Feeling a bit stupid with this Zoom MS-50G thing. How do I use it?!

Ajoten

I've just got hold of one of these multistompbox thingies and am lacking a basic grasp of how to use it.

So far I've done this:

1. Turn it on.
2. Scroll up and down the list of effects to find one that sounds interesting...
3. Use footswitch to turn on that effect.
4. Tweak settings.
5. Return to step 2 and repeat.

So that's 1 effect at a time. How do I add a 2nd effect? The manual really is useless.

There must be some blindingly obvious basic principle I'm missing here, so if anyone could enlighten me I'd be grateful

Andrew

paulphoenix

around the central footswitch there are four sections/buttons - the buttons at 9&3 o'clock add an effect before or after your current effect. 

paulphoenix

i own the 100 - and had to delete a few of the presets patches so i could start from zero and build my own effects chains rather than edit how it came from the factory 

Ajoten

Woah there. I thought those buttons were just to scroll through the list of effects as one searches for the one one wants. Are you saying that out-of-the-box there's one massive chain of 70 odd effects? 

paulphoenix

out the box: 



50 memory locations for the storage of user-created patches

30 preset patches


100 guitar effects and amp models, including modulation, equalization, delay, and reverb (plus 72 additional effects from MS-50G Effect Manager)

Up to 6 effects can be used simultaneously, in any order

colourofsound

Ajoten said:

Woah there. I thought those buttons were just to scroll through the list of effects as one searches for the one one wants. Are you saying that out-of-the-box there's one massive chain of 70 odd effects? 

Nope! There are loads of effects, and you use the left and right buttons to go through a chain on a preset, and the up and down buttons to change the effect at that point in the chain. You can have 6 effects in one chain.

Imagine that each preset on the Zoom is a pedalboard made up of 6 spaces for 6 effects. you can add just one effect or fill up all 6 spaces with 6 effects - it's up to you.

So, as an exercise, try this:

Turn it on, and hit the middle rotary button. Turn the middle rotary button and select preset 2 which, I think, is 'ClearCho' (if its got the factory presets on). Press the middle rotary button again.

So, you should now have a chorus sound, and on the display will be a graphic that looks like a stomp box. You hit the footswitch to turn the sound on and off.

Moving any of the 3 rotary knobs will alter parameters such as volume, depth, etc.

Now, to get into adding more effects to that chain, when you have the stompbox graphic up, hit the button to the left of the footswitch. What this does is display the next effect in the chain to the left. Signal flows right to left (like on a pedalboard) so once you navigate to slot 2 or 3 you can press the right button to go back up the chain.

Now, I don't have the box in front of me, so I don't know whats in the preset, but you'll either be displayed with another, different stompbox graphic, or an empty placeholder.

Either way, press either button above or below the footswitch. Repeated presses will cycle through all of the effects the Zoom has. Once you select another effect, you will now have effect 1 stacking into effect 2.

To summarise:

• The 3 rotary knobs alter effects parameters on the displayed effect.
• The black buttons to the left and right of the footswitch navigate back and forth between effect spaces
• The black buttons above and below the footswitch cycle through the effects available.
• Confusing Fact: The footswitch turns on/off the displayed effect, not the whole preset!

Hope that clears things up. it's not exactly an intuitive pedal to use. I would say that altering the order of the effects and configuring it so the footswitch turns on/off the whole preset are 'advanced' features. Try the above first!

Keefy

^^^ What @colourofsound said!

Bear in mind some effects are DSP-hungry, so for example you probably won't be able to run 2 amp sims in the same patch - although why would you want to?

Ajoten

Thanks for that, I appreciate it.

So what should happen is that as one scrolls left and right the ON light should automatically go on and off depending on whether you turned  Effect X  on or off the last time?

colourofsound

Ajoten said:

Thanks for that, I appreciate it.

So what should happen is that as one scrolls left and right the ON light should automatically go on and off depending on whether you turned  Effect X  on or off the last time?

That is correct.

steer

Not meaning to sound too scathing here - but have you actually read the manual? If not, you can get the manual from the zoom website IIRC. 

 Or failing that, there is probably some youtube clips that will show you in 5 mins what would take an age for people to explain on here. 

Ajoten

I have read the manual several times and failed to understand. (And as it happens I write user guides for a living, so care deeply about such things, which is perhaps why I'm getting grumbly about it because it is very poorly written IMNVHO.) For example in the patch memory bit (which comes too early in the piece for my liking, I'll worry about saving settings later if you don't mind) we have a diagram illustrating saving Flanger as Chorus.  In the Add Effect bit it tells you how to select a category then stops. In the Remove Effect bit you have to DELETE a unit, which sounds a bit extreme. For this device, which is taking the  place of several devices, the writer would have been better using old skool effects pedal paradigm to split it into tasks. What am I adding an effect to? What am I removing it from? My virtual pedalboard? The set of units available? My current sound? Etc.

Plus I couldn't find anything on Youtube other than people running through the sounds (which I did manage myself).

But generally I find forums a better means of getting help than the alternatives. Which is why I'm here. @colourofsound's contribution  is more useful than the manual because it's giving some conceptual framework to help me understand.

People don't have to respond if they think it'll take too long...

colourofsound

Ajoten said:

I have read the manual several times and failed to understand. (And as it happens I write user guides for a living, so care deeply about such things, which is perhaps why I'm getting grumbly about it because it is very poorly written IMNVHO.) For example in the patch memory bit (which comes too early in the piece for my liking, I'll worry about saving settings later if you don't mind) we have a diagram illustrating saving Flanger as Chorus.  In the Add Effect bit it tells you how to select a category then stops. In the Remove Effect bit you have to DELETE a unit, which sounds a bit extreme. For this device, which is taking the  place of several devices, the writer would have been better using old skool effects pedal paradigm to split it into tasks. What am I adding an effect to? What am I removing it from? My virtual pedalboard? The set of units available? My current sound? Etc.

Plus I couldn't find anything on Youtube other than people running through the sounds (which I did manage myself).

But generally I find forums a better means of getting help than the alternatives. Which is why I'm here. @colourofsound's contribution  is more useful than the manual because it's giving some conceptual framework to help me understand.

People don't have to respond if they think it'll take too long...

Maybe i should write user guides for a living too! I'd like a new job...