You could put the ms60B in one of the loops and have the best of both worlds.
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Boss MS3 - for guitar AND bass
- Thread starter FuzzFacetious
- Start date
Anyone able to blend a distortion effect with a dry signal? Am trying the guitar distortion/overdrive's as I read you could do it there but no luck. Am currently using an m80 for my distortion in one of the loops since the pedal gives me a blend...
Reading the past few posts and noted a mention of biamping.... The stereo outs could be coerced for this, left = low, right = high.... But what gets me excited about the idea is the implied crossover and the possibility of applying effects to only the desired frequencies. I currently have a Rolls crossover on my board to do this.
Reading the past few posts and noted a mention of biamping.... The stereo outs could be coerced for this, left = low, right = high.... But what gets me excited about the idea is the implied crossover and the possibility of applying effects to only the desired frequencies. I currently have a Rolls crossover on my board to do this.
There is no global dry blend function. Hopefully this will be corrected in an update sometime but there's been no word about this yet. IIRC, there are options to choose how much of the drive effect is added on an individual basis though, depending on the patch.
I no longer own an MS-3 but I don't recall seeing a way to send one chain to the 'L' out and another to the 'R' out...??
I think all of the FX (and definitely the modulation FX, delay and reverbs) have a wet/dry balance. From memory it's called something like FX Level in the effect editing menus, and a 0 setting just passes through the signal unaffected. That said, I think the distortions and ODs are OK but not stellar, so I normally put my Darkglass VMT into one of the loops and use the Blend knob on the pedal (as you do with your M80).
Not sure about biamping. The unit is stereo all the way through the chain, then at the output stage you select stereo or dual L/R mono. Any FX you apply ahead of the output are applied to left and right equally. So if you use an EQ as a LPF or HPF, it will apply to both sides of the stereo signal. You would need parallel paths to do the biamping thing, and this isn't the unit for that IMO. But it's pretty good for everything else, although I wish it had amp and cab modelling... that's the only thing it really lacks to be a pretty good fly rig (apart from ODs that are a little too fizzy for my taste).
My apologies for asking such a silly question. But is there a way to bypass the ms 3 althogether in one switch??
Meaning- go from bypassed clean tone, to a crazy patch, back to clean bypass with one press?
I've been using a borrowed one recently and I've figured to setup a a clean channel and switch to it. Rather than just bypassing the ms-3 altogether.
I know the tuner switch can be changed to bypass, you get a clean bypass but it's a long hold. Not a great live application bypassing the ms3.
Any help would be great. I've read the manual and didn't see an answer.
Meaning- go from bypassed clean tone, to a crazy patch, back to clean bypass with one press?
I've been using a borrowed one recently and I've figured to setup a a clean channel and switch to it. Rather than just bypassing the ms-3 altogether.
I know the tuner switch can be changed to bypass, you get a clean bypass but it's a long hold. Not a great live application bypassing the ms3.
Any help would be great. I've read the manual and didn't see an answer.
How you guys feeling about the MS-3 now in 2020. A broken delay pedal and thinking about not using a wireless anymore (my wireless is also my tuner) has caused me to reevaluate my board. Thinking of using an Ms-3 with my bass octave deluxe and darkglass microtubes x in the loops. Onboard effects I'd use are mainly the tuner, delays and reverbs but I'd like to mess around with some of the other more boss specific sounds like the tera echo, defretter, and slicer. I'd definitely make use of the pedal switching ability because I have some parts in songs where I activate octave and drive together or turn off the delay and turn on the drive where I'm currently tap dancing. Have been reading posts and I don't think the issues people have talked about would be an issue for me.
I feel ok with it, does all the main stuff a bassist could want.
Looking up a couple of posts I see a question about a clean bypass. What I do here is one of two things.....
One, I setup the same button in each bank as a "bypass", meaning zero effects on that patch.
Or I will sometimes use assigns within a patch to map the desired effects to one button, either momentary on or off. So, to use it first configure the patch. Next tap the "Manual" switch. This enables the use of the assigns to whatever button you mapped then to. I always assign to the same button I tapped to get to the patch, thus for me it's easy to remember what button I've "assigned" to.
So in this way the default for a patch could be a complete bypass. Then, when in manual mode tap a button or hold a button down for the effects to come on.
Looking up a couple of posts I see a question about a clean bypass. What I do here is one of two things.....
One, I setup the same button in each bank as a "bypass", meaning zero effects on that patch.
Or I will sometimes use assigns within a patch to map the desired effects to one button, either momentary on or off. So, to use it first configure the patch. Next tap the "Manual" switch. This enables the use of the assigns to whatever button you mapped then to. I always assign to the same button I tapped to get to the patch, thus for me it's easy to remember what button I've "assigned" to.
So in this way the default for a patch could be a complete bypass. Then, when in manual mode tap a button or hold a button down for the effects to come on.
If I was going for a Boss MS-3 (which is a very tempting proposition) on a mini board...I would probably have something like this:
The Boss MS-3 is much more than a dedicated FX stomper...it's also got three loops and it's allso a fully featured Midi controller.
The Boss MS-3 is much more than a dedicated FX stomper...it's also got three loops and it's allso a fully featured Midi controller.
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Which is exactly what's on my mind. there needs to be room for the SA Nuro Hub and the Strymon Ojai PSU. The only place for it is behind the ES-3 / under the looped pedals.
Absolutley love my MS-3. Not had it long but it sounds great, and combined with the other pedals on my board gives me all I could possibly need.
I do this too.
Here's mine on the 'board.
I do this too.
Here's mine on the 'board.
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I've got an MS-3 and have found that it's useful in a lot of situations, but does leave a bit to be desired.
- The overdrives are surprisingly good, but they aren't tweakable on the fly, which for me is super important in live situations. I find that tough rooms have a big effect on distortion sounds so I generally keep my OD and fuzz in the loops when I need them. I have had good success with recording those effects though.
- The compressors are fairly nice but I can't bring myself to ditch my Seymour Duncan Studio Bass. It lives on my board in front of the MS-3.
- Pitch effects: the bass octave is decent but it's very clearly digital. I like my analog octave pedal in the loops, personally. The pitch shifter is decent in Mono, and I've used it on several occasions to emulate half step or full step down tuning for one song in a set. My favorite pitch effect is actually the Overtone, which does a cool organ thing when combined with some drive.
- Modulations: I like the choruses, phasers, and flangers with a clean blend, though the phaser isn't quite as deep and rich as my Phase 95. The vibrato is really good, I like that one a lot.
- Reverbs and delays: these are doubtless the best part of the MS-3, effects wise. They're clear and pretty easy to use.
My biggest complaint with the MS-3 is the lack of a universal clean blend or parallel processing: if I could run dry to one output and wet to another I'd be thrilled. I'd be even more over the moon if I could assign some effects to one channel and other effects to the other. But alas, it's not quite there, and the one time I managed to reach Boss customer service to ask if they planned on updating the software at any point, I got a surprisingly curt message that amounted to "spend more money or piss off," so I'm not holding my breath.
The MS-3 is a good value for money and a great way to tighten up your board if you want to spend some time with it, but it ultimately falls into an uncomfortable middle ground for me. It's not quickly tweakable and simple enough to be efficient for most of my gigs, so for those I use a small board with 4-5 pedals including a tuner. But it also isn't fully featured enough to fully satisfy my needs as the "brain" of a larger board. It's close enough that I'm holding onto it for the time being, but there are days when I just want to sell it.
- The overdrives are surprisingly good, but they aren't tweakable on the fly, which for me is super important in live situations. I find that tough rooms have a big effect on distortion sounds so I generally keep my OD and fuzz in the loops when I need them. I have had good success with recording those effects though.
- The compressors are fairly nice but I can't bring myself to ditch my Seymour Duncan Studio Bass. It lives on my board in front of the MS-3.
- Pitch effects: the bass octave is decent but it's very clearly digital. I like my analog octave pedal in the loops, personally. The pitch shifter is decent in Mono, and I've used it on several occasions to emulate half step or full step down tuning for one song in a set. My favorite pitch effect is actually the Overtone, which does a cool organ thing when combined with some drive.
- Modulations: I like the choruses, phasers, and flangers with a clean blend, though the phaser isn't quite as deep and rich as my Phase 95. The vibrato is really good, I like that one a lot.
- Reverbs and delays: these are doubtless the best part of the MS-3, effects wise. They're clear and pretty easy to use.
My biggest complaint with the MS-3 is the lack of a universal clean blend or parallel processing: if I could run dry to one output and wet to another I'd be thrilled. I'd be even more over the moon if I could assign some effects to one channel and other effects to the other. But alas, it's not quite there, and the one time I managed to reach Boss customer service to ask if they planned on updating the software at any point, I got a surprisingly curt message that amounted to "spend more money or piss off," so I'm not holding my breath.
The MS-3 is a good value for money and a great way to tighten up your board if you want to spend some time with it, but it ultimately falls into an uncomfortable middle ground for me. It's not quickly tweakable and simple enough to be efficient for most of my gigs, so for those I use a small board with 4-5 pedals including a tuner. But it also isn't fully featured enough to fully satisfy my needs as the "brain" of a larger board. It's close enough that I'm holding onto it for the time being, but there are days when I just want to sell it.
I think for me there's a couple features I would love to see in this unit. 1 would be parallel signal processing or blend control for effects inside the loops, 2 would be for it to have cab and amp sim, and 3 would be if it had some type of looper effect. I think those 3 features could elevate this pedal to another level.
Restarting an old thread here.... What's the difference in quality of the effects overall compared to the Boss GT1B? Is the quality of effects alone worth paying more for the MS3?
