New: Zoom B3n Multi-Effects

[-Asdfgh-]

Yes, I think it would need an additional screen similar to the larger G5n to make this functionality viable.



I think you're absolutely right. I've been trying to convince myself for months that I don't need a Helix due to GAS tokens, but it the first device that does everything I've been clamouring after for years in one box.

I was waiting and hoping for a B5n before finally getting a B3n

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Not at all, I fully understood your description. I just find it limiting that If I need to switch more than one effect in and out during a song they essentially need to be next to each other in the signal path (or next but one). I'd prefer if the effect on/off stomp buttons were user assignable to any effect in the signal chain.

The solution is multiple patches, it would seem.

 

[Johno Dunn]

I was waiting and hoping for a B5n before finally getting a B3n

We’ve all been waiting for years! Probably not going to happen.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

We’ve all been waiting for years! Probably not going to happen.

Sadly, probably not. I wish they'd just do a X3n that you can then buy a $10 additional token at purchase to make it a G5n or B5n as desired, and an additional token to swap it later. Even if someone hacked it to avoid the fee, it wouldn't be a huge loss. I imagine it could be done now on a G5n with a firmware change (not hacking it, but Zoom offering the option to turn it into a B5n).

 

[hintz]

Maybe a dumb question but can the B3n do a synth bass tone similar to "Bad Mama Jamma"? I ask because I've seen the older B3 do this....

Anyways this thing looks like so much fun!!! I've been gassing after this for awhile despite a lack of funds, I am gonna get one in a few months as I've got a good feeling about it not too mention the price!!

 

[hintz]

I've owned a few multi's in the past, the last and best has been the Tech21 bass fly rig but a few of the features were unusable for any setting(the octaver and comp).

I hope this will do what I want?! The demos have impressed me....I still have a regular pedalboard but even in its current downsized form it still seems "clunky" and more than I wanna lug around.

Anyways cheers!!

 

[-Asdfgh-]

B3n has arrived and I've given it an initial going over. I haven't checked to see if the amp models actually take up two slots, but they take up two slots in the interface as they have lots of options, and it needs that to assign enough knobs to the parameters. That seems to mean you are a bit limited on being able to turn on/off an amp sim and more than one other effect in stomp mode. I've never really much used stomp mode on an FX unit apart from the old Boss ME6B, which had a very limited number of effects and fixed ordering, although arguably a better arrangement for live playing other than that.

I'll see how the control functionality of the B3n works as compared to the Zoom B9 which still seems to be the flagship for control from Zoom. Again a B5n would have been great.

 

[The Rage]

Maybe a dumb question but can the B3n do a synth bass tone similar to "Bad Mama Jamma"? I ask because I've seen the older B3 do this....

Don't know about this prticular one but despite reading that B3n synth isn't good, I've succeeded with creating patches for some synthy sounds for skunk anasie and black sabbath (who are you) cover. I think if you spent some time tweaking knobs you can at least be in the ballpark...
Just an advice. I've found that with B3n lots of tones can be created, but you must forget the "logical" order of pedals, you know, compression before dirt, dirt before chorus ecc... Forget that and be creative

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Don't know about this prticular one but despite reading that B3n synth isn't good, I've succeeded with creating patches for some synthy sounds for skunk anasie and black sabbath (who are you) cover. I think if you spent some time tweaking knobs you can at least be in the ballpark...
Just an advice. I've found that with B3n lots of tones can be created, but you must forget the "logical" order of pedals, you know, compression before dirt, dirt before chorus ecc... Forget that and be creative

I've had the B3n only 24 hours, but it's pretty similar to the B1on, and it's perfectly possible to get reasonable synth tones from that. What is trickier is really punch sounds. Triggered PWM sounds have rarely been good. The Behringer Bass V-Amp is still one of the leading options, and I need to decide if I am going to now sell one or both of my V-amps (having the space back would be good, and an extra £30). The Pod XT can go, though, as it doesn't really offer much over the B1on/B3n, apart from the potential for MIDI control as part of an automated setup for other effects on other instruments.

Some of the explicit synth sounds are a start, but they are sometimes a bit raspy, so you need to trim them with EQ, and some chorus afterwards helps. Using the traditional grouping of compression, octave, overdrive, filter and modulation works well, and you can be flexible with ordering. I managed to get some pretty good sounds even out of the B2 or B9, and you have much less flexibility about combinations of octave, filter, and ordering there. (E.g. sometimes you don't have an octave left, so have to use pitch shift, but then lose the option of chorus).

 

[hintz]

Don't know about this prticular one but despite reading that B3n synth isn't good, I've succeeded with creating patches for some synthy sounds for skunk anasie and black sabbath (who are you) cover. I think if you spent some time tweaking knobs you can at least be in the ballpark...
Just an advice. I've found that with B3n lots of tones can be created, but you must forget the "logical" order of pedals, you know, compression before dirt, dirt before chorus ecc... Forget that and be creative

I've had the B3n only 24 hours, but it's pretty similar to the B1on, and it's perfectly possible to get reasonable synth tones from that. What is trickier is really punch sounds. Triggered PWM sounds have rarely been good. The Behringer Bass V-Amp is still one of the leading options, and I need to decide if I am going to now sell one or both of my V-amps (having the space back would be good, and an extra £30). The Pod XT can go, though, as it doesn't really offer much over the B1on/B3n, apart from the potential for MIDI control as part of an automated setup for other effects on other instruments.

Some of the explicit synth sounds are a start, but they are sometimes a bit raspy, so you need to trim them with EQ, and some chorus afterwards helps. Using the traditional grouping of compression, octave, overdrive, filter and modulation works well, and you can be flexible with ordering. I managed to get some pretty good sounds even out of the B2 or B9, and you have much less flexibility about combinations of octave, filter, and ordering there. (E.g. sometimes you don't have an octave left, so have to use pitch shift, but then lose the option of chorus).

Thanks both of you. In the ballpark is good enough for me, I will get this in a few months no doubt! It looks like a blast

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Thanks both of you. In the ballpark is good enough for me, I will get this in a few months no doubt! It looks like a blast

If you are looking for a deep, smooth, Moog sound with a punchy attack, you'll probably need to find a Korg G5, or get a GK3B pickup, a convertor to MIDI and trigger an actual synth, or learn to play keys. There are some punchier sounds in the Bass V-amp than you'll find in the B3n, but that unit itself will give you compression, plus limited overdrive or wah, plus synth, but nothing else, although some of those synth sounds do have octave down built in. It does have quite a few synth voices, but is otherwise pretty limited. YMMV - the Behringer might be sufficient. Obviously the Korg G5 is even more limited as it only makes bleepy noises.

 

[Johno Dunn]

Maybe a dumb question but can the B3n do a synth bass tone similar to "Bad Mama Jamma"? I ask because I've seen the older B3 do this....

Anyways this thing looks like so much fun!!! I've been gassing after this for awhile despite a lack of funds, I am gonna get one in a few months as I've got a good feeling about it not too mention the price!!

I got pretty close last night just messing around. I’ll try and post results tonight.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Looking at one of the other threads I realise I had discounted the G5n as an alternative a while back due to it lacking effective synth bass effects.

 

[hintz]

I got pretty close last night just messing around. I’ll try and post results tonight.

Please do!!

 

[hintz]

If you are looking for a deep, smooth, Moog sound with a punchy attack, you'll probably need to find a Korg G5, or get a GK3B pickup, a convertor to MIDI and trigger an actual synth, or learn to play keys. There are some punchier sounds in the Bass V-amp than you'll find in the B3n, but that unit itself will give you compression, plus limited overdrive or wah, plus synth, but nothing else, although some of those synth sounds do have octave down built in. It does have quite a few synth voices, but is otherwise pretty limited. YMMV - the Behringer might be sufficient. Obviously the Korg G5 is even more limited as it only makes bleepy noises.

I'll have to look at those 2( the korg and behringer) as I know nothing of either so thank you.

I ask about the synth thing because a coworker of mine had a different Zoom unit(it was a cheesy red box) that had an awesome synth bass sound. I assume this is better

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I'll have to look at those 2( the korg and behringer) as I know nothing of either so thank you.

I ask about the synth thing because a coworker of mine had a different Zoom unit(it was a cheesy red box) that had an awesome synth bass sound. I assume this is better

The Korg G5 is very old. I had one 20 years ago. Very hard and expensive to find. There are videos on your usual online video review outlets on it, and the V-amp. You can still get a good array of synth sounds from the B1on, B3n, etc. If you check out something like Call Me Ruin (new Gary Numan track), then the synth bass sound type from that is very doable. I am having to bass this off my own record collection, but something like Absolute by Scritti Politti is just about doable on the B3n, but you have to work for it, whereas on the Bass V-amp it's pretty easy. For a Yamaha DX7 bass sound, then in theory the PWM sounds on the Zoom B2 or B9 should be perfect, but the tracking is so terrible it's unplayable, and for pedals only the Korg will get you anywhere close, from memory, but only one of the effects types, which might well just be a filter (it's been a while since I had a G5), but you'd still be better off with a keyboard, so there are sounds on early Nine Inch Nails that would be hard to obtain. For the sub-bass sound a Boss OC2 or clone with the direct sound turned off is your best hope, as even the octaver on the B3n doesn't do the job there.

Edit: I gave my OC2 away to a friend as I wasn't using it much, but I got a clone again in the end. Maybe I should try harder to get an OC2 sound from the Zooms, but they are reasonable octavers, but don't have that OC2 synthiness. In a sense, the beauty of the OC2 is that it's not actually that good an octaver.

 

[Oly Spart]

Maybe a dumb question but can the B3n do a synth bass tone similar to "Bad Mama Jamma"? I ask because I've seen the older B3 do this....

Anyways this thing looks like so much fun!!! I've been gassing after this for awhile despite a lack of funds, I am gonna get one in a few months as I've got a good feeling about it not too mention the price!!

It's difficult to achieve such defined synth sounds, because there is no envelope control and there is only one oscillator, while in Bad Mama Jamma's sound the synth is using 2 oscillators , but you can come close.

I've uploaded one at Tonlib that you could use as starting point.
This is the link: WSyn 1

I've combined an autowah to achieve a more interesting sound.

 

[Rollin Thunder]

Anybody had trouble with sound quality vareing on their unit. mine seems fine have everything set up the way i like it, same bass same amp, and sometimes it sounds thin and a bit fizzy especilly when using blueberry or other distortion type sims. firmware up to date but thought it just may be my ears, but pretty sure it is doing this.

thought i might try a full factory reset to see if that makes any difference, worried that may loose my own presets, but figured they should be reloaded once i connect to tone lab. any thoughts any body experienced similar.

 

[StuntGibbon]

I’d love if they added a freeze/drone style pedal to the unit. I find the looper a little cumbersome to do that with.

 

[kasbrey]

I’d love if they added a freeze/drone style pedal to the unit. I find the looper a little cumbersome to do that with.

The Loop Roll effect in [sfx] does this.