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


Al Krow

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  • 2 months later...
1 hour ago, isteen said:

I love the fact that B3n has that rarely seen Voodoo Bass from the Jimi Hendrix sound guy. It is great

Sounds good - could you record a clip for us?

What are the individual effects in the Voodoo Bass patch effect chain?

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12 minutes ago, isteen said:

No chain, just the Voodoo Bass with settings at noon - Gain around 40%

The patches on the B3N are usually identical to the ones on the B1-4, so I will have a look out for it.

[Update] found it! It's right at the end of the drive effects. Will check that out shortly - thanks for the heads up!

Edited by Al Krow
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Spent a very pleasant afternoon yesterday noodling on my B1Four and I was struck yet again how much value is bundled into this little box. I now own 2 B1Fours (just like @Al Krow) one permanently on my small pedal board and the other in daily use in the study/music room with my practice setups. I have Gas for a Line 6 wireless POD Go, but I don't believe the cost justifies the improvement in sound to my 70 year old ears or in the mix of the pub venues we play. The recent addition of a HB Airborne wireless unit hasn't helped with the maths since the two together come in at less than £180.

Perhaps I'm just tooooo much of a SkinFlint. 

Edited by JohnDaBass
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36 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

Spent a very pleasant afternoon yesterday noodling on my B1Four and I was struck yet again how much value is bundled into this little box. I now own 2 B1Fours (just like @Al Krow) one permanently on my small pedal board and the other in daily use in the study/music room with my practice setups. I have Gas for a Line 6 wireless POD Go, but I don't believe the cost justifies the improvement in sound to my 70 year old ears or in the mix of the pub venues we play. The recent addition of a HB Airborne wireless unit hasn't helped with the maths since the two together come in at less than £180.

Perhaps I'm just tooooo much of a SkinFlint. 

I have the Smoothound Wireless but like you John I cannot see any reason to "upgrade". The only thing really missing from the B1-Four is a DI out.

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Let's say you play in a rock band (don't we all?).

What would be the essential effects to have lined up on your Zoom?
I would start with the limiter/comp - then I would go with the Ampeg SVT - then an octaver - an overdrive - and finally a noise gate.

How would you make your essential chain?

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I was noodling around on my B1-4 this week and the octaver into a distortion patch came up with a pretty convincing sound for a modern pop/dance track cover.

I wonder how much better a separate octaver would be? The B1-4 gets a bit warbly if you go too low or sustain the note too long.

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55 minutes ago, isteen said:

Let's say you play in a rock band (don't we all?).

What would be the essential effects to have lined up on your Zoom?
I would start with the limiter/comp - then I would go with the Ampeg SVT - then an octaver - an overdrive - and finally a noise gate.

How would you make your essential chain?

I would think if you're using an overdrive you don't need a limiter/comp

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24 minutes ago, nilebodgers said:

I was noodling around on my B1-4 this week and the octaver into a distortion patch came up with a pretty convincing sound for a modern pop/dance track cover.

I wonder how much better a separate octaver would be? The B1-4 gets a bit warbly if you go too low or sustain the note too long.

A decent dedicated octaver will likely have better tracking in terms of going low, although pretty much all octavers will warble if you sustain the note too long (@Woodinblack helpfully pointed out that this was not "unusual as the primary octave dies faster than the harmonics").

I recently got a Boss OC-5 which I can readily recommend and is reasonably priced (obviously nothing is going to compete with the B1-4 on price though!). They seem to be flying off the shelves though and a lot of places are out of stock.

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2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

I recently got a Boss OC-5 which I can readily recommend and is reasonably priced (obviously nothing is going to compete with the B1-4 on price though!). They seem to be flying off the shelves though and a lot of places are out of stock.

Or do the sensible thing, wait for Al to sell his :D

 

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18 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Or do the sensible thing, wait for Al to sell his :D

Haha! I'm happy to take a sweepstake on that following your recent "success" with the SY-1 prediction. Oh wait...

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I'll let you have a pic of my PB at some point with all the others that have survived many and various pogroms. 

Tbf on you many, many were not so lucky and are now being used and abused by other BCers, eBayers, fBook and Gumtree afficiandos. But that was pre Covid. The world has changed... 

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45 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I'll let you have a pic of my PB at some point with all the others that have survived many and various pogroms. 

Tbf on you many, many were not so lucky and are now being used and abused by other BCers, eBayers, fBook and Gumtree afficiandos. But that was pre Covid. The world has changed... 

I think that is the covid issues. Mind you - i have got 3 basses since the start of it, ie, basses that haven't been played live. But have also got rid of 3 so we are in a holding pattern. And I might drop the B3n too, don't tend to use it, or change it to a B1-four, just for the battery power.

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14 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I think that is the covid issues. Mind you - i have got 3 basses since the start of it, ie, basses that haven't been played live. But have also got rid of 3 so we are in a holding pattern. And I might drop the B3n too, don't tend to use it, or change it to a B1-four, just for the battery power.

You're actually contractually obliged to get a B1-4 as a compact version of your B3N, (btw that's exactly what I did and there's one on for a good price in FS right now), as you started up the B1-4 thread! It's the law, right? 😁 Besides it resulted in me getting two of the darned things and the same for @JohnDaBass also. Oh yes and another one due to your Boss SY-1 thread, and worst of all a thread on Ibby SRs meaning I'm now lumbered with three of those! As for that neat Lekato Looper we've both got, was that me or you spotting that? Clearly your threads can be very expensive! 

More seriously, if you're thinking about trading in your B3N, then worth noting that the B1-4 does have some neat little upgrades over the B3N, as well as being more compact, e.g. global vol and 3 band EQ (can't recall if the B3N has a global vol?); drums being accessible parallel to rather than just within a patch and being able to access the patches in banks of 10. The B3N wins on number of stomp switches and 150 patch storage rather than 50.

Speaking of John and his bass, we're trying to work out whether we can easily ToneLib file share by email. If we can, I'd be very happy to make my 35 or so patch efforts available to other BCers on this thread. 

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On 08/05/2021 at 15:19, Al Krow said:

You're actually contractually obliged to get a B1-4 as a compact version of your B3N, (btw that's exactly what I did and there's one on for a good price in FS right now), as you started up the B1-4 thread! It's the law, right? 😁 

True, it does seem I should and odd that I hadn't already!

On 08/05/2021 at 15:19, Al Krow said:

Besides it resulted in me getting two of the darned things and the same for @JohnDaBass also. Oh yes and another one due to your Boss SY-1 thread, and worst of all a thread on Ibby SRs meaning I'm now lumbered with three of those! As for that neat Lekato Looper we've both got, was that me or you spotting that? Clearly your threads can be very expensive! 

I will take the blame for the SRs and the SY1, but the looper that was all on you and part of your revenge - I got that from reading your thread!

On 08/05/2021 at 15:19, Al Krow said:

More seriously, if you're thinking about trading in your B3N, then worth noting that the B1-4 does have some neat little upgrades over the B3N,

I think on that score it works. I don't need that many patches, most of mine are empty, and the size / battery / convenience and accessible drum track to play along to seems quite compelling really.

 

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On 09/05/2021 at 21:56, Woodinblack said:

True, it does seem I should and odd that I hadn't already!

I will take the blame for the SRs and the SY1, but the looper that was all on you and part of your revenge - I got that from reading your thread!

I think on that score it works. I don't need that many patches, most of mine are empty, and the size / battery / convenience and accessible drum track to play along to seems quite compelling really.

 

One of the things that put me off multi-effects was that all those I had used were a little noisy. I have the B1-ON and that is OK but getting the B1-Four was a revelation. Fewer patches than both the B1-On and B3 but then how many patches do you need? 

Edited by Chienmortbb
Changed incorrect model number B1-4 to B1-ON
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18 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

One of the things that put me off multi-effects was that all those I had used were a little noisy. I have the B1-ON and that is OK but getting the B1-Four was a revelation. Fewer patches than both the B1-Four B3N and B3 but then how many patches do you need? 

(I think you meant B3N at the end?)

I still find that some of the individual patches on the B1-4 can be noisy, particularly the drives / fuzzes, which mirrors what happens with many dedicated dirt pedals.

However the Zoom noise reduction circuit (ZNR) is really excellent (I recommend detection set to GTRIN) and I use that as a standard final fx slot, going from guitar to speaker in the chain, on most of my patches.

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