In terms of fidelity to the actual effects, in general digital has come a long way. There’s many types of effects for where digital multieffects are close to the analog or dedicated digital pedals, and compression is one. But not all effects, and this is something that is relatively recently getting better. It’s why I would shy away from older generations of digital effects unless you go in knowing exactly what you’re looking for - unlike analog pedals, unless you have a specific desire for a sound, “vintage” generally does not mean “good” for digital effects when it comes to fidelity to the “real” things.
This is important - if absolute fidelity to the regular pedals is not important to you and you just want something that sounds good to you, and are fine with the limitations of the processors (really doing multiple effects at once, etc) then things are even more fine with the digital multieffects.
Some effects are actually better in digital form. Pitch shifting is one; digital octavers tend to track better, etc. I love my digital reverb and delay as well.
I went full pedalboard in the end because I was having difficulty finding digital distortions and overdrives that I liked. YMMV.
Another thing to point out is that while the Zoom boxes (and things like the Boss GT-1B, etc) are fantastic bang for the buck, and certainly giggable, they are also more or less the entry level tier. For serious studio/recording work you would likely want to step up to the next level (things like the Line6 Helix and other products, or even more expensive).
Ok. All that aside, though, the important point:
The Zoom multieffects are fantastic value. Even though I no longer own one, I consider them to be some of the best money I have ever spent on gear. They are a truly amazing value for learning what effects do and how to use them, and what you like. I cannot recommend them highly enough. And yes, lots of people do gig with them. Many of their effects sound great.
One last thing. To add to the value of the Zoom B1-Four (or B1x-four with the expression / wah pedal) is that they make a great, portable headphone amp.
You can take it anywhere and plug it in to the wall, Bass to the input jack, plug your headphones into the output jack and you are playing, Clean or with effects without needing your amp by you.
Also, if you want to play, and there is no power source to plug into, they can run on double A batteries.
Oh, shoot, almost forgot, there is even more.
It is a Tuner in Bypass mode.
And
It is a looper
And
It has drum beats of many styles, even just metronome like drum beats, all of which you can change the tempo by changing the bpm
There is so much value with all the features it has, and much of the value is the LEARNING FACTOR that @howard stated above .
Oh, one more thing
AUX In - I did B2B thru mine. I plugged in my Ipad, and Bass, and got the course and my bass sound thru my headphones, very very helpful, since I live in apartments with roommates and did most of the course late at night.
Yes! Thanks for starting that topic. So far I ignore pedals on purpose but there will be a time when I reach your point in the journey of becoming interested in those and this thread is a gold mine for when the time comes.
I know and it probably also has useful information.
However @Guto asked exactly the question I would in the future and it’s a bit more focused on what would interest me.
In the other thread already the intial starting post causes my head to spin. In here I can wrap my mind around what you guys are talking about.
And as I pointed out elsewhere, it (the zoom) is one of the few boxes that outputs its aux to not just the headphone but also to your speaker if you want. So you don’t have to use headphones to practice if you don’t want to.
Oh yeah I get that. But the point I was making is its not a given for me, I have yet to find any other pedal or bass amp that plays aux out through speakers. Maybe others have but I haven’t. And that really boosted its usefulness in my book.
Ok so … I gave it a shot and got the MXR Bass Compresssor M87…
No difference while practicing at home, a whole new world during rehearsals
All of those times that you get excited with the song and the notes just start to go all over the roof and even sound weird, this little guy just cut them and output at the same volume as the “normal” ones.
I loved it and with the lights bar I’m able to keep track when I’m exaggerating and calm down a little bit.
I’ve been practicing through my studio monitor setup, and using an 1176-style compressor on my bass. I started looking for a pedal that could do 1176-style compression and found the Darkglass Hyper Luminal. $250, and it does three styles of comp: SSL Bus, 1176 (“FET”), and Darkglass’s previous “Symmetry” comp… I might get that one!
