Mornats Posted April 6, 2023 Share Posted April 6, 2023 My bass playing these days is confined to recording into my PC. After the untimely death of my MarkBass CMD121P combo I bought a Laney Digbeth preamp and Bias FX software. Loving the tones of the Digbeth and it's working out a treat for me. I'm having great fun using Bias FX on guitar but have found that a few effects are better as actual pedals, namely an overdrive and compressor. I have an overdrive for guitar and was looking for a compressor that I could use on both guitar and bass (current favourite is the Orange Kongpressor). However, I've seen a few people talk about the Zoom multi effects pedals - the B1 Four being the one that I started looking at. So I'm wondering whether buying a B1 Four for the compressor models would be just as good as buying a dedicated compressor and whether the other effects in there are an improvement over the effects in Bias Fx (which I find to be very good to my ears - way better than Guitar Rig and better than Amplitube). On my list of pedals I'd like to buy are a compressor (guitar and bass) and a Rat distortion (guitar) which the Zoom B1 Four has so the Zoom is certainly a contender for less than the price of the Orange Kongpressor I'm looking at. Even better at £50 used from Basschat too. Any thoughts on this? I'd rather pay a little more for a couple of good pedals is the quality isn't up to snuff on the Zoom as I don't need a ton of effects. The Bias FX software has a few good compressors in it but I want to compress before I hit any pedals on the way into the PC and I find that overdrive/distortion sounds better in a stomp box than in the computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumOne Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 (edited) You might as well get a Zoom 2nd hand to try out, can sell without much loss if you don't get on with it..... Then again, the same argument can be made for expensive individual pedals! I don't think the Zoom compressors are as good as high-end ones but it does the job fine. Similar with the Rat and other effects but there isn't a huge amount of difference. Edited April 7, 2023 by SumOne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osiris Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 The Zoom multi fx units carry a choice of a few different compressor models and several different types of compression to play with. As Sumone says they won't compete with high end dedicated units but they're still more than capable in their own right and well worth the time and money exploring the various options. Speaking as a bit of a compressor nerd, I used the DBX160 model in the Zoom MS-60B for several years as my gigging compressor of choice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted April 7, 2023 Author Share Posted April 7, 2023 It's sounding like the Zoom would sound similar to Bias FX - sounds pretty nice but not as good as the real thing. I'm kinda leaning back to just getting a nice compressor for guitar and bass and leaving any effects in the PC. Although grabbing one second hand and selling it on for not much loss wouldn't be bad idea. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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