ISO Small Multi Effect for One-Off Gig Needs

[Twocan]

Greetings,

While my gigging hasn’t slowed down, I’ve been out of the pedal market for a while now. I am in a Wedding / GB band and am regularly adding on tunes for specific events.

I have been using a Pedaltrain Nano with a TC Tuner, SFX MicroThumpinator, SFX AY2 (Yamaha NE1 Inspired Parametric EQ) and an EBS Multicomp. This serves 99% of my needs. In a perfect world, I’m looking for a single pedal (to fit the Nano, feeding off my OneSpot) that can fill the the occasional needs for:
-Envelope
-Octave
-Chorus
…and not add unnecessary noise to my signal.

I know there is a small footprint Zoom pedal that can do this. At home, I have a Zoom B1four that is great for practice, but I would never gig it. The output of my Alembics tends to overpower the pedal and there is clearly noise degradation on the back end.

If there are any new products to consider, or thoughts on the Zoom MS-60b, I’m all ears! Thanks.

 

[bassbrad]

The MS60B doe all those effects quite well and offer a wide selection plus some passable synth tones [imho]. The bypass is okay but you could always use a small loop pedal to kick it in/out, that way you can have several presets to cycle through and kick in the loop as needed.

 

[Parzival]

What about one of those Tech 21 fly rigs? They are much smaller than they look in pics.

Disregard, I see your adding to an existing board, not replacing.

 

[Bassmike62]

The MS60B doe all those effects quite well and offer a wide selection plus some passable synth tones [imho]. The bypass is okay but you could always use a small loop pedal to kick it in/out, that way you can have several presets to cycle through and kick in the loop as needed.

Definitely this ^^

 

[InkCow]

I was going to recommend the Hotone Mod Binary because you’re not going to get more compact than that, but then I realized that it didn’t have an octaver.

I think the Mooer Mod Factory Pro would do the trick, though: Mod Factory Pro _MOOER Audio

 

[RickenCliff]

Love my Ms60b! A very useful little pedal. A Boss sized footprint and can fill all the gaps of missing sounds, without having to take out a surfboard sized pedalboard. What's not to love???

 

[matty1039]

I have an MS-60 and it is a great swiss army knife kind of pedal. I think the biggest weakness of it is that you have to consider where to put it in the signal chain for what it will cover. For an envelop it would need to go before your comp, but for octave or chorus you would need to place it after the comp.

It can cover modulation, reverb, and delay pretty well. I don't have a good basis for comparison, but I think it handles octave ok. So, one at the end of your chain would probably give you a lot of mileage. You might even be able to dial in a convincing envelope filter using a flanger sim after your compressor.

 

[waveman]

Zoom MS 60B. I have three of them for diff things. Love them. They can also sound as or better than other more expensive effects in the mix. Oh, and the tuner can be seen in pretty much any light compared to others.

At it's simplest, I use a standalone for rehearsal, gigging, etc
Then I have another that is on my recording board and that stays home all the time with pre and post DI pedals. Pre is just a pass-through clean signal, never engaged, post is always engaged. MS 60B serves as every effect I need, mostly dirt and limiter.
Then I have a real pedal board where it functions as a limiter/compressor always on, and tuner.

 

[HolmeBass]

I have an MS-60 and it is a great swiss army knife kind of pedal. I think the biggest weakness of it is that you have to consider where to put it in the signal chain for what it will cover. For an envelop it would need to go before your comp, but for octave or chorus you would need to place it after the comp.

It can cover modulation, reverb, and delay pretty well. I don't have a good basis for comparison, but I think it handles octave ok. So, one at the end of your chain would probably give you a lot of mileage. You might even be able to dial in a convincing envelope filter using a flanger sim after your compressor.

I run all of my EFs after my comp. Not a problem, and in fact, it makes them sound better by reducing the dynamic range of my playing, helping to stay in the EF’s sweet spot across more of my fingerboard.

I guess if you use the comp as a limiter, or for super squish, it might not work, but normal 2:1 through 4:1 bass compression won’t render your EFs unusable.

 

[HolmeBass]

The zoom MS-60B might work, or your Alembic might overdrive it. See if you can try before you buy.

 

[micguy]

Love my Ms60b! A very useful little pedal. A Boss sized footprint and can fill all the gaps of missing sounds, without having to take out a surfboard sized pedalboard. What's not to love???

I would own one of those if it didn't need half an amp of current - to me that's the thing not to love.

 

[BEADist]

I measured mine at 170 mA.

Edit: looked in my notes, says 145 mA.

 

[Joeynone]

could go with a line 6 HX Effects which is all the effects from the helix which imo are pretty top tier. This has no amp or cab sim

if you need amp/cab sim then try the hx stomp which is a really small foot print modeler with all the stuff the full sized helix has

 

[HolmeBass]

I would own one of those if it didn't need half an amp of current - to me that's the thing not to love.

Digital pedals are thirsty for sure! I didn’t recall the high current requirement for the MS-60B.

I do remember never really liking the sounds when used on a gig though. Just a bit dull and lifeless.

 

[BEADist]

Digital pedals are thirsty for sure! I didn’t recall the high current requirement for the MS-60B.

I do remember never really liking the sounds when used on a gig though. Just a bit dull and lifeless.

It does not consume half an ampere though. See my post #12... power consumption is 145 mA.

 

[HolmeBass]

It does not consume half an ampere though. See my post #12... power consumption is 145 mA.

Yeah that makes sense. Perhaps the previous poster was being hyperbolic. 145 mA is not a ton, like a strymon or eventide, but it is more than most of my pedals, and a lot more than my dirt pedals.

I will say this for it: it has always played nice on daisy-chained power off of a one spot. Lots of digital pedals don’t.

 

[Ethereal Thorn]

could go with a line 6 HX Effects which is all the effects from the helix which imo are pretty top tier. This has no amp or cab sim

if you need amp/cab sim then try the hx stomp which is a really small foot print modeler with all the stuff the full sized helix has

HX FX does have a impulse loader and a few preamps built in so it can work great as a standalone

 

[RickenCliff]

I would own one of those if it didn't need half an amp of current - to me that's the thing not to love.

That's a pretty easy workaround though, most power supplies have a high current output that can supply these guys just fine.

 

[micguy]

That's a pretty easy workaround though, most power supplies have a high current output that can supply these guys just fine.

None of my Voodoo Labs power supplies goes past 400 ma. My Truetone does have a couple 500 ma outputs, but they're needed for a couple of digital pedals - not as hungry as the pedal in question, but they need mored then the low current outputs are rated for. I'd need to go to a Strymon supply to get enough high current outputs, and even those are right at their limit (500ma) with this pedal.

 

[BEADist]

None of my Voodoo Labs power supplies goes past 400 ma. My Truetone does have a couple 500 ma outputs, but they're needed for a couple of digital pedals - not as hungry as the pedal in question, but they need mored then the low current outputs are rated for. I'd need to go to a Strymon supply to get enough high current outputs, and even those are right at their limit (500ma) with this pedal.

Lol, I am a delay on repeat here: I measured my Zoom MS60B, it consumes (with CPU maxed) 145 mA .