Electronic Musician - Samson
Electronic Musician - Samson
Electronic Musician - Samson
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ecord • produce • perform<br />
REVIEWS!<br />
IZotope<br />
Alloy 2<br />
FX plug-in<br />
toolbox<br />
Zoom<br />
MS-100BT<br />
MultiStomp<br />
guitar pedal<br />
emusician.com<br />
USB Mics<br />
Come of Age<br />
6<br />
Versatile<br />
Models For<br />
Any Studio<br />
Application<br />
Web<br />
Royaltie$<br />
Get Your Piece<br />
of the Pie!<br />
®<br />
THE Swedish House Superstar<br />
Talks Tech<br />
04.2013<br />
$5.99 CAN $6.99<br />
A MUSIC PLAYER PUBLICATION<br />
Top10<br />
Trends FROM<br />
NAMM 2013<br />
Jamie Lidell<br />
Electro-Soul<br />
in the Studio
LUST<br />
review<br />
Zoom<br />
MS-100BT<br />
MultiStomp<br />
Innovative guitar pedal<br />
combines Bluetooth, iOS,<br />
and cool sounds<br />
BY CRAIG ANDERTON<br />
SUMMARY<br />
STRENGTHS: Creative effects, and<br />
plenty of them. Bluetooth connection<br />
for loading and trying new effects from<br />
StompShare. Very easy to tweak. Tap<br />
tempo. Extremely compact.<br />
LIMITATIONS: The app store amps<br />
sound better to me than the built-in ones.<br />
Impractical to access lots of different<br />
patches live.<br />
$249.99 MSRP,<br />
$149.99 street<br />
samsontech.com<br />
THE MS-100BT multieffects has<br />
several features that stand out.<br />
First, it can load new effects<br />
and amps from an iOS app called<br />
StompShare; prices range from $0.99<br />
for effects to $1.99 for amps—very<br />
reasonable. Zoom circumvents the 30-pin/<br />
Lightning issue by nuking the cable entirely,<br />
and using Bluetooth to transfer patches from<br />
your iOS device to the MultiStomp (it’s fast,<br />
too). Second, it offers true multieffects—buying<br />
an amp or effect adds it to the roster of 100<br />
processors (92 effects and eight amps), which<br />
you can store as effects chains in 50 presets.<br />
One of StompShare’s best features is that<br />
in addition to audio demos, you can load an<br />
effect into the MS-100BT and play through it<br />
for 15 minutes (and you’re not limited to one<br />
trial period). What’s more, all parameters are<br />
editable via the MS-100BT’s hardware controls,<br />
so you can really explore the possibilities. You<br />
can also insert the effect into a patch with other<br />
effects to check it out in context.<br />
Onboard Effects The MS-100BT has quite<br />
a selection, including “out there” effects like<br />
a bit crusher, ring modulator, and several<br />
synthesizer-type options. Although I often<br />
find these kinds of sounds to be clever but not<br />
useful, some of them are definite keepers. It<br />
also has the expected collection of dynamics,<br />
EQ, time-based, and modulation effects. You<br />
can load up to six effects, within limits of the<br />
available DSP; I found it very difficult to run<br />
out of DSP power.<br />
The amps are good, but others who are<br />
as picky as I am will appreciate the multiple<br />
pages of tweakable parameters—you can even<br />
The MS-<br />
100BT<br />
MultiStomp,<br />
with the<br />
StompShare<br />
app in the<br />
background.<br />
mix and match amps<br />
and cabinets. One<br />
cool studio trick is to<br />
turn off the cab and use an<br />
amp sim’s cab to create a variety of<br />
flavors. My favorite amps were the optionalat-extra-cost<br />
ones; I particularly liked the<br />
Tone City, Match 30, and MS Crunch amps,<br />
with the Centagold overdrive providing a<br />
great complement to any of them. Basically,<br />
for $6.96 I got the amp sounds I wanted and<br />
more . . . that’s a helluva deal.<br />
Painless Interface For tabletop<br />
programming, the combination of three<br />
push-pots and multiple pages make it<br />
virtually painless to navigate around, despite<br />
the flexibility. However, for live use there’s<br />
no random access, or MIDI footswitch<br />
compatibility; you program a “playlist” of<br />
effects, and step through them to get from<br />
preset to preset. For a half-dozen presets, this<br />
is doable but too many more, and you’ll be tap<br />
dancing. (Hey Zoom—how about an iPad app<br />
for preset random access?)<br />
Beyond Guitar Even without Bluetooth and<br />
the StompShare app, the MS-100BT is packed<br />
with useful effects, yet its size would let it slide<br />
right into a pedalboard. It’s mercifully easy to<br />
tweak and adapt presets for feeding an amp or<br />
going direct into a mixer. We’ll see what optional<br />
effects appear in the future, but the 22 existing<br />
effects are off to a fine start—and the overall<br />
sound quality is a step up from previous Zoom<br />
products. This level of functionality at this price,<br />
with these kinds of sounds, is very hard to beat—<br />
and good for a more than just guitar. n<br />
50 emusician.com 04.2013