Zoom release a compelling 200-Flavours Compact Gain Workstation - the MultiStomp MS-200D+

As soon as I saw this I thought - ’mini Boss OD-200’ - at least in concept. Zoom effects are fully DSP as far as I’m aware - so we don’t get a JFET input section like on the Boss and Strymon Hybrid / Digital gain pedals - while there should still be plenty of interesting flavours to be found here. The Bixonic Axentrix and Mooer Model X Preamp X2 were both instrumental in convincing me that you can get really decent gain voicings just from digital - also the Neunaber Neuron - all stand-alone gain machines. While I’m of course a huge fan of the Boss OD-200 and Strymon Riverside and Sunset. A key difference though between the OD-200 - is separate footswitches for ’Boost’ and main gain channel - which is not the case on the MS-200D+.

The Zoom MultiStomp MS-200D+ has something of an old-school feel about it - including its dot matrix screen - almost reminiscent in graphics and design - of early Casio GameBoys and certain early gaming consoles and displays.

I actually already own a Zoom MultiStomp pedal - the MS-100BT Blue (from 2013) - the only Bluetooth variety released to date as far as I’m aware. I noted that Steve Mac (Australian Pink Floyd) had one of those and felt compelled to get one and check it out - it for sure has some pretty great effects onboard. So I’m quite familiar with the MultiStomp format overall - while this newer iteration of that format has a cluster of 4 pad-like controls around the central footswitch - which make pedal operation even more elegant and more impactful.

Controls - Add, Delete, Library, Menu, Memory Down, Memory Up, Scroll Left, Scroll Right, Central Footswitch (Hold for Tuner).

Details for this device are still fairly raw - particularly in the area of what voicings are onboard - we knows that the pedal has 164 all-new original Zoom flavours - sound-designed by Zoom, and a further 36 emulations of classic gain pedals and amps - while I could not find a list or overview of those flavours - we can see some examples of different Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz voicings in the demos - but it’s inconclusive from just 1 proper video as to how potent and high fidelity this device really is. I believe retail price will be around $139 - so it’s probably affordable enough to be worth a punt - I’m obviously big into gain pedals - and I will for sure be getting one of these for the reference collection - to road-test it fully.

From what I see we mostly only get the 4 controls per voicing - as per the 4 knobs - which typically means Volume, Gain, Bass and Treble. For so many gain voicings you really need to be able to adjust the Mids too - so will be interesting to see if there is a facility for that - and if not what the overall impact is.

I like the form factor for sure - while everything else is currently mostly undefined. Would be cool for instance if you could re-assign the lower control pads to engage each of the 2 flavours you can combine for each preset - say quick vs long press - while I’m pretty sure that is not catered for!

Simply as a stripped down miniaturised OD-200 - this is a concept I can really get behind - while of course the acid test still remains as to have usable the pedal and its 200 flavours are.

This certainly goes down on the wishlist!

There are a few new and updated varieties of Zoom MultiStomp for the year - the MD-200D+ is the most interesting of those for me. None of those seem to have hit retail quite yet - so possibly something for Q2!