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Some sold on ebay for just under £400 recently.....
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Atomic-Amplifire-Amp-Modelling-Multi-Effects-/122555235110?hash=item1c88dc7b26:g:RbIAAOSwz71ZR66r
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Atomic-Amplifire-/322571355481?hash=item4b1ac04559:g:1uoAAOSw~XpZU~sH
I have two multi-FX units here, which I was trying to decide between... my 1990s Boss GT-5 and a ME-50 which I think is about ten years old - OK, not the most up-to-date technology but it's still fully digital (COSM) whereas the GT-5 is a hybrid of analogue overdrive/distortion, digital time-based effects and COSM amp modelling (which I didn't use for this test).
And a Boss LS-2. This is important because it enables direct A/B switching on the fly, with accurately matched levels (since that changes the apparent tone).
The surprising conclusion is that although both units are quite different in technology and layout, flexibility, ease of use etc… they sound almost identical, on those effects where there are direct equivalents. I could set them both up so it was very difficult to tell them apart, and if you picked one at random and played through it you probably wouldn't be able to tell which it was.
This is a good thing, because I can now use each for its own strengths - the GT-5 for it's greater number of simultaneous effects, flexible effect order and the ability to save multiple 'pedalboards' which can then be controlled manually - and the ME-50 for its simple, knob-based interface. (I don't like its programmable mode at all.) I had assumed one would sound better than the other and I would end up selling the one that sounded least good and putting up with the limitations of the other.
So I would now actually be surprised if most of the other Boss models sound *that* different from each other either. Given that, I would also not be too surprised if that applies to quite a lot of the other makers too… in other words, you may be best choosing based on flexibility and user interface, rather than sound. I suspect that with a bit of work - which you need with any multi-FX - almost all of them can be made to sound good.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It's perfectly possible to use a G3 is a full gig-worthy multifx. Below is a picture of my setup which is a small rig (on a PedalTrain 1) which I use if my huge BOSS ES-8 board is too big for the venue or I have to go direct to the PA (or as a backup if my amp goes down).
The G3 handles all the FX (and amp sims if I need them). One of the best kept secrets about the G3 is that it is midi compatible, but only does MIDI over USB. I control it with the Tech21 MIDI Moose. The midi out from the Tech21 goes to a Kenton MIDI>USB converter which sends midi over a USB cable to the G3. The MIDI Moose sends bank changes which correspond to patches on the G3. So I can have up to 5 patches per song which is enough for anyone. As an example the five buttons on the MIDI Moose bank 1 gives me:
Twin
Twin with slapback
Twin with Chorus and slapback
Twin with TS
Twin with wah and TS
The expression pedal goes into the G3 and I can vary one parameter per effect per patch. I was about to build an Arduino midi>USB converter but I found the Kenton cheap. It's small, neat and I can use it with an amp or the PA. OK, it's not a Helix or Axe FX but the amp sims are good enough to get me through a gig and there's no way any non-musician in the audience would be able to tell I'm not using real pedals or amp.
It is annoying to me that Zoom don't make the exact product I'd like to buy - which is something not too bulky, with all the modulations/delays/reverbs etc. on the G3, plus the extras on the MS70CDR, say up to 9 effects in a chain, and with at least a couple of send-return loops that can be moved anywhere in the signal chain, and with proper banks and presets type switching.
To be fair, no other company seems to make anything like that either, though Boss's MS-3 might be the closest. The MS-3 does interest me, but I can't help comparing it's range of effects with those on the G3, which often seems to have a bigger range of each type - for example, the G3 has 4 or 5 different chorus types, and the boss just one or two. Same sort of thing with phasers, flangers etc. - the Zoom is very good for offering a wide range of effects within the different types, and it's mostly all good stuff as well. Boss seems to be more of the "you want a phaser, it's got a phaser, that ought to be enough" mind set.
When it comes to the bigger, all-in-one multi-fx boards, then I really feel they should be able to do everything I want, including drive sounds. I don't wan't to have a sizeable multi-fx, and then have to have that mounted on a pedal board, with external drive pedals added at the side, or other stuff, as that seems to negate the convenience and neatness of the whole idea. Probably something like the Helix would work great for me in this context, but that's getting into way more expenditure than I can justify.
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/25562-mooer-audio-releases-the-red-truck-baby-bomb-mod-factory-pro-and-tender-octaver-pro
So, whenever you select A0 on the G3 you would need to make sure that the corresponding A0 patch on the MS-70CDR was what you needed. You would also need to make sure that the signal gets tot he Zooms so I reckon that you could put a USB hub on the board as the Kenton only has one USB out. You would plug a USB hub into the Kenton and then the Zooms into the hub.