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Zoom MS-60B announced... at last
- Thread starter ga_edwards
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Our band is covering Drift away. We're doing it closer to Dobie Gray than Uncle Kracker, but I'd still like to try a funky fretless tone at next practice Wednesday. I've never owned a fretless and played one only once for 10 minutes, so I know donut about them.
Anybody have good Defret settings ? Even thinking about adding a touch of octave, just to go a little Pino-ish on it.
Anybody have good Defret settings ? Even thinking about adding a touch of octave, just to go a little Pino-ish on it.
I did some more trouble shooting, and the noise is definitely coming from the 60B. I yanked the power cable out of it and it all went away.
I have the 60B in the effects loop of a VT Bass deluxe, and the noise is there regardless of whether the FX loop is on or off, in actual fact, it can be worse with the fx loop turned off.
It isn't terrible - if I pull down the 10k fader on my Boss GEB-7 eq it is almost impossible to hear. The problem on the weekend was that we were recording the show. I use the GEB-7 in between the 1/4 output on the Vt Bass and my power amp to tweek my on stage tone, the xlr out goes to the desk and this is uneffected by any eqing I do.
It isn't an issue for live, which is 99.9% of what I use this pedal for. I have not had any complaints from sound engineers at live shows.
I have a power supply that supposedly has isolated outputs, but I can't get it on my board. I have a new tuner coming which is a bit smaller in order to give me the room to get it on. Hopefully that solves the problem.
I have the 60B in the effects loop of a VT Bass deluxe, and the noise is there regardless of whether the FX loop is on or off, in actual fact, it can be worse with the fx loop turned off.
It isn't terrible - if I pull down the 10k fader on my Boss GEB-7 eq it is almost impossible to hear. The problem on the weekend was that we were recording the show. I use the GEB-7 in between the 1/4 output on the Vt Bass and my power amp to tweek my on stage tone, the xlr out goes to the desk and this is uneffected by any eqing I do.
It isn't an issue for live, which is 99.9% of what I use this pedal for. I have not had any complaints from sound engineers at live shows.
I have a power supply that supposedly has isolated outputs, but I can't get it on my board. I have a new tuner coming which is a bit smaller in order to give me the room to get it on. Hopefully that solves the problem.
Yes, it's called ZNR & it's supposed to be a noise gate, reduces unwanted noise in pauses where you aren't playing. I haven't noticed any noise with my Jazz bass with single coils with the MS-60B, I do adjust all patches for unity gain however. Out of the gate all amps/effects are preset hot.
You mentioned that you tried different power supplies, but have you tried methodically swapping out signal cables? Problems with short patchcords are a very common issue on pedalboards.
Another quick, cheap diagnostic shortcut: Put a fresh pair of AA's in the pedal, and run it with no connection to an external power supply.
If the noise goes away, then it's an interaction with your power supplies or power cabling.
If not, you might want to try getting a warranty exchange....
I was going to suggest the battery option as well. Also sounds like could be a ground loop issue. I use an old sans amp acoustic pre in my home studio connected via XLR so it can use phantom power. I have noticed if I use the USB power option with the ms60b in this config I get hi pitched noise. If I turn off the phantom to the sans amp it helps some but if I go to battery power it goes away completely. Also, have you tried taking it out of VT Bass effects loop? Not familiar with that design and am wondering if the levels in/out in an effects loop config might be another factor.
I'll try the battery test after work tonight. If that doesn't work I'll look at the leads. The leads i made up especially for it, and I'm pretty confident,, but I'll check it anyway.
Thanks for the help everyone. I'll report back when I've tried stuff out.
scotch
It's not rocket science!
- Nov 12, 2006
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Tried batteries in mine. Same noise. Oh well,... batteries weren't really a viable option for me anyway - particularly AA's.
I think it is likely to be Ann effect of daisy chaining power. It changes when i turn the fx loop on and off. Also,i don't think i get the noise when i use the the 60B by itself. We will see.
scotch
It's not rocket science!
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Well, it wasn't daisy chained on battery power. I can see daisy chaining creating more noise though!
Right. I went thru all my effects I use in conjunction with the VT Bass deluxe and put the ZNR in, and set the threshold up appropriately for the effect in use. everything seems much better. The noise (sounds like high pitch digital interference) was worse with the effects loop off. Yesterday when I was unplugging and plugging the 60B back in I could hear the interference disappear and come back when the pedal powered up. I'm not noticing a change in noise with the ZNR added in. How that effects noise with the effects loop turned off I'm not quite sure - but it has.
I took the pedal off my board and used it stand alone, it is quieter generally than in the effects loop. I cant help but think the issue is a combination of a few things - Power, Daisy chaining, not playing nicely with the VTB effects loop.
I think I am going to get one of the heavy, old school power supplies to try also. Not a switching D class one. I have generally found these to be quieter. I am going to try the battery option, but realistically, this is not practical when gigging twice a week, and using a board where eveything else is running from a power supply.
I took the pedal off my board and used it stand alone, it is quieter generally than in the effects loop. I cant help but think the issue is a combination of a few things - Power, Daisy chaining, not playing nicely with the VTB effects loop.
I think I am going to get one of the heavy, old school power supplies to try also. Not a switching D class one. I have generally found these to be quieter. I am going to try the battery option, but realistically, this is not practical when gigging twice a week, and using a board where eveything else is running from a power supply.
Am starting to think that it's not the power supply used with the MS60B but that there is something about the design itself that makes it more susceptible to certain types of noise than other pedals. Perhaps because it is a digital modeling pedal as opposed to an analog pedal? Or maybe because Zoom assumed an all-in-one pedal would be largely for standalone use rather than part of pedal board? I'm just speculating of course but it would seem that some trade offs would have to be made given the price point.
FWIW, I used mine this past Sat night for a wedding gig on my pedal board for the first time. Polytune Mini -> Zoom MB60B -> MXR Octave Deluxe -> MXR Envelope Filter -> MXR Bass Compressor -> Aguilar Tonehammer -> GK MB800 (amp section) -> Avatar TB153. Aguilar has it's own 18V supply and Fulltone for everything else. I didn't have any noise problems when I tested at home and on the gig. To be fair, gig was in a large, live room with a 7 piece band but still nothing strange.
FWIW, I used mine this past Sat night for a wedding gig on my pedal board for the first time. Polytune Mini -> Zoom MB60B -> MXR Octave Deluxe -> MXR Envelope Filter -> MXR Bass Compressor -> Aguilar Tonehammer -> GK MB800 (amp section) -> Avatar TB153. Aguilar has it's own 18V supply and Fulltone for everything else. I didn't have any noise problems when I tested at home and on the gig. To be fair, gig was in a large, live room with a 7 piece band but still nothing strange.
The only noise issue I ever had with mine was with the chorus on it. That thing is noisy on mine. Other than that I bumped all the gain stages down on every patch and it's very quiet for me. As stated, this pedal comes hot off the presses!
Agree pedal is dead quiet for the most part and yes all the patches are hot. What people are experiencing is not general noise (like white noise or static) but a particular kind of high frequency noise in certain configurations where there are multiple pedals used and external power supplies. I can get the same noise if I use mini-USB power in conjunction with my SansAmp Acoustic DI when phantom powered.
scotch
It's not rocket science!
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No, I can hear the noise when simply using bass > MS60b > amp using batteries. It's very much a high-frequency whine present regardless of peripheral setup.
I just tried it again through my protools rig. Just a P-Bass into the Zoom into the interface. Dead quiet without the pedal in the chain (just bass to interface) & then high pitched whine with the pedal in line. Doesn't matter if it's "bypassed" or not.
Again, not noticeable in a gig context or with a tweeterless config - but very obvious when in the studio.
That's interesting. After reading you post, I just tried the same thing. PBass -> Zoom -> RME Fireface 800 instrument input. I tried it with both my One Spot and just using batteries. Not hearing any high pitched whine, even at much louder than normal volumes. There's a little more noise on some of the patches but not high pitched noise.
scotch
It's not rocket science!
- Nov 12, 2006
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If you are hearing noise straight into an amp or DAW with nothing else plugged in sounds like it might be. Would be good to get another one to compare.
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