Al Krow

Cheers Phil. That does all sound about right. The 310As are already "traded-in" so I have clean canvas with what I go for. But having been very content with the 310As - our pub audiences have been more than happy over the years, then if the 910As are going to give me a marginal improvement which ties in with a relatively modest increase in price, and also deliver superior bass handling then I think I'll jump in with that. We do have the option of adding a sub to the PA (RCF 702 AS II) should the venue warrant it and I guess that would then take your 60-70 figure up to closer to 85-100? I totally love the BIG sound that @bassfan's band 24K get with their rig, it really is huge! But that is neither a compact nor budget set-up, haha! So I guess we'll just be 24K Lite in the meantime 😊

Cheers fella. Yup size and weight ("compact" is key). The RCFs seem to have built in x-overs (see spreadsheet on post above, at 1.8kHz or 1.6kHz) Not sure where your cost figures are coming from, but the 910As should come in for less than £1k for a pair - see spreadsheet comparison above.

Cheers Russ. Our 310As were fine for my 5 /6 piece bands (3 vocals, acoustic guitar, kick drum and, on occasion, sax) without me putting my bass through and actually aren't too bad at all with bass going through as well. But the plan is to be putting my bass through much more regularly. Our drummer has bought my 310As off me for use with his other project and to provide us with a back up rig - so I have the opportunity to upgrade. I think having 2 x 700W RMS on the 910A for mid / low frequencies vs 2 x 300W RMS on the 310As i.e. an additional 800W on tap across the two speakers should provide the additional headroom at mid/lower frequency range to mean that the PA handles the full band with bass without breaking into too much of a sweat. And frankly the difference in price between the two models is pleasantly less than I was expecting.

Think I may just have stumbled on a really good answer to the original question in my OP! I've always loved the the portability and articulation of our little RCF 310A PA set up. In terms of an upgrade, I guess the answer was staring me in the face i.e. simply to upgrade to the either the RCF 710A or more recent RCF 910A model. Given the 310A can handle a full band including bass in smaller venues, I suspect the 910A, with its additional headroom, would be able to handle medium sized venues and the dancefloor area of larger function venues. @Phil Starr as a fellow RCF fanboi and a much greater expert on PA speakers than me, be very interested to get your thoughts on this. I've pulled together a little comparison table for ease of reference. I'm very pleasantly surprised that there isn't a bigger price premium between the 910A and 310A given the step up in power, components and finish.

Dep guitarist wanted a bit of reverb on bass line on "Feel it Still" at our rehearsal earlier this week. Pulled this little patch together ahead of tonight's gig: Reverb [AK-Reverb].zb1f

EMGs

Yup, basic stuff like setting and saving individual patch volumes so you don't get volume spikes and adding the Zoom Noise Reduction effect as standard to all your patches should get you a long way there. Editing on PC with the freely available ToneLib software makes editing patches quick and easy. I've used various, albeit decent, multi output PSUs but they all provide individually isolated outputs which I personally would always want to have, to avoid PSU related noise. The HB Iso Pro series are compact and very good value for money.

Enjoy the Zoom B1-4 - I'm still loving mine and it's sitting at the heart of my pedal board. A few B1-4 patch idea downloads at the start of this thread. You'll need to download the free ToneLib software to be able to access.

What is it about IEMs that don't work for you? Be good to understand, as its something we're actively exploring.

That does look super interesting. But the date on the article (15 July 2021) is more than 12 months ago, so I think it's already been buried with nothing coming of it?

I guess it stems from different venues. Agreed in a pub if you could have a backline PA that would be a really neat set up with no need to faff around with monitors or IEMs. But in large auditorium venues the band likely wouldn't want to have the full venue volume blaring at them as backline on a regular basis?!

Thanks for that! My question was more around the position of the Evox 8 PA on the stage ie was it in a backline position, which avoids the need for stage monitoring, or in a more traditional FOH position? PaulS had his Evox8 set up as backline and managed to avoid feedback from the vocal mic. Just wondering if others have similarly done this?

Were you using the Evox 8 as backline or in standard FOH position? And same Q to @mikeycrikey please!

Ahh no real point, you will realise your folly soon enough and be reversing that transaction 😁 Now how ridiculously out of date are ATs current entries?!

Apologies if this has already been covered, but... Our two vocalists, but not the rest of the band, in my covers band are both looking to start using IEMs. Currently we have an Allen & Heath desk with one aux out and we can potentially make use of the headphone out from the desk also. We're not looking to get a new desk at this stage. Is there a decent quality and reasonable value for money option you would recommend that they get?

One of the things I particularly like about the Rockboards is that you can get something comparable or a little larger than a PT Metro 24, which I found to be pretty ideal in terms of width, and with similar robust build quality, but angled. This is then far less restrictive on putting a PSU underneath and needing to worry about clearance off the floor. The PT Classic Jr is more square in shape, which is a bit trickier I've found from an access perspective and the rest of the PT range just a bit too big for what I need. So I'm pretty happy to have stumbled on the Rockboard 3 series. (Just re-read my OP and it seems, back then, I was after a Metro 24 sized board but with decent clearance for a PSU underneath ...well my former self should be happy with the outcome then, haha!)

Still the best looking paint job I've yet seen!!

Haha - yes, but one of them (the 4.2) is sitting quietly in a cupboard for a time when I've completely lost the plot and decide I need to have something far too large for my abilities (or some London based BC'er decides he or she really needs it at which point they would be welcome to take it off my hands). @Naigewron - love the layout of those pedal boards! I went for the slightly wider 3.2 to accommodate a similar number of pedals but with space for an expression pedal too:

I think that's all spot on, Pete. Bass is what I describe (probably inaccurately, haha!) as a "subversive" instrument - the moment it's not there it will be missed. I mean if rock bands could work without a bass instrument (be it on bass or keys) then frankly it would already have happened. It hasn't for a very good reason and any great sounding pop / rock band will typically always have the core elements of drums, bass, guitar (and/or keys) and vox. Which is why I was making the point that I personally wouldn't say that any one or two core element(s) of the band are more important for the band's overall "sound" - they are all of equal importance IMO.

Now why have you got a tuner (given that Shure has that built in)? See what I didn't ask about? 😄

Funniest thing Pete, is that on this premier bass forum we are discussing which of vox, guitar and drums are key to a band's sound. And not one of us is jumping in to say that the bass should be included 😆

Here you go - me misbehaving, courtesy Boss WL-20s:

I've seen figures of 15m / 50 ft used on line and that feels about right in terms of upper range based on my own use. One thing I hadn't appreciated until recently is the impact of "natural audio latency" i.e. the latency arising from how long it takes sound to reach your ears from your cab. As Boss points out "the speed of sound is 343m/s. If you’re standing 1 metre away from your amp, the sound will take approximately 2.9 milliseconds to reach your ears. By comparison, BOSS wireless systems offer a class-leading, ultra-low latency of only 2.3ms." So using the Boss is equivalent to standing a further 0.8m away from your cab, which is not really a problem. However if you're also wandering off and standing 15m away, then the natural audio latency will now be 15 x 2.9ms = 43.5 ms, which is starting to get pretty significant. For comparison I use a short "slap back" delay setting at 90 ms. I guess the lesson for me that there is going to a trade off between being super-tight with the band and entertaining the crowd by wandering off into the audience!

@Gnermo - nice bass! Not too many 1000S between us methinks, so great to see one in use!

You're very welcome! Like @JohnDaBass I also have two B1-4s, one at the heart of my pedal board (below) and a second as a standalone fx pedal board / tuner / headphone amp / drum machine / looper for when I just want to travel light and slip a single pedal into my gig bag.