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Zoom MS-60B announced... at last
- Thread starter ga_edwards
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Khutch,
Thanks for the response. I'm your typical average user. I purpose the Ms-60b for playing shows and doing some home demo recordings for an originals project. Everything I've asked the -60b to do it has done very well. I feel I have gotten full value, and more, out of a $99 multi effect. Your posts were interesting because it made me reflect on the engineering involved in making something like this. I'm happy to be the average "plug and go" guy and leave the heavy lifting to others.
In spite of being an engineer I am an average user too. Never used a pedal before. Although I have a Pandora mini I have played with it needed to be in a rugged stompbox format before I would actually use it. Enter the MS60B! Of course Pandora is now available in a stomp box format too but I think the MS60B is better, it has more adjustments. I was just trying to feed some people here with complaints about noise issues more data. Otherwise I would never have seen a need to make spectrum plots of my MS60B. It does almost everything I want (could always use a few more effects to choose from) and it sounds great.
I'm sorry that I didn't read the whole thread before posting.
Would like your opinion on whether this would be a match for me:
- Looking for simplicity - not interested in tweaking patches; hoping out of box patches are good.
- Don't need much - would just want to bond with a coupla amp simulations, a good compressor, and the tuner.
- I have the B2. I always thought it was good, and I always thought the tuner was very good.
Would this be a step up for me? Compression good in this box?
Would like your opinion on whether this would be a match for me:
- Looking for simplicity - not interested in tweaking patches; hoping out of box patches are good.
- Don't need much - would just want to bond with a coupla amp simulations, a good compressor, and the tuner.
- I have the B2. I always thought it was good, and I always thought the tuner was very good.
Would this be a step up for me? Compression good in this box?
About half the patches are good out of the box IMO. The other half needs to be tweaked because the gain on them varies, so you've got uneven volume when you're flying through the patches.
Most amp and preamp sims are good, as well as the comps. The DB160 is a favorite.
I've never owned the B2, so I can't really compare. From what I read here, the B3 is a step up the B2. The 60B is simply a single stompbox holding a $**t load of possibilities. I've seen a few boards around here sporting the B3 (or other multis) and the MS60B.
So I just got back from Sam Ash in Phoenix for a test run of the ms-60b. I fully expected to leave with it, in hopes of putting together a quick/easy rig for our smaller gigs.
The one unit they had on hand had a very pronounced high-frequency tone. Not hiss, but an audible note... Audible to me, at least. the grey-haired guy behind the counter couldn't even hear it. I could hear it well enough to sing the pitch (octaves lower). It seemed most pronounced on the SANS UP preset.
I was on battery power (the only option) and plugged into a few different Hartke amps. It was most pronounced on the LH1000 and aluminum 8/10 -- especially with the "bright" button engaged. That brought the tone leaping out into the front. I'm not sure what frequency that accentuates, but that might be a good bit of info to pin down the noise.
The noise was so significant, although it varied from preset to preset, that there's no way I'd run that through FOH at even our smallest bar gigs. And through a large festival-style system, the sound crew would want to string you by your thumbs. Dogs and teenagers would get irritable and maybe lash out at strangers.
I wonder how many of us are like the guy at Sam Ash -- he couldn't hear it at all.
Of note is the fact that I have an ms-100bt that has exhibited none of that behavior. I'm going to spend some time with it to be sure.
I left without the pedal. Didn't want to, but there was either a flaw with that unit or with the pedal in general.
Maybe those who can't hear any noise should have a young set of ears give a listen.
The one unit they had on hand had a very pronounced high-frequency tone. Not hiss, but an audible note... Audible to me, at least. the grey-haired guy behind the counter couldn't even hear it. I could hear it well enough to sing the pitch (octaves lower). It seemed most pronounced on the SANS UP preset.
I was on battery power (the only option) and plugged into a few different Hartke amps. It was most pronounced on the LH1000 and aluminum 8/10 -- especially with the "bright" button engaged. That brought the tone leaping out into the front. I'm not sure what frequency that accentuates, but that might be a good bit of info to pin down the noise.
The noise was so significant, although it varied from preset to preset, that there's no way I'd run that through FOH at even our smallest bar gigs. And through a large festival-style system, the sound crew would want to string you by your thumbs. Dogs and teenagers would get irritable and maybe lash out at strangers.
I wonder how many of us are like the guy at Sam Ash -- he couldn't hear it at all.
Of note is the fact that I have an ms-100bt that has exhibited none of that behavior. I'm going to spend some time with it to be sure.
I left without the pedal. Didn't want to, but there was either a flaw with that unit or with the pedal in general.
Maybe those who can't hear any noise should have a young set of ears give a listen.
I've had the high-pitched sound also on a few patches where I had cab sims on. I simply turned them off. Killed it. Don't know if that was REALLY the cause, but I don't get the hi-pitched wail, so I'm happy.
SirMjac28
Patiently Waiting For The Next British Invasion
Has anyone had their pedal cut off after a certain amount of time? is there an auto shutoff? mine cuts off and I have to unplug and plug it back in.
I believe the preset value for the shutdown is 10 hours.
Not sure how it works, though, as I've used the pedal with an AC supply at conventions. Left it on from 9am to 11pm without so much as a hickup.
Perhaps stepping on the pedal resets the timer?
Not sure how it works, though, as I've used the pedal with an AC supply at conventions. Left it on from 9am to 11pm without so much as a hickup.
Perhaps stepping on the pedal resets the timer?
So last night I spent about 4 hours dialing in a good acoustic tone on the ms-100bt, and there was nothing at all like the pitch I heard in the ms-60b. I was running on batteries. It would accentuate any hiss in the signal, but that's a guitar issue... There was no tone because no generated. I've got to think they have the same power supply. This makes me hopeful that it's individual faulty units, not a design issue.
Ken Hutch put his MS6-B up on a scope, and found measurable noise spikes in the upper midrange and high treble when running off battery or USB in a noisy electrical environment. This was probably due in part to the use of an open cord in the input jack, which would work as an antenna.
The noise was well down from signal level, and a second set of measurements in a cleaner environment were much better. The noise floor when powered off a good AC source was down around -90dB, which is in line with the theoretical best performance of a CD player.
However, there's evidence to suggest that there may be examples floating around with a defect that makes the noise more pronounced. We are waiting for a report from someone who sent his pedal out for a warranty repair.
On a related note, I was fooling around with patches last night. I was using my G-K MB200 as a headphone amp. The amp was beside me, and the pedal was on my lap for convenience.
I could hear a slight but annoying gating noise- a hiss that tracked my note dynamics up in the treble range. I had the tone controls on the G-K at noon, which equates to a hefty treble boost.
Testing narrowed it down to the MS-60B. When I stood up to demonstrate the noise for my wife, it went away.
It turned out that the Zoom had been sitting on top of my iPhone, which was in my pants pocket. Moving it a few inches away resolved the "problem".
Yeah, I have seen some noise spikes on my MS60B output at 5.5, 7.8, and 11kHz in spectrum plots. I don't hear them but on my unit they are more than 90dB down from the full signal level so I think I would have to listen pretty hard to pick them up. I too am gray haired but I can certainly hear anything below 10kHz very well, probably 11kHz too, but of course as you go above 12kHz not so much. 
I agree with Steve that the evidence we have so far supports the notion that some, not all, of these units have this issue. As he said we are waiting for word from Zoom on the one unit that was returned for repair due to this issue. Waiting and hoping that the owner will remember to keep us up to date on what he hears back!
I agree with Steve that the evidence we have so far supports the notion that some, not all, of these units have this issue. As he said we are waiting for word from Zoom on the one unit that was returned for repair due to this issue. Waiting and hoping that the owner will remember to keep us up to date on what he hears back!
I would assume that it does. I went to use mine one night to see it all plugged in but powered off. Must have forgotten to power it down the night before. I think all I had to do to wake it up was tap one of the buttons. I believe I tapped the center knob, the one that puts you in patch selection mode. But it could have been something else. I did not know this topic would come up so I did not take notes and of course my memory is getting to be as bad as my ears.
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