Al Krow

@fretmeister interesting point about whether pedals are "designed" to handle the very low end: e.g. an octave down dealing with a 41Hz low E fundamental = producing more flub at the 20Hz end and also several pedals double up as guitar pedals. But appreciate your experience was different here.

Max's (Thumpinator) advice was to put it at the start of the chain.

59 minutes ago, thisisswanbon said:

I've always liked the idea of using these to tighten up lows, but I struggle to comprehend where they go in your chain!

 

To my underdeveloped brain, it makes more sense to go at the end of your chain to filter any effects units too, but when going to FOH it wouldn't hit your DI.  At the beginning of your chain just feels like it would suck all of the fundamental of your raw bass whilst not addressing the added lows from effects and preamp EQs...

I think there's an argument for both positions 

- at the start to clean up the low end crud from your bass to give a clean signal for your pedals to latch onto

- at the end to clean up low end crud introduced by the pedals and to tighten up the bass more generally.

May even be an argument for having two in the chain - although most would likely think that overkill? If you've got a cheap multifx e.g. a Zoom B1-4 you can include HPF even in your "clean" patches, so very possible to have two in the chain on that basis without taking up extra space / cost.

The HPF on our desk is pretty basic and kicks in at 100Hz across the board for any channels we engage it on. Maybe a touch too high and end up with the fundamental-suck you mention and which can remove the "feel" of the bass particularly for a more clubby set, although in terms of sound most of what we're hearing won't likely be the fundamental (ie first harmonic) but the second harmonic and up i.e. 62 Hz+ for the low B string.

I really do like the look of the Sine HPF - I think its feature set is considerably better compared to something like the fixed approx. 25Hz and below cut Thumpinator, which was an always on HPF on my board for years. If I get another one to use instead of the making do with our desk PA, it will likely be the Sine.

Top notch bass! GLWTS! 

19 hours ago, Sibob said:

Really really bad for your hearing.

Hi Si - that's a bit of a shock to read, as I know folk do exactly that quite a lot eg one IEM in the ear that's on the side giving protection from the drums and the other left open to pick up what's coming through one of the FoH PA speakers. 

Can you expand a bit on why it's so bad please (and also if there's been any studies done on it?)

On 01/11/2023 at 16:55, fretmeister said:

I really must try one. I had a V1 MT900 which I liked but sold and I really like the AO pedal.

 

But having it and a compressor all in the amp would be very useful.

I actually had the same ie v1 MT900 which I then replaced with the AO900 and these were my main gigging amps for a few years - paired very nicely with a Barefaced BB2 to provide an excellent rig, before I started going directly through FoH. 

Plenty of power and I found adding a small of amount of grit from the dirt was nice. I actually preferred the B3K/VMT dirt on the v1 to the AO as a standalone drive, but that's purely a matter of personal preference. If you're a fan of the AO drive then the AO900 is worth checking out. 

6 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

Well another update, the BB734 is incredible.

 

Pretty much just using it in passive mode currently as active seems like a waste of battery when I’m using it flat anyways. It’s nice to have an active preamp that sounds identical when flat to when bypassed too.

 

Action isn’t quite as low as I’d like it but still pretty good, better than my Schecter P4. Fret work is great and I actually don’t mind the fretboard radius despise all my other basses being very flat in comparison.

 

While the painted neck feels great I’m still not onboard with the look but gonna give it some time before I make a rash decision.

 

Very happy overall, just wish I’d got one sooner and saved myself some time and money!

If you're only using the 734A in passive mode, maybe worth also having a think about a 1024, which is purely passive and a bass that a lot of us have loved on here and its 5 string sibling, the 1025.

1 hour ago, Kyndainverse said:

They have them on their reverb store
https://reverb.com/uk/shop/music-plant-1?make=sqoe-1

Nice design and obviously very competitively priced! Seem to be currently only doing 4 strings in the headless range?

2 hours ago, Doctor J said:

Drunk

A used Zoom B1-4, and then you've still got £250 left to get decently drunk...

Mine's been a a very decent standalone "pedalboard" for many, many gigs (pubs and function work).

Worth also checking the Lekato Loop Station - cheaper than the TC with greater functionality. 

I saw them down in Hastings last year. Absolute treat! 

Our guitarist recently said that no one likes a bass solo... 😅

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

What I said was that I would be partial to believe a majority who have experience over 1 mans opinion that have not.

 

In the context of the quoted post that it was a reply to to be understood as if it was me I would be partial to rather base my decision on whether to get this unit on the opinions of a majority who have experience over 1 mans opinion that have not.

 

I think there is a substantial difference.

 

Yeah a lot folk said the same about Galileo, too. Turns out he was right 😅

a key point here is that @ped has as much experience of filters as pretty much anyone on BC - so I'm very partial to what he has to say on the subject! 

I also know that many multifx do struggle with filters and synth sounds, although several manage to do a pretty decent octave up/down and, sometimes, the cheaper older models such as the Zoom's multifx can often match or beat much higher end models. 

48 minutes ago, ped said:

I was disappointed with the Hotone Ampere Mini - it sounded really nice for clean sounds and the OD was OK, but the octave and filters were terrible. I know it's the last generation but I have multi effects from several decades before this which are a thousand times better sounding. That said, the interface was great, as was the build and feel.

That's very useful to know. Good UI can't make up for sub-par sims. Looks like I'll be sticking to the GT 1000 Core for now then.

Any idea when pricing might be released? 

The UI looks really good on this, which is going to really help with work flow. 

We had a busy weekend of gigs including one on Saturday afternoon that was Halloween themed, so we couldn't resist having a go at Michael Jackson's Thriller!

On 06/08/2023 at 02:09, Al Krow said:

Tried the Nux 5.8 GHz out in anger today at a couple of function gigs. Worked really well. These are in £100 to £150 range and seem to provide the combination of quality and value for money I'm comfortable with for a wireless. 

 

So I can't see any particular need to spend another £400 on a bulkier Shure GLDX16+ system and it seems my wireless journey, which has so far taken me from significant use of the Smoothhound 2.4 GHz via the Boss WL-20 2.4 GHz now to the Nux 5.8 GHz is, at least temporarily, over. Many thanks to @thisisswanbon for the recommendation on the first page of this thread. 

Just a quick update from me: I've now had the Nux 5.8 Ghz for a couple of months and used them at a variety of gigs with no drop outs and very good range. The Nux performed admirably with no drop outs even at a large venue corporate event with a "full fat" sound set-up and plenty of competing mics. Very happy with it and to recommend to anyone looking for a compact wireless in the £100 to £150 price bracket

1 hour ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

If Fury uses a preamp will he hit harder?

Man...we really are starting to box clever now

You could almost make the case for having two! One at the start to present a crud-free signal to the pedals and one to clean up any low end crud created by the pedals. 

Overkill? 

19 hours ago, floFC said:

This turned up in my Undead activity stream.

At least it's timely for Halloween 😅

Interesting side-track about good (as in easy to get on with) people vs good musicians.

Both are obviously ideal.

Anyone who is either really unpleasant to work with / be around or isn't sufficiently good / willing to improve and is holding the band back, is not going to last, and either the individual or his/her bandmates are likely to end up parting company.

What is "sufficiently good" is going to differ depending on what people want from the project.  E.g. a hobby band playing pubs once a month can take a more relaxed "fun" approach vs semi-pro musicians looking to make a decent part time living from being working musicians playing function gigs where a greater degree of professionalism and musicianship is going to be required as the entry ticket.

Just been having a bit of fun learning the bass line to Thriller for a Halloween gig coming up.

Loving how a relatively simple 7 note riff can become such a massive / iconic hook! Seems to me MJ was particularly good at doing that and Bruno Mars has taken a leaf or two out of his book.

What are your favourite song(s) where the bass line is the hook?

Please feel free to post a YT clip...I'm just feeling that posting a clip of the original Thriller ain't going to add to the sum human knowledge for any of us, haha! We did, however, have a look out for a version we could do with much more modest instrumentation and playing capability than MJ had at his disposal...and we really liked what this crew had come up with:

From last Tuesday night - a real privilege to be invited to play at these inaugural awards:

I've been using the Digitech Mosaic. I found the Pitchfork a little glitchy. 

Nice little demo here:  Video | Facebook

The Boss OC-5 also does both octave up and octave down and can do both simultaneously. Does the classic OC-2 octave down sound well, very good tracking and decently priced.

Cheers guys, there's no pad on the Soundcraft MTK series which explains 

I'm just back from selling a MB combo to a wonderful 78 y/o bass player (not a BC'er) who's still gigging regularly and been in a band that's been going with the same line up for over 4 decades - very inspiring! I did say I'd double check items 1) to 4) that @JPJ listed and lo and behold the group master switch had indeed been disconnected for that particular channel. So I guess nice and easy! Thanks very much for jumping in though gents - it prompted the rechecking! 

8 hours ago, JPJ said:

Lots of stuff to check really. Most mixing desks in rehearsal rooms have been well abused by the less than knowledgeable. But in the case of your own desk (assuming this is an analogue desk) I’d first check that an input pad hasn’t been accidentally engaged. Then I’d go through 1) check the channel gain is correctly set, 2) check that there’s no compression on the channel, 3) check there’s no extreme eq on the channel,  4) depending on the desk, check that the subject channel is assigned to the correct group and that group master is where you want it to be. 
Sorry if I’m teaching granny to suck eggs with this post, and I’m no expert, but the above is based on my own personal experience. For more detailed help, it’s probably worth sharing which desk you are using and how old it is.

Thanks very much for that advice! It is indeed an analogue desk. Already checked for 1 to 4 last night, so shouldn't be an issue, but I'll definitely double check. 

In terms of an input pad being accidentally triggered, what am I looking out for? 

A privilege for my crew to be invited to play at the inaugural LGBTQ+ Defence Awards at the De Vere in Holborn on Tuesday night. Loved it!

LA Mixtrax (@lamixtrax) • Instagram photos and videos