Gottastopbuyinggear

Similar here. Mid 20s singer, mid 60s drummer. Guitarist mid to late 30s and myself and keys are in our 50s. We all like the music we play, and we get on well enough socially, so it’s all good.

As far as I can see the Stomp only sends program change messages, and can't be configured to send CC. I don't have any knowledge of the C4 so I can't comment on whether it would do it the other way. If it did, however, and if you were up for a little bit of DIY, I've recently come across this which I'm successfully using as a USB MIDI hub to control a Stomp from other MIDI devices: https://neuma.studio/rpi-as-midi-host.html.

I’m thinking hard about getting a 3D printer. @stoo, what material did you use for the case - I’m wondering whether PLA would be strong enough or whether it would have to be ABS?

No, afraid not. Partly because it isn't built yet, and mainly because I'm awful at documenting stuff. I'd be embarrassed about my shonky code too! I have been doing a bit of tinkering, however, and I'm fairly certain I've variously got everything working that I need. It's a case of sticking it all together to see if it works. I should make an effort to document it properly. Broadly speaking I'm thinking along these lines: The requirement is to be able to use a few different programs on the Stomp in a gig situation - basically amp sims, compression, and very occasionally perhaps some chorus. I'm putting the Stomp straight into a power amp, so I'd like to be able to tweak the EQ during a gig to account for venue to venue sound differences. Ideally that would be via MIDI control of the global EQ, but alas that's not currently an option, so it's going to have to be via the amp's EQs. I'm also going to experiment with the Tilt EQ block a bit, to see if that helps with on-the-fly EQ tweaks. I think I can get everything for the "head" end on a 2U rack blanking plate, though I haven't confirmed yet. I'll probably stick in 10 rotary encoders which should give me more than enough for my needs. Nextion display for seeing the settings, and maybe for saving changes. I'll have to store all the parameters I'm changing in non-volatile memory and send them every time I change the program. I've already built a footswitch as a proof of concept to give me prog up and prog down, tuner (so I can get that off the Stomp's third foot switch) and a quick way of switching between 0 gain and +20dB on the output block so that I can get enough signal into the power amp when I'm using it. It's occurred to me that I could also put Tilt or even Bass/Mid/Treble adjustment on the footswitch too, but that might be going too far. I didn't really want a ring of MIDI cables between Stomp, "head", and footswitch so that's why I looked into the MIDI thru idea, and as with everything (thankfully!) I found someone has already done it. I'll dig out the links later and post them in this thread. My main concern at the moment is whether I run the risk of introducing noise with all this hacked together DIY microcontroller based stuff floating around! Edit: Forgot to say, the Teensy 3.3v pins seem fine with the Nextion with the quick tinker I've had. Time is the real killer with all this. Having jumped onto the Nextion learning curve I'm now on a Photoshop learning curve, trying to see whether I can get some reasonable graphics together for visual feedback for volume and tone controls, etc. I'd really like to get a 3D printer too, to make some decent enclosures for some of my projects, but apart from the cost of getting a reasonable one (I haven't got the patience to go the budget put-it-together-first route) but that's another huge learning curve.

Rather than a Nano what about one of the Teensy line - even Teensy LC has twice the memory of the Nano. I’ve built a basic 4 button foot switch using a Teensy LC board which will do MIDI via 5 pin DIN connector and USB MIDI in parallel, so I can use it on either my Stomp or with AmpliTube on my Mac. I’ve now gone a step further and used a Raspberry Pi to give me USB MIDI thru so I can use USB on the Stomp instead. Target is to build a second MIDI controller to give me the amp EQ and volume controls in a controller on top of my amp so I can tweak easily during a gig.

I use the Dunlop metal ones, having found that the Schaller ones had enough friction between the two parts that the strap button screw started loosening. A word of caution if you use the rubber washers or the rotating plastic thingys - watch out if you have an instrument with a delicate finish. I used these on a Tokai 335 copy, with a leather strap, and it pushed the strap quite hard against the guitar. I now have a load of scratches where the strap has rotated around the button a bit. Fortunately it's the neck strap button which is on the rear of the guitar so it doesn't show, but annoying nonetheless.

A few years ago I built this - effectively a Fender Champ clone but with s solid state rather than valve rectifier: http://www.ampmaker.com/store/WF-55-4w-tweed-style-amp.html. However it seems that AmpMaker aren't currently taking orders (check the site for the reason - I daren't mention the word here!), so I'm not sure whether this will be an option within the next few months. I spent quite a lot of time looking around for a suitable kit and at the time, for UK based suppliers at least, couldn't find very much at all other than AmpMaker. There's quite a lot of stuff available from the US as I recall, and I also looked at a far east company called Ceriatone who had a pretty comprehensive range. From a quick search it does look like there might be more options in the UK now, though. (Edit - just spotted that you're in Germany, so these comments probably aren't relevant!) I found the instructions very comprehensive. I spent a lot of time reading through them before I even bought the kit, and followed them to the letter. I have a healthy appreciation of the dangers of 230v AC, but if you heed the warnings, follow the instructions carefully, and do absolutely all the checks, then you should be able to build safely. I built the amp over a few days in the Christmas holiday period, maybe spending a couple of hours a day on it. The one small thing I did over and above the instructions when I was testing was to use a second multimeter constantly attached to the power supply capacitors so that I could always see whether they held any charge or not. The one I built was a turret board construction, and came with a pre-drilled chassis. To answer the question "will it last", then I'd say absolutely yes, as long as you build it carefully in the first place. A final comment on safety. You absolutely can't take any chances. If you have even the slightest doubt about understanding the schematic (I don't mean how the amp works, but how to wire it up according to the schematic and instructions), or having the relevant practical skills to construct the circuit board, mount it and the other components, wire it all up correctly, and carry out all the tests, then you probably shouldn't embark on the project.

QLC is doing the sequencing - the arduino is just triggering either sequences or scenes via MIDI, and doing tap tempo via MIDI. For someone who hadn't even heard of DMX before I found QLC fairly easy to get to grips with for basic stuff. To be honest I've only used this a couple of times this year. Quite a lot of pubs have their own lights, and it's just another thing to set up and pack away afterwards, plus I'm already doing most of the work with the PA (we're long overdue a chat to address the fact that some of the band are a bit shy when it comes to helping with setting up anything other than their own gear). Having said that, even with four RGB lights I think we can create a much better (and infinitely more subtle) effect than with the standard pub fayre of random over the top patterns changing every second. I saw that they were resistive touch so have an idea what to expect. I'm planning to use rotary encoders for setting values, so it's probably only on/off switches and navigation buttons I'd use touch for. Any suggestions for good resources for getting started with configuring the device?

I’d not come across Nextion before, but I’ve done some reading and ordered a 3.2 inch version to have a play with over Christmas, hopefully. I also have a MIDI controller for the HX Stomp in mind, but for controlling EQ during a gig so that I don’t have to bend down and start messing around with the controls on the stomp itself. It’s a pity the global EQ isn’t controllable via MIDI.

32?! I have enough trouble with 8... Raspberry Pi running QLC+, Teensy board for the footswitches and code to send MIDI over USB to QLC. Only running 4 RGB lights from it, with a few sets of fades and chases set up in QLC, either free running with tap tempo, or set to change when hitting the tap button. What I really need now is a 3D printer to make some decent cases, but the learning curve has put me off so far.

We're strictly a pub band, running vocals and keys through PA tops at the moment, and I get the impression that's a bit removed from the stuff you do! I'd be keen to add a sub and put everything through PA, and get some or all of us on IEMs, but I'm pretty sure I'll have a job persuading all the band. Drummer is strictly old school and won't entertain an e-kit, plus he's a heavy hitter (let's not go down the "get a new drummer" rabbit hole, though - despite being strangers when we got together a few years ago we're friends now, doing this a couple of times a month for fun, so it's not an option). Not sure what options we'd have for some of us going IEM if we didn't want to mic up the drums. On the one hand I don't know if we'd hear enough of the drums with IEMs in, but on the other I'd be worried about IEMs not attenuating the drums enough to protect our hearing. Due to the small spaces in which we usually set up I'm using ACS moulded plugs with the 27dB filters at the moment - I found things were feeling a bit too loud by the end some gigs with just the 17s.

Question to @funky8884 and @AxelF - are your drummers using e-drums? If not then do you mic up the drums to put them through PA and/or IEMs?

PF500 here, bought new in 2015, run through either a PF115HE or a pair of DIY 12” cabs. It’s done about 50 gigs and numerous practices. No complaints at all.

“Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Now, this next one is called Mustang Sally”

Not last night but Friday, a charity event for Blesma (https://blesma.org/) at the Exchange Hotel in Cardiff Bay. I knew it was an old building (formerly the Coal Exchange) but didn’t really know what to expect. As the nominated band sound man I was hoping for something not too challenging, so preferably nothing cavernous with a hard floor. I think the photo says it all... Sound check was interesting - the room was basically a huge echo chamber, and I found I had to set relative levels quite differently to our usual mix. I made an effort to keep everything as quiet as possible, though with our drummer “quiet” is a relative term! Once we were playing it was obviously impossible to know how it sounded out front, but from where I was standing there were no problems. More importantly we didn’t cause a mass exodus from the room and had quite a few people up and dancing for some songs, so it can’t have been too bad. Most importantly, though, the organiser (who had seen us playing in a pub and asked if we’d do the event) was very happy, and it was great to be able to do something for a good cause.

Ghost last night at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff. Not something I ever thought I'd be into, but having been told about them by my sons (both into their metal in a big way) one Sunday afternoon sitting in the garden, beer in hand, I jokingly said that if they played Cardiff I'd buy tickets. The tour was announced the following day...! I have to say I do like the music, and they put on a great show. Really notable for me was the sound, which is usually pretty disappointing in the Motorpoint. There was none of the overpowering kick and sub bass mush that seems to be so prevalent these days, and for the first time in that venue I could actually hear the bass quite clearly. I think the overall volume might have been a bit lower than other bands I've seen there, too. One way or another their sound guys did a great job.

If the Metro 16 is otherwise perfect then you could try replacing the feet, as per Twigman's post here:

I do get a bit fed up with everything that surrounds playing in a pub covers band - trying to park, lugging gear, setting up, managing the PA, starting our first set half an hour after I'm usually in bed, packing up afterwards, etc., but almost always as soon as we're a couple of songs in I think - yeah, this is why I do it. The last specific moment that gave me an extra smile was probably our guitarist pulling off a particularly blistering (yet still tasteful) solo, complete with behind the nut bends, in the middle of... Mustang Sally.

Sorry, I wasn’t being very clear - it was paul_c2’s question to Tubster about venue size and genre of music, which would be a useful reference point. Regarding the username, I’m afraid I have pretty much managed to stop - I hang my head in shame!

I'm really interested to see how this pans out for you @Al Krow, and also to hear @Tubster's answer to the question above. I "do the sound" for our band (typical pub/small venue band playing mainly 60's and 70's stuff, up to a couple of times a month) - by that I mean I stand in front of the band for one quick song after we've set up and try and get a reasonable mix of vocals, BVs and keys through our pair of Yamaha DBR12's, while gesticulating at our guitarist to turn either himself or me either up or down depending on the venue and what gear he or I are using, all while trying to balance all that with a non-mic'd kit. I used to think of us as pretty loud, but lately I'm wondering if that's really true. I certainly feel that our mains aren't pushed in any way - they're on 0db and the main output on the mixer is usually set at about -8dB so, in my lack of a thorough understanding of the topic, that feels like we're not pushing the PA at all. Our drummer thinks we'd benefit from some kick through the PA, and I'd be quite keen to go through the PA myself and slim down the kit I'm taking (more often than not my two DIY (Baschat Mk 1) 12" cabs driven by an Ampeg PF500). However even though I don't need a lot of low end I still have my concerns whether a single 12" sub will be enough to handle the lower part of the bass duties. I've tried running through a single 12 myself and felt it was struggling (I know that's probably an invalid comparison), though a single 15 (Ampeg PF115HE) was okay. Any investment in a sub will be something that I'd drive, so I'll need to be pretty convinced it'll suffice before pushing the idea. The RCF 702 at roughly £700 would be quite a big investment for the band as the rest of the kit, even though most of it was bought new, only amounts to about £1,400. And I'll need to invest in a monitor as well. Hence I'm really keen to hear some examples of people using this type of kit in similar sorts of bands and in similar types of venues.

Continuing the theme of giving you an answer to a question you didn't ask, the non-4k version of the Zoom Q2n has come down in price a fair bit since the 4k version came out - currently £98 on Amazon. I have one of these, and also a Tascam DR05, and the Zoom wins for audio quality.

My J setup is a 2003 MIM, Fender Custom Shop '60s pickups, D'Addario Chromes, and I always have the neck pickup backed off at least a tiny amount, so a number of the things already suggested in this thread added together. The stock bass I always found a bit underwhelming, but the Custom Shop pickups made a huge increase to the range and clarity. The Chromes on top of that give a really rich sound to my ears - much better than the La Bellas I tried first (conversely I much prefer La Bellas on a P). Both pickups on full does seem to reduce the richness of the sound a bit, but even the tiniest smidge off either one really brings the definition back. Personally I find the neck pickup a bit too "plummy", if you see what I mean, but the bridge on full with the neck backed off a little is a pretty huge sound and in no way thin. I think with the new pickups and a set of a more "modern" style of flats you've got a pretty good chance of getting a sound that'll please you.

I'm using a first gen iPad mini to control a Soundcraft UI12 using it's internal WiFi only and (I'm probably tempting fate here, but... ) I've never had any problems. I take the the iPad out into the room when we soundcheck but after that it stays next to the mixer, so that might explain the WiFi stability. An advantage of the Soundcraft mixers is that they have relatively sophisticated feedback suppression built in. You can set it up before the gig (I think it has a limit of something like 7 notch filters) and leave it, or have it in a live mode where it will add filters on the fly. The only thing with that is that it can occasionally see loud sustained notes as feedback, so I would only use the live mode on monitors and not mains.

The knock off boards use a different serial chip - if you haven’t already done so you’ll need to download a CH340G driver. I don’t think the baud rate should matter too much - I’d try either 9,600 or 38,400. It’s one of the preferences you can set in the arduino development environment software - I can’t recall exactly where at the moment but a quick google search would probably yield the info.