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I REALLY need a hand here, my FX are just too big


gafbass02
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I use a pedal board thats not crazy but is just too heavy and takes up a lot of room, but most of the stuff is pretty essential.
It goes......

Samson Transmitter........digitech synth wah (needed for a song).....Zoom 506 (needed for a song)....LS2 (switches the zoom out the signal chain)..........wah (used in a song and segueway)......chorus (used a lot)......tuner......hartke VXL (always on for the preshape, drive channel is used LOTS)......compressor.......noise suppressor...AMP

So nothing crazy or zany or extraneous, but its all mounted with a psu (gator gbus8) on a pedaltrain 2 and STILL weighs a ton and takes up lots of room when you play in a 6 piece.

SOOO... multi FX perhaps? i tried a boss GT6B ages ago but hated it. I couldnt get near the sounds i liked from my zoom and more importantly the levels were all over the shop!
I dont want to model amps, i have one! or any of that guff, i just want a smaller, lighter effect solution that allows me to add individual effects to my sound like stomp boxes do. Ideally some kind of global EQ so that i could replace the hartke would be great as that preshap setting is prety much crucial to my sound but im sure i could replicate it and set and forget with the right EQ.

The critical thing is where the boss let me down, i just want the effect to come in at the same damn volume as my clean sound, everytime!, Not ok at home and then too quiet or too loud each time i have to unplug the thing. Real straightforward set and forget, like pedals, but less of a pain to lug about!

So the zoom b9.1ut has come to my attention, but i cant try one out as i cant drive and my local shop dosnt have one, cant seem to find the things second hand either, so im staring down the barrel of a potentially very expensive mistake (like the boss) if i buy one, and its back to the same old business.

Has anyone gigged this unit for any time?, can i just set an overall EQ and COMPRESSION and then just press a pedal for chorus, just chorus, not chorus and 1969 fliptop precision, room reverbed, output corrected wangeflobulator!!

just one for chorus, one for drive, one for chorus+reverb, one for wah, one for synth, one for flange etc that just adds the effect to my sound as is at the same level [color="#FF0000"]everytime!??[/color]

Help!

Cheers all, sorry for ranting a tad lol

Edited by gafbass02
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Good idea but at present they are powered off the board so id have to inroduce batteries or an extra mains adaptor at the back and still have to carry them to the gig anyway. Also the footprint of my pedaltrain would still be too big. I think i need something much less intrusive.
Cheers for the input though

Edited by gafbass02
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Sounds like most of the newer multi-effects units would do what you need. I've got the Line 6 XT Live & it's pretty easy to program different effects onto each patch, so you can have a standard amp sound on the patch and then use the stomp, modify & reverb/delay stomps to modify the sound. The only downside I find to the unit is that it sometimes boosts the volume when you change between patches. Still haven't got to the bottom of that one, but it's a very good unit. There's a new one out now, isn't there?

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I have been using the bass pod xt live for a year and I have never had such volume problems. This might sound stupid, but have you checked the expression pedal? It is usually assigned to volume by default, and if the expression pedal receives vibrations from the board when you stomp it then you have a volume problem. What I do is program the expression pedal to control a parameter of a pedal I am not using in that patch, so its accidental movement wont affect the sound.

PD: I also upgraded my pod's firmware to the latest version, surely that fixed a few glitches.

Edited by Fraktal
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Get an X3 live and spend some time playing with the patches to get it how you want it - tweak it at rehearsal too when you'd probably play at volumes "as live"? I play in an electronica band and have my set list programmed into the pedal (one patch per song) - perhaps a little OTT but with lots of different little tweaks here and there (delay times for example), it worked a treat!

P.S I've got a Line 6 LD150 for sale here if you fancied one instead of the LD110?!?!? (Sorry to semi-hijack the thread)

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You could probably do this with a B2.1u which is even smaller. Set a basic sound, copy it to a few patches and add the extra bits you want. Only downside is that you have to switch through sequentially so if you wanted to go, for example, clean> chorus>clean>overdrive>clean>wah in one song you'd need to have a few clean patches. That's what I do anyway and it works well. You can set the patch levels in advance but you can tweak them live too, either using one of the knobs or the exp. pedal.

Cheers
Alun

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Thanks for the input folks. I've had a b2.1 before but found the wah wasn't for me. I've bought a used Gt6b again to see if the last seven years have given me more patience to program it! I'm also after different sounds nowadays and it was all I could afford!
Got the studio 110 sorted too :-)

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Used to have an XT Live and I can also vouch for it's quality but it takes a while to get it set up right, using the USB feature and tweaking it via your PC is a good way of setting it up to the way you want it. It's good for recording with as well.





[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='649005' date='Nov 8 2009, 07:04 PM']Sounds like most of the newer multi-effects units would do what you need. I've got the Line 6 XT Live & it's pretty easy to program different effects onto each patch, so you can have a standard amp sound on the patch and then use the stomp, modify & reverb/delay stomps to modify the sound. The only downside I find to the unit is that it sometimes boosts the volume when you change between patches. Still haven't got to the bottom of that one, but it's a very good unit. There's a new one out now, isn't there?[/quote]

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[quote name='gafbass02' post='648774' date='Nov 8 2009, 02:01 PM'](edit)...The critical thing is where the boss let me down, i just want the effect to come in at the same damn volume as my clean sound, everytime!, Not ok at home and then too quiet or too loud each time i have to unplug the thing. Real straightforward set and forget, like pedals, but less of a pain to lug about!

So the zoom b9.1ut has come to my attention...

Has anyone gigged this unit for any time?, can i just set an overall EQ and COMPRESSION and then just press a pedal for chorus, just chorus, not chorus and 1969 fliptop precision, room reverbed, output corrected wangeflobulator!!

just one for chorus, one for drive, one for chorus+reverb, one for wah, one for synth, one for flange etc that just adds the effect to my sound as is at the same level [color="#FF0000"]everytime!??[/color]...(edit)[/quote]

I've gigged a Zoom B9.1ut for a while now, but I've set it up so I have a patch with various effects per song (that can be switched in and out or not if you prefer). I'm pretty sure that just one patch would do everything you want and I have no problem with output levels either - they are very easy to change and store, and you can clean-blend effects too. Bottom line for me is the sounds I've programmed and tweaked are great but you HAVE to spend some time reading the manual and getting your head 'round how this thing works. I use distortion, fuzz, chorus, trem, octaver, flange, reverb, mad delay, eq and compression...and I'm still tweaking!

Check out the manual on this page here: [url="http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/download/manual/english.php"]Zoom B9.1ut Manual[/url] Once you get how it works and if you can handle the colour(!), I think this a fantastic multi and it weighs LOADS less than my old individual pedal set-up :)

Feel free to fire questions at me if the Boss doesn't work out :rolleyes:

Edited by JonnyM
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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't have experience of the bass pedals, but I've used and gigged a couple of the guitar versions of the zoom pedal.

The switching volume issue is, IME, practically unavoidable if you're just dialling in effects and hitting go. If you consider that the distortion effect adds upper harmonics onto your signal, for instance, it's going to get louder than the clean signal. However, the workaround built into the zoom pedals (and the boss pedals I think) is a control for 'patch level' within each patch setting. This offsets the final volume to a level of your choosing.

The only thing you have to do is set this final patch level to a value that brings all your patches into line with each other and the bypass signal. My advice is to do this sitting in front of your amp by ear, because each patch will need a slightly different value. Once it's set right, you shouldn't have any problem at the gigs.

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[quote name='gafbass02' post='648774' date='Nov 8 2009, 02:01 PM']I dont want to model amps, i have one! or any of that guff, i just want a smaller, lighter effect solution that allows me to add individual effects to my sound like stomp boxes do.

Ideally some Real straightforward set and forget, like pedals, but less of a pain to lug about![/quote]

Given those two comments, have you looked at the Boss ME-50B? I use mine in "stomp box" mode, which effectively lets you operate compression, EQ, drive, and modulation effects all individually (as you would individual pedals). Personally I find that much more flexible, and much more like using individual effects, which is what I'm used to!

You can programme patches if you wish, but live I leave the compression on all of the time, and switch the individual effects in and out as needed.

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Cheers all. I've done all the setting them the same etc but then got to the gig/rehearsal etc and fond that what as the same at home isn't the same from room to room etc
in the end tight-cash-ness pointed me at a 2nd hand gt6b. I figured I'd try it again! If no joy then watch out for it on here soon ! :)

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