Zoom MS-60B announced... at last

[Shardik]

Have you tried it in different locations (rooms or buildings)?

In my home, I have experienced that floor heating, light fixtures, other audio equipment, fans etc. all can act as noise sources for equipment in the guitar to amp signal chain. This is a general observation, though. My MS60B does not have these problems.

 

[Jeremy Morgan]

Have you tried it in different locations (rooms or buildings)?

In my home, I have experienced that floor heating, light fixtures, other audio equipment, fans etc. all can act as noise sources for equipment in the guitar to amp signal chain. This is a general observation, though. My MS60B does not have these problems.

Yes, it's the same in different rooms unfortunately...

My unit has quite a low serial number (1039). I wonder if the problem could be related to an early batch, or a particular batch?

If anyone else who has the problem could post their serial number here, maybe we could see if there is a link?

 

[scotch]

Ser# 001399

Still that same noise. As impressive as the MS60b is for the money, I'm not sure it's ready for "prime time" as it were. The noise is not bad, but distracting for studio use & the preset management system is cumbersome for live use.

I'm keeping it (for 100 bucks there's nothing that beats it), but it's not earning a permanent spot on my board.

I'm not sure having it 'serviced' is going to be worth it. Maybe a firmware update would kill the noise? Probably a cheap component though & that's gonna cost more than the unit is worth to diagnose and replace!

 

[Shardik]

Personally, I am using it for band practice and plan to use it at gigs. At home I use a more analog board because I find it easier to experiment with. There are a couple of FX in the MS60B I don't think is quite as good as they could be (especially the Phaser I think is noisy on its own), but all in all I get by pretty well with the MS60B.

 

[Pimmsley]

My serial# is 000850 and I haven't noticed any digital debris coming through my rig (which i sometimes run HI-FI) but I'm too scared to plug it into my protools rig and Beyer dynamics now...
Alas, the nit-picker in me will force me to check it out and report back, hoping it's an oddity but I fear you guys just have high standards and I will soon be disappointed too

I use my 60B as an always on comp, and would be devastated to find it has digital noise...

 

[Jeremy Morgan]

My serial# is 000850 and I haven't noticed any digital debris coming through my rig (which i sometimes run HI-FI) but I'm too scared to plug it into my protools rig and Beyer dynamics now...
Alas, the nit-picker in me will force me to check it out and report back, hoping it's an oddity but I fear you guys just have high standards and I will soon be disappointed too

I use my 60B as an always on comp, and would be devastated to find it has digital noise...

I doubt you'd notice it with a tweeter-less cab, but it should show up if it is there through your Hi-Fi rig or Pro Tools - let us know...

 

[waveman]

Humm, I have run mine through my home PA, direct through the board, and don't notice any of that "digital debris". I also use headphones quite a bit with this for practice...no issues.

 

[Pimmsley]

I doubt you'd notice it with a tweeter-less cab, but it should show up if it is there through your Hi-Fi rig or Pro Tools - let us know...

Sorry for the confusion, I meant that I run my bass rig with a 'HI-FI' sound ie extended range... I will be recording later today, so I will check it out and report.

 

[GLEN18INCHSPICA]

I just recorded a scratch vocal idea with the MS-60B & I had a good reverb sound with the Avalon in a patch, sounded good besides my vocal ability. I did hear a scratchy kind of noise at one point early on in the track, not sure if it was this digital debris some have spoke of. I wasn't holding the mike or moving anything, I'll have to investigate next time I record & see if it shows up again.

 

[Dazonbass]

Is it time for part II?

 

[GLEN18INCHSPICA]

I just tested the MS-60b in front of my new to me VT Bass DI. I set a patch with the 160 comp for lite compression & the para eq with a slight boost at 400hz. I liked what it did & having a tuner that mutes the signal is handy as well. I think these 2 pedal will be all that I need for the foreseeable future.

 

[Jeremy Morgan]

To follow up on my earlier posts, I did a little test this evening. Here's a link to a short clip of the continuous background high-pitched whine I am getting on my unit on some patches. Other TB'ers have described a similar issue with their units:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

This is the 'Mark+' preset recorded straight from the MS60-B to PC through my Focusrite Saffire. In the input of the Zoom was a shorted jack plug.

I ran an FFT on the waveform. You can see there is a spike at about 5.5kHz and another harmonic at 11kHz. I'd say these correspond well to the pitch I am hearing.

I'm hoping that either I have a faulty unit, or it's something that Zoom can fix in a firmware update.

 

[GLEN18INCHSPICA]

I didn't hear a continuous noise more like a bad patch cable or dirty pot noise. I haven't experienced any noise with headphones, cabs or monitors similar to what you're describing.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

I'm using a G-K MB800 into an AudioKinesis cab with a huge radial horn.

Between that big ol' tweeter, the baked-in treble response of the G-K EQ at noon, the stupendous amount of gain available from a 1,000+ watt amp, noisy fluorescents in my home office, an iPhone and an iPad running QMix and OnSong and broadcasting LTE, WiFi and Bluetooth signals, plus a 900MHz digital wireless, I've got a pretty good noise lab.

I haven't gotten a peep out of my MS-60B, running the 160 Comp or the octave effects through my cab or the amp's headphone output. Can't speak to the amp modelling or other effects combinations so much, as I don't run a lot of patches.

I thinking that guys experiencing noise problems probably picked up a defective unit. That's what the warranty is for!

 

[SuperFunkyPete]

I'm using a G-K MB800 into an AudioKinesis cab with a huge radial horn.

Between that big ol' tweeter, the baked-in treble response of the G-K EQ at noon, the stupendous amount of gain available from a 1,000+ watt amp, noisy fluorescents in my home office, an iPhone and an iPad running QMix and OnSong and broadcasting LTE, WiFi and Bluetooth signals, plus a 900MHz digital wireless, I've got a pretty good noise lab.

I haven't gotten a peep out of my MS-60B, running the 160 Comp or the octave effects through my cab or the amp's headphone output. Can't speak to the amp modelling or other effects combinations so much, as I don't run a lot of patches.

I thinking that guys experiencing noise problems probably picked up a defective unit. That's what the warranty is for!

+1 to all. I'm looking forward trying out the B3 now!

 

[waveman]

Gig #3 report

I had an issue with one of the FX on my main pedal board, so I whipped this thing back out again, and it performed great!

I did go back through my effects and tweaked the levels using headphones and watching the input meter on my mixer, and tested that against some of the songs I practice with. I wound up adding an amp simulator at the end of each chain to get a better handle on EQ an Volume levels. I also reworked the patch order so that I could get to a desirable patch within 1 or 2 steps.

Anyway, loving it even more.

 

[GLEN18INCHSPICA]

I use the noise reduction effect set to guitar in as a volume control if needed in front of any given patch without amp simulation, it doesn't effect the tone & prevents any noise issues not that I've found the MS-60b to be noisy.

 

[Bassmike62]

Hmmmm.... I've been getting a high-pitched squeal on a couple of patches (chorus and auto-wah), like something not well grounded, according to one of the guitards I play with. Going to have to take check this out this week-end, because I've had it for a couple of months and have had no problem up until now. No change in my pedalboard either.

Anybody have a clue ?

 

[Jeremy Morgan]

Update: I've tried another MS60-B now and it has the identical levels of high-pitched whine as my first unit.

After a bit more investigation, surprisingly it turns out that the noise is noticeably worse (on both units) when running on (fresh) batteries than when running on USB or 9V power.

This would be unusual for any standard Boss type pedal where the battery would be a 9V type and used to power the circuitry directly - normally most hum/noise problem are caused by external power supplies/earth loops etc.

However, as the MS60-B only uses two AA batteries, to provide the necessary headroom it is almost certain that some kind of switch-mode power supply is being used to increase the supply rail voltage from the nominal 3V provided by the batteries.

I suspect that this switch-mode PSU is the culprit; either the switching noise being generated by the power supply is not being filtered adequately and is appearing on the supply rails, or it is being radiated by the PSU and picked up by the analogue circuitry. In either case it is unlikely a firmware update would help much.

So the best solution for lowest noise appears to be running off an external PSU (either USB or 9V).

For a battery powered solution, I've found that using one of those small mobile phone rechargeable USB battery packs plugged in to the USB port gives the same (lower) noise level as a mains USB PSU.

 

[Shardik]

That sounds like a reasonable explanation. I ordered an original Zoom PSU (wall wart type) for my MS60B, and haven't really tested it with batteries (if I understand it right, the MS60B will drain your batteries pretty quickly, an experience I have also had with a Line 6 Pocket Pod, and I find the constant battery replacement a real inconvenience).