one at a time as I choose, not just by switching presets (i.e. have an on/off switch that I can assign to those two).
2. Prefer an XLR output, as I go direct to the board, no amp.
3. I am a big fan of the Ampeg sound, so bonus if it gets a similar sound.

My other question is, the main reason for wanting to change is that I get a lot of noise from my current pedal chain. Am I right in thinking that the reduced power and signal cables would help reduce the noise?

Whilst the Helix is a great product I think it might be total overkill for your current needs. It also comes with a rather hefty price tag - £450 or $699 for the HX Stomp or $649 for the 'HX Effects' if all you need is a compressor, distortion and a chorus.

Given the small number of simulataneous effects you are asking for, my initial thoughts were to the Zoom B1 Four, but I don't think the switching arrangements would work for you - whilst you can switch the effects on and off individually there is more than 1 press involved.

Then I thought about the B3n, but that has no DI out. But the older B3 does. And it has individual permanently-assigned switches for each effect in the chain. But it only does three effects at a time, so if you want chorus, distortion, compression and an amp sim for your Ampeg tone you are out of luck.

So that leads us back to the B3n, which does have footswitches for 'any 3 adjacent effects' in the chain. It allows up to 7 simultaneous effects so you can have your Ampeg Tone in another part of the chain not linked to the footswitches. There is no Lo-Z DI, but you could easily add a top quality passive DI and get both for less than half the $$ of the Helix. The other advantage of the B3n over the Helix is that there are dedicated hardware knobs for all parameters of the effects - just like having actual pedals on the board - so tweaking on the fly is a breeze. The downside of this compared to the Helix is the depth of editing is, well there is no depth - what you see is literally what you get.

Both the Helix and B3n come with 9V adapters, which might help with the noise issues.

TBH, when I first got my B3n I was using the footswitches to control individual 'pedals' in the a single long chain. Now, I have a lot of presets - some are generic general use presets focussed on specific intruments and some are tailored to specific tunes. Some tunes have 2 or three adjacent presets that I just move between using the main footswitches. I find this less error-prone than 'Stomp' mode. But, IMHO, with your 3-unit chain the B3n in 'Stomp' mode, with the addition of a good quality passive DI, would be a perfect fit.

 

[Aaron D]

I have a Vox stomplab that I highly recommend, it's got all your distortions,fuzz,wah and synth tones and you can easily make your own mixed tones..its easy to use and easy on batterys,it does have a 9v power supply plug on it. I mainly use that for practice. Another one that I recommend even more especially for gigging musicians is my Digitech BP 355..its got EEVVVERRRYYYTHIINNG you could ever need in any bass or guitar situation...its got like 10 different distortions from real pedal companies..like the ibanez tube screamer its got it...its got killer amp simulation from SVT ...to Ashdown,fender bassman...its got killer cab Sims too..there's and XLR output..it has a looper built in tuner to. I know the BP355 is considered old now,but for all it does..its an entire pedal board..there's even effects on it called Yaya that once you figure it out it makes you bass fricken talk..my favorite is the fretless effect with the fretless expression pedal..I've no need to buy a real fretless as long as I have this pedal...just get one is all I can say,if your lucky enough to find one that's a complete package it comes with download able effects and recording programs because guess what..you can plug it into your laptop too..I've only had mine since this past Xmas, I'm still figuring a lot of what tge BP355 can do...its got a gate effect on it to block all that 60cycle hum or whatever that annoying noise we all hate is called. Oh its got a drum machine with a ton of beats,metronome beats etc too...I could go on all day with what I KNOW it can do and I'm not even using all of it ...oh yea if you don't want to use all tge presets you can bypass it and it becomes a stomp box with distortions,delay,compression and wah..or you can bypass it all together and get your clean amp tones...Digital BP355 in short is all the pedals and tones you need..maybe more than you'll actually need,their cheap too,I got mine for like 100$

 

[Bassiclees]

It hasn't replaced my pedalboard but after a fair amount of work I've about ~20 presets on my Line6 PodGo using some Choptones IR's that are killer. Very diverse and great sounding setups with a core group of 6 that cover 90% of everything I'll ever play. Multi-purpose pedal is very useful (Helix lacks). Not sure if Helix programming is similar but both the on-unit and desktop (Mac OS) workflows are simple and easily modified with nice knobs and whatnot.

 

[Runlikegregg]

flyrig?
https://www.tech21nyc.com/products/flyrig/bass-fly-rig/

 

[Isaac_James]

flyrig?
Bass Fly Rig – Tech 21 NYC

That's the original version, which is no longer in production (but probably not too hard to find used). I linked to the v2 above, but it appears that the original version lacks the ability to switch between channels which is something I really enjoy in the v2. It does however have a headphone out, which the newer version doesn't have.

 

[Turtle71]

I'd suggest a Zoom B6.

1. Must include a compressor, chorus, and distortion at least. Don't need anything too fancy. It must let me turn on and off the chorus and distortion one at a time as I choose, not just by switching presets (i.e. have an on/off switch that I can assign to those two).

Check, you can do it either way, it can be treated like individual stomps, or as a patch.

2. Prefer an XLR output, as I go direct to the board, no amp.

Check, it does this wonderfully, and it offers 4 different DI "flavors"...I've run directly to FOH with this unit, and I have zero complaints about the tone, plus you've got the option add some amp/cab sims (within the DSP constraints), so it sounds great without an actual amp setup.

3. I am a big fan of the Ampeg sound, so bonus if it gets a similar sound.

I'd be very surprised if you couldn't dial up an amp tone you like with this unit.

Is the B6 perfect? Nope. But it will do what you're looking for just fine.

Add in the tuner (best I've used in a multi), looper, touch screen, ability to load IR's, dual inputs (so nice if you run 2 entirely different basses) etc... there a lot this unit does, and at $500 you'd be hard pressed to find something similarly equipped. IMHO

I'm by no means a Zoom B6 fan boy, in fact my main gigging pedalboard has a Boss MS-3/Line6 HXS combo, but pound for pound the B6 is a great value.

 

[Baker69]

If the XLR out isn't a deal-breaker, I recommend the BOSS GT1-B

+ 1 on the Boss GT-1B, a very under-rated little unit!

It’s a shame that Boss didn’t incorporate an XLR out in the design, I think there would have been room to fit one but they seem to have been more focused on the stereo capabilities and fitting left and right output sockets. Like many effects units they seem to be made primarily for guitar and then modified/adapted for a bass version.

I just take a line out from my GT-1B into my Sansamp VT21 and use its XLR out to the desk and the 1/4” output socket on the VT21 to my amp’s input socket. The VT21 is set for pure bypass.

 

[Mo' bass]

I'd be very surprised if you could dial up an amp tone you like with this unit

You probably mean "could not", right...?

 

[Lee Armstrong]

Can't help you with a multi-effector as I'm still using an ART SGX Nightbass I bought in the mid-90s.

I did run into a pedalboard power issue - I recently bought a Tech21 SansAmp YYZ pedal, and I was getting a high-frequency "warbling" noise from it when it was on. Same noise regardless of what amp I ran it into, or what bass was plugged into it ... even made the noise with nothing plugged in. If it was on, I heard the noise.

I put a 9V battery in the pedal and the noise disappeared. I looked at the output of the pedalboard power supply (a cheap SKB setup) with a scope and saw this:

The pedalboard wall wart is obviously a switch-mode supply and the YYZ pedal was happily amplifying the 7100 Hz noise coming over the DC power input. I've ordered an isolated supply to replace it.

 

[Turtle71]

You probably mean "could not", right...?

LOL, correct!

...edited

 

[jimfist]

In agreement with @Turtle71 on the Zoom B6. If you're not lookin got heap gobs of effects into one preset and you don't need overly programmed switching and control, the B6 is an impressive sounding bass-specific multi-fx.

Gigged mine a bunch of times over the last few months and it's a solid choice for a multi-fx. I got mine for $459 USD delivered.

My other weapon of choice is the Atomic BassBox, but it doesn't do special effects. It does do Boost OD, Comp/Lim, EQ/Preamp, Amp modeling and Cab IR, and is another great sounding unit.

 

[lokikallas]

I just got a stomp Xl as my all in one. I was considering the hxfx but the Xl came up at a good price first. It’s replaced my zoom B3n. I don’t need a balanced out of the pedal but it has a balanced 1/4 trs if I wanted. I don’t use the amps or preamps really, but I might someday if I wanted. I’m typically very happy with the di out of my 7 pro.

 

[munkeyfish]

There are a lot of great options here. If you are dead set on a multi, I too will endorse the Zoom B6. Pound for pound, great effects and checks all the OP boxes pretty well. I've been really pleased with it so far. I haven't had the chance to gig it yet, but I'm pretty certain it will do great. For my band I only need a few good sounds that I need for them and this box does it all and does it great and so easy to set up for the show.

Takes some time to dial in as any of the multi's will, but it is really easy to do right on the screen after a few minutes of tinkering. My dumb-ass self figured it, so I'm sure anyone can.

My thoughts on this unit was, how much would I pay to buy any/all the effects I'm going to use and the option to try out other versions of said pedals. At $500 new (right now) it is a steal! I too have many pedals and boards, but this is so easy to explore and use. Headphone jack is a million plus addition for this unit, love late night practice with a good set of cans. Plug and play (after some fun tinkering)

But for money savings, try a new power supply first. MXR Iso Mini is $100 new and can fix a lot of the problems. If you like what you have right now, try that. If you are all set for a new multi, research the options put forth and definitely check out the B6 for Bass specific effects.

 

[Michael Stanley 2112]

+ 1 on the Boss GT-1B, a very under-rated little unit!

It’s a shame that Boss didn’t incorporate an XLR out in the design, I think there would have been room to fit one but they seem to have been more focused on the stereo capabilities and fitting left and right output sockets. ...

There is a rumor ...