Kev

3 hours ago, Hellzero said:

This is a CNC machined bass and it's an amazing instrument!

 

 

At least they added the handbuilt feel with the neck bolt arrangement...

2 minutes ago, AJ567 said:

Random thought. Has anyone tried using something like this to transmit their IEM signal via Bluetooth?

 

Then you could use the Shure TWS adapters and have no cables... At all...

 

 

 

Bluetooth isn't usable in a live music environment, latency is too high sadly.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using CNC, gear snobbery beyond any kind of sense.  What if a luthier used a drill to screw parts in and instead of using a screwdriver?  Time for a boycott?

I think people do get this mixed up with mass produced production line, which of course use CNC but its not the CNC bit that cheapens or otherwise reduces quality of the final product.

20 minutes ago, simisker said:

Yup, I know - that was the point I was trying to make. Doesn't that make these Status prices all the more reasonable, then? They're handmade in low volumes by a legendary maker in an expensive manufacturing location. For only a few hundred quid more than a Combustion.

 

Seems reasonable to me, anyway Maybe my idea of good value has being skewed ever since my appointment as a lawyer-dentist

The John Taylor model was a significant markup from a regular NG/Combustion, whereas the Status doesn't seem to be any markup at all.  Must be somewhere in the region of £1,500 for a 2 pickup 4 string model.  

In the current market its not a bad pricing model for UK built basses, but I just don't recall the graphite models being much more?

0db should be unity so I'd check its set to that and compare levels cables and wireless.  Guess it depends what preamp you're running it into but I've never experienced it causing anything to clip.

14 hours ago, EMG456 said:

essentially the same concept as the Washburn Status in the 80s.

I can't unsee this unfortunately, even the finishes in these pictures don't look spectacular (though they aren't great pictures).  It just looks all a little budget, yet not budget priced.

34 minutes ago, Musicman666 said:

 

I thought the working with carbon graphite process was unhealthy over the long term .. not sure if this was directly the cause of any health problems but I can see why going back to all wood construction would at this stage be the understandable thing to do.

How so?  Uninformed as I am, I would have assumed woodworking would be more a risk to health, inhaling sawdust etc.

On 06/08/2023 at 19:47, CiciBass said:

Cici here!

Well, sadly I can’t help being a girl, and I have long hair because I like it. It has nothing to do with my playing, and I’ve never rested on my looks to gain followers, nor am I interested in anyone who does. 

I take great pride in being the best musician I possibly can be, and it’s about the music for me.

I also dedicate a lot of my time to trying my best to help other people pick up the instrument, sharing any info I have, and seeing where I can push the instrument in my solo bass jams.

I’m not interested in being an ‘instagram girl’ so please don’t diminish me to that, and take the time to truly look at what I do (whether you like it or not is fine). Thank you.

Nice to see you on the forum Cici  It's not all grumpy old men on here, we promise!  

Only had the one wooden necked status and I wasn't a fan, though these painted neck jobbies seem a different kettle of fish.

It's an odd move, and the prices seem to have stayed high (the wooden models were always the more budget ones?), but it's nice to see they're still being made.  Hope it works out for them!

I did wince a little at it, and hope Mark green flagged it before posting 

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

The whole point of having a web site with a buy now button next to items for sale is so you don't have to deal with humans and can purchase something with a few clicks.

 

And their email service should be completely separate and not at all affected by any changes to the web site.

I only suggested that as it seemed he bought on the old website and a new site went live, so the first thing I would have thought is that its been lost somewhere in the middle and emails may have been affected, potential change of hosting etc, emails can absolutely be affected by that depending on how and where they're hosted.  Absolutely shouldn't have to do it, and I cannot stand phone call interactions, but may have been a route to a quicker answer.

Still having no reply by this time though, presume emails are working fine so that's pretty poor all round in the end.

3 hours ago, Beedster said:

Well despite having used them for years without problems, Bass Direct just lost me as a customer for good, as having bought from them earlier this week I have no item and no response to several emails. Having just looked at the new site (new site, new set of problems), the item in question doesn't even show as something they stock despite having shown as in stock Monday evening on what I guess is the old site. I don't mind delays, I don't mind errors, I don't even mind when something is faulty, but I don't tolerate a business ignoring emails when they are holding close to £1500 of my cash 😡

Have you tried calling them? Given the website transition id probably think emails of all things may be a bit off.

I do think on occasion people can sometimes struggle to tell the difference between a slow server, a slow isp and a slow PC/Browser.  Both the new Bass Direct and Bassbros website are as fast as they possible could be for me, so either the server they're on is very variable or (more likely) its browsers and pcs slowing things down.

I oddly miss the old Bass Direct site.  I liked how one-click it was to quickly look at different sections/manufacturers.  And I think the search defaulting to show both in and out of stock items, with no way of knowing without clicking on the product, is not a good way of doing it.

So, in classic Basschat advice thread tradition, I went against the advice to not try and seek out a usb to midi interface cable 😂

I went with an ESI Midimate EX (so not a dodgy sub £10 chinese jobbie but still cheap at ~£22) and it works perfectly.  Sysex going both ways, no glitchyness so far!

So, a bit of a far cry from the highly optimistic OP, but I am now able to fully program the pedal both ways with the PC editor and with the Quad Cortex, with a tiny form factor (basically just a lead) interface connected to the QC (in) and the Meris I/O (out).  All I need to do is switch the midi out/thru setting on the QC, depending on if its the editor or QC I want to send messages.  Really happy with the whole outcome.

Thanks for the help all!

Lovely  yet to try a Team Built streamer, they look like really good basses, huge step up from the far east pro series ranges. GLWTS!

The headache continues.

So, I decided to just buy the Midi I/O, which I have done.  QC can now send messages to the Ottobit, great stuff.  However, when connecting the QC over USB and trying to use the desktop editor (changing the QC midi setting to thru), the Meris is not receiving nor sending any Midi.

On 21/07/2023 at 09:53, BigRedX said:

 

 i have found that some devices are very poor at re-transmitting MIDI over USB to the actual DIN MIDI sockets with either no MIDI or very garbled messages being output.

Id hope that a £1600 processor doesn't fall into this category, but could this be a factor?  I have emailed Neural DSP for help.

At the point of considering moving this pedal on as this is a whole lot of fuss for something that seems like it should be simple!  I'm NOT prepared to invest any further, but if I did I guess the next thing would be to buy a USB midi interface to cut the QC out the chain.

EDIT: Neural have confirmed it's the QC, it can't send messages from midi usb through DIN.

Sigh.  I'm not buying a USB Midi cable, have to draw a line somewhere!  So, fiddly interface it is! 

Nothing is easy, eh?

24 minutes ago, Brucegill said:

 

its only midi in and midi thru FYI

At this stage I'd happily forget about receiving midi from the Meris and just let it receive midi from the Quad Cortex...

1 hour ago, Brucegill said:

 

this is the guts of an older Chase Bliss midi box if it helps work out what’s going on in these things. (It has jumpers to use with Empress or CB.)

 

 

One of those would appear to do the trick and are somewhat cheaper than the midi i/o, if less available...

9 hours ago, Brucegill said:

I’ve got one here I can post out to try if you want. 
 

another thing to try is send a program change from the laptop if you have a USB > midi converter (also have one here you can try). Then you could eliminate the QC out of the equation. 
 

and I have a chase bliss midi box that I think has jumpers internally to convert the outputs to Meris. But I’d need to open it up and check. 
 

god, I hate midi lol. Always makes life too complicated. 
 

drop me a PM 😀

Thanks for the suggestions!  Rob has asked that I send the cable back so he can have a look and do some digging.

I don't have another midi usb adapater to use, but given the QC is responding to midi commands the issue I assume is going to lie with the QC not outputting midi through its midi out, or (more likely) there is an issue with the cable.

3 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

It's probably possible to have two opto-isolators running in opposite directions, but you still need to completely decouple the screen from the earth, and ultimately it would almost definitely be cheaper just to fit standard MIDI sockets and a single opto-isolator like most other manufacturers do.

 

I suppose Meris assume that a lot of their users will never need to MIDI facilities, so there is little need to fit conventional sockets and circuitry, and those that do will be willing to pay for the additional interface box.

 

To the OP can you check that the correct (or even any) MIDI data is being transmitted from the QC MIDI out? I have found that some devices are very poor at re-transmitting MIDI over USB to the actual DIN MIDI sockets with either no MIDI or very garbled messages being output.

To be honest, the pedal is almost unusable without Midi in some ways.  The sequencer is very fiddly to set up just using the knobs on the pedal, and there is literally no way to use any of the preset functionality without midi.  Its just so frustrating they didn't design it with the standard Din sockets.

I don't have anything that can check that unfortunately.  I know the QC is sending Midi messages internally (the QC is set to channel 1, and sending Midi messages to channel 1 causes to the QC to receive and act upon messages) but I don't have any other midi devices at the moment.

1 hour ago, Brucegill said:

sometimes you can pull the trs cable half out of the socket and it’ll make the tip of the cable hit the sleeve of the pedal input - so essentially swapping the type of cable. 
 

also need to check you’ve done all the hidden settings on the Meris to receive midi etc. 

Yeah all global config settings are set right.

I'm waiting for designacable to come back as they've literally sold the cable to me as a Meris Midi Cable, so I'll see what they say.  But I've fiddled with the jack when sending midi to no effect.

...it didn't.

Setting the Meris up to received Midi over TRS on a specific channel and connecting the cable to the Quad Cortex, setting the QC to send PC messages across the same channel, there is no sign the Meris is receiving anything.  The QC can send and receive messages over USB midi with my PC with no issue but nothing I try gets it to communicate with the Meris.  I'm assuming the cable is wrong, as otherwise it means there is something wrong with the Meris I guess?  I've emailed Designacable to ask them how they've wired it, but you'd assume if they say they're familiar with Meris and realise its a different wiring they wouldn't get it wrong.

Sigh.

It sounds messy, so I've just gone with a Din to TRS and will just send midi to the pedal.  I realised that you can still use one of the editors if you make presets using it and save those presets into a library on the PC, and recreate any new presets you make on the pedal and save in library etc and load them on as needed.  Fiddly but workable.

Never used the QC to send midi, so lets hope that's simple and it works...

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Having looked at the manual for the Meris MIDI I/O it looks as though you can do what you want with a 5-pin DIN to TRS jack.

 

However this is only possible because Meris have chosen to ignore the MIDI conventions designed to protect your MIDI equipment and prevent ground loops and hum on the audio side. Using a single three conductor cable for both MIDI in and MIDI out means that you dispense with both screening isolation, and opt-isloation of the data signal. IMO you use at your own risk.

I'm incredibly green when it comes to Midi so I really don't know much about that at all.  I assume their splitter box provides the isolation needed?  I just don't understand why companies like Meris and Source Audio don't just allow space for the DIN sockets.  The cynical side of me does, but its just daft, especially when this pedal needs midi so much to be useable.  There is no way to access any of the 15 other presets without midi use, or the use of their (proprietary, shockingly) external footswitch.

2 hours ago, Brucegill said:

 Obviously this will only do Midi one way - but do you really need Midi In and Out to the Meris? 

Obviously sending midi to it is by far the most important thing, but the Meris is made a LOT easier to program by using a desktop editor, and the editor needs to receive midi from the Meris to load and save the presets.

I contacted designacable who seemed to think it isn't possible to split a TRS into a midi in/out, so its looking like it isn't going to be possible.  Sending Midi from QC to TRS shouldn't be a problem and those cables are readily available (although I'm struggling to find cables that specify what midi type they're for as it differs?).

I just don't want to buy that box, but from looking online the other ones available that are cheaper just don't work both ways.

EDIT: This is the editor I'd want to use: https://studiocode.dev/ottobit-editor/

So for those familiar with Meris pedals, they're one of those pesky builders who think it's a great idea to not put midi din sockets on their pedals.  Meris use a single TRS Midi application to send and receive Midi.  They also sell a ridiculously expensive I/O box that you plug your TRS into and get yourself a Midi Din in and out.

I don't want to spend £100 to let me use my Quad Cortex as a midi controller, so what I am looking for is a cable to do the job.

Is it possible to take a TRS plug and split it into two DIN plugs, one dealing with sending Midi from TRS (tip maybe, not sure!) and one receiving (ring??).  Ie basically doing exactly what the Midi I/O box is doing, without having to find space for a big metal box under my board?

If it is, who can build it for me?? 😁