Recording - July 2013 - 18

B Y M I K E M E T L AY

In our December 2012 Gift Guide, we
took a quick look at the just-arrived Zoom
MS-50G, a new pedal that launched the
company’s MultiStomp line. Since then, new
MultiStomps like the bass-friendly MS-60B
have been released, and more are on the
way; for this issue we’d like to dive a little
deeper into one particular unit with some
added tricks up its sleeve—the MS-100BT.
The “100” refers to 100 effects algorithms,
way more than the 55 in the MS-50G, and
the BT refers to Bluetooth. Bluetooth... on a
stomp box? Read on.

Zoom

get a “DSP Full!” message, but it takes
some effort to make this happen. Its layout
is similar to that of Zoom’s larger G3 and
G5 multieffects processors (reviewed July
2012), but without the larger units’ array
of hands-on controls and multiple LCDs.
With practice, it’s easy to set up a chain of
modules, add new ones, select sounds and
tweak parameters (three at a time in tabbed
pages), and save the results as a preset. It’s
often easy to call up one module that combines multiple sounds (such as a phased
delay), letting you create very rich tones with
only one or two modules. If you’re working
with a longer chain, there are shortcuts to
help you quickly remove or deactivate a
module, or “lift” and “drop” a module from
one slot in the chain to another.

MS-100BT MultiStomp Guitar Pedal
Small and mighty
The MS-100BT, like all MultiStomps, is a
full-on digital multieffects processor (with chromatic tuner) wedged into the case of a single
conventional stompbox. As you can see from
the photo, presenting all that power in a format that’s small enough to pop into a pedalboard, yet easy to use and program, presents
a bit of a challenge. The MS-100BT has three
push-turn encoders and four buttons surrounding its on/off footswitch, all combined
with a backlit graphic LCD. The resulting user
interface lets you get to every effect and parameter, even if it means doing a bit of menudiving and click-clicking to get there.
Unlike the MS-50G and MS-60B, the MS100BT is a true stereo in/out effect that can
be used with not only guitar and bass but keyboards or other stereo sources; its 1 Megohm
input impedance means it plays well with guitars and doesn’t harm your tone. The only
other physical connection is for an optional
AC adapter (the MS-100BT runs on two AA
batteries); the USB connection present on the
MS-50G has been replaced by a Bluetooth
transceiver. Oh, and speaking of I/O, the
unit’s audio converters are 24-bit/44.1 kHz
and the sound clarity is quite good.
Chaining up
The MS-100BT uses Zoom’s most powerful DSP chip yet, the 32-bit floating-point
ZFX-IV, and provides up to six effects modules in a series, subject to the chip’s processing limitations—if you stack up a
bunch of dense reverbs or complex pitch
modulation modules in a row, you could
18

RECORDING July 2013

Beam yourself new sounds with this innovative stompbox

The footswitch doesn’t bypass the
whole chain, but only the currently-selected module; you can choose which module in the chain is “live” when storing a
preset. To understand why this is important, here’s a quick example.
One of the included modules is a Line
Selector; stepping on the footswitch while this
module is selected will switch back and forth
between sending audio to the next module in
the chain or sending it straight to the output.
That lets you chain, for example, a delay and
reverb after a set of other effects and cut them
in and out for a “bloom” effect as you play.
A Tail control on many of the modules lets you
choose if an effect rings out or cuts off when
bypassed, but this trick lets you switch in and
out of a whole chain of effects if desired.
The MS-100BT has slots for 50 presets, 30
of which come preloaded with user-reprogrammable example sounds from Zoom.
The patch browser also allows you to assign
each of up to 26 patches a letter from A to

Z, which creates an order for the footswitch
to cycle through them during a live set.
The modules
We won’t provide a complete list of modules here; there are 92 effects and 8 amp
models provided with the MS-100BT and
they offer such a wide range of sounds that
they make the MS-50G’s mere 55 choices
look paltry. There are 20 Dynamics and Filter
modules; 21 Overdrives and Distortions
(well, 20, plus an Acoustic Guitar Simulator);
8 amp simulators; 29 Modulation and
Special FX; and 22 Delays and Reverbs.
Some of the very cool new sounds not
available on the MS-50G include an envelope-driven resonant filter, a comb filter (think
a flanger without sweep), random and
cycling filters, several new distortion models
based on effects like the Marshall Guv’nor
and the Fuzz Face, an audio “slicer”, dual
phaser, vintage chorus and flange effects
inspired by pedals like the BOSS CE-1 and



Recording - July 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2013

Recording - July 2013
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
Sontronics Halo Guitar Cabinet Microphone
Radial Engineering StageBug SB-1 and SB-2 Direct Boxes
Zoom MS-100BT MultiStomp Guitar Pedal
Heptode Virtuoso Phase Shifter
Roland GC-1 GK-Ready Stratocaster and GR-S and GR-D V-Guitar Pedals
A Guitar Recording Primer. Part 1: Electric Guitars
Sage Electronics SE-DI3 Mighty G Active Direct Box
Sonic Farm 2DI4 Pentode Direct Box
Nine Guitar Recording Ideas
KEF LS50 Monitor 50th Anniversary Model
Millennia HV-37 Microphone and Instrument Preamplifier
Marty Stuart’s Grammy®-Winning Guitar Sounds
Readers’ Tapes
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 19: Headphones—Part 2
iOS Music Tools: MIDI Designer
iOS Music Tools: A Tasty Pixel/Audanika Audiobus
Plug-in Outlet: PSP Audioware PSP SpringBox
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - July 2013 - Intro
Recording - July 2013 - Recording - July 2013
Recording - July 2013 - Cover2
Recording - July 2013 - 1
Recording - July 2013 - 2
Recording - July 2013 - 3
Recording - July 2013 - Fade In
Recording - July 2013 - Contents
Recording - July 2013 - 6
Recording - July 2013 - 7
Recording - July 2013 - Talkback
Recording - July 2013 - 9
Recording - July 2013 - 10
Recording - July 2013 - 11
Recording - July 2013 - Fast Forward
Recording - July 2013 - 13
Recording - July 2013 - Sontronics Halo Guitar Cabinet Microphone
Recording - July 2013 - 15
Recording - July 2013 - Radial Engineering StageBug SB-1 and SB-2 Direct Boxes
Recording - July 2013 - 17
Recording - July 2013 - Zoom MS-100BT MultiStomp Guitar Pedal
Recording - July 2013 - 19
Recording - July 2013 - Heptode Virtuoso Phase Shifter
Recording - July 2013 - 21
Recording - July 2013 - Roland GC-1 GK-Ready Stratocaster and GR-S and GR-D V-Guitar Pedals
Recording - July 2013 - 23
Recording - July 2013 - A Guitar Recording Primer. Part 1: Electric Guitars
Recording - July 2013 - 25
Recording - July 2013 - 26
Recording - July 2013 - 27
Recording - July 2013 - 28
Recording - July 2013 - 29
Recording - July 2013 - 30
Recording - July 2013 - 31
Recording - July 2013 - 32
Recording - July 2013 - 33
Recording - July 2013 - 34
Recording - July 2013 - 35
Recording - July 2013 - Sage Electronics SE-DI3 Mighty G Active Direct Box
Recording - July 2013 - 37
Recording - July 2013 - 38
Recording - July 2013 - 39
Recording - July 2013 - Sonic Farm 2DI4 Pentode Direct Box
Recording - July 2013 - 41
Recording - July 2013 - Nine Guitar Recording Ideas
Recording - July 2013 - 43
Recording - July 2013 - 44
Recording - July 2013 - 45
Recording - July 2013 - KEF LS50 Monitor 50th Anniversary Model
Recording - July 2013 - 47
Recording - July 2013 - Millennia HV-37 Microphone and Instrument Preamplifier
Recording - July 2013 - 49
Recording - July 2013 - Marty Stuart’s Grammy®-Winning Guitar Sounds
Recording - July 2013 - 51
Recording - July 2013 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - July 2013 - 53
Recording - July 2013 - 54
Recording - July 2013 - 55
Recording - July 2013 - 56
Recording - July 2013 - 57
Recording - July 2013 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 19: Headphones—Part 2
Recording - July 2013 - 59
Recording - July 2013 - iOS Music Tools: MIDI Designer
Recording - July 2013 - 61
Recording - July 2013 - iOS Music Tools: A Tasty Pixel/Audanika Audiobus
Recording - July 2013 - 63
Recording - July 2013 - Plug-in Outlet: PSP Audioware PSP SpringBox
Recording - July 2013 - Advertiser Index
Recording - July 2013 - 66
Recording - July 2013 - 67
Recording - July 2013 - 68
Recording - July 2013 - 69
Recording - July 2013 - 70
Recording - July 2013 - 71
Recording - July 2013 - Fade Out
Recording - July 2013 - Cover3
Recording - July 2013 - Cover4
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