Al Krow

Apologies to the OP for the RCF fanboi thread derail! But...which RCFs are you guys using?

Again no experience with FBTs, sorry, but I can vouch Phil's comment that the RCF 912As are good, and maybe worth adding to your shortlist if they are comparably priced? I was really happy with the sound we were getting at our last couple of pub gigs, fulsome low end without needing a sub. (Very short clip here to give you an idea of how they were sounding on Saturday night, recorded on our singer's phone).

See you've got a wanted ad up for Zoom B2 Four @AlexDelores I suspect most of us only make use of a fraction of the capability of our multis, and having something you'll be able to get more out of sooner makes a lot of sense. Given you're already up to speed on the B3, your familiarity with Zoom pedals should be a big jumping off point for the B2-4, which is two generations of Zoom multifx on from the highly regarded B3, and will hopefully deliver a few useful additional features for you. Fwiw - I also fall into the PC editing camp as I find it much easier to cut and paste and tweak patches that way and definitely don't have time during gigs to be adjusting pedal parameters, given that I'm on desk duties for my sins! It was part of the reason for not migrating to the latest gen of Zoom pedals as their latest software is Apple/iOS only and the super easy to use Tonelib editing software for Zoom pedals only goes as far as the previous B1-4 model. GLWT new pedal! PS I've actually held onto the first multifx I ever bought, way back in '96 for sentimental reasons: my old Zoom 2020 😊

Zombie thread resurrection! I agree that LEDs on a non-latching footswitch would be really useful e.g. for us GT1000Core and Helix users where we're looking to get another couple of stomp switches available, but also to know whether it's been engaged or not when it can sometimes be a little tricky to hear through monitors in a band mix. I've come across a couple that should do the job - Dual Momentary Footswitch with Latching LED - Bright Onion Pedals but getting on for £75 if you select a colour for the pedal (and once you've spent £70 on it, you may as well get something that you like the look of right?) Looking like it should a similar job for less than half the price: Nux-NMP2 I've gone for the budget option! UPDATE: the Nux-NMP2 LEDs are unfortunately not latching in momentary mode...looks like it's going to have to be the more expensive Bright Onion option... Followed up with useful chat with James at Bright Onion, his pedal would get me 70% of the way there - one limitation he flagged of the LED only being turned off when when the momentary is pressed again i.e. LED will stay ON if scroll through different patches on my GT1000Core, and would need to manually correct using the sync buttons - not too practical mid song during a live set. He recommended midi as the better alternative for me.

Another Zoom fanboi here! A Zoom B1-4 was at the heart of my gigging pedal board for five years. I've not used a Boss Gt-1B, but have recently switched to GT1000 Core and am loving it - it's incredibly good at certain fx that the Zoom really couldn't get close to (e.g. drive / fuzz) and I have managed to strip back my pedal board considerably as a result, so I'd be really happy to recommend the GT Core as another multifx for you to put on your shortlist!

There's something so energising about an audience up and dancing and loving your music! LA Mixtrax (@lamixtrax) • Instagram photos and videos Had a couple of great back to back gigs on Friday and Sat night, at two different venues, both of which left me and my crew with a happy grin on our faces. Could have been a disaster last night with our drummer having a flat tyre! But he managed to set up double quick, and we started our sets with only a 15 minute delay, and made up the time by taking a shorter break. Our PA/sound set-up is relatively simple: 2 x RCF 912As (no backline) which delivers a meaty low end without needing a sub, but is not as good as the higher-end RCF 932A's for mids so we probably will think of upgrading at some point this year. The band had a few line-up changes at the start of the year and we no longer have a keys player; so it's now a pretty basic instrumental trio of guitar, drums and bass with female vox fronting, but we're starting to figure out how to fill out the sound e.g. by making sure that any doubling-up of bass and guitar lines are kept to a minimum or me occasionally adding a little octave or synth when the guitarist is solo'ing. The current line-up all use IEMs (wasn't the case previously: guitarists, in particular, seem to much prefer their amps and backline to IEMs, whereas singers seem to love them - maybe because it shuts out the guitarists' amps? 😅). The band are all starting to appreciate the flexibility provided by our A&H CQ desk to give them their own personal monitor feeds and I'm sure this has been key in IEMs now working so well for us. I love the work that has been put in by the new band members to get on top of 5 hours of set material which allows us to keep things fresh/varied at our residencies for both us and our audiences, and we're all getting rewarded by the reception we've been getting when things fall into place, as they seemed to on Fri and Sat night.

I personally love it! I've got 7 drive/fuzz pedals to list for sale now 😂 I never quite clicked with my various attempts on Helix Stomp, but loads of folk manage to put in the necessary time / have the expertise to get it sounding really good for them. Sounds like you're in that camp? If so, probably makes sense to stick with the devil you know!

Arrival of a GT 1000 Core has meant I've been able to cut down on a lot of individual pedals I was previously using for gigs when I had my Zoom B1-4: the GT Core provides an excellent drive/fuzz, along with the usual modulation fx and not too shabby an up-sweep filter either! So I've found myself just using the two pedals shown, and wanted to get a compact pedal board to match which can more easily slot into my gig bag. I found one by a previously unknown brand "Strich" - the feet were a little too tall for my needs at 4cm & 3cm respectively, but easy to unscrew and replace with four 2cm ones, which still allows plenty of clearance for my HB Iso Pro 5 PSU on the underside.

Another big fan of wireless and the freedom to roam. Audiences seem to love it, right?! (And also super useful for sound checks, too). What a great performance reminder: "people listen with their eyes" - I'm making note of that one!

Have been really enjoying the combination of IEMs plus personalised monitor feeds we've now got via our digital desk (A&H CQ18T in our case). By way of background, in case of help to anyone (and apologies for those of you who are already familiar!), it's been a bit of a journey for me: switching to KZ ZAR IEMs a year back from the more budget KZ ZS10s which I had tried out for about 18 months prior was a game changer in providing a fuller more rounded sound vs something that I found a little toppy/harsh in the case of the more budget option and which had almost made me want to give up on IEMs. The better preamps in the A&H desk plus the personalised feeds was yet another step up and I was finally getting an experience that was comparably good to using a backline amp. And with a line-up change six months back and the new guitarist being very happy not to have a stage amp (he doesn't have a car so is able to get to gigs with pedal board and guitar on public transport) was the icing on the cake in terms of not having to deal with an overloud guitar amp on stage, which I'm sure we have all had to suffer from from time to time! Our singers seem to particularly love IEMs, in general guitarists I work with the least keen; they miss the harmonic richness they get from their amps. But the thing that I've had to wake up to is going from an overall sound where the non-IEM stage monitoring was sometimes meh (and that was on us for not wanting to invest in and lug separate stage monitors for each band member) but where our FoH sound generally pretty good to my ears, to a few gigs over the past six months where the band have had a really good gigging experience with IEMs, but me wandering out into the audience mid-set and discovering that the FoH was far from decent and punters getting a drum heavy mix, which didn't seem to be the case at initial soundcheck. Has been particularly the case with new venues and/or if they have an in-house PA. It's rare that the venues we play at have sound engineers on site and we certainly can't justify having one ourselves. So I guess the key learning point I wanted to share is that if you are getting a good IEM mix from your desk, don't let that lull you into a false sense of security about the FoH sound! If anyone else has similar stories, please do share!

Having bought a filter pedal off Paddy, he's now returned the favour 15 months later and bought one off me which I've no doubt he will be putting to far better use than I would ever manage to! Another quick, straightforward transaction and a pleasure to deal with.

Do any of you guys also find that you sometimes get a "resonant boominess" from the low end of the guitar and bass overlapping and reinforcing each other? Just wondering if the answer might be to set the HPF on the guitar at say 150Hz, which wouldn't impact any of the 2nd harmonics, but would cut the fundamentals on the guitar's low E, A and D strings which directly overlap with the important 2nd harmonics on the E, A and D strings on the bass?

Old (and forgot to sling their boots) Order

+1^^ Put our RCF 912As through their paces at a decently sized pub venue last night. Was very happy with the tone and "weight" of the bass in the mix, despite not having a sub. A key for me getting more "weight" has been giving my bass a little (+3dB) EQ boost at around 125Hz - we can do that on our mixing desk, but any decent EQ pedal will also allow you to do this. Having said that, there was a 3 piece function band at the same venue the previous week with a LOT of kit, tops, subs and a Markbass combo as backline. Can't deny they sounded really good!

Sounds like you're sorted, but worth mentioning that Harley Benton do a very compact range which are not spendy. Their Iso2 Pro looks like it also matches your spec.

I'm wondering whether picking up a solitary 910A as and when it appears, rather than waiting for a pair might be a good alternative approach? 😊 On a completely separate note, and just thinking aloud (!): would it make any sense to try using a 12" PA speaker on the floor or if we have one going spare (or even better, your 745A!) and just use for low bass and kickdrum with crossover set at (say) 120Hz, plus HPF maybe at 30Hz, and then let your tops just deal with everything above 120Hz? I suspect you would get a bigger sound than just your two 310A tops, and not have the weight of a heavy sub to deal with? What do you reckon?

Thanks for that Phil. Yeah 43 kg would be a non starter for me! I'm sensing you're not yet a covert to adding a sub, and might be happier with a couple of RCF 932As as your standalone rig? Out of interest, what drum synth do you use with your duo?

Thanks Phil. Let us know what you think of the ART 905 mkIII - I'm guessing you will be pairing with your 310As (or are they 910As now)?

Heartbreaking to read. RIP Sam x

Ordered 😊- just £20.50 on Amazon Prime.

Good question - I was about to place an order following Woody and Steve's recommendation! Haha thanks Phil. I think I may have ended up with B stock RCF 932A coming tomorrow as the fall out (as we can't be gig ready with only one working PA speaker!) 😂...may actually have saved me a few quid and I'll see if I can bag another used / B-stock one at some point soon - as it was definitely my plan to upgrade the 912As --> 932As at some point this year, having seen how much better for vox the 732As are than the 912As, but with the 912As delivering a fuller bass. Does come back to the question of whether mixing and matching a 912A and 932A is going to work? - I guess I'm going to be best placed to find out! Another mate of mine pointed out that given how close the speakers are in many aspects any downside should be, fingers crossed, limited and we can get some improvement in vox until I bag another 932A to get the full benefit.

Perfection is often the enemy of the good! Get as good a sound as your budget and ability to transport allows: better than doing nothing right?

I'm guessing someone hadn't properly connected the lead to the desk output, which would account for both the hum and the lack of output. Didn't occur to me on the night it could be something as basic as that... but now noted for future reference!