The Zoom B1 Four

Just sent you an invite to view.

4 Likes

You are not alone @Mac. I use mine for headphone playing and just pick a preset that sounds good. Oh, I did figure out how to use the drum machine too. Other than that, I haven’t bothered caring about fiddling with it. Took it on vacation with me for a week and learned nothing about setting up my own signal chains or fiddling with the effects at all. I don’t like the interface at all and have not yet tried Tone-Lib (although I installed it!).

maybe someday…

5 Likes

Thank you @Barney

Good to hear I’m not the only one unsure with this @John_E . I really rushed into buying mine after reading the threads about it here and I have had a play around with it but never felt I was getting anywhere regarding tone or should I say nicer tone.

4 Likes

With more complex stuff I try to set aside a half day or a few hours and youtube the crap out of whatever it is and play without stress. I spend the better part of 8 hours playing with my synth pedal, learning and storing patches I liked. Now I play with the 30+ I stored and I’m happy. There are infinite combos of things it does. Someday I’ll sit and learn to actually build the patches…maybe. Hahaha

5 Likes

I have one, and it is so unintuitive. I have tried it a couple times, and ended up playing my bass.

I work with computers and computer driven biomed devices and spend my days decoding them. I don’t want to do more of that at home.

5 Likes

Thread with lots of applicable advice here:

I’ve owned a B1on and B3n and they are really, really great devices for the money.

5 Likes

Why not just post it in this topic for everyone :thinking:

4 Likes

Something I think is important is to understand the different modes:
The B14 has three different modes: Memory / Stomp / Edit, which can be toggled with the button in the upper left.

Edit is for editing your patches, though I’d recommend to do that on a computer with Tonelib Zoom, or if you need to, the default Zoom software (which isn’t to bad, Tonelib ist just a bit better). You basically can move the cursor to any one of the 5 effect slots, and select whatever effect you want to have there, and then change the settings of this effect with the 4 knobs. Each effect has up to 4 changeable settings (a Big Muff for example: Sustain, Tone, Balance, Volume)

in Memory mode, you switch between different patches / presets. What you can do is for example move in that mode from one patch to another. What I have done is for example I have one patch for “Invincible”, and then another for “Invincible -Solo”, which I can toggle between via the foot switches. the left one moves down a patch, the right one up.
In this mode, the knobs will control a global equalizer which is always at the end of the chain, kinda like a sixth effect which is always the same for all the patches.

Moving between patches takes some getting used to: with the 2 big foot switches, you only toggle between a set of ten presets. Between 10 - 19, 20 - 29 - 50-59.
You navigate between the groups of ten via the buttons with the number 1 - 5. This works quite well if you have understood that, most people should be absolutely fine to move between 10 of those, so no need to switch between the banks of 10.

The stomp mode for me is good for learning about effects: This one kinda shows better what the Zoom is doing: chain up to five effects in one patch. In this mode, you use the right foot switch to move from one of the five effects to the next, with the left, you toggle it on and off.
Or, you can see the small buttons from 1 - 5 as itsy bitsy, tiny foot switches, each one of them toggles one of the effects. So kinda like 5 really tiny pedals in a row.

What I think falls short on the Zoom is editing effects on the fly. You have to move into edit mode every time, and can’t fiddle with always there knobs like on “real” pedals, which would be more intuitive.

7 Likes

Stomp is the most useful mode IMO. Once I found it I never used anything else. It lets you set up and control little pedal chains like it were a pedal board.

The difference is biggest on the B3n because it will show three pedals at a time and have four knobs and a bypass per pedal.

The stock presets were pretty mixed - about a third to a half of them are useful, and then mostly as examples at best. The place the unit really shines are the individual effects and sims, which are generally good. So basically, pick a blank patch, add effects you like, and control them in stomp mode, bypassing the ones you aren’t currently using. This worked really well for me.

The thing is an excellent way to learn what different types of effects do and how they interact. One of the best buys you will find in gear, IMO.

6 Likes

I see the best usage pattern differently: Create your own patches and switch between them in memory mode. But that is just personal preference.

1 Like

Guys I got a problem with the loop function - it used to count in “pik pik pik pik” when I started recording but now it just starts as soon as I hit the pedal. Anybody know what might be up?

1 Like

Sure, you can still do that with stomp mode too, having multiple patches with different effects chains is good.

The difference which makes stomp mode so good is that you can then individually bypass or tweak the effects while using the same patch, like on a pedal board. But like I said, it makes more difference on the B3n than the B1. You could also mimic this with multiple patches if you had a small number of permutations you cared about, but stomp mode is more flexible for it.

If you never change the effects or turn any of them on or off, then sure - just use patches.

3 Likes

Press the rhythm button to get to the drum machine and turn the mid parameter button (one of the four black round knobs) to ON. I think it says COUNT on the display. This then turns on your count in for the looper

6 Likes

@Barney Oh you hero - thanks man :+1:

5 Likes

If you still have the guide would you mind sending me a link please?

Or post a link so we all have it. :+1:

1 Like

I purchased this processor a while back but was unimpressed so it went on the shelf. I just downloaded the MAC ToneLib software and I’m having a blast setting up the different chains.
Bravo, thanks so much for the info folks!

Oscar

3 Likes

Would also love to have a copy :wink:

I don’t think I have it @ms and @ChrisoBass but the first thing to do is just like I did and read the simple instruction leaflet that comes with the Zoom.

If you’re still struggling after that then I’d be happy to answer any questions. Although I don’t use the unit anymore I might still be able to remember.

Also Percy (@Celticstar) has a Zoom I believe and would be able to help as well as he’s a much more experienced musician than me. Cheers.

Always with the insults eh?

FYI the name is not Percy, never was. That was something you dreamed up while trolling on another topic.

As far as the the Zoom is concerned I sold it some time ago and in the future please don’t try and pass the buck onto me. Nice try though. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

1 Like