Compact multi-modulation pedals?

[Dowi]

As always reading the manual is a must no matter if you are dealing with a multistomp, or what ever other ocmplex digital effect unit.

While I agree with the manual thing, the desktop editor to me has been ssential. Probably this is because most of the patches I built are made of 4 effects at least, so I had to build the main "structure" of the fx with the editor to be able to tweak the settings of the different patches as I wanted to. Obviously if I just need to make small adjustments on the way I can do it on the pedal itself, but, specially when effects with multiple pages of settings are involved (ice delay etc), it is really quicker to do it with the editor.

[Errant Tiger]

I find the Zoom MS-70 to contain a lot of great sounds that I just don't have the patience to work my way through and configure to my liking. Plus I do a lot of knob-twiddling on the fly and it's not so good for that. (Anyone who wants one, check my B/S/T!)

I do enjoy my Behringer FX-600. Mostly I use it for pitch-shifting, at which it is entirely satisfactory for my needs. The phase/flange/chorus work well too. As does the trem, come to think of it. And stereo ins/outs! A good way to get a bunch of tolerable stuff for cheep.

[DOSS BS-1]

I've been using the Line6 M5 for this exact purpose - modulation on a few songs for one of the groups I perform with. I'd love to bring all my analog pedals to every gig but there's limited board space. The M5 is my Swiss Army Knife pedal. You can get one for around $100 bucks. For sound quality I think of the Line6 effects as the middle road between the Zoom and the Boss. But I haven't used a Zoom in a couple years, they might be much better now?

The sounds on the M5 are all "good". In a live band setting nobody's going to hear the difference. I mostly use it for chorus, phaser, auto wah, and tremolo. There are a few standout effects. The filter delay. The pattern tremolo is surprisingly cool. A couple of the synth tones are monsters. And the Particle Verb is a friggin godsend of an effect. Especially with an expression pedal. They should do a dedicated pedal just for that sound.

On the up side:
It gets the job done. You can twist the knobs to dial in your tone on the fly and every effect has a mix knob, which is so important for reigning things in. True bypass. 24 presets. Separate tap tempo. Stereo I/O. $100 bucks.

On the down side:
The thing is a tank and it weighs a ton (I'm not sure how much that Boss weighs tho). Its got way more effects than you need. One effect at a time, you can't stack effects. Its digital. It doesn't come with cool graphics. The name is not pun on a piece of 70's analog gear. You won't get any likes on Instagram. Nobody brags about getting one of these in the GAS thread.

Honestly it seems like the MD-200 might be the best fit for your situation. But that $250 price tag just seems high for what you're looking for.

**There's also the Mooer Modfactory but I can't recommend that pedal. I tried it once and it was off the board after one gig. I heard they updated it with "better" sounds but it was pretty awful.

-

[odontophobia]

If your gut tells you that you’re gonna cork sniff the Zoom then just get the Strymon. I feel like the MD series was the least liked of the 500 series and I suspect the 200 series shares algorithms.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I've been using the Line6 M5 for this exact purpose - modulation on a few songs for one of the groups I perform with. I'd love to bring all my analog pedals to every gig but there's limited board space. The M5 is my Swiss Army Knife pedal. You can get one for around $100 bucks. For sound quality I think of the Line6 effects as the middle road between the Zoom and the Boss. But I haven't used a Zoom in a couple years, they might be much better now?

The sounds on the M5 are all "good". In a live band setting nobody's going to hear the difference. I mostly use it for chorus, phaser, auto wah, and tremolo. There are a few standout effects. The filter delay. The pattern tremolo is surprisingly cool. A couple of the synth tones are monsters. And the Particle Verb is a friggin godsend of an effect. Especially with an expression pedal. They should do a dedicated pedal just for that sound.

On the up side:
It gets the job done. You can twist the knobs to dial in your tone on the fly and every effect has a mix knob, which is so important for reigning things in. True bypass. 24 presets. Separate tap tempo. Stereo I/O. $100 bucks.

On the down side:
The thing is a tank and it weighs a ton (I'm not sure how much that Boss weighs tho). Its got way more effects than you need. One effect at a time, you can't stack effects. Its digital. It doesn't come with cool graphics. The name is not pun on a piece of 70's analog gear. You won't get any likes on Instagram. Nobody brags about getting one of these in the GAS thread.

Honestly it seems like the MD-200 might be the best fit for your situation. But that $250 price tag just seems high for what you're looking for.

**There's also the Mooer Modfactory but I can't recommend that pedal. I tried it once and it was off the board after one gig. I heard they updated it with "better" sounds but it was pretty awful.

-

Hmm yeah one of my friends has had an M5 years and loves it

[spacelordmother]

Feel like I’ve asked this before, but do the multistomp zooms drop audio for a second when you switch one of the effects in a chain? Had a g3 for a bit and that was a dealbreaker for me.

[frigid midget]

I've been using the Line6 M5 for this exact purpose - modulation on a few songs for one of the groups I perform with. I'd love to bring all my analog pedals to every gig but there's limited board space. The M5 is my Swiss Army Knife pedal. You can get one for around $100 bucks. For sound quality I think of the Line6 effects as the middle road between the Zoom and the Boss. But I haven't used a Zoom in a couple years, they might be much better now?

The sounds on the M5 are all "good". In a live band setting nobody's going to hear the difference. I mostly use it for chorus, phaser, auto wah, and tremolo. There are a few standout effects. The filter delay. The pattern tremolo is surprisingly cool. A couple of the synth tones are monsters. And the Particle Verb is a friggin godsend of an effect. Especially with an expression pedal. They should do a dedicated pedal just for that sound.

On the up side:
It gets the job done. You can twist the knobs to dial in your tone on the fly and every effect has a mix knob, which is so important for reigning things in. True bypass. 24 presets. Separate tap tempo. Stereo I/O. $100 bucks.

On the down side:
The thing is a tank and it weighs a ton (I'm not sure how much that Boss weighs tho). Its got way more effects than you need. One effect at a time, you can't stack effects. Its digital. It doesn't come with cool graphics. The name is not pun on a piece of 70's analog gear. You won't get any likes on Instagram. Nobody brags about getting one of these in the GAS thread.

Honestly it seems like the MD-200 might be the best fit for your situation. But that $250 price tag just seems high for what you're looking for.

**There's also the Mooer Modfactory but I can't recommend that pedal. I tried it once and it was off the board after one gig. I heard they updated it with "better" sounds but it was pretty awful.

-

Hmm yeah one of my friends has had an M5 years and loves it

Thanks!

Isn't the HX stomp/fx supposed to be a slightly improved version of the M-series though? I figured the HX stomp would fall nicely inbetween the MD-200 and the Zoom. No idea about the differences that aren't mensioned in the specs though, but I can't imagine either of those units (the zoom, M5 and HX) being far apart in terms of actual sound quality (clarity of the reverb, digital artifacts from the chorus, etc)...Right?

[DOSS BS-1]

The HX series has all the M series tones plus the Helix effects which are supposed to be much higher quality than the M series. But they're like $600 so

-

[shikawkee]

Feel like I’ve asked this before, but do the multistomp zooms drop audio for a second when you switch one of the effects in a chain? Had a g3 for a bit and that was a dealbreaker for me.

Only if you don't put the Line Sel first in the chain.

[frigid midget]

If your gut tells you that you’re gonna cork sniff the Zoom then just get the Strymon. I feel like the MD series was the least liked of the 500 series and I suspect the 200 series shares algorithms.

My guts do tell me I'm gonna be annoyed by the user interface of the Zoom. I know I'm after affordable+small, but tweaking a bazillion of effects on the fly can't be easy on something that tiny

So it's nice that the mobius is straight forward to use, but for me a high end multi-effect thing should in some way or another be capable of doing multi effects at the same time. And going by all the "vs" threads online comparing the Mobius and the HX stomp...The latter seems to win in most areas.

I'm probably just jumping on whatever first option that pops up on local used market, and flip my way towards whatever works best for me.
To be honest, adding a good phaser and univibe to my current modest modulation arsenal would probably suit me just fine as well. Anypne have any recommendations for a good univibe/phaser combo by any chance? Just to expand my options, it's not like there's a ton of exotic booteek pedals being sold in this part of the world

[DRodriguez]

Always wanted to try one of the zooms. Will never forget how shite my old zoom was when i first started playing guitar over a decade ago "lol"

[frigid midget]

Always wanted to try one of the zooms. Will never forget how shite my old zoom was when i first started playing guitar over a decade ago "lol"

Same here. That giant black/blue plastic piece of crap zoom unit ruined multi-effects for me
It took me ages to get rid of -most of- my disgust towards digital multi-effects. They're still emulating and copying the analog classics, it's still about the old quality vs quantity trade off

[Dandolin]

Yep.

But at the right balance point of price and crappiness, a little joy can be had. Although the level of crappiness is generally receding over time, I find that for myself the balance point is towards much cheaper/a bit crappier right now. But then, I have been known to purposely seek crap out for those crappy moments.

M5 is cheep, and mostly relatively lo crap, given the one-at-a-time limitation. The big boy they've got out right now doesn't impress me as enough of an improvement to make me ok with the price or make me forget my individual pedals. Both are easier to tweak than the Zoom MSs, fer sure. Those Zooms have a ton of bang-for-buck for sound design potential, but I can see that they would frustrate many people in terms of workflow. I set mine up as a preset box, and it's a cool, cheep stopgap. Maybe check out used M9 prices?

The Boss GT-001 I picked up for chips is in most ways an even better version of a multifx preset switcher, but ymmv, and the Zoom MSs are smaller and consistently cheaperer. idk if the Boss GT-1 does as much internally...mebbe? Seems right cheep, though, but kinda sorta on the hugetastic side. Better bang-for-buck, surely, than either of the newer 500/200 series jawn though bc you can chain fx.....

Rp360 is surprisingly cool in some ways, but basically not as much as the GT-001.

I'd take the Mobius more seriously at that price if it were true multi and not just algo switching.

Eh, I haven't found anything more newerer to be betterer than the jawn from 5 - 10 years ago for my price demands, and it seems like the trend is moving away from "ability to get weird" to "snoringly emulatory"

Will somebody cool step in to save us from multifx ennui? Magic 8 Ball sez:

[Dandolin]

Yep.

But at the right balance point of price and crappiness, a little joy can be had. Although the level of crappiness is generally receding over time, I find that for myself the balance point is towards much cheaper/a bit crappier right now. But then, I have been known to purposely seek crap out for those crappy moments.

M5 is cheep, and mostly relatively lo crap, given the one-at-a-time limitation. The big boy they've got out right now doesn't impress me as enough of an improvement to make me ok with the price or make me forget my individual pedals. Both are easier to tweak than the Zoom MSs, fer sure. Those Zooms have a ton of bang-for-buck for sound design potential, but I can see that they would frustrate many people in terms of workflow. I set mine up as a preset box, and it's a cool, cheep stopgap. Maybe check out used M9 prices?

The Boss GT-001 I picked up for chips is in most ways an even better version of a multifx preset switcher, but ymmv, and the Zoom MSs are smaller and consistently cheaperer. idk if the Boss GT-1 does as much internally...mebbe? Seems right cheep, though, but kinda sorta on the hugetastic side. Better bang-for-buck, surely, than either of the newer 500/200 series jawn though bc you can chain fx.....

Rp360 is surprisingly cool in some ways, but basically not as much as the GT-001.

I'd take the Mobius more seriously at that price if it were true multi and not just algo switching.

Eh, I haven't found anything more newerer to be betterer than the jawn from 5 - 10 years ago for my price demands, and it seems like the trend is moving away from "ability to get weird" to "snoringly emulatory"

Will somebody cool step in to save us from multifx ennui? Magic 8 Ball sez:

[JonnyAngle]

https://www.southamptonpedals.com/colle ... lity-knife

the Southampton Utility Knife is exactly what you want