Zoom B1 Four

[Al Krow]

@naxos10 and @Bafflegab - congrats on the new purchases! Such good value bits of kit.

Actually I'm looking forward to a few new patch ideas from you guys to freshen the old stuff that I've put on that tips & ideas thread! 

Edited February 9, 2020 by Al Krow

[Helbass]

On 24/01/2020 at 21:31, Al Krow said:

250 Hz is classic lower mids territory for cutting through

750 Hz for sweetness in terms of cutting a touch (but 750 / 800 will be pretty similar on that score - so not a biggie)

and there's quite a big gap on the GEQ  effect up to the next EQ mid point at 4.5kHz, so I would swap out the 500 Hz for something in the low treble range at 1.5khz.

What about you - where's your preferences lie?

 

I would also have prefered different frequencies on the GEQ.

I generally add a bit at 80 Hz and cut a bit at 250 Hz with a HPF at 50 Hz. Then sometimes a boost at 500 Hz and/or 2 kHz. I use the PEQ and/or an amp sim with parametric mid. 

Does anyone know what are the frequencies of the post patch EQ?

Edited February 9, 2020 by Helbass

[Al Krow]

If any of you are mounting your B1-4s on a pedal board, which pedal board size have you gone for? 

I'm looking for something compact that can accommodate the approx 16 cm depth of the pedal - the PT Nano seems a little too shallow, and the Metro 16 overkill.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Al Krow

[Chienmortbb]

16 hours ago, Al Krow said:

If any of you are mounting your B1-4s on a pedal board, which pedal board size have you gone for? 

I'm looking for something compact that can accommodate the approx 16 cm depth of the pedal - the PT Nano seems a little too shallow, and the Metro 16 overkill.

The Palmer range have some different sizes and are excellent. 

[Al Krow]

4 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

The Palmer range have some different sizes and are excellent. 

Thanks for that - seemed be similar in size to the PT boards i.e. either too narrow or deep unfortunately.

But...I stumbled across the Harley Benton range at Thomann and they have a perfect size for the B1(X)-4 in the shape of a 17.5 cm deep board.

The HB 50M with hardcase plus their HB Iso-5 pro PSU should be just the ticket and comes to exactly £99, which conveniently means free shipping  

[dave_bass5]

Can’t believe this pedal has been out for long. 

I just came across this video,  thought it might help those thinking of getting one. The guy is going through the presets. Shows how awful they are lol. 

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by dave_bass5

[stewblack]

12 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Shows how awful they are lol

Hard to show the full awfullness in one short video, after all there are a huge number of effects all with many parameters. Tell us, which is your least favourite?

[dave_bass5]

5 hours ago, stewblack said:

Hard to show the full awfullness in one short video, after all there are a huge number of effects all with many parameters. Tell us, which is your least favourite?

Can’t stand those cheesy, messy Synth presets. 

I haven’t really used any of the stock presets though. From day 1 i made my own, as i knew what i wanted. 

[stewblack]

3 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Can’t stand those cheesy, messy Synth presets. 

I haven’t really used any of the stock presets though. From day 1 i made my own, as i knew what i wanted. 

The presets are notorious. 

[dave_bass5]

3 minutes ago, stewblack said:

The presets are notorious. 

Yeah, as with most of these things. I find some are ok at showing how things work together etc, but they always seem to be over the top and of no use.

[stewblack]

42 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Yeah, as with most of these things. I find some are ok at showing how things work together etc, but they always seem to be over the top and of no use.

A good way in. I used some as a kind of starting point while I was learning the software but I don't think I ever used one live.

[jimfist]

On 27/05/2019 at 03:09, ped said:

I'll try and record an example later today and do a non-noisy one for comparison

Did this ever happen?

[Al Krow]

@ped - Jim is referring to the "digital artefacts / noise" you referred to in your preceding post below:

On 27/05/2019 at 08:09, ped said:

I use mine with batteries. There's noise under the notes as it decays, hardly noticeable but once you hear it it's annoying. It's almost like a 'breathing' sound and at first I thought could be noise created by the limiter but it does it when just using one of the pre-amp models. It kicks in about half a second after hitting a string and decays and comes back as the note fades until it breaks up and the note stops, at which point it sounds a bit like an aggressive noise gate would. 

My 'clean' patch is the Avalon DI model with the tone setting off, a reverb and limiter, but you get the noise with everything turned off. So I don't think it's to do with the effects themselves but the digital processing of the unit as a whole. I doubt it'll be noticeable though an amplifier to be honest, and for the price it's a great little tool but not 'studio' quality; hardly surprising for the price though.

 

[ped]

Ah no I haven't done one.. I'll try and get something sorted next week, wife is returning to work (at nursery with our son) so I'll have some time to think!

[Bassybert]

I've just pulled the trigger on a B1 Four from Thomann - I'm looking for something to silent practice through headphones using backing tracks on my phone or an iPad. The fact that it has a load of rhythm tracks built in and the ability to edit a lot of settings and patches via a Mac is brilliant.

I was looking at a vox amplug for simplicity, but for £67 delivered I don't think you can go wrong with the B1.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Bassybert

[Guest MoJo]

6 hours ago, Bassybert said:

I've just pulled the trigger on a B1 Four from Thomann - I'm looking for something to silent practice through headphones using backing tracks on my phone or an iPad. The fact that it has a load of rhythm tracks built in and the ability to edit a lot of settings and patches via a Mac is brilliant.

I was looking at a vox amplug for simplicity, but for £67 delivered I don't think you can go wrong with the B1.

You won’t regret it

[dave_bass5]

6 hours ago, Bassybert said:

I've just pulled the trigger on a B1 Four from Thomann - I'm looking for something to silent practice through headphones using backing tracks on my phone or an iPad. The fact that it has a load of rhythm tracks built in and the ability to edit a lot of settings and patches via a Mac is brilliant.

I was looking at a vox amplug for simplicity, but for £67 delivered I don't think you can go wrong with the B1.

Nice one. Exactly how i use mine, although not with a computer. 

[stewblack]

I have added a little Bluetooth receiver into the headphones socket so one less cable, makes it much easier to play music from my phone. Oh, and an app called Musepic which opens any YouTube video and allows you to select and loop any part. Really useful when learning . 

[Bassybert]

3 hours ago, stewblack said:

I have added a little Bluetooth receiver into the headphones socket so one less cable, makes it much easier to play music from my phone. Oh, and an app called Musepic which opens any YouTube video and allows you to select and loop any part. Really useful when learning . 

Sounds like a great idea @stewblack thanks for the heads up 😀

[nilebodgers]

14 hours ago, stewblack said:

I have added a little Bluetooth receiver into the headphones socket so one less cable, makes it much easier to play music from my phone. Oh, and an app called Musepic which opens any YouTube video and allows you to select and loop any part. Really useful when learning . 

Which Bluetooth receiver did you get? 
 

I have looked at these gadgets on Amazon before and reviews are always very mixed as to reliability and connection quality. One common complaint is that they try and randomly pair with other Bluetooth devices when someone else with a phone comes into the room and just drop the connection they were already on.

[stewblack]

3 hours ago, nilebodgers said:

Which Bluetooth receiver did you get? 
 

I have looked at these gadgets on Amazon before and reviews are always very mixed as to reliability and connection quality. One common complaint is that they try and randomly pair with other Bluetooth devices when someone else with a phone comes into the room and just drop the connection they were already on.

I just bought a cheap one on ebay 

I usually turn Bluetooth off on devices I'm not using as a matter of course so never had a problem with it looking to connect elsewhere.  I don't take it anywhere so can't say if other people's phones would be an issue. 

 

[Bassybert]

My B1 arrived yesterday and had the chance to try it out today for a quick run through.

This thing is immense for 60 quid, I can see it being such a useful practice tool. Some of the patches are a bit gimmicky but also fun, but I was really impressed with the standard sounds, the SVT stack sounds brilliant, and the motown patch really nails that 60's soul sound I love with my P Bass.

I might have a look at installing the software to edit the patches and have a bit of a cleanse of the patches, but for £60 this is an absolute steal.

[Al Krow]

9 hours ago, Bassybert said:

...for £60 this is an absolute steal.

+1 ^^

You'd be hard pressed to find a more capable bass pedal for the money. And that's before you discover it's a great headphone amp, with a really useful drum machine built in! 

Agree that a lot of the existing patches aren't worth bothering with. The fun and the value from this pedal is creating your own, tailored to what you want / need. 

Downloading the free editing software makes creating and saving patches a breeze. Zoom provide this, but folk who have tried both generally seem to prefer the (also free) ToneLib software. 

There's a separate thread with Zoom patch ideas, which it might be worth checking out. 

Enjoy! 

Edited June 6, 2020 by Al Krow

[Bassybert]

Thanks a lot @Al Krow, i'm already loving this thing!!

I forgot about the built in tuner, what a bonus.

Anyone else having trouble with the B1 being recognised on a Mac though? Have tried both Guitar Lib and ToneLib and the device isn't being recognised on either piece of software

All sorted, tried a different USB lead and it works. Weird!

 

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by Bassybert

[Al Krow]

Hah - yes I forgot about it being a really neat tuner with LED lights which are ideal for poorly lit stages, I guess I now just take that for granted!

Needing to use a decent USB lead seems to be common for a lot of folk (me included) with the B1 - I had exactly the same issue.

The one tip I would share is that the drive sims tend to lose a fair bit of low end on the Zoom multis and as it's not possible to parallel route the effects to allow you to properly blend in some clean to your signal, I've solved that by using a Boss LS2 pedal and putting the Zoom into the Boss's parallel loop.