Al Krow

Well said. You could equally say that Bach was formulaic. As well as creating some of the finest music ever written.

Not a fan of Flea?

For completeness, I think I've spotted one additional feature in the CQ18T vs CQ12T over and above the couple I listed above - the 18T has two independent headphone outs vs one on the 12T. Not sure that's going to particularly benefit me, but may be of importance to some eg when using the desk as an audio interface for multi track recording?

You and me both John! You prefer the B1-4 over the B2-4 & B6 for live work?! VERY reassuring to hear, but please spill the beans as to why?

We just know that's going to happen. But hopefully not from me this time around!

Have to disagree on that one! Having gigged both extensively over many years, the 912As were a definite step up over the 310As! Combine the 2 x 10" with a sub, as @Jack has done and I suspect you've got quite different, meatier, animal though!

Having decided on my fav purchase for last year, I've now decided on my wooden spoon fwiw: Zoom MS 60B+ I did have high hopes for the MS-60B+, having got its predecessor back in 2013 when it first came out and subsequently been a huge fan of the Zoom B1-4 since. But its limitations in terms of lack of PC editing and inability to display name of the patch you are on other than very temporarily, make it much less usable both for patch editing and live use. Shame - I feel those are both things that Zoom could easily fix and, if they do, I'll have another look at the 60B+ down the line.

You and I seem to have landed on the exact same conclusion re. the Zoom MS60B+ Shame. Fortunately a GT 1000 Core did show up, as you know! 😃

Aside: how did the NYE gig go? I think you mentioned you had been looking forward to it?

They're a step up from my Creative T40s for sure. 5 string bass is ok through them, but not sure they handle the low end that well . The 5" Ayras are good enough for quieter home practice, but definitely still prefer to have one of my RCF 912As set up for putting bass through. Decided to make use of the Anderton 30 day exchange and get the bigger 6.5" versions instead - will be arriving at the end of this week.

You're equally to blame...I mean those RCF Arya Pro 5s. I didn't even see them coming! I'm not going to help you here by saying that the A&H CQ18T got "labelled" by my mate (and fellow bassplayer/BL responsible for the sound, so we have nothing to talk about when we meet up, haha) as being a desk that does everything he wanted his to do...and ended up getting it for himself for Xmas! Anyway back to silent stages which we seem to somehow have gone from, to ear splitting stages! 😅

Ooooh I do like a bit of Stone Roses! They could have been massive (as opposed to merely huge), right?! Well there seems to be a LOT of demand for Motown bands right now, so you may just have to come out of retirement if you end up learning a new song a week (btw what a great aim!) PS I also got that book a while back but, like you, have not made the most of it!

Phil, you've somehow managed to turn a post from Tech21 into seemingly being a quote from me! That is quite a feat of sound engineering! 😅

Good shout Mark! I'd simplified / "flattened" this one previously, but as you say there's a lot of lovely detail going on. Nice tab by Greg Fairweather: Footloose - Bass Cover and Lesson And having once been the proud owner of a "Nathan" Yamaha BBNE2 be rude not to learn it properly!

Hozier - Too Sweet. Love the bass line!

You got a couple of favourites you would recommend?

There's some awesome basslines out there for us to be learning! Which ones do you already know or would like to master in 2025? On my list to learn this year that are going to be decently challenging are: 1. Mel Tormé - Games People Play (Carol Kaye) 2. Muse - Hysteria (Chris Wolstenholme) 3. Vulfpeck - Dean Town (Joe Dart) 4. Duran Duran - Rio (John Taylor) If there's a story behind when you first learned them and/or how well they've gone down if you've played them live even better!

Ah sorry, I missed that. In which case you could also treat yourself to a powered PA speaker - you'll get a lot bang for your buck. Sometimes also referred to as 'FRFR' speakers. There's a massive thread on it somewhere and plenty of BC fans of that approach.

Bugera Veyron - great amp on a budget!

Tourtech stands are another decent budget one - can handle a 50kg load and come in for around £50 a pair, although the cases are pretty flimsy and I've had to replace it after a couple of year's use.

Posted on an IEM thread in amps & cabs, but the last statement certainly also provides food for thought in the context of the discussion here, so I hope you don't mind me pulling your post across to this thread? But I wonder whether what you have said in the last statement is actually correct or fair? Surely if you have a decent IEM set up you should be able to hear each other just as well, if not better, than with stage monitoring, so can just as easily pick up the changes in dynamics from bandmates? And in terms of being in our own universe, eye contact is just as powerful and important with IEMs as without?

Ok so I'm going to put a counter view to @Dood's on a couple of points, based on my own pub/function gigging experience. I personally don't think wireless is a waste of money and you can get decent Xvive U4s for < £200, if you want the freedom to move around. But that will very much depend on your own performance style. What I would say, however, is that freedom to move goes hand in hand with having a wireless set up on bass, or a wireless mic if you're a singer. But it does make sense to start with wired to make sure that IEMs are for you. Not everyone is a fan, particularly guitarists in my experience, whereas singers often seem to really love them! I can highly recommend the KZ ZARs as in ear headphones. They're < £50 from Ali Express and folk who've A/B'd them with much very more expensive kit have often said that the top end KZ's were as good. For us the cost of getting a desk to enable a stereo mix is indeed an expensive luxury (we've other pressing priorities!). Sticking with mono has been fine for us and we get the same balance as the audience does, albeit a personal mono mix still allows you to bring up / keep in the background whatever elements from the band are going through the desk, if your desk has the ability to provide a tailored mix. Good luck!

My guess is that the power amp and clean tone will be pretty identical across all three, and what you are choosing is what flavour dirt you want to add on top? I've previously had the Microtubes mk1 and A&O mk2 heads. Both excellent clean tones and plenty of headroom, particularly when combined with my former Vanderkley or Barefaced cabs!

Great, well we have two spare aux outs on the new desk and likely to only have one sub, so this could be a neat solution!

Gents, maybe a bit of a noob question but picking up on @EBS_freak's point about aux feeds for subs...any reason we can't apply hpf/lpf on the desk to route a sub 120Hz aux output to the Sub(s) and supra 120 Hz (via the main outs) to the Tops? In which case the Alto TS 12 would be back in the game 😄