Question:
I have been using a Roland VG-8 for the past year and I am getting some good tones out of it, but I need something newer, smaller, lighter and simpler to use during a worship set.I am looking at these multi-effect units: Digitech RP350, Digitech GNX3000, and the Zoom G7.1ut. (any others I should consider?) Units like the POD XTL and BOSS GT-8 are good units, but bigger and more expensive than what I would like to pay for one, for the amount of time I use one.
At this point, I think that the features are more important to me than the tones, all things being equal. With the VG-8 and some other units I have owned, such as the POD XT, I would have to program the patches I wanted for each song in order and then I would just move between patches at each point in the song/set. This works fine, unless you get to worship and they change a song, or you want to do something different and it might be hard to make last minute adjustments to your patch mix.
Some of the things I would like in a multi-effects unit are these:

• A boost function for lead parts, that can either be saved with a patch or used on-the-fly (preferred)
• A way to set up one amp type and turn on/off different effects easily during a set, such as chorus, tremolo, distortion/overdrive, delay, etc.
• A way to set up a good delay effect like U2's
• Several variations of Chorus, Tremolo, Phaser, Delay and Reverb
• A way to move through your patches in groups rather than one patch at a time (moving from A1->B1->C1, rather than A1->A2->A3->A4->B1, etc) to quickly get to a particular bank of patches for a particular song
• Good noise reduction for high-gain tones

Nice features to have would be:

• Way to switch between two patches quickly or A/B channels
• Some type of pickup modeling to give more tonal options
• Way to morph or combine two amp models into new tone

Any suggestions as to what would be best out of these three choices? Or are there any other features that one of these might have that would make it a better choice for live play, rather than features like recording that I would probably never use?
Answer:
Uncanny. Have you been looking at the Digitech GNX3000 user manual? Your needs virtually match what it can do, especially your specific needs. By the way, I own one and recommend it highly.