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I don't think thats meant as a sound difference, the bass synth can sound just the same as a key synth, its the tracking/latency/performance. Keeping the synth consistant on a bass requires quite a lot of discipline which you don't need on actual keys - the actual keys never glitch out or fail to notice where you are playing or respond quicker to higher notes than lower notes etc.d I don't take keys as it is another to have, but I do take a 16 pad sample pad, and play that for keys on somethings, chords and piano sounds etc. Thats powered from a USB lead from the back of my pedalboard (the HB spaceship ones)

its en route - will update once it lands. I just felt for the price that i could live with a hidden route and changed pots. Now its about string choice - my usuals are Elites Flats but in this band I've found Elite Halfwounds more fitting and give a bit more growl

Last night (Darren was hiding in the corner).

It can be really frustrating, it's Abba of all things that's highlighting this for me. The intro to Does Your Mother Know, I'm back to just using a dirty octave sound on my Octabvre because live (and probably faster than it should be) the tracking just isn't reliable enough on the MXR or C4. That's why I like a big pedal board though, if one thing fails, or just can't be made to work for a song, I have plenty of other things I can use instead.

Any pics

Hey BRX - fully appreciate you have a full Helix and adding an additional separate pedal(s) to that doesn't make sense for you. But for pretty much everyone who is planning to get an MXR (or FI), they will either be upgrading an existing set up, shift something else off their pedal board to accommodate, or get a bigger pedal board. It's what many of us pedal users do very regularly, when the need arises. I also completely also get your point re. synth pedal tracking - it's a fundamentally important issue for live use and has been picked up by several of us on this thread. Was precisely the reason for my choosing to go with the Boss SY-200 despite it not having as good synth sounds as several other synth pedals - it's my personal compromise and for me considerably better than the "nothing at all" alternative.

I'm not sure that the no space on stage argument holds up, I use a bass synth at every gig big or small, its stand goes above my pedal board so I don't require any more/less space either way. The set-up time and too much stuff to carry argument I can definitely get on board with though! 😅

Wish I could remember what it looked like! Hopefully it’s a great bass.

@Al Krow but a bigger pedal board may not be an option. My Helix which is probably smaller than a lot of people's pedal boards is at the limit of what can be comfortably fitted on a lot a stages I play. Others have already stated that there is insufficient stage space for a keyboard synth. For them a bigger pedal board may well also be out of the question. The tracking speed is worrying. Almost all the synth bass clips I have seen using processed bass guitar are slow to medium paced songs, or ones with a lot of space between the notes in the bass part. Most of what my band play is over 130bpm and the bass lines are mostly 1/8 notes or faster. That's going to be a problem. The other thing I have spotted is that if you are using synth sounds for rhythmic parts everyone will expect the timing to be absolutely spot on because these are usually handled by a sequencer of some sort. Your audience will be able to hear that something is wrong even if they can't pin point exactly what it is. For me the ideal solution which doesn't involve using a keyboard would be to put the bass through a MIDI triggered Filter and VCA device, but I only know of one and that's a relatively large rack-mount unit which is no longer being produced.

Nice little venue in Manchester, good sound and engineer, and we played pretty well, but the audience weren’t into it. I wheeled out the Yamaha RBX A2 5, which sounded fantastic, ace low B, so I’ll defo use that again. My TCBQ500 via a house Warwick 4x10 sounded decent, and so easy to walk across town with just the bass and head in a rucksack.

Not last night's gig but Saturdays, postponed because our drummist dropped a concrete block on his toe and broke it in three places. Dubious now for next practice at the end of the month, and our final gig of the year in mid-December.

I did once, and the cables were clamped in place mechanically, two prongs bent over the exposed cable ends which themselves had an aluminium sleeve over the copper wire. Looked like it had been done in a press.

I don't like crowds so I play jazz.....

Make it a bass chat meet up? I didn't go to watch Amy Winehouse (before the Black album) because I didn't want to go alone. Then never got to see her at all. Massive missed opportunity. A friend of mine went through a divorce and she went to loads of gigs on her own, ended up making a massive network of friends. I'm not saying you're in that position, but at a gig you never have to be on your own. Unless it's one of my gigs, then it might just be you and the bar staff 😜

Yeah - I'm in East Mids so it's a bit of a hike and I'd have to spring for a hotel on the night too. Zero members of my family would be interested in going.

+1^^ re being keen to find out when the next software update will be for the FI. Peter's previously indicated he can't give us an estimated date unfortunately, but will hopefully be sooner than Luke's pedals coming up for sale. Helpful comment re. fast tracking on the MXR - thanks! Also @BigRedX "Also who is to say that someone with a more conventional pedalboard set up already has both room and PSU capacity for an additional synth pedal." Aww come on 😅?! Anyone on this thread looking to buy the MXR or FI etc will make room or get a bigger pedal board, if they decide to get one.

I’ve ordered one too, should be with me in a few days

So i eventually succumbed to this......

I love Vulfpeck, and I have travelled to London to see them before. However, my main focus is Joe Dart and having seen him up close on small stages in two of his other bands, and only had to drive a half hour, I know my preference. Big gigs just aren't my thing any more.