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Zoom B6

#1,561
DJ Bebop said:
Because some of the kids today like to stack an additional preamp in the mix for dirt and stuff. Something this grandpa doesn't do much of but understands that the youth and some into the various Mental genres of music do like to do.

Also some like how the preamp makes their bass sound before it hits that amp, like the Neve 1073 preamp.

:)
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Thanks for the explanation, I hadn’t thought of that. If I was building a new patch from scratch I would never have thought of adding a preamp before the amp type.

I’ve started reading through the Owners Manual but I’m yet to find anywhere regarding copying patches and saving the patch at a new location? I’m not sure whether it’s possible on the B6.
 
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#1,562
I'm really thinking about getting a B6 later in the year just for home use to mess around with. The new MS-60B+ is a good candidate since I would just be messing around at home, but I just don't like that small interface. Even though I wouldn't need the DI and maybe a few other things, I just think it would be easier to use.
 
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#1,563
Parzival said:
I'm really thinking about getting a B6 later in the year just for home use to mess around with. The new MS-60B+ is a good candidate since I would just be messing around at home, but I just don't like that small interface. Even though I wouldn't need the DI and maybe a few other things, I just think it would be easier to use.
Click to expand...

Is the B2-Four eliminated for similar reasons (small interface)?
 
#1,566
Parzival said:
I'm really thinking about getting a B6 later in the year just for home use to mess around with. The new MS-60B+ is a good candidate since I would just be messing around at home, but I just don't like that small interface. Even though I wouldn't need the DI and maybe a few other things, I just think it would be easier to use.
Click to expand...

I'm really liking the B6 so far, whilst the touch screen isn’t quite as responsive as say a cell phone it is still very easy to use and the whole thing is set out in quite an intuitive manner and in a very sensibly sized package, as such it is easy to mess around and experiment with. Whilst you say you don’t require the DI feature they do all sound pretty good to me and are worth trying.

Even though I don’t play or own an upright bass it’s nice that they’ve included a couple of banks of presets purely for this instrument, but there are some presets on there which are totally unusable (to me) but I guess they include these to show the B6’s capabilities.

I have no regrets in buying the B6 so far and am looking forward to trying it out this weekend in a live situation. I really thought it would take me some time to set it up to be good enough to gig with but after only a few hours I have at least 6 patches which I am fairly happy and confident with to use.
 
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#1,567
DJ Bebop said:
Because some of the kids today like to stack an additional preamp in the mix for dirt and stuff. Something this grandpa doesn't do much of but understands that the youth and some into the various Mental genres of music do like to do.

Also some like how the preamp makes their bass sound before it hits that amp, like the Neve 1073 preamp.

:)
Click to expand...
Might I add that locating something like the Neve 1073 LAST in your chain would be akin to sending your tone to the input channel strip of a vintage mixing console (post amp/cabinet simulations). The 1073 is known for its saturation and harmonic distortion which can "fatten" and/or "sweeten" the tone. Not to mention that many old studio recordings would plug the bass direct to the 1073 along with the 1176 compressor (or perhaps LA-2 or other optical comp). This is a great K.I.S.S. signal path for core tones.
 
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#1,568
I've had my B6 a while now and my approach has changed. I used to load up on pre's, amp, cab sims, etc simply because I could & they were there. Maybe my tastes have changed (or my ears), but I find that I don't use nearly as many amp sims (or pre's for that matter) these days as I used to with my B6.

After a while, I started stripping things back to square & re-listening with fresh ears. Patches that I used to think sounded good to me (with my typical overload of effects) actually sounded a bit congested & blurry in retrospect. These days, I often feel just a compressor sim and a cab sim goes a long way to getting a more open/natural/cutting tone rather than piling on everything and the kitchen sink approach that I used to take. If that isn't enough, then I'll toss in a pre or amp sim to see if gets things sounding better. This has allowed me to free up room for the more less-used things like chorus, reverbs, etc that normally I couldn't quite squeeze into the patch. All that to say that it's easy to over do it sometimes with the ease of access to such a wide range of sims in a unit like the B6.
 
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#1,569
jimfist said:
Might I add that locating something like the Neve 1073 LAST in your chain would be akin to sending your tone to the input channel strip of a vintage mixing console (post amp/cabinet simulations). The 1073 is known for its saturation and harmonic distortion which can "fatten" and/or "sweeten" the tone. Not to mention that many old studio recordings would plug the bass direct to the 1073 along with the 1176 compressor (or perhaps LA-2 or other optical comp). This is a great K.I.S.S. signal path for core tones.
Click to expand...

Very interesting comments thank you, I’ll definitely check it out in greater depth.
 
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#1,570
I had a spare 4gb SD card which I had in an old camcorder so I’ve just installed it into my B6 and re-formatted it, so it is ready to go.

I notice from the Owner’s Manual that the Looper files are created in .wav format, so I assume I could save say a backing track or song to the SD card on my laptop and use it on the B6?
 
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#1,571
Baker69 said:
I notice from the Owner’s Manual that the Looper files are created in .wav format, so I assume I could save say a backing track or song to the SD card on my laptop and use it on the B6?
Click to expand...
Sure. Just stick to a 48k bit recording and you should be fine. I have a few drum tracks on mine because my drummer has some health issues and is sometimes unable to play certain tracks during rehearsals.

The only potential downside is that your track will be played through your amp (or your line to FoH) and will not automatically be affected by any FoH effects or EQ settings the rest of your vocalists get. Also, pay attention to the volume of the recording. You can't set separate volume levels for the looper and the rest of the B6, so any extra volume (or cut) for the backing track will have to come from a volume boost or cut of the recording itself.
 
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#1,572
GotGroove said:
Sure. Just stick to a 48k bit recording and you should be fine. I have a few drum tracks on mine because my drummer has some health issues and is sometimes unable to play certain tracks during rehearsals.

The only potential downside is that your track will be played through your amp (or your line to FoH) and will not automatically be affected by any FoH effects or EQ settings the rest of your vocalists get. Also, pay attention to the volume of the recording. You can't set separate volume levels for the looper and the rest of the B6, so any extra volume (or cut) for the backing track will have to come from a volume boost or cut of the recording itself.
Click to expand...

There is a looper volume control shown on Page 46 of the Owner’s Manual?
 
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#1,575
Last night was my first gig using the B6, everything went fairly well and the sound guy didn’t have to do much tweaking and I didn’t have to alter any volumes on the B6. It was a very small stage and the drummer was far too loud, he plays fairly heavily on his hi-hat and all the mics were picking this up and with the reverb etc on the P.A. it sort of went into a distortion, I kept thinking it was the B6 as I was playing the SVT Drive patch but after a while I managed to establish it wasn’t the bass. All drums were off on my IEM mix and the drums were still too loud!

I think I need to spend a bit of time tweaking the EQ on the patches I’ve modded, unfortunately it’s going to be a bit hit and miss and alter them on the fly as we don’t use IEM’s at rehearsals.

Overall very pleased as a first gig with it though.
 
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#1,576
Baker69 said:
I think I need to spend a bit of time tweaking the EQ on the patches I’ve modded, unfortunately it’s going to be a bit hit and miss and alter them on the fly as we don’t use IEM’s at rehearsals.
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It always is. Best you can do is set the EQ during rehearsals on a good volume. Every other room you play in will sound differently. The soundcheck is exactly meant to make those little changes before a show. And even then it's not always perfect. You soundcheck in an empty room after all, and that will not be the case once the show starts. But FoH usually takes care of that difference.

What I personally do, and we each have our own way of doing it I think, is to throw all my patches into the patch once they are properly dialled in at rehearsals. Once the show's over and my patches have changed for the room I've played in, I restore the old ones to the B6 and be ready for the next rehearsals without having to remember or write down what I changed during the last soundcheck.
 
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#1,577
Hey all:

Was wondering if anyone was doing what I'm doing recently with my B6. Issue - I do like the choices for Amps/Cabs, but there are some that I want that Zoom doesn't offer (and seems to be... lagging (being polite) about updates and additions).. especially my love for the Alembic F2B preamp (which I had on an older Pod floorboard). Also a little annoyed of how much processing power IR's take.

So... enter the IK Multimedia Tonex pedal, run through the send/return. I get my Alembic, and SO much more... and save processing power for other choices. LOVING IT!

Anyone doing the same?
 
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#1,578
trekster0721 said:
Hey all:

Was wondering if anyone was doing what I'm doing recently with my B6. Issue - I do like the choices for Amps/Cabs, but there are some that I want that Zoom doesn't offer (and seems to be... lagging (being polite) about updates and additions).. especially my love for the Alembic F2B preamp (which I had on an older Pod floorboard). Also a little annoyed of how much processing power IR's take.

So... enter the IK Multimedia Tonex pedal, run through the send/return. I get my Alembic, and SO much more... and save processing power for other choices. LOVING IT!

Anyone doing the same?
Click to expand...

Interested! How are you setting it up exactly please?
 
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#1,580
AlexMG said:
Interested! How are you setting it up exactly please?
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Just setting up a patch with the Send/Return function turned on. I like the compressors and noise gate on the B6, so I use those instead of the built-in Gate and Comp on the ToneX. Still playing around with that, however. There is vast variety of presets and models that people have uploaded to the ToneX library - I can even run a guitar patch for when I want to switch for a song or two, and use the same board.

--J
 
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