Zoom MultiStomp MS-70CDR Updated With 51 New Effects

Zoom has released a major firmware update for their MultiStomp MS-70CDR multi-effects pedal.

The MultiStomp MS-70CDR is designed as a guitar effects pedal, but is popular with synthesists because it provides a wide range of Reverb, Delay, Chorus and Dynamics effects in a small, affordable package.

MultiStomp MS-70CDR firmware 2.0 adds 51 new effects, in addition to the pedal’s existing 86 effects. The new firmware adds classic effects like Tremolo, Slicer, Octaver, Pitch Shifter, Slow Attack, Noise Gate, Exciter, and Envelope Filter. There’s also a compressor and some advanced effects such as Lo-Fi, Synthesizer and Organ simulation.

For details on the update, see the the MS-70CDR V2.0 Effects List (.pdf file).

Here’s an example of the MS-70CDR in action with a Prophet ’08 synthesizer (original firmware):

Here’s an example with a Korg Volca Keys:

Here’s a playlist of examples of the pedal in action with synthesizers:

Pricing and Availability

The Zoom MultiStomp MS-70CDR is available now with a street price of about US $120.

If you’ve used the MS-70CDR with synths, share your thoughts on it in the comments!

46 thoughts on “Zoom MultiStomp MS-70CDR Updated With 51 New Effects”

  1. I have been using this pedal for several years on all my synths and guitars. It is an amazing little unit. This upgrade looks great. I hope that installing the firmware upgrade is straight forward.

        1. i’m on Sierra… they ask to run as admin, so maybe it’s a SIP problem?

          in any case, i’m using the compressors on my drum machines now. ridiculously awesome

  2. I bought one of these on a whim when I saw it on sale for $90. I’m not at all exaggerating when I say it caused me to sell my H9MAX. And then I went and bought another one! It’s amazing for the money.

    1. Yes – fantastic deal.

      I’m not convinced that the reverbs are quite on a par with something like the H9MAX or even older Lexicons, though. They seem to have a bit of a metallic ring to them.

      I’d love to know what effects you’re using and whether you’ve tweaked them. I don’t know enough about the reverb options to know what I could tweak to get closer to what I’m after. I like the classic Lexicon sound that Vangelis used. The MS-70CDR can do those long reverbs, but just sounds a little metallic to me.

      1. Yeah, the reverbs are a little “ringy” and metallic but with some tweaks and pre-FX filter, it comes down a lot. To be fair, I do still use my Big Sky for most of my reverb needs but some of the combos on here, as well as any you want to make, sound pretty great for the price.

        Fwiw, my sounds veer toward crunchy/heavy so maybe I just don’t notice as much.

  3. So my out-of-warranty pedal is getting 51 new effects – for free?

    Kudos to Zoom – THAT’S the way to treat customers!

    Roland needs to learn from this – they seem to have abandoned their AIRA effects pedals. They are equally amazing devices, but I’d love to see them be an evolving platform.

  4. I have the MS-100BT (the bluetooth enabled one) — which lets you load some extra effects modules from a “store” app.

    I’ve been very happy with this pedal. There a few less-than-stellar effects in there. Apart from pitch-shifting, the pedal does most things quite well.

    The list looks Zoom hasn’t so much created new effects, but rather is making available for this pedal some effects that were already available for other units. But it is nice that they are continuing to expand existing products.

  5. FYI – the update was easy for us.

    Download the updater.

    Next, get a USB cable (USB Mini B). Hold the up and down arrows on the pedal, and then connect your pedal to your computer. This should put it in firmware update mode.

    Launch the updater and select ‘Execute’.

    It updated in about a minute.

  6. I just updated my MS-50g. As easy as Synthhead said.
    For this unit I have 170 effects from which I can load 130 or so.
    The only issue with these pedals is patch changing but for the money I can’t complain

  7. Great value. But I sold mine. For the reason that it felt overloaded soundwise, when running some multi effect patches. Which is understandable….The H9 and BigSky don’t really even try. It was easy to lose the top and bottom end of the frequency spectrum I felt. I’d give the reverbs a 6 or 7/10 compared to my new BigSky which gets 8 or 9/10…

    1. With my MS100BT, all the reverbs are different. There are some ringy ones, but there are some smooth, nicely diffuse ones. I just had to go through and find the good ones, and I avoid a few of the modules. The springs are ok if you need that kind of simulation.

      Two modules that stand out for me are the acoustic guitar sim which does a pretty nice job. Also, the ZNR is a pretty effective noise gate.

      There’s a 160 compressor sim that’s really good. I also like some of the amp sims and distortion pedals too.

  8. i know the unit responds to program change midi messages. i wish zoom had used the opportunity to implement a more comprehensive midi implementation so the effect parameters could be changed from an external controller

    1. Are you sure the unit responds to MIDI program change messages?

      As for realtime MIDI control, I don’ think this design is set up for that kind of realtime control; much less MIDI communication. Parameter adjustment is not especially smooth or predictable.

  9. At that price and what it brings, i’m putting this high up on my list of things i want to buy. It looks too good to be true but reading the comments here, it is real. It’s very cool it can be powered via DC, USB or batteries.

    1. Compare the models in the Multi-Stomp series. They each bring different things to the table. The MS100BT is more expandable in terms of available effects. You can chain up to six effects (but there are limits to processing, so you might get denied if you try to string too many high CPU modules together).

      It’s great if you can put together presets and don’t need realtime control other than switching.

      1. Ok, now that they are offering all the add-on FX for free in software updates, the MS-100BT (bluetooth) version has become unnecessary, and has been discontinued. The bluetooth feature was limited to OS updates & module trial & purchase– it was nice to be able to hear an audio example, and even load an effect for a chunk of time to try it out before buying it. However, BT didn’t do anything else, no patch librarian, no editor, no realtime control, etc. So it’s understandable that they would abandon it with the modules now all included in other units..

        The MS-100BT has stereo in/out, whereas the MS-50G has a mono input/stereo out.

        The MS-70CDR (chorus, delay, reverb) doesn’t do all the amp sims, so it’s a bit limited in terms of the modules it includes, but does have the stereo in/out.

        1. If you are considering an MS series effect box, please see my post at the end of this thread. It makes important distinctions between the 70CDR, the 50G, the 50B and the 100BT.

  10. All the add-on effects for the MS-100BT are now free but you must download and install them one at a time from an iOS device.

    1. Now free? That’s cool. I probably bought about $30-40 worth and am happy with them. I see the MS100 BT isn’t shown in their cuurent products list any more.

    2. Just went ahead and downloaded the rest. What an amazing collection! It was tedious (one effect at a time, having to re-enter my Apple PW every 15 minutes) but now that it is done, I can restore them all at once if I ever need to.

      Thanks for letting me know. There are some great ones there.

  11. Is this worth getting if you do all your work through a DAW, or are VST fx on a par with this anyway? I have Komplete 10 and a bunch of other VSTs, so I wonder what I’d gain from getting one of these. I am GASsing over it, as it gets mentioned a lot, but wonder if it would just add to the clutter and take up another plug socket (or constantly recharging batteries).

    Thanks

    1. I think these are acceptable for live playing but I don’t know if they are better than a VST fx. I don’t think they are

    3. Unless you have hardware soundmakers you want to plug into it, skip it. It’s not on par with VSTs and doesn’t really add anything specifically magical, “mojo” wise that you can’t cook up in a VST.

      Not dissing it. I have the 50 and love it but I use it with hardware, without a computer involved.

      1. You don’t get more preset slots, you get 51 more choices for modules to use in your presets. Edit your preset, and you should see new options of modules to insert into the chain.

  14. I see that the MS-70CDR unit doesn’t include any of the amp sims. But does have stereo i/o.

    The MS-100BT is discontinued. However, the MS-50G now allows you do download and customize built-in effects with the stompshare app.

    If you don’t need a stereo input (only stereo output) the MS-50G seems like a better option because you get the full stompshare selection and all the amp sims that are included.

  15. After a quick look at things, here are some useful points of comparison between MS (Multi-Stomp) units:

    MS-100BT: (discontinued, but still available) makes both bass and guitar effects available in one pedal, all effects must be loaded via StompShare app, a bit time-consuming, (might take a few hours) but once their in, you’ll never have to do that again.

    MS-50G: They have added all the guitar-based modules to the version 3 software. (Bass FX and amp sims are missing). Mono in, stereo out.

    MS-50B: Vice-versa with the 50B, this is a bass-based unit, with most guitar-based FX and amp sim modules missing. Mono in, stereo out.

    MS-70CDR: This includes both guitar and bass effects modules (but it seems to be missing some of the synth modules– as far as I can tell). Not only does it NOT include any amp sims, it also DOESN’T INCLUDE ANY DISTORTION/OVERDRIVE modules.

    That’s a major sacrifice, considering that the MS series pedals do this pretty well. Very experienced guitarists will obviously not be satisfied with the clones, but the distortion/overdrive sounds have a crap-ton of variety and they sound good just as their own personalities.

    I think the above list gives you a good idea what unit to consider in the MS-Series.

    1. with the MS-100BT: I wrote above that “all effects must be loaded via stompshare”, that’s not correct. It comes pre-loaded with a wide selection. The free Stompshare app adds 116 more modules (now all free). The only reason not to add them all is if you want to reduce the number of options you have to scroll through.

  16. I hope Zoom someday will include distortion/overdrive effects to MS-70CDR, even though the pedal is meant for mod/delay/reverb. Since MS-70CDR is stereo in, it would mean a lot!

    1. I strongly suspect they never will. They want you to buy more than one. The fact that they discontinued the MS-100BT means they eliminated the one option that let you have everything in one pedal.

      This thread got me GAS’ing and I ended up ordering a second MS-100BT. When you GAS for something you already have, it must be good.

  17. Got the 50g last year in our local used gear shop for $29! Love it. I’ve yet to plug my guitar into it but it’s a delight on synths. none of the individual effects would qualify as ‘best in class’ but the amount of sonic variation available for the price (even at 4x what I paid) is pretty incredible.

    It suffers the same problems as other menu based doohickeys (there’s nothing like knob per function going on here) but Zoom did some clever stuff with the controls available making the whole experience pretty fluid.

    1. I can’t compare those, but I’d say your best bet would be to go and listen to demos of all of those on YT and compare yourself. You can also kind of checklist the feature-sets and see which ones do which things well.

      I’d say the Zoom MS series are more about using presets (even ones you make), but not so much realtime control. There’s a good set up for calling up presets in any order you assign.

  20. Just updated with Mac no problem. I highly endorse this pedal. Been using it on the SH-101, JX-3P and also drums for a few years. Love it.

  21. After one-by-one “purchasing” all the StompShare modules for $0.00 each, I started to load them to my MS-100BT, and found that I could load quite a few before getting the MEMORY FULL warning. After that, I have the option to “Manage Effects” where I can delete any effects that are reported in the list.

    My next task is to determine which add-ons I want to have regular access to. I’m taking some notes and kind of weighing the various categories & tones. If I ever need any of the others, I can load them later, assuming the StompShare app is functional when that time comes. That’s why I want to choose carefully now.

    What is tricky is that there might be an amp sim that gives me a great distortion, but it takes lots of CPU. So I need another lighter stompbox version in case I need to run other effects simultaneously. It would be ideal if Zoom published a table that showed ALL effects (built-in and add-ons) that showed their CPU load (relative to the total) and for add-ons, the amount of memory they take.

    The StompShare app itself is a bit wonky and I had to delete and re-install it to get it to work again. That’s why I want to choose carefully now, in case I’m stuck with whatever I pick.

  22. Hi, I have a Zoom ms-70cdr and would like to update the firmware to version 2.0 but I would like to know if by doing so, I will loose my patches. If that is the case, is there a way to save the current patches in any way before updating the firmware? Best regards. Yves

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