Zoom MS-70CDR+ MultiStomp Chorus/Delay/Reverb Pedal

The Zoom MS-70CDR+ (Multi-Stomp) is an updated version of a multi-effects pedal by the same name (Minus the “+”) that was released around 2013. I never owned the original, but have had some favorable experiences with Zoom products in the area of budget multi-effects units (G1Xon) and recording devices (R4 MultiTrak recorder). For whatever reason, Zoom has not gained widespread popularity for their guitar pedals, though the original MS-70CDR was very well-regarded by those that owned one, particularly for its chorus and delay sounds. In my early experience owning the MS-70CDR+, I’ve been really impressed with the device. It has some limitations, as all products do, but relative to the price point (around $120 U.S.), it’s an insane value once you consider how much it would cost to try and compile just a few of the effects in there in standalone pedals. Here are my thoughts on what I liked and didn’t like about the pedal. --- PROS: --- Innovative Design – Zoom’s (guitar effects) reputation is for budget gear in a plastic enclosure meant for beginner players, but that does not describe the MS-70CDR+ at all. Everywhere you see light blue on the pedal is metal, and only the sides and back are plastic. I’ve owned and sold tons of pedals and never come across a design layout quite like this. The whole thing is the size of a BOSS compact pedal, but they’ve managed to cram 5 large switches on the bottom part, plus 4 encoder knobs, and a decently-sized screen. I would say that only the metal bypass switch and the two lower black buttons are easily “footswitch”, but all of them are great to operate with your finger, and being able to hit the ancillary buttons is less important on this device compared to the looper in the same pedal line. Audio Quality – If there is one thing Zoom does well, it is audio quality and digital encoding, and this unit features “24-bit A/D/A and 32-bit processing”. What this means is better clarity and less risk of effects clipping or distorting than the digital effects of years past. Effects Selection – If you’re interested in the Multi-Stomp, the primary draw is the sheer value and number of effects available. For just over $100, you can purchase this one pedal and have access to dozens of delay, modulation, reverb, and other effects (filters, dynamics, EQ’s, and a tuner accessible by long press on the bypass switch). Moreover, these can be run in chains of up to 6 effects, though some of the CPU-hungry algorithms may require you to use a few less. This pedal is great for covering niche effects that maybe you don’t want to buy a dedicated pedal for, but would use on occasion if available. Something like a chorus or a shimmer reverb is a good example of that for my playing. No, the quality doesn’t rival Eventide, Strymon, or other premium brands, but some of them are quite good. Moreover, the number of parameters offered for some of the effects is quite impressive. For example, the pedal has a Dual Delay, which is great for a U2-style “dotted eighth plus quarter note” style of delay. I have other pedals that can accommodate dual delay lines to some degree, including the BOSS DD-200 and MXR Joshua. But few dual delays can handle tap tempo time sync, modulation, and control over the relative mix and feedback of each delay line – the MS-70CDR+ does this and sounds really good. Oh, and those competitor pedals I mentioned cost twice as much as this one, and do not include a library of 149 effects. Battery Power – This is big one for me. A pedal like this would be great on a pedalboard for its flexibility, but the real appeal is taking some of that effects functionality you would get in something like a Helix and placing it in a small pedal that can run on two AA batteries for 7 hours. I pulled the trigger on the MS-70CDR+ when I realized how useful it would be for acoustic guitar. I can create simple signal chains with reverb, EQ, pitch shifting, and a slight hint of compression – no power cable required. --- CONS: --- MIDI Capabilities – If the MS-70CDR+ were fully MIDI-capable, it would a powerhouse unit for pedalboards. Unfortunately, the connectivity is only MIDI over USB (which requires a USB “host”), and I believe the control is limited basically to program changes, which means flipping through presets. The U.I. on the unit itself is actually quite good, but if you’re a power user looking to activate a particular chain of effects with a particular set of parameters via MIDI, this probably isn’t the unit for you. (Maybe check out something like the Helix ONE in that case.) However, the number of sub-$200 digital units that have any meaningful MIDI capabilities is pretty sparse, so I think it’s a little silly to ding the MS-70CDR+ on MIDI when it does so much for so little. Poor Access to 9V Jack – This one was sort-of an “own goal” by Zoom, as there must be design reason why the circular 9V power jack is recessed almost a full centimeter into the unit, but I’m not sure what it would be. If you have a right-angle power plug (as many are), it might not work. Moreover, the unit reportedly draws 500mA of current, which is a pretty huge number and in excess of what many standard power supplies for pedal boards could supply. The issues power the device are mitigated somewhat by the option to power using a USB-C cable and, of course, the ability to use it with batteries, which I plan to do almost exclusively. Mobile App Requires Cable & Is Not Free – This one seems to drive people nuts, and if you see any reviews of the MS-70CDR+ where there’s a bunch of reduced scores, chances are pretty good it’s due to anger over the phone app. For whatever reason, Zoom made a phone app available to use with the pedal, but it costs 99 cents. I did pay this and actually find the app pretty useful. I also handles firmware updates, which is a nice side-benefit, but if you’re designing six-pedal signal chains from scratch and re-naming and re-ordering them, it’s a bit easier to do on the app. Note that you need a USB Camera Connection kit for some Apple products, in order to hook it up to the USB-C jack. Also, I find it annoying that you cannot work on patches while “offline” and disconnected from the device. I would love to work on my presets and browse the effects library while waiting somewhere on my phone, but it needs to connect to the pedal to do that. --- CONCLUSION: --- I really can find little fault with this insanely-valued pedal. The encoder knobs are a little small and fiddly, and the workflow on the pedal does have a slight learning curve. However, everything about the pedal is fully intuitive and even if you only liked a fraction of the effects, it would still be well worth owning. To me, this is the perfect Swiss Army Knife to pair with an amp modeler like Tonex ONE, or to use with acoustic guitars, synths, or other instruments.

First of all, massive improvement sound wise from the 1st version which I own. Keep in mind, this DOES NOT have distortion models, which I don't need but for some that's a deal breaker. The new "Shimmer+" reverb is leaps and bounds over the last shimmer, which they have if liked the sound of the old one. To my ears, overall the sound is much better. Build quality great. I love the bigger navigation buttons. They are big enough to tap with you toe if you play barefoot or are just really talented with shoes, but I really don't think that was their goal. The old MS-50 had navigation buttons that were just kind of difficult to use. Even with your hands. If you are looking for major league sounds or a step above this, then I would go for the "Line 6 HX-One." It's a little pricier but the sounds are definitely better and there are way more of them. But.... With this pedal you can put up to 5 effects (I think, it may be 6) per patch, which makes it way more flexible. There isn't a footswitch jack for momentary footswitch but again, you can reach the navigation buttons with a little work. Summary: If you are looking for something that can do multiple jobs and not take up a ton of space on your pedal board then this is hard to beat at this price point. It makes a fantastic utility pedal that can cover a bunch of different tasks.

The fact that you can stack multiple effects does the trick for anyone who wants to craft practically any kind of legendary signature modulation. Of course, you are not gonna get Strymon-like quality, but everything sounds more than solid. I'm using it as a modulation/reverb wildcard pedal and I'm loving it so much. My personal favorite effects are the Ice Delay in combination with the Particle Reverb to emulate the Eventide's Crystals pitch effect.

It's weird how digital effects don't sound that great with guitars into tube amps, but sound fantastic when something that's also digital is pushed through them. My Behringer synth clones sound amazing through any virtual pedal chain I put together. The selection of pedals is pretty impressive. The way you chain them, logical. The display a lot better than you expect it to be. This is an outstanding product, just not for what it was intended for. Also, the power connector is insanely dumb. Anybody adding this to a pedalboard is probably going to need to get a razor and physically shave a normal 9v plug to make it fit the stupid non-standard power connector. That was such a pain to deal with it loses a star. That said, this is a pretty compact effects processor that does a great job with other digital things. Not so much tube things. I haven't found a "can't live without this" setting yet, but I'm sure I will. It has that vibe.

Just so you know, I'm using this pedal as a desktop effects unit for synths, samplers and drum machines, so I can't comment on its performance with guitars. That said, for the money, this is an excellent multi effects unit. Build quality is compact and sturdy. Operating it with my hands, the navigation buttons are easy to use. The effect adjustment knobs are smallish, though, and may be a bit of a challenge to adjust for those with bigger hands. Bypass operation is also a little awkward, but since I won't be depending on this in a live situation, it's ok. Stereo ins and outs, and a surprisingly nice backlit display. This unit can be battery/AC adapter powered, and as usual, you have to provide your own AC adapter if you wish to go that route. Note that for whatever reason, they recessed the port for the AC adapter, so some people have reported trouble attaching an adapter plug. As long as the barrel of your adapter plug isn't too chunky, you should be ok, but you've been warned. Sound quality is good for most of the effects - they've built some decent delay, reverb, chorus and phaser algorithms into this unit. May not compete with $$$ dedicated effects, but the Zoom MS-70CDR+ offers a lot of sonic bang for the buck! Aside from the bread and butter effects they also included a few unusual algorithms that are sure to reward those adventurous souls among us. Anyway, if you're looking for a 'Swiss Army Knife' effects unit for your synths, samplers and drum machines, the Zoom MS-70CDR+ is well worth checking out! :)

Love it. Easy to operate. Worth the money.

It sounds good and lots of options from what I read. Pedal seems solid. Reason for the '3' was the ad: "What's in the box Power adapter, User manual". BEWARE, this is battery only with the option to purchase an optional AC power adapter. It was NOT included in my purchase at least. I made Amazon aware. At best, the ad is misleading or was misleading to me at least. Make sure you have 2 AA batteries on hand to use it unless you buy separately the ZOOM power adapter. The wording of the ad should say, 'Battery powered only unless you purchase the optional AC power adapter.' Again, sounds good from what I've read. Haven't tried it yet. Need to go find some batteries.

There is a lot to break down on this thing. But I only bought because I didn't want to spend 300 on a delay and another 250 on a chorus. There is also a compressor and some other things but anyway, there are like 6 choruses and they do what they are expected to do, just not more than that. The delays of which I think there are 8...also work as expected. I have not tried using 3 delays at a time with 2 chorus settings yet, I think it is possible and probably cool but I didnt get this for that. My thing is, for 150 bucks I can run 6 effects including a comp and have a lit up display that I can see in the dark even with the other bright led lights all over the pedal board. In addition, there are two ins and two outs. This Zoom accomplishes all that and for this and a reasonable price I give 5 stars. Beware, the menus can get deep if you want to go there. I have not...yet.