Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Zoom MS-60B Firmware Update 2.0 (June 2017)
- Thread starter Alib8
- Start date
-
- Tags
- 2017 ms-60b zoom zoom ms-60b
No way, I use the Bomber in almost every song in my cover band.
Oh no, singer just texted: I just got fired from my cover band.
This upgrade is a game changer for me. I like what I'm getting out of the 60b so much that it has now moved to the front of my chain, and I'll run the Flip Top with the ZNR, the AcBsPre, and the Rack Comp as always on, and set the B3n up as different pedal boards. Diggin' it!
I was unable to get any OD at all out the the Flip Top in my B1on - how about you?
I'm going for a cleaner, mid forward tone. That combined with the Rack Comp gives me a somewhat fretless like swell. For dirt I use the Darkglass sim .
Certainly.
Altho' I loved the upgrade I found myself only liking the TS+dry, some new compressors and the fliptop amp mostly for real life use. As much as I'm not remotely into GK, or have always hated factory patch #1 being about that MarkMid thing, it's always nice to have some new amps added, good for Zoom. As per the rest, well, first of all I think bass multiFXs will make a big leap when they stop including useless garbage, I'm talking ring modulator class crap, present in every single multiFX I've owned (and I've had more than a dozen), still useless, please stop it! The bomber is of course amongst that select class, while I'm still trying to decide if the bit crusher is in that top uselessness category or just merely annoying. Then there's LOTS of delays/reverbs/choruses, which I couldn't care less for, 2 or 3 of each should have been more than enough. OTOH, as much as I despise chorus/reverb on bass I found the random filter or the Z-Organ ridiculously sweet, so don't take my opinions too seriously.
Last edited:
The first thing that came to mind, it would a great effect for the intro to "Chain Lightning" by 38 Special.
It's a gimmick effect, but every multi has to have them, lol
WOW! I never thought this day would come, I was quite certain it would not. So certain I recently bought a B3n hoping they would at least update it once in a while. Now the MS60B is several light years ahead of it when it comes to the number of effects available. By many accounts the B3n has better sound quality, yet I have never had any complaints about the MS60B. What to do now, sell the 60 as planned and hope the 3n eventually catches up with it? Or sell the 3n?!? I can't really say I need both of them. Either way I guess this restores my flagging hope in Zoom as a company that cares about bass players so I am glad about this turn of events!!
i wish there was some way of suggesting new FX that they would actually listen to. A pure HPF and LPF with variable frequency and slope would be killer! I'm presently making do with the AcBsPre(sp?) and splitter. Maybe they could just make the splitter into that? It needs a wider range of frequency and at least a spec on the slope. Or add those into the PEQ...
The new update has solidified the ms-60b on my board! So many of the new effects seem usable. I can't wait to test out all the new modulations at gig volumes especially the super chorus ,CE-1 and CE-5. They sounded amazing at low volume through my studio monitors. Also loved the ice delay for jamming solo. New reverbs were a great add, love the air and ambience for in ear headphone use.
Explain yourself, good sir. This is the effects forum. We are bass players. What does NEED have to do with any of it???
Your "useless garbage" is many other players' sonic treasure — I love ring mods. It's not useless if music can be made with it, so there's the challenge — can YOU incorporate some ring mod into one of your songs and make it musical ...
... or *gasp*, can anyone in this thread find a musical way of using the Bomber patch?
Better to include everything and cater to everyone and sell a shipload of Zoomies than to pander to a select few and not even be able to break even on the product.
True, still, I'd give up all the ringmod features and the sort (add also half the reverbs, delays and choruses the updated MS60B has) in exchange for, say, the DarkGlass emulation the B3n has (or something similar).
As per the example you chose, well, sorta' proves my point (a song guy's point, obviously), the ringmod is not a means for anybody to make any music, just the ridiculous icing on the cake of a really static passage within a highly uninteresting piece of "music". Sorry, not into acquired taste excentricity. Don't get me wrong, complexity doesn't scare me, nonsense does, and I have a hard time processing any of that as music, much less beauty.
What can I say, when you're right, you're right! I consider myself to have been suitably chastened.
So, I uploaded the firmware last night and the process went fairly smoothly. At one point it complained about a timeout error and I just hit continue or try again, whichever one I was offered and no problems after that. I'm not even sure that was an upgrade glitch since about 20 minutes later while I was doing something completely unrelated Windows 10 froze up on me completely and I had to reboot. It may have been a month since my last reboot and in my experience Windows is a lot happier when rebooted weekly.
It's a nice set of new features and amp models that this upgrade provides us at long last. I had a chance to play through it a little last night and I really like a couple of the new amp models with my SR605. I've always been pleased with the Bassman model and my Reggie Hamilton Jazz but the SR605 has been a little lackluster by comparison and my Squier VI was just ok with the previous models. So perhaps each of my three basses can now find amplifier model bliss with this many to choose from?!
After a quick look I'd say this upgrade breathes new life into the MS60B which was doing fine as it was without it, really. Having this much capability in this small a package perhaps does say that I will have a need for it that continues beyond the interim period until the B3n catches up to it, effects-wise, assuming that day ever comes. The B3n is reported to have an improvement in sound quality and it does have seven slots available and arguably a better user interface that is aided of course by having two more displays and several more knobs and switches on tap to make the interface more intuitive. On the other hand it is much larger and while it has seven slots it does not have enough processing power to run every possible combination of seven effects simultaneously. The MS60B certainly sounds very good and its small size can be an advantage in many situations. And the MS60B easily sounds good enough to work in conjunction with the B3n on those occasions when you need more than seven slots or the big brother has hit its processing power limitation after only four or five or six slots are filled. And in the interim there are effects and amp models found only on the MS60B.
Not that I need to have a need for it to justify keeping it of course....
I updated mine and all patches remained. The update is great. New toys! I use the 160 comp with hard knee for punch on clean. The rack comp is just a little less harsh, but still does the trick. I was getting "ear fatigue" from the setting I was using.
I just got another 60B yesterday, and updated it as soon as i got it. I generally use it at the front of my chain for tuner and compressor, but having new options even for compressors is pretty cool. Right now my main thing is just ZNR (to combat my singlecoils) into 160 comp, but I'm also toying with the OrangeLim squeezer clone.
By itself OrangeLim's pretty good to my I'm-Not-Bongomania ears, but I put it after the 160 as well and it seems even better - like the 160 is doing its thing at a 5-6:1 ratio or so, and then the Orange is serving as a brick wall limiter to absolutely make sure nothing errant goes through.
I'm also looking to replicate the slight grit of my Accountant compressor, maybe with an amp sim or maybe with the barest hint of OD. SVT or fliptop might do it but I am finding it difficult to dial in that tiny tiny amount of grit on those - seems to go full drive very quickly.
The above scenarios lead me to the following questions:
1. Is there any reason not to use the two comps together - the 160 and the Orange Limiter?
2. If I wanted to keep one slot open for an actual effect to switch in and out, that leaves me 3 slots for my "base tone" - noise killer, one of the compressors, and something else - what chain options would get me the closest to that Accountant-with-both-switches-up compression and subtle grind?
Thanks in advance for any assists...
By itself OrangeLim's pretty good to my I'm-Not-Bongomania ears, but I put it after the 160 as well and it seems even better - like the 160 is doing its thing at a 5-6:1 ratio or so, and then the Orange is serving as a brick wall limiter to absolutely make sure nothing errant goes through.
I'm also looking to replicate the slight grit of my Accountant compressor, maybe with an amp sim or maybe with the barest hint of OD. SVT or fliptop might do it but I am finding it difficult to dial in that tiny tiny amount of grit on those - seems to go full drive very quickly.
The above scenarios lead me to the following questions:
1. Is there any reason not to use the two comps together - the 160 and the Orange Limiter?
2. If I wanted to keep one slot open for an actual effect to switch in and out, that leaves me 3 slots for my "base tone" - noise killer, one of the compressors, and something else - what chain options would get me the closest to that Accountant-with-both-switches-up compression and subtle grind?
Thanks in advance for any assists...
Last edited:
I did the update on my 60B, no issues. Then I did the update on my 50G, could not get the new effects to load. Pedal power up and says 3.0, but the effects manager thing stalled at "time out error" several times. That, and my computer doesn't see my B3n at all. Tried a few different cables. Good times.
