Gottastopbuyinggear

PM’d 

On 02/01/2022 at 22:49, Downunderwonder said:

Anyone else scared pantsless by the chances of blowing out hearing with one mistake via in ear speakers?

I think some headphone amps will have peak limiters in them to guard against this sort of thing?  I seem to recall one of the Behringer ones does, but I can’t remember which one off the top of my head.

With a couple of days off in the run up to Christmas I finally managed to get around to the 3D printed case I've been meaning to do for ages to house the latest version of my foot controller.  

The controller is based on a Teensy board to give both USB and standard MIDI, with a Raspberry Pi Zero to act as a USB MIDI host.  I also have a half built Teensy based MIDI controller for adjusting parameters, so I wanted a solution that can accommodate all three USB MIDI devices.  I've included hardware MIDI too so that I can still use the controller while the HX Stomp is connected to HX Edit via USB.  The Teensy is connected to the Pi outside the case so I can disconnect it to update the software and don't have to open up the case.

The mini OLED displays are connected to the Teensy via an I2C multiplexer.  I won't show a picture of the inside of the case - it's a mess!

I need to learn how to use a better 3D design solution - I used Tinkercad for this, but it's quite basic.  The case is slightly more robust than I was expecting for a 2mm thick 20% infill print - it'll do for me using it, but won't survive our singer jumping on it - fortunately it's usually our guitarist's pedals that get destroyed like that!

Software needs a huge amount of work - it's a monolithic mess at the moment.  At present three of the buttons are configured for a single press to toggle (Tuner, Compressor and Mid Boost), single press or single action on hold (Mode - switches between Stomp and Snapshot on single press, and boosts the output by 20dB for connecting directly to a power amp when held) and single press or multiple action on hold (Prog up and down by one on single press, or repeated up and down by three if held).  Next step is to make the button handling generic and call the relevant action based on what each switch is presently configured to do, so that I can implement different layouts across the switches.

@PaulThePlugvery kindly sent me two when I needed one for my son’s bass.  I’ll check with him to see if he’s still got the second and if so I’d be happy to pay the favour forward and send it to you, @neepheid.  Don’t hold your breath, though - he’s not the most organised so may not be able to find it!

I have the single and dual versions of the Gator case, one in use and one up in the loft at any time.  I go through cycles of using the dual case, then getting fed up because it’s so heavy and reverting to the single case, then feeling bad that I’m not taking a spare bass to gigs and going back to the dual.

To put it in context, I’ve just weighed it with its current contents - a couple of nine pound basses, lead, iPad, strap, clip on tuner and earplugs (don’t think the last two are adding much weight!).  It’s 14Kg loaded like that, so not always the easiest of things to carry/get into the back seat of the car, etc.  I wouldn’t try putting it on my back and carrying any distance.

They are excellent cases though, and offer plenty of protection.  My only gripe is that the padding in the handles seems to separate making them slightly uncomfortable - it’s happened on both mine.

2 hours ago, Boodang said:

So, in addition to whatever I'm using for the audience I face the combo across the stage. 

For the small trio I only use a backline amp to push out to the room but sit the combo on top and face it in. With the bigger covers band we go through a PA, I don't use a backline except the combo which again I face across the stage and don't put bass through the fold back as it gets messy.

 

Facing across the stage was something I’d considered too.

I think we’re going to experiment a bit over the next couple of gigs.  We’ll try facing back/across the stage and covering both of us, and I think I’ll try angling my cab to solve the problem for me and putting the monitor closer to the drummer, which I think will require a bit less volume.

36 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

Where is your amp in relation to the drummer? I set up slightly back from the drummer and slightly angled towards him.

 

That works for us perfectly well. 

Almost always about level with the drummer in the pubs we play, unfortunately - rarely enough space to get my amp further back than he is.

2 minutes ago, Boodang said:

For monitoring purposes I use a small combo (an SWR 2 x 8 baby blue) and face it across stage. Works well as a local monitor without having to use the fold back. 

Is that in addition to a back line amp, or are you going through the PA?

Whilst I’d like to add a sub and put bass through the PA, again I don’t think it’s justifiable based on the amount of gigs we play. 

1 hour ago, EBS_freak said:

Go IEM and all those problems disappear. And your ears will thank you.

Ah, well, I’d love to but we’re strictly a hobby band restricting ourselves to two gigs a month so can’t really justify the expense. Also I don’t want to have to get into micing up drums.  I wear custom moulded ear plugs so my ears have already thanked me 😊

Not over that period of time, but on an email per day basis I've already had 3 from PMT today.

To put the question in context, pub band with keys and vocals only going through the PA so my bass amp is carrying the room.  Drummer complains he can't hear the bass, and to be fair it's a problem I often have as I'm standing just in front of the amp most of the time.

It's been suggested that I could put some bass in a monitor that would cover both me and the drummer.  It would be high passed to cut out anything below about 100Hz or so as it'll only be an 8" or 10" monitor.

Apart from the general problem of adding to "on stage" volume could this cause any other issues - I'm thinking specifically of whether it could cause cancellation problems with the sound that the audience hears?

Any other considerations?

46 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

 

@Gottastopbuyinggear I'm not sure why you would want to build a Mk1 with a higher tuning? Stevie and I differed over the preferred tuning and it is possible to come up with a series of tunings that will work well each achieving different compromises. There's a lot of discussion about it in the original thread I believe. The effects are complex and affect power handling, excursion and the shape of the response well away from the tuning frequency. We did listening tests too before we settled on the recommended tuning. There's lots of good reasons for tweaking the tuning but it certainly isn't as simple as taking out a bit of bass by tuning higher. Let me know what you are trying to achieve and we can see what the options are, you might be better off reducing the size of the cab for example. There's a lot of psychoacoustics involved too, just adding the horn will make your cab sound less bass heavy.

I think ignorance is probably the issue here, @Phil Starr!   Again I’m casting my mind back a while so I may be remembering incorrectly, but I think I tried modelling the removal (or at least blocking) of one of the four ports in WinISD and it lowered the bass response and gave a bit of a low mid hump around the 100 to 130 Hz mark, which I thought would probably be a reasonably pleasing bump.  But we all know that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and I could well be speaking out of my own rear port…!

There’s two things I thought I might be able to achieve - 1. decrease the low bass, as the cabs used together can be quite overwhelming, and 2. improve dispersion (?) to make it easier to hear myself when I’m standing very close to the cabs.  I could experiment with 1 pretty easily by just blocking a port in each cab.  2. will take a bit more work as I’ll need to make new baffles, but I built both cabs with removable baffles so it’s entirely achievable.

If reducing the volume of the cab turned out to be worth trying then what would be the lightest material I could introduce to take up some space?

Oh, and feel free to let me know just how much nonsense I’m talking!

That was a very timely question as I was thinking about asking the same thing.  Also, was the Mk 2 the same internal volume as the Mk 1?

The reason for the interest and question is that I built and still gig two of the Mk 1 cabs, but feel the need to add a tweeter in one of them to help with my own hearing of the bass when I’m standing very close to the cabs, which I often am in the pubs etc. that we play.  Casting my mind back a few years I *think* (though I’m not entirely sure) that the Mk 2 might have been the same internal volume but with slightly different overall dimensions, and likewise *think* that I worked out that I could fit the SM212, tweeter and manrose pipe based port in the Mk 1 front panel footprint.

And there’s a third question, too - if I wanted to adjust the port dimensions to tune the cab a bit higher then would that  cause any problem based on the crossover design… always assuming there’s still a record of it somewhere…

Hope that all makes sense - I’m one or two glasses of a rather nice Malbec in…

1 hour ago, Les said:

In all honesty it isn't a problem with the rest of the band. We're pretty much a well oiled machine it's just taking the wrong bag in the first place that did for me 😂. 

You are a lucky man then!

I've also had to contend with the keys player spilling his drink all over the stage box and nest of cables a couple of times.  I sent him this the morning after the second incident:

To be fair that was a few years ago now - I've not had to launder any cables since. 

I look after and in fact have bought almost all the leads for our band.  I’ve even built a custom snake for the far side of the stage to bring keys and key players vocals into the mixer and send main and monitor mixes back.

This is what my bag looks like after a typical gig:

and the state of the leads that get thrown back at me at the end of the night by the keys player:

We have a new approach now - keys player keeps the leads, and I try to not watch as he pulls them apart when setting up for each gig.   I keep some spares just in case, because they aren’t going to last long with that sort of abuse!

Ah, CD Guitars - I’d forgotten about them.  They do seem to be a bit of a treasure trove for awkward to get parts - think I bought an extra long truss rod nut from them a while ago.  

I’ve replied to your PM, and thanks again for the kind offer - I’ll happily relieve you of one of your spares!

The nylon washer between the tuner peg and shaft has disintegrated on my son’s Ibanez SR300.  Does anyone have any idea where I could buy replacements?

I can see plenty of places selling ones that are about 6mm outside, 4mm inside diameter, but these are more like 8.56mm outside, 6.5mm inside.  The closest I can find are drum tension rod washers so I may have to give that a try.

I have this:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Einhell-BT-HT-Folding-Truck-Capacity/dp/B001GU6FYI/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3REQXT4OZZKA6&dchild=1&keywords=sack+trolley&qid=1617954212&sprefix=Sack+tr%2Caps%2C166&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzVVZBSUE0UUFNMDhQJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNzAxMjExM0k1SFFKMjVaVkZVQiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzU5NjQ0TUtFUkxJUFlTU0pMJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

I went for this over one where the wheels folded in as I thought this might be sturdier, but obviously it takes up that little bit more room.  Seems very sturdy to me, but fully loaded with my gear is probably only 35Kg.  Have also moved a 6ft tall fridge with it

Thanks for all the replies.  So:

TheLowDown, neilp:  Neoprene - good call.  Have some neoprene foam based pipe insulation coming so will give that a try for the bars the instruments sit on.  Also some neoprene rubber strip for lining the inside of the neck cradles.

StickyDBRmf: Pool noodles look like a good idea, but not sure I could cope with bright yellow or neon pink!

Downunderwonder, chris_b, Bolo: All ideas worth trying - I'll see if I'm satisfied with the neoprene.

KiOgon: I'm not likely to turn to a life of crime, but if I ever do then you won't be on my list of properties to visit 😁

1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

Gottastopmakinggear ....

Shameful, I know, but I’ve purchased only a single piece of gear since lockdown started, and that was an acoustic - guitar, not bass.  I deserve to be thrown off basschat!

As the title says, really.

Context - I’m making a compact multi-guitar rack to fit into a specific space. All the commercial ones I’ve looked at have too much space between instruments, and as this is for home use only, where I can spare a few seconds to take care taking the instruments out and putting them back, I think I can get 5 basses/electric guitars in the space of a commercial rack for three. 
 

I’m using pipe lagging at the moment, but it’s not quite as dense as I’d like. 
 

Supplementary question - would be even better to know the type that Hercules use which apparently won’t react with nitro finishes?  Though seeing as I only have the one nitro finish instrument, which happens to be the most valuable, it’ll probably carry on living in its case.

23 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Forgot to say that we have insulation too, as @Maude suggests. Internal ply layer with rockwool between the bricks (and the ceiling) and the ply. It's both for temperature and sound insulation (for the latter, more precisely as noise suppression).

Curious to know if you have any idea of the cost of running air con/heating all year round?  I’m toying with the idea of insulating our single garage, though sadly not for a music space but rather an exercise one.  The temperature control requirements would be a little easier, being mainly to keep it reasonably cool in summer rather than warm in winter.

9 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

We've discovered, and overcome, a glitch I'll be happy to describe if you're interested.

Happy Q2n user here - but intrigued by your comment.  Is the glitch related to using an external battery pack?  That’s how I usually power mine.

Okay, so here's the prototype for the rack mounted Stomp parameter controller I said I was planning.

What I have here is the parameter controller and a foot controller sending MIDI over USB, and a Raspberry Pi running as a USB MIDI Thru box linking everything, including the Stomp, together.

Parameter controller and foot controller are based on a Teensy boards which provide easy USB MIDI capabilities.  Teensy LC currently used, but the parameter controller needs a Teensy 3.2 to provide enough RAM to allow me to support multiple Stomp programs as I've currently run out of memory for the arrays of strings I need for the "labels" for the parameters.  I could work out a more efficient way of doing it, but I think it would still be marginal as there are a few more improvements I could make.

The parameter controller uses rotary encoders to change the values of the Stomp parameters I want to control.  For each Stomp program I have one page for the Amp parameters (typically Gain, Bass, Mids, Treble, Master Volume and Channel Volume) and one for a single stomp, so usually an overdrive.  I've also put a Tilt block in each Stomp program and that's accessible on the Amp page so that I can try making quick overall changes on the fly with one button, or perhaps link that to switches on the foot controller.  Display is via a Nextion, and that also supports buttons for swapping between Amp and Stomp pages, saving of the current parameter settings, or reset of the current settings to those saved.

On power up the controller reads in all parameters from EEPROM, and sends them to the HX Stomp for the currently selected program.  Changing a parameter immediately changes the value on the Stomp, but nothing is "saved" until you explicitly select "Save", whereupon the values are stored permanently on EEPROM.  Obviously when I say save I mean saved in the controller, not the Stomp.  Changing the program on the stomp results in the current in-memory parameter set for the program being sent to the Stomp.  In this way I can tweak the parameters and change back and forth between programs without losing the changes I've made.  If I want to discard the changes I can use "Reset" to replace them with the set stored on EEPROM.

The foot controller is pretty basic at the moment - I've set it to give me tuner on the lower left, program up and down on the right, and the top left toggles a 20dB boost on and off for when I want to use the Stomp to drive a power amp.  I'm planning to replace this with a six switch version with another Nextion display to show what each switch is doing.  

The code all needs some work, and is pretty amateur (monolithic, global variables, etc.), but it's been 25 years since I did any coding in any serious capacity and I've forgotten almost everything I ever knew!

Raspberry Pi MIDI Thru from here: https://neuma.studio/rpi-as-midi-host.html

I used a more recent set of instructions for making the Pi read-only: https://medium.com/@andreas.schallwig/how-to-make-your-raspberry-pi-file-system-read-only-raspbian-stretch-80c0f7be7353

Next steps are the rack mount version and a 3d printed box for the larger foot controller - but that's going to be a while yet.
 

The way I look at it is this - compared the number of people who play bass in some form (or whatever other instrument) the number of YouTube "stars" is probably a minute fraction of that number, and largely people who are either doing it as a job or are spending the same amount of time on it as they would if it were a job.  The fact that there seems to be a relatively large amount is because you (and everyone else) happen to be coming across them in searches, and they're coming up in those searches because YouTube etc. gives them exposure that they couldn't possibly have had in the past.  The fact that they are relatively popular is because there are a lot of people interested in the same instrument.

Now, most of us have (or will have had in the past) day jobs, and most of us will be pretty good at those jobs.  Some of those jobs will be highly skilled - there's probably a fair smattering of doctors, surgeons, lawyers, etc. on this forum, and all manner of other skilled people.  If amateur "lawyering" or amateur surgery were a thing (okay, I know it probably is!) then there might be a load of really accomplished lawyers and surgeons posting videos of their skills on YouTube, and eager amateurs sucking it up, learning how to do a neat bit of litigation and a tidy appendectomy.  

I guess what I'm trying to say is that most of us have skills which we've developed with the investment of a huge amount of time, and for most of us that will be through our jobs/careers as that's the only opportunity for investing that much time.  They may not be "sexy" skills, but nobody should be feeling inadequate about not being able to develop "sexy" skills because the vast majority of us don't have the opportunity to invest the time.

I may, of course, be talking complete tosh - it has been known...