Zoom B1-4 & B3N - Effects patch ideas and tips

[Al Krow]

A little Motown patch for the B1-4:

Motown [AK-EQ].zb1f

[Al Krow]

Pitch-shift on the B1-4

 

I recently bought a Digitech Drop to more easily change song key for a new project. But it only goes down 7 semis and not up, so it's pretty useless for going up a semi-tone or tone; I also found it a little bit warbly, which echoed a comment from @NoirBass when I met up with him recently to watch his duo playing in central London, and there's a volume drop on it when you kick it in. So all in all... Although for the sake of balance, I should mention @bassfan has not had any similar issues with his and prefers his to the pitch-shift on his Stomp.

 

I previously thought the pitch shift on the B1-4 was just only "ok" hence getting the Drop, but given my disappointment with the Drop I thought I'd try the B1-4 out at full band rehearsal and it did the job fine on both -1 semi and +1 semi. There is a very slight latency on the B1-4 and it doesn't cope with slap too well, but nevertheless provides a decent and very usable pitch-shifted bass line in a band mix.

[Chienmortbb]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Pitch-shift on the B1-4

 

I recently bought a Digitech Drop to more easily change song key for a new project. But it only goes down 7 semis and not up, so it's pretty useless for going up a semi-tone or tone; I also found it a little bit warbly, which echoed a comment from @NoirBass when I met up with him recently to watch his duo playing in central London, and there's a volume drop on it when you kick it in. So all in all... Although for the sake of balance, I should mention @bassfan has not had any similar issues with his and prefers his to the pitch-shift on his Stomp.

 

I previously thought the pitch shift on the B1-4 was just only "ok" hence getting the Drop, but given my disappointment with the Drop I thought I'd try the B1-4 out at full band rehearsal and it did the job fine on both -1 semi and +1 semi. There is a very slight latency on the B1-4 and it doesn't cope with slap too well, but nevertheless provides a decent and very usable pitch-shifted bass line in a band mix.

Interesting. I use mine sometimes for practice but have never used it in anger. It often seems that the guitars in the band can’t/won’t play in the original key, then that makes the bass  part harder. Or I have the part in muscle memory from another band and the new band decided to do it in another key. 

[Cuzzie]

Digitech drop is decent, but the key (no pun intended) is in the name unfortunately……….

If you like that brand then ricochet or whammy would be a more go to for that function.

Plenty do full octaves you and down, but tones less so.

The drop will Latch into a higher pitched signal easier than a lower one.

 

If you don’t want to learn different parts and hand placements why not tune the bass up and then drop it down the various steps you need

[Al Krow]

4 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Interesting. I use mine sometimes for practice but have never used it in anger. It often seems that the guitars in the band can’t/won’t play in the original key, then that makes the bass  part harder. Or I have the part in muscle memory from another band and the new band decided to do it in another key. 

 

Completely relate to the muscle memory point! We can usually twist our guitarists arm to use a capo, other than when they "need" to be using open strings for particular songs; it's switching the same song between male and female vox with different bands that tends to be the bigger issue for me.

I really was pleasantly surprised at how well the B1-4 pitch shift matches up to the Drop - I don't generally expect a multi fx patch to stand up to a dedicated pedal. The B1-4 isn't amazing at pitch shift, don't get me wrong, but for me the Drop isn't sufficiently better to warrant keeping and is going back to the store and the B1-4 pitch-shift sim being gigged tomorrow night; with an extra space now available for something else on my board!

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

On 11/03/2022 at 15:57, Cuzzie said:

Digitech drop is decent, but the key (no pun intended) is in the name unfortunately……….

If you like that brand then ricochet or whammy would be a more go to for that function.

Plenty do full octaves you and down, but tones less so.

The drop will Latch into a higher pitched signal easier than a lower one.

 

If you don’t want to learn different parts and hand placements why not tune the bass up and then drop it down the various steps you need

 

Cheers fella, some good thoughts there. The Ricochet does look like a great little pedal but is limited in pitch shift options, as you noted; the Whammy isn't limited in the same way - but it's a bit of a beast in terms of size and doesn't do basic stuff like up and down a semitone or tone, which can be useful for when guitarists are unable / unwilling to use a capo.

Maybe worth mentioning that my approach to using pitch shift is to use it as little as I can, due to the tone suck and latency on both the Drop and and B1-4 - more pronounced on the B1-4, plus potential volume drop issues - Drop only here; can very easily adjust patch volume levels on the B1-4. If you tuned up, as per your suggestion, you would then need to be pitch shifting every song - the polar opposite of what I would be wanting to do.

The B1-4 proved its mettle on the two songs I needed to use it for pitch shifting in a two hour set on Saturday night. It also has the advantage of being able to use foot-pedals to scroll through to the pitch shift you've set / need for a song rather than needing to dial in by hand, which you need to do on the Digitech pedal.

 

As a complete aside the drummer and audience loved the DG B7K sim on the B1-4 when I kicked that in for a couple of the songs! 

Edited March 14, 2022 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

@uk_lefty if you check the opening post on this thread, I've provided a detailed comparison the Zoom B1-4 and MS-60B which hopefully deals with your query?

 

[uk_lefty]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

@uk_lefty if you check the opening post on this thread, I've provided a detailed comparison the Zoom B1-4 and MS-60B which hopefully deals with your query?

 

Superstar, thanks!!

[Al Krow]

12 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

Superstar, thanks!!

 

You're very welcome! Like @JohnDaBass I also have two B1-4s, one at the heart of my pedal board (below) and a second as a standalone fx pedal board / tuner / headphone amp / drum machine / looper for when I just want to travel light and slip a single pedal into my gig bag.

 

[skidder652003]

don't remotely suppose anyone ever managed to approximate an organ sound aka the electro harmonix B9 or C9???

[Al Krow]

Dep guitarist wanted a bit of reverb on bass line on "Feel it Still" at our rehearsal earlier this week. Pulled this little patch together ahead of tonight's gig:

Reverb [AK-Reverb].zb1f

[Chienmortbb]

Anyone played with the compressors and if so what did you like?

[Japhet]

30 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

Anyone played with the compressors and if so what did you like?

 

I've got the Zoom B3 and the B1 Four. I like the DB160 compressor (think that's what it's called) and use that patch on both pedals.

[SumOne]

2 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Anyone played with the compressors and if so what did you like?

 

I tend to use the OptComp most but feel like all the Zoom compressors are basically the same thing but with diferent parameters being available so I wish Zoom would give the option of all the available parameters being available in one 'Super Zoom!' compressor. 

 

Through the vartious comps it can potentially have all of these adjustable parameters, all in one place would be great: 

 

• Input/Detect/Sensitivity/Threshold 
• Lo Comp & Hi Comp/ Lo Threshold & Hi Threshold
• Ratio/Comp 
• Drive
• Attack/Release
• Tone/High/Low
• Knee
• Dry mix
• Volume/Output

 

Lots seem to be the same thing but labelled differently depending on the compressor they are emulating (e.g. Detect & Sensitivity, Volume & Output), it seems to be an unnecessry added bit of complexity.

 

It is frustrating the parameters aren't all available in one place, e.g. it is only 'GlamComp' that has the dry mix - but that comp doesn't have control over Attack and Release. So I tend to swop and change whether I want a comp with a dry mix, or if I wantcontrol of Attack and Release etc. 

 

Likewise for the different Drives. It sound to me like they are all basically the same thing but with different adjustable parameters available e.g. EQ, sustain, mix, maximum amount of gain available etc. so it would be good to have one 'Super Drive' that just puts all of the behind the scenes Drive parameters in on adjustable place.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2022 by SumOne

[Chienmortbb]

4 hours ago, Japhet said:

 

I've got the Zoom B3 and the B1 Four. I like the DB160 compressor (think that's what it's called) and use that patch on both pedals.

I have used the real DB160 so I guess I should start there. Thanks.

[Chienmortbb]

3 hours ago, SumOne said:

 

I tend to use the OptComp most but feel like all the Zoom compressors are basically the same thing but with diferent parameters being available so I wish Zoom would give the option of all the available parameters being available in one 'Super Zoom!' compressor. 

 

Through the vartious comps it can potentially have all of these adjustable parameters, all in one place would be great: 

 

• Input/Detect/Sensitivity/Threshold 
• Lo Comp & Hi Comp/ Lo Threshold & Hi Threshold
• Ratio/Comp 
• Drive
• Attack/Release
• Tone/High/Low
• Knee
• Dry mix
• Volume/Output

 

Lots seem to be the same thing but labelled differently depending on the compressor they are emulating (e.g. Detect & Sensitivity, Volume & Output), it seems to be an unnecessry added bit of complexity.

 

It is frustrating the parameters aren't all available in one place, e.g. it is only 'GlamComp' that has the dry mix - but that comp doesn't have control over Attack and Release. So I tend to swop and change whether I want a comp with a dry mix, or if I wantcontrol of Attack and Release etc. 

 

Likewise for the different Drives. It sound to me like they are all basically the same thing but with different adjustable parameters available e.g. EQ, sustain, mix, maximum amount of gain available etc. so it would be good to have one 'Super Drive' that just puts all of the behind the scenes Drive parameters in on adjustable place.

 

 

 

 

Yes I tried most of them today, as well as the drives, and you are not wrong.

[dswluthier]

I've recently ordered a B1 Four and, while waiting for it's delivery, have been studying the manuals.

I'm interested in creating an amp/4x10/1x18 amp speaker patch, but that leaves me with only two spots for sound mod effects.

Is there any way to condense an amp/speaker(s) group into something, like maybe an IR file so it can be one effect? Do it with a clip?

Is there any way to chain patches? Like, for example, having a 'ghost' effect that calls another patch?

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome!

[Al Krow]

@dswluthier Congrats on the new pedal. Have to fess I've ended up with 3 of the little buggers 😅

 

With only 5 effects slots per patch and a budget (but amazing value) mulit-fx such as this, the way I would do it is use your amp-speaker patch as the key basic ingredient in all your patches and then add the particular fx that you want so that e.g. your B7K drive becomes a combo of [B7K + amp-speaker patch] and you can then scroll through as needed over the 50 patch choices you have. If you have either the Zoom or better still the ToneLib editing softare (link available on the OP) then it's a doddle to copy and paste.

[isteen]

On 30/01/2023 at 14:18, dswluthier said:

I've recently ordered a B1 Four and, while waiting for it's delivery, have been studying the manuals.

I'm interested in creating an amp/4x10/1x18 amp speaker patch, but that leaves me with only two spots for sound mod effects.

Is there any way to condense an amp/speaker(s) group into something, like maybe an IR file so it can be one effect? Do it with a clip?

Is there any way to chain patches? Like, for example, having a 'ghost' effect that calls another patch?

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome!

N

 

On 30/01/2023 at 14:18, dswluthier said:

I've recently ordered a B1 Four and, while waiting for it's delivery, have been studying the manuals.

I'm interested in creating an amp/4x10/1x18 amp speaker patch, but that leaves me with only two spots for sound mod effects.

Is there any way to condense an amp/speaker(s) group into something, like maybe an IR file so it can be one effect? Do it with a clip?

Is there any way to chain patches? Like, for example, having a 'ghost' effect that calls another patch?

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome!

These days I just use the tuner and the Sansamp clone

[Buddster]

Hi

I've had my B1four for a while now and find it a great unit. Although most of the songs we play as a band require a fairly good clean sound, theres a couple that need a bit of drive. I have a nice saturated sound already, but aI'm trying to get a bit of edge on the higher notes (or higher frequencys) when moving up the fret board, but leave the lower end clean when moving down. Does that make sense? I can't seem to find anything that doesn't effect the whole board. 

It would need a control to select the split point. Not looking for a sharp change, but a gradual one. 

Has anyone any ideas? 

Thanks 

[PaulWarning]

On 02/02/2023 at 14:47, isteen said:

N

 

These days I just use the tuner and the Sansamp clone

same here more or less, but I prefer the B1on, maybe I've just got used to it but the Sansamp clone sounds better to me

[SamIAm]

On 30/01/2023 at 14:40, Al Krow said:

Congrats on the new pedal. Have to fess I've ended up with 3 of the little buggers 😅

I’ve also ended up more than one, a B1Four and a B1XFour … small, light, great price performance and the ability to run on batteries is great.

S’manth x

 

[Woodinblack]

I should investigate the use of mine - I have a b1four and a B3n and have barely used either. Which is odd, I gigged the B3 before it mercilessly

 

[mcnach]

I just ordered a B1X Four... it was almost rude not to

 

I have moved to using multiFX as I'm depping with various bands here and there in addition to my regular bands and it gets tiring rearranging pedalboards, so I got a B6 last November. Really cool unit, but I find it's easy to use up all the processing power once you start getting into a few effects plus preamp/amp/cab sims, which I'm really keen as I'm also trying to get into mostly an IEM setup. The B1X Four just seemed like the perfect companion to put into the B6's FX loop.

 

This thread was a great read, thank you all  

[mcnach]

Has anybody tried something like the M-Vave Chocolate as a separate controller for the B1/B1X Four?