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Zoom B3 as sound card - downsides?

Discussion in 'Effects [BG]' started by zakwolf, Dec 25, 2014.

  1. Dec 25, 2014 #1
    zakwolf

    zakwolf

    Aug 3, 2013
    Hello folks! Got a Zoom B3 for Christmas, and while I was messing around with the patches and Cubase a thought crossed my mind: I could use it as a soundcard! The Zoom ASIO driver sends both the PC's and the bass's audio signal to the B3's output jack, so I plugged it into my sweet ol' hifi amplifier (good stuff from 1985) and boom! Works like a charm. Now, however, I have a few questions:
    1) Can I keep the B3 on for like 3-4 hrs a day without it being damaged?
    2) Can I connect the left/phones audio output jack to my hifi amplifier's aux input (it's a Sharp SM-2323) without damaging the amplifier or the B3?
    Thanks everyone and merry xmas!! :D
     
  2. Dec 28, 2014 #2
    truebenjaman

    truebenjaman

    Aug 23, 2011
    Bonn, Germany
    I'm no expert, but I too run my B3 as practice rig with my PC. Although I run its output into a seperate soundcard it's on whenever my PC is, so if 1 is a problem both you and I are affected. As to 2, I can't see how plugging the Be into an AUX in could be damaging in any way...
     
  3. Dec 28, 2014 #3
    Jazz Ad

    Jazz Ad Mi la ré sol

    Mar 16, 2002
    Langueux, Brittany, France
    It is a soundcard, so you can use it as one all you want.
     
  4. Dec 13, 2015 #4
    utku

    utku

    Nov 11, 2015
    which program i should to use ?
     
  5. Feb 19, 2016 #5
    Murdoc_420

    Murdoc_420

    Jan 20, 2016
    Colorado
    Just to clear bad info.

    Using a B3 like this does NOT make it a soundcard. You are simply running sound out of your computers soundcard, through the Zoom B3, then into speakers. You can remove the B3 and get the same signal minus any effects (like EQ) that the zoom B3 adds to the chain.

    You are simply running a signal through the B3 and adding effects if you so choose.

    I can't see it doing any damage, I just don't see what the point is (other than adding fx). You have EQ on your computers sound card through windows sound controls, so it's not like you are even getting a better sound.

    IF it sounds better it's because your hi def speakers sound better than your computer speakers. But you already have speaker jacks for that anyway. And most likely you are running out of your computer jack (1/8 inch) into a 1/4 adaptor to go into the B3?
     
  6. Feb 19, 2016 #6
    dannybuoy

    dannybuoy

    Aug 3, 2005
    Earth
    I think you're wrong here, when using the B3 as a USB audio device, it becomes the sound card. Audio travels to and from the B3 digitally over USB which then converts it to/from analog - which is what a sound card does.

    You could disable all the other sound cards, internal and external, in the device manager so that just the B3 was left, and it should still work, handling all audio tasks of the system.
     
    DeaconBlues09 and Teijo K. like this.
  7. Feb 22, 2016 #7
    Teijo K.

    Teijo K. Commercial User

    Sep 8, 2014
    Jyväskylä, Finland
    Endorsing Artist: CCP
    After all this talk about it, in this thread and on that other one, I set up my B3 as a sound card in my laptop. As simple setup as it can be, so I've got a USB from computer to B3, and headphones in the B3 headphones out. I emptied my laptop from all the extra stuff after I set up a separate computer in the studio, so there is no DAW in it at all. But I can listen music from youtube and jam along to that, and I think thats what the B3 was meant to be used anyway. Not as a studio sound card, just for tiny bedroom studios and jamming at home.